The Oath Keepers say that their mission is to defend the . Since then, the Oath Keepers have become a household name across the country. Eventually, 10 Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges. Previously, Ritzheimer participated in the2014 Bundy standoff in Bunkerville. Westfield, Massachusetts, March 2011: Oath Keeper David M. Phillips was arrested in Massachusetts on charges of possession of ammunition without the required Firearms Identification Card and four counts of possession of a large capacity firearm feeding device. Opaliski was given a prison sentence of one year and a day. At a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19 . Rhodes himself participated in aprotest outside the Dallas County Jailin Texas where Luther was being held. All rights reserved (About Us). The far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers claims to have thousands of members across the country. Its not the people who are there Im worried about its the ones from the fringe who want to join in. Members of the Oath Keepers have been arrested in connection with a wide range of criminal activities, including various firearms violations, conspiracy to impede federal workers, possession of explosives, and threatening public officials. Beyond this, members of the Oath Keepers have reportedly participated in a variety of other far-right movements, including the "Stop the Steal" campaign associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Oath Keepers showed up atBlack Lives Matter protestsduring protests in summer 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man. However, their decision to retreat from the. Antifa is a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, sometimes aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements. Oath Keepers, along with many of thesame right-wing personalitiesat these events, took part in the Capitol insurrection weeks later. The Oath Keepers have become indelibly tied to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and their leader, . Despite this, the Bundys and a number of other heavily armed militants decided to break away from a pro-Hammond rally in Oregon and occupy the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a famous birding location. In the run up to the election, the group openly posted aboutplans to go to polling locationsto stand up against and protect voters from anti-Trump left-wing groups. Local police released a statement announcing that the group broke the law byproviding security without first obtaining a license.They called on the group to cease their activities. While criticizing the occupation, the Oath Keepers did take part in a coalition of militias in the Pacific Northwest called the Pacific Patriots Network, which served as a buffer between the occupiers and government forces. The Oath Keepers found members in all corners of Massachusetts, from the Berkshires to the Cape and Islands. Some of these have resulted in hostile and violent confrontations with government agents, others have materialized into nothing more than show-of-force demonstrations. The events of Jan. 6 also highlighted fresh . Domestic. And go out into public on election day, dressed to blend in with the public with video, still camera, and notepad in hand, to look for and document suspected criminal vote fraud or intimidation activities. And he made clear that it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who might steal the election. These beliefs, which encapsulate the oneworld government conspiracy theories that underpin the antigovernment movement, stoke paranoia, fan antigovernment sentiment and give them purpose. Neither do we. Greenwood, Delaware, February 2015: Oath Keeper Matthew Opaliski was charged with three counts of dealing firearms without a license and two counts of unlawful transfer of firearms after he allegedly sold, traded or gave firearms to a person who was not a Delaware resident. [A group spokesman] will tell you that everyone was vetted properly. Depends on what you want to do with it. I have a difficult time believing that 100 percent of the people were cleared or were 100 percent controllable.. 19, 2009, in the wake of the country electing Barack Obama as its first Black president. Support MassLive.com, Heather Morrison | hmorrison@masslive.com. This includes attendance at racially charged events, with NBC News reporting a number of armed Oath Keepers turned up at the 2015 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Overreaching laws or regulations are also expected. While this terminology reflects some of the language used by explicitly antisemitic groups, antisemitism is not a foundational issue for the Oath Keepers. The Oath Keepers have become indelibly tied to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and their leader, Stewart Rhodes, was convicted of seditious conspiracy related to that day. The trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart . The Oath Keepers have also amplified conspiracies regarding antifa, for example an August 2019 post on their website details allegations that antifa attempted to purchase weapons from Mexican cartels to advance an uprising within the U.S. and that antifa was planning to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in El Paso, Texas. Seven of the defendants were visible wearing combat gear and participating in a tactical stack as they moved through the crowd towards the Capitol. [1] In the United States, one of the largest forces of social conservatism is . We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants or to subject them to military tribunal. In a bold move, Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the right-wing militia group, sat for an interview with federal agents after they seized his phone in May. 19, 2009, in the wake of the country electing Barack Obama as its first Black president. Kokesh entered an Alford plea and was given a suspended sentence for the initial drug and gun charges. Recently, these activities have increasingly taken the shape of natural disaster management. It asks its . Phillips was eventually convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. When questioned, Phillips allegedly told the officer that he was exempt from having to register or insure his vehicle. The evidence of guilt is remarkably strong, the defenses offered are just as weak, and witness testimony even offers some reason for hope beyond this case. In May 2012, a federal judge in Knoxville sentenced Huff to four years in prison. In November 2017, Ritzheimer was sentenced to spend a year and a day in federal prison. Longtime former Wilbraham Planning Board member David A. Sanders and former Barnstable County Commissioner Ron Beaty Jr. were both listed among the 550 members that live in Massachusetts. Amplifying Fears of the Deep State: Though the Oath Keepers espouse an anti-government ideology, the Oath Keepers largely support President Trump and his administration. The ADL noted that the Oath Keepers have adhered to the general tenets of the militia movement, and believe the goal of this conspiracy is to form a tyrannical New World Order to enslave Americans. After failing to appear for his trial, Dyer fled Oklahoma as a fugitive, leading police on a multi-state chase that ended with his capture in Houston, Texas. The group openly and intentionally recruits these individuals to their ranks, mostly in an effort to capitalize on the skills and knowledge these individuals acquired during their time of service. The Oath Keepers believe that the military and law enforcement members of their group will eventually stop the New World Order. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism received more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists, according to the Associated Press. A Washington, DC, jury on Tuesday convicted Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and associate Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy for their role around the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. In April 2010,Matthew Fairfield, a suburban Cleveland man described by prosecutors as the president of a local Oath Keepers chapter, was arrested for storing bombs at his and a friends home and for obstructing justice. In January 2016,Jon Ritzheimer, a member of the Oath Keepers and participant in the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, surrendered to authorities. Oath Keepers have several theories they repeatedly peddle as proof that their constitutional republic is being taken over and destroyed by evil forces. Most relate to their recruitment and promotional efforts. 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Similarly, the owners of Sugar Pine Mine in Josephine County, Oregon, were in a dispute with the Bureau of Land Management over unauthorized surface structures. As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the United States during the summer of 2020 in reaction to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Oath Keepers offered protection to various restaurants and businesses from alleged looters and arsonists and in several cases, they showed up to provide armed security. The group has also long warned that voluntary UN sustainable development plans like Agenda 21 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was implemented in 2015 will be used to take away private property and civil liberties in the name of sustainability. Huff was given a four-year prison sentence. Though Twitter has not stated which specific posts they determined violated their policy, in the weeks leading up to their ban, the Oath Keepers Twitter account declared in the wake of the murder of Patriot Prayer member Aaron Danielson that there is a Marxist rebellion against the United States, with the oft stated intent to overthrow its government under the Constitution. The account urged President Trump to declare that there is an ongoing Marxist insurrection led by antifa and Black Lives Matter and to respond by calling the militia into federal service to suppress the rebellion.. Please dont do it. Fish and Wildlife celebrates reintroduction of rare West Virginia fish that 'looks like a candy cane'. Massachusetts, in 2009. It was incorporated in 2009 by founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper. Following a 2011 no contest plea, Fairfield received a 16year sentence. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to keep the peace or to maintain control.. The group continued to plead with Trump to declare a national emergency to build his border wall, attended a We Build the Wall event in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and mobilized to Texas for a security operation along the border. The Nevada-based nonprofit was founded by Yale Law School graduate and former U.S. Army paratrooper Elmer "Stewart" Rhodes. Rhodes eventually left his job at the court and began looking toward forming an anti-government movement. It ended when officials arrested the Bundys and others at a roadblock near the refuge. But the files showed that Rhodes had tapped into a deep current of anxiety, one that could cause a surprisingly large contingent of. When executing a search warrant, law enforcement officers discovered a live napalm bomb and dozens of other explosives in a storage locker; he eventually was indicted on 97 different charges, including 18 counts of unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, 23 counts of receiving stolen property, 23 counts of possession of criminal tools, 10 counts of failure to secure dangerous ordnance, one count of perjury, and 21 counts of pandering obscenity involving child pornography. WASHINGTON The founder of a right-wing group whose members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol spent about six . This activity mirrors the Oath Keepers behavior in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, when a small of group of armed local Oath Keepers, led by Sam Andrews, took to the streets during the unrest following a grand jurys decision not to charge a former police officer for the shooting death of a Black teenager, Michael Brown, Jr. According to the local Oath Keepers chapter,at least 700 individuals responded, setting up perimeter security teams, providing armed escorts for outside members of the press and blocking off the entrance road to the mine. McLamb warned of postCold War chaos perpetrated by an elitistcontrolled New World Order, while Rhodes warns of an insidious global oligarchy bent on destroying Americas constitutional republic. Rhodes was a 2004 graduate of Yale Law School, and former classmates later recalled that he had demonstrated a particular interest in the Second Amendment. Peoria, Arizona, January 2016: Jon Ritzheimer, a former member of the Oath Keepers, voluntarily surrendered to local authorities. The organization has publicly labeled lockdown measures Orwellian violations of liberty and urges their members to defy these measures. The Oath Keepers fled, leaving Bundys other supporters to mock them as cowards and delusional paranoids. ANCHORAGE, Alaska The plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the eligibility of state Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, to hold office said Tuesday that he will not appeal a judge's decision In January 2017, the Oath Keepers, along with Three Percenters, coordinated volunteer security operations forTrumps inaugurationto protect against any possible violence from jihadist terrorists or radical leftist groups. Oath Keepers provided similar armed security details for Trump rallies inMinnesotaandTexasin October 2019. Rhodes wasdisbarredafter practicing law in Arizona without a license by writing letters threatening a lawsuit on behalf of the ejected residents. Oath Keepers have advertised various anti-lockdown events and calls to action, for example protesting outside of a Dallas-based judges home to demand the immediate release of a business owner who had defied lockdown orders. CPTs are armed community teams, or militias, meant to prepare for disasters, natural or otherwise, and defend Americans against the New World Order. The Second Amendment Under Assault: Oath Keepers call for the nullification of all gun laws and view any gun control measures as schemes designed to dismantle the Second Amendment. At the beginning of the global pandemic, Oath Keepers called on President Trump to immediately shut down all commercial airline traffic as well as schools and public places in order to slow the spread of the virus, but by April the organization adopted anti-lockdown rhetoric. Oath Keepers is an essential contribution to our understanding of the growing appeal and violent potential of ever-evolving forms of domestic extremism. They are often confrontational and have participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government. Men sporting gear identifying them as Oath Keepers are among the massive crowds gathering in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6, 2021. Stewart Rhodes denies planning Oath Keepers' Jan. 6 Capitol riot involvement in testimony Men sporting gear identifying them as "Oath Keepers" were among the crowds that gathered in Washington, D . In addition to peddling conspiracy theories and paranoia, the Oath Keepers use a number of strategies to stay in the forefront of the antigovernment extremist movement in the United States. The group has ties to other antigovernment extremist groups, including former Arizona SheriffRichard Mack, the founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). The BLM was stunned by this response, as they had made it known they had no plans of taking action until the appeal had been decided. Oath Keepers explain that if the federal government issues an unconstitutional order often illustrated by extreme hypotheticals such as mass gun confiscation or illegally mass detaining Americans in concentration camps it is up to the military and law enforcement to enforce these edicts. Barbeau pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun and was sentenced to 27 months in prison in September 2017. Some looming UN transgressions anticipated by Oath Keepers include the implementation of global taxation and a global currency that would end the use of the dollar. Stewart Rhodes has spoken at anti-lockdown protests in Texas, New York and California. The groups fears around government overreach are most clearly exemplified in its list of 10 Orders We Will Not Obey a compendium of perceived but unrealized threats from the government. In January 2019, Fairfield had an additional four years added to his sentence after officials determined that he interfered with another investigation. The groups response to the 2020 outbreak of the coronavirus is discussed in more detail below; however, it is worth noting that the national organization initially shared material on its website and Twitter account calling for increased state government involvement in stemming the viruss spread before shifting its messaging and labelling the virus as a weapon used by leftists to attack President Trump and by the government to strip away Americans rights. Oath Keepers spent $400 at Olive Garden after storming the Capitol News Feds concerned about armed people at Arizona ballot boxes US Crime News Officer testifies to 'unprecedented' Jan 6 riots at. A handful of members, including Rhodes,showed up in Newburgh, New York,on May 30, 2020, to support Minuta. Herndon, Virginia, July 2013: Gun rights activist and Oath Keeper Adam Kokesh was arrested in Washington, D.C., on weapon charges after a search warrant on his Virginia home turned up firearms and illegal drugs. The Oath Keepers rose to prominence when handfuls of heavily armed members showed up at racial justice protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and their profile grew thanks to a series of . He would go on to start the Oath Keepers group in 2009 in Lexington, Massachusetts the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. 2022 Anti-Defamation League. Before 2019, the Oath Keepers Twitter platform used the term deep state only once, but since then the term has been used at least 79 times on the platform, which suggests that the organization finds this rhetoric to be a useful tactic to appeal to the large pool of right-wing actors who believe in the conspiracy. The Oath Keepers are labeled as a "large but loosely organized militia" by the U.S. Department of Justice. But they chose Massachusetts as the site for the group's formal launch in 2009. Oath Keepers claimed they were providing security for rally goers against imagined threats from the left. Thirty-nine seconds later, defendant Kelly Meggs, who was then leading about 14 Oath Keepers toward the Capitol, also called Rhodes. However, there were no such orders from Trump, and this defense from the Oath Keepers was swiftly rebuked in court, eventually leading to Rhodes and four others' guilty verdict. A large part of Rhodes' and the Oath Keepers' defense was that they believed the attack on the Capitol was based on eventual orders from former President Trump. The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group whose members vow to defend the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and. Instead, many simply dismiss the events of January 6thas the work of antifa or a false flag operation. Community Preparedness Teams (CPT) and Post-Disaster Response: In October 2013, the Oath Keepers announced the formation of civilization preservation cells (since renamed Community Preparedness Teams), which Rhodes claims are necessitated by the countrys impending (and possibly government-created) economic collapse. The group has attracted considerable media attention in 2020 for providing vigilante-style security for local communities and businesses during Black Lives Matter protests, for their aggressive rhetoric in the lead up to the 2020 election (including asserting that the Marxist left is trying to seize control of the United States which led Twitter to de-platform the group) and for participating in various anti-lockdown protests. Tied into the fact that conspiracy theories and the far-right movement have become more mainstream in the past few years, and it is unlikely that the Oath Keepers will disappear, even without their leader. WASHINGTON At the height of the chaos at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, two dozen members of the Oath Keepers militia met outside the building with their leader, Stewart Rhodes. Eleven Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 12, 2022, and charged with seditious conspiracy, which is defined as a crime against the state. On October 27, he appeared on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones program The Alex Jones Show and said that members of the Oath Keepers will be at polling stations to protect Trump voters from the left. Because the government ultimately stood down in the face of armed threats from Bundys defenders, the standoff wound up being a highlight of the radical right but one that the Oath Keepers got no glory from. The group also has a long history of engaging in and promoting their own form of vigilantism by providing voluntary armed security, not affiliated with any law enforcement entity, at various protests and venues. Members of the group were also indicted by the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6. Rhodes insists the government wants to track gun owners like it does sex offenders and uses mass shooting incidents as an excuse to violate Second Amendment rights. The Oath Keepers' founder, a former Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate named Stewart Rhodes, invited Dwyer to speak at the group's kickoff rally they called it a "muster" in Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the "shot heard round the world" that started the Revolutionary War in 1775. Founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers is a large right-wing anti-government extremist group. Three individuals associated with the Oath Keepers, a paramilitary organization focused on recruitment of current and former military, law enforcement, and first responder personnel, were indicted today in federal court in the District of Columbia for conspiring to obstruct Congress, among other charges. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. These supposed threats from the government are all key to the central conspiracy theory propagated by the antigovernment movement, namely the New World Order. Groups that are part of theantigovernment movement, including the Oath Keepers, believe the government is secretly planning, along with foreign countries and the United Nations, to impose martial law, seize all Americans guns, force resisters into concentration camps and install a one-world totalitarian government known as the New World Order..
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