We are already in a fight. However, those who knew him said he soon started using his time at the court to express his disillusioned views and complain of government overreach,The Associated Presswrites in its history of the group. In March 2011,David Phillips, a Massachusetts Oath Keeper, was arrested on firearm charges. In 2014, members formed their own patrol in Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing of an unarmed Black man in 2014, and they provided security to an Infowars reporter during the anniversary protest a year later. Each theory goes back to the idea that the U.S. government has fallen under global governance and will at some point use police and military members to enforce the New World Orders plans. This aid includes providing bottled water and food, clearing roads and helping with rescue missions. Their first major showdown with the government occurred in 2011 in the town ofQuartzsite, Arizona. To prove the imminent threat of martial law, Rhodes often points to the World War II internment of Japanese Americans and to the gun confiscation by police and military members in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (a federal court subsequently ordered New Orleans officials to return all confiscated firearms). Various Oath Keeper adherents attended the protest, carrying signs and publicly showcasing their dislike for Governor Northams attempts at gun legislation, calling him a coward and a tyrant while also violating the states ban on firearms. 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. This change brought them in line with other militia groups that were taking a hardline approach in opposing public health efforts to curb the pandemic. We Oath Keepers are both honor-bound and eager to be there in strength to do our part. Stewart Rhodes, posted on the Oath Keepers website, Jan. 4, 2021, You must act NOW as a wartime President, pursuant to your oath to defend the Constitution, which is very similar to the oath all of us veterans swore. AntiUnited Nations Sentiments: Oath Keepers view the United Nations (UN) as a tool of the New World Order trying to undermine American sovereignty by imposing a globalist agenda. The group argued that the election was stolen from Trump and participated in several Stop the Steal protests. When some of. 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. The number of active duty police and military personnel who have publicly admitted to being Oath Keepers is very small; the number of closeted members may be larger. 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. Judah Cohen, Director of Seasonal Forecasting at AER (Atmospheric and Environmental Research), is a climatologist who focuses on long-range forecasts and is the guest for both episodes. For example, following a July 2015 attack on two separate Tennessee military facilities by Mohammad Abdulazeez, the Oath Keepers launched Operation Protect the Protectors. During this shortlived call for action, members of the Oath Keepers (as well as some others) armed themselves and stood guard outside various military recruitment centers around the nation under the pretense of guarding unarmed military recruiters. The first order, for example, that they refuse to follow is any order to disarm the American people. They also pledge to disobey any order to impose martial law or to support foreign troops on American soil. These incidents underscore the internal tension between the Oath Keepers antigovernment ideology and their focus on military and police personnel. Oath Keepers claimed they were providing security for rally goers against imagined threats from the left. On July 4, 2013,Adam Kokesh, an Oath Keeper who had promoted the group on his Internet talk show, loaded a shotgun in D.C.s Freedom Plaza in protest of the citys gun laws. t. e. Social conservatism in the United States is a political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. The events of Jan. 6 also highlighted fresh . Simply put: because many of them were reportedly there. 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 material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. A handful of members, including Rhodes,showed up in Newburgh, New York,on May 30, 2020, to support Minuta. On July 26, 2013, upon posting bail and being released from jail, Kokesh was re-arrested on charges related to the Freedom Plaza stunt by violating a D.C. gun law that prohibits carrying a firearm outside of ones home. Its not the people who are there Im worried about its the ones from the fringe who want to join in. While the most notable of these remains the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, they reportedly have a long history of involving themselves in vigilante justice. It was incorporated in 2009 by founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper. The Oath Keepers was officially launched with a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts, onApr. Nineteenindividuals arechargedwith conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiring to prevent an officer of the U.S. from discharging a duty, and of these, eleven including founder and leader Stewart Rhodes are also charged with seditious conspiracy. 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. All rights reserved (About Us). Meanwhile, they are doubling down on conspiratorial claimsthat the election wasstolenand that the Biden administration is a nefarious entity seeking to destroy the American way of life.This signal the return of the militia movements traditional animosity towards the federal government which they largely downplayed during the Trump administration. Rhodes himself participated in aprotest outside the Dallas County Jailin Texas where Luther was being held. At a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19 . In 2015, Rhodes said they would protect notorious Kentucky clerk Kim Davis from arrest. We dont want to see things escalate, especially over an issue that we have been working all along in a very cooperative way to resolve. Ultimately, again, no real confrontation occurred. The popularity of Oath Keepers social media accounts illustrates clearly that many more people support the Oath Keepers without ever officially joining (which requires paying dues). We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people. Stoking Fears about Antifa: Oath Keepers use the specter of antifa as a substitute for their former foe, the federal government. The group has also recruited from among people already involved in the anti-government extremist movement. ADL estimates there are between 1,000 and 3,000 Oath Keepers, though the groups influence extends well beyond that number. As Rhodes tweeted in early March 2020, Its critical that towns and counties do all they can with their own resources now to prepare. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn President Biden's election, handing the Justice Department a major victory in. The far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers claims to have thousands of members across the country. We think a good first step is to have the veterans stand up in every community and go help form and train neighborhood watches, to get the people to take back into their own hands their own personal self-defense and security.. The Oath Keepers claim it is their mission to protect Trump Rally attendees and provide them escorts to and from their vehicles. Previously, Ritzheimer participated in the2014 Bundy standoff in Bunkerville. The Oath Keepers was officially launched with a rally in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Apr. UPDATE: OnJanuary 13, 2022,federal authorities arrestedOath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes oncharges ofseditious conspiracyfor his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people. But we will spot, document, and reportanyapparent attempt at vote fraud or voter intimidation as is our duty.. Instead, many simply dismiss the events of January 6thas the work of antifa or a false flag operation. The Pacific Patriots Network also includes antigovernment extremist groups aligned with the Three Percenters, and the Oath Keepers contingent is the very same chapter that took part in Operation Gold Rush in Oregon in 2015. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a state of emergency on a state. January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol:At least nine people associated with the Oath Keepers have beenchargedwith conspiracy in connection with the January 6 attack, with prosecutors alleging that the defendants coordinated to travel to Washington, D.C., breach the Capitol and disrupt the certification of the 2020 election. In February 2015, Irish was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Oath Keepers founder used money donated to the far-right group for holiday travel and personal expenses: January 6 trial. In December 2018, the Oath Keepers website advertised acall to actionfor a Border Operation, encouraging engagement in paramilitary activity to prevent the invasion of illegals into the country and to provide security for border ranches and families, presumably against immigrants, another exaggerated and unsupported claim propagated by the group. The core idea of Elmer Stewart Rhodes' group, the Oath Keepers, is that its members vow to support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution forever and the group's own list of 10 "Orders We Will Not Obey."The list is a compendium of perceived, unrealized threats from the government - orders, for instance, to force Americans into . The Nevada-based nonprofit was founded by Yale Law School graduate and former U.S. Army paratrooper Elmer "Stewart" Rhodes. In January 2019, Fairfield had an additional four years added to his sentence after officials determined that he interfered with another investigation. The Oath Keepers are part of the militia movement, a subsection of the broader antigovernment Patriot movement which consists of sovereign citizens and tax protesters, among others that believes the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip Americans of their rights. A leaked Oath Keepers membership list contains more than 38,000 names, including those of elected officials, police chiefs, and members of the military, according to a report published Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League. In cases of an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. Minuta has beenindictedon the conspiracy charge. The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate. Springdale, Washington, December 2015: Schuyler Barbeau, who was filmed in at least one video while wearing Oath Keeper attire and shared several posts in favor of Oath Keeper Charles Dyer (see below), was arrested after he tried to sell a short-barreled rifle he had converted into an illegal machine gun to an individual secretly working with law enforcement. He was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. This militaristic group consists of national leadership and state, county and local chapters scattered across the country. In December 2015, Schuyler Barbeau, a member of the Oath Keepers and participant in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff aspart of the security teamassigned to protect Cliven Bundy, was arrested on charges of possessing an unregistered firearm related to allegedly altering an AR-15s barrel, allowing the weapon to operate as a fullyautomatic machine gun. Following the 2020 election, in which former President Donald Trump lost to President Biden, the Oath Keepers began working on a weeks-long campaign to have the election overturned. Well, I think what we have to realize is that, you know, Trump actually failed. Rhodes wasdisbarredafter practicing law in Arizona without a license by writing letters threatening a lawsuit on behalf of the ejected residents. Some Oath Keepers have claimed that the government may even stage a terrorist attack or other incident as an excuse to declare martial law. 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. Ultimately, there was no standoff. From Oath Keepers Twitter: Offering protection at a Trump rally, 2019. Massachusetts the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. They are also proponents of the sovereign citizen movement, believing that they are not subject to any laws of the U.S. government. During the 2016 presidential election, the Oath Keepers were at it again, with RhodesannouncingOperation Sabot 2016as a method to prevent the election from being stolen from Donald Trump, something the candidate repeatedly predicted. Rather than rely on the government, Oath Keepers have assisted following natural disasters across the United States and Puerto Rico since 2017, using these efforts to garner positive press coverage. When. 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 . "Even if the most extreme actors are eliminated, the consequences of their ideas could remain," Burley added. The Oath Keepers did denounce the Malheur occupation because, asRhodes wrote, It is not being done with the consent of the locals or at their request, without the request of the Hammond family and because it is not in direct defense of anyone.. While there is a formal national leadership, on the local level many Oath Keepers are essentially selforganized, and form official, semiofficial or informal groupings of Oath Keepers. This eventually led to a number of Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, allegedly participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In this case, the Oath Keepers and other rightwing extremists opposed the Bureau of Land Managements efforts to impound Bundys cattle, which had been illegally grazing on federal land. He was subsequently convicted of knowingly transmitting a threatening communication and received an eightmonth sentence. 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 . Me? 19, 2009, in the wake of the country electing Barack Obama as its first Black president. Support MassLive.com, Heather Morrison | hmorrison@masslive.com. For a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist who had been planning for dystopian collapse for . The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism received more than. According to the Chicago Tribune, the state of Illinois had the most members. The Bundys and other sympathizers tried to get Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son, Steven Hammond, 46, on their side, denouncing the Hammonds resentencing and the management of public lands by federal agencies. The miners filed an appeal and asked the Oath Keepers toprovide securityto protect them and the mine against the BLM, claiming the BLM had a history of burning down cabins and confiscating property at whim, without due process. The Oath Keepers subsequently put out anationwide call to actionfor Operation Gold Rush, as they called it. The Southern Poverty Law Center further describes the Oath Keepers as "often confrontational," noting that they have been involved in a number of armed standoffs involving the government. 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. It ended when officials arrested the Bundys and others at a roadblock near the refuge. The pledge, which refers to the honorable vow of service given by those in uniform, reminds Oath Keepers that they swore an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. 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