United States: Armed Militias Take to the Streets in Elections

In Brazil, when one speaks of militias, one thinks of the paramilitary gangs that use coercion and weapons to control a good part of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. However, militias have also become the order of the day in the final stretch of the United States election campaign, only in this case, they are wielding violent tactics not to gain territory or money, but in the name of high — and tremendously dubious — moral principles. In the various states where they operate, American militias have taken to the streets to defend Donald Trump, because they think he embodies their ideals of a homeland “clean” of immigrants, blacks and undue interference with individual liberty. Acting increasingly overtly, they have been the target of an FBI investigation that recently resulted in the arrest of 13 militiamen accused of plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Soon after, police reported that the same group, the Wolverine Watchmen, was also planning to kidnap the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, and had assembled an arsenal of explosives for the attacks.

For FBI Director Christopher Wray, the extremism of the radical American right has reached the threshold of “national threat priority,” having been responsible for almost 1,000 terrorist acts a year. Many attacks are by so-called “lone wolves” without relation to any terrorist group, but the actions of some groups stand out as Nov. 3 approaches. It is estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 active militia members in more than 300 organizations spread throughout the country. At least 25 percent of them are veterans of the Armed Forces, trained in the use of heavy weapons — vests, camouflage and rifles are hallmarks.

In addition to the Wolverine Watchmen, other armed organizations on the extreme right have been drawing the attention of authorities, such as the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, gangs united under the umbrella term of the “boogaloo movement” and the Proud Boys — a violent exclusively-male neo-fascist group that Trump, in his debate with Joe Biden in September, advised to “stand back and stand by” against the threat from the left. The vast majority preach the complete freedom to possess arms and the end of state interference on issues such as public security and immigration. Several defend an interpretation of the Constitution according to which the right to civil liberty and expression overrides all others. For decades, militias have taken a stand against the government — any government — but Trump’s election has changed this scenario. “Acts of violence have increased, fueled by the president’s aggressive rhetoric and his insistence on spreading conspiracy theories,”* says Darren Mulloy, historian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada.

In today’s polarized political universe, conservative organizations have gained rivals on the far left and in radical branches of the Black Lives Matter movement. The most strident of this wing is the Not Fucking Around Coalition, also in uniform and heavily armed. Its leader, John Jay Johnson, denies that the group performs paramilitary activities or that it has any parallel with Black Lives Matter, the main mobilizer of demonstrations against racism and police violence. Johnson also shies away from comparisons with the defunct Black Panthers, radical supporters of violent acts during the civil rights movement in the 1970s. “Yes, there are radical groups on the left, but the issue of militias is not a bipartisan problem. The vast majority are on the far right,”* says political scientist Lane Crothers of Illinois State University, noting that, of 42 murders committed by political extremists in 2019, 38 were attributed to radical right-wing activists.

Paramilitary organizations occupy a particular position in the U.S., where the famous Second Amendment guarantees citizens the right to form associations and convene meetings to discuss any topic of common interest, without restrictions.** This is what the existence of the hooded white supremacists of the Ku Klux Klan, who were never directly banned, is based upon. “In the states where gun possession is legal, the formation of a militia is open to interpretation,”* says Sam Jackson, specialist in armed movements at the State University of New York at Albany. Present at street demonstrations, under the pretext of protecting public buildings and the police itself, and circulating at will at pro-Trump rallies and marches, American militias, long hidden in remote corners, have grown and (unfortunately) have arrived.

*Editor’s note: This quote, accurately translated from the original, could not be verified.

**Editor’s note: The Second Amendment provides: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”