Right-Wing Militias on the March

Radical right-wing Christian fanatics schemed an armed revolt against the state. The U.S. government sees such militant groups on the march.

America looks horrified at a case that shows the radical right-wing terror groups’ propensity toward violence. In Michigan, nine members of a militant Christian militia called Hutaree were arrested by the police. According to investigations, they had planned to murder a police officer before booby-trapping his funeral to provoke a revolt against the U.S. government. Police officers, to them, are “foot soldiers” of the government that, in turn, is in the service of the anti-Christ.

The case of the Hutaree is not isolated. The United States Department of Homeland Security has been issuing warnings concerning the increasing danger of radical right-wing groups for a year. Both the financial crisis, as well as the election of a black president, would boost the threat, since both events would augment many people’s worries that their individual freedom and the sovereignty of the U.S. would be threatened.

Mark Potok, a Southern Poverty Law Center expert for militant militias, told the “New York Times” that the number of militant groups that used words like “patriots” or “Christians” in their names was increasing, and that they propagated white supremacy and hatred against other races and immigrants.

At protest meetings against President Obama’s reform policies, posters that directly or indirectly appealed to the use of violence were seen more and more frequently. On those posters, either guns or a citation attributed to Thomas Jefferson were depicted: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” After the passage of the health care reform, representatives voting for the bill received death threats. Unknown persons had thrown stones through the windows of the representatives’ offices and homes.

Nevertheless, investigators in the Hutaree case emphasized that the planning of an attack, according to their knowledge, was not a reaction to Obama’s politics, but the expression of a cult-like faith. At its center is the Stone family, which lives in a residential container in the countryside, about 120 kilometers southwest of Detroit.

The oldest son was withdrawn from school after the fifth grade, the younger one has never set foot in a school. Neighbors say military tents were often seen on the lawn and gun shots were heard frequently. However, being part of a militia is nothing special in the countryside.

First hints showing the Hutaree’s propensity toward violence emerged on the internet in 2008. The Stones had been collecting guns and explosives for months and had arranged meetings for military exercises with like-minded persons. Their sons studied bomb building instructions on the internet for attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

The arrest became urgent when family man David Stone chose a police officer to murder and schemed another military exercise for the bomb plot on the funeral. According to the Washington Post, the exercise was about to take place on April 24, 2010. Passers-by that would have crossed their path would have been shot so as not to ruin their plans.

Militias are a pervasive phenomena in the U.S., but only a number part of them turn against the government or fellow citizens. The vast majority are organized to establish order in places where they feel the state has failed to do so or where the state has no place.

In 2007 and 2008, when illegal immigration in the U.S. became a public subject, the “minute-men“ rose in popularity: Militias that patrolled the Mexican border in their free time were installed. They alerted the border guards when they discovered suspects were installed.