These beliefs, which encapsulate the oneworld government conspiracy theories that underpin the antigovernment movement, stoke paranoia, fan antigovernment sentiment and give them purpose. He had a duty and responsibility to step up. The main message of these events is the false notion that Muslims are attempting to replace the American legal system with Sharia law. 2022 Anti-Defamation League. Me? The driving theory behind the Oath Keepers is that the federal government has been overtaken by a mass liberal conspiracy in an effort to strip Americans of their rights. All told, at least 25 Oath Keepers are facing various charges in connection with their actions on January 6, 2021. Luther was arrested for her violation of public health orders and fined $7,000. 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. The Oath Keepers stationed themselves on rooftops and conducted street patrols, asserting that they were there to protect local businesses and reporters from angry protesters. Most relate to their recruitment and promotional efforts. In addition, Oath Keepers routinely pushed conspiratorial rhetoric within their communities, including promoting the ostensible effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, claiming the virus is a Chinese bioweapon, and casting the virus within a deep state globalist narrative. This invasion/coup must be stopped, and with the ongoing failure of the RINO dominated Republicans to finance a wall, stopping it will now require full scale military action, which we strongly encourage President Trump to take under his authority as Commander In Chief. Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers Call to Action: Border Operation, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 4, 2018, This wave of Islamist terror attacks will be part of a perfect storm of intentionally orchestrated Cloward-Piven chaos inducing economic devastation, social and political disruption and violence, and the use of intentionally undefended borders and mass illegal and refugee immigration as weapons of destabilization (and to provide cover for and facilitate more violence and terrorism by multiple proxy agents of the elites, including the cartels, gangs, well-funded Marxist and racist agitators such as La Raza and Black Lives Matter and radical Islamist cells and individuals). Stewart Rhodes, in an Oath Keepers press release following the mass murder of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 13, 2016, John [Mc]Cain is a traitor to the Constitution. in 2014, Oath Keepers garnered attention from the media for their involvement in the unrest that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri after a St. Louis County grand jury decided not to indict police . CPTs are armed community teams, or militias, meant to prepare for disasters, natural or otherwise, and defend Americans against the New World Order. Strike now. Stewart Rhodes, Open Letter to President Trump: You Must Use Insurrection Act to Stop the Steal and Defeat the Coup, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 14, 2020, Frankly, were concerned about a Benghazi-style attack. He subsequently pleaded guilty in August 2016 to a felony charge of federal conspiracy to impede federal workers for his prominent role in the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. He talks. The Oath Keepers wereparticularly active in 2020, participating in various anti-lockdown protests, providing vigilante-style security for local communities and businesses during the Black Lives Matter protests that spread in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and warning about a potential takeover by the Marxist left during the 2020 election. Following a 2011 no contest plea, Fairfield received a 16year sentence. Oath Keeper member and tattoo shop owner Roberto Minuta requested the groups presence for the reopening of his business. Obviously, were not in a confrontation,David Smith, regional spokesman for the Forest Service, told the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2015, armed Oath Keepers along with various individuals from the broader Patriot movement traveled to mines in Montana and Oregon during regulation compliance disputes related to mining rights versus surface rights in the hopes that their presence would intimidate federal officials from taking action. In August 2011, Rhodes and his Oath Keepers traveled to Quartzsite, Arizona, to join in a protest in support of local residents who were ejected from a town council meeting after speaking past the allotted time and refusing to leave the meeting. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (User Agreement updated 1/1/21. "Back in 2014, they appeared to be a pretty solid conservative group, I can't speak to them now," he said. As part of their support for President Trump, the Oath Keepers have decried the deep state, an alleged network of institutions and bureaucracies within the federal government that a range of right-wing actors and groups believe is trying to undermine and even destroy the Trump administration. It ended when officials arrested the Bundys and others at a roadblock near the refuge. The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. 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. The Oath Keepers is a far-right citizen militia and anti-government group that sprang into existence as the Tea Party Movement powered up its reform-blocking machine and the racist birther. In March 2011,David Phillips, a Massachusetts Oath Keeper, was arrested on firearm charges. Stoking Fears about Antifa: Oath Keepers use the specter of antifa as a substitute for their former foe, the federal government. They are also proponents of the sovereign citizen movement, believing that they are not subject to any laws of the U.S. government. 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. Im going to use my training and become one of those domestic terrorists that youre so afraid of from the DHS reports. He still has many supporters within the Patriot movement. Members patrolled the site of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and polling locations in 2016 and 2020, allegedly to discourage and report voter fraud. The Oath Keepers seem to be trying to resolve this tension by focusing their confrontational tactics primarily on various federal law enforcement agencies, while often siding with local law enforcement officers in other controversies. In a separate incident, the U.S. Park Police arrested Kokesh for bearing arms at the Freedom Plaza in violation of Washington D.C. law by loading a shotgun. In September 2014, following an Alford plea by Kokesh, a Fairfax County, Virginia, judge ordered a suspended sentence for the warrantrelated felony drug and gun charges. Some Oath Keepers have claimed that the government may even stage a terrorist attack or other incident as an excuse to declare martial law. ). Stewart Rhodes, My Personal Pledge of Resistance Against Any Attempt to Disarm Us by Means of an Assault Weapons Ban, on the Oath Keepers website, Dec. 19, 2012. This militaristic group consists of national leadership and state, county and local chapters scattered across the country. CNN A lawyer with close ties to the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers has been charged with four counts related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, including conspiracy to. All Rights Reserved. In a report published this week, COE identified 373 people in the Oath Keepers database believed to be active law enforcement officers, 117 people who seem to be currently serving in the military . The officer towed the vehicle after a check revealed that the vehicle registration and insurance had been cancelled. The pro-gun group was named after the oath of service that police, military. Since 2015, various Oath Keepers CPTs have held militia-like training sessions on topics such as weapons use, patrolling techniques, first aid, and emergency communications. 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. But it remains to be seen what the effects will be of putting Rhodes behind bars. But that wasnt the case in early 2016, when members of the same Bundy family who were at the center of the 2014 Nevada standoff got interested in another conflict with the federal government, this one in Harney County, Oregon. Stoking fears of Black Lives Matter as part of Marxist NWO program: Oath Keepers have framed the civil rights movement that emerged following the death of George Floyd as part of a Marxist agenda that they allege is being used to destroy the United States. 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. Over a dozen members of the Oath Keepers who were present on Jan. 6 were charged with conspiracy for planning to obstruct an official proceeding, along with other related charges. The name Oath Keepers comes from the groups core principle that members vow to uphold the oath they took as law enforcement or military personnel to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Oath Keepers urge members to obey the Constitution, as they understand it, even if that interpretation goes against that of U.S. lawmakers and judges. The Oath Keepers belief that the allegedly tyrannical American government will use law enforcement and military personnel against its people leads to their avowed purpose of opposing such conspiracies. Examples of these orders include the government imposing martial law, confiscating citizens guns and forcing Americans into concentration camps. 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. Oath Keepers also claims that the reason Democratic leaders support gun-control legislation is to allow for easy gun confiscation and make the American people both dependent and vulnerable to a takeover. Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021. He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we would give him a trial by jury. Peoria, Arizona, January 2016: Jon Ritzheimer, a former member of the Oath Keepers, voluntarily surrendered to local authorities. 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. In June 2017, Oath Keepers participated in March Against Sharia rallies organized by ACT for America, an anti-immigrant hate group. Kokesh entered an Alford plea and was given a suspended sentence for the initial drug and gun charges. 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. They even ventured into QAnon territory, adopting and circulating QAnon-related conspiracies on their website. 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 But he failed to do that and he allowed a ChiCom puppet into the White House and I think we now need to just declare that to be illegitimate and refuse to comply with anything that comes out of his mouth, anything he signs, anything passed as so-called legislation. The Nevada-based nonprofit was founded by Yale Law School graduate and former U.S. Army paratrooper Elmer "Stewart" Rhodes. The organization has publicly labeled lockdown measures Orwellian violations of liberty and urges their members to defy these measures. The Oath Keepers are an anti-government, right-wing political organization committed to supporting and defending their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Along with the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers are among the most prominent, heavily armed extremists known to have taken part in the deadly mob that tried to delay. The indictment alleges that Rhodes conspired with co-defendants and others to oppose, by force, the execution of the laws enabling the transfer of presidential power. 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. Usually these calls for security go unanswered, and merely serve as displays of support for various causes and a means of garnering attention. The Oath Keepers did not have 25,000 soldiers at the ready. 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. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism received more than. In 2014, the Oath Keepers highlighted the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa on their web site, questioning the Obama administrations response and raising concerns that it could be used to justify medical martial law in the U.S. As early as January 2020, Oath Keepers began posting about the seriousness of COVID-19, which was spreading at the time within China, and in the first two months of the pandemics spread in the U.S., they provided advice and information regarding COVID-19 to their followers. Opaliski was given a prison sentence of one year and a day. Rhodes wasdisbarredafter practicing law in Arizona without a license by writing letters threatening a lawsuit on behalf of the ejected residents. As Rhodes tweeted in early March 2020, Its critical that towns and counties do all they can with their own resources now to prepare. Please dont do it. 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. Oath Keepers members have not limited their activities to spouting extreme antigovernment conspiracy theories as a number of people associated with the Oath Keepers have been involved in criminal incidents since its founding in 2009. But the Oath Keepers made fools of themselves that day, excitedly telling Bundys rag-tag army that they had received intel that President Obama was about to attack the Bundy ranch with drones. 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. These include: Impending Takeover of the U.S. by the Marxist Left: On September 10, 2020, Twitter announced that it had banned the accounts belonging to the Oath Keepers for violating the platforms policies on violent extremist groups as part of the platforms wider effort to limit the presence of militias on its platform. Massachusetts the site of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. This is a matter of national security and also a matter of national survival. He was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. 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. I have a difficult time believing that 100 percent of the people were cleared or were 100 percent controllable.. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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