Militias to Patriots: Where do we stand now?

Last spring and summer Ark Valley Voice observed and tracked the rapidly growing numbers of extremist militia/patriot groups on Facebook, and asked questions about the purpose of these groups and their goals. Was it grievance only? Or things more sinister.

This culminated in an article exposing this alarming  trend which identified close to 12 Colorado-specific Facebook groups totaling close to 10,000 members. Starting in late June 2020, Facebook began to crackdown on many of these extremist  groups, specifically Three Percenter militia groups. As a result, many of these extremist groups either moved to other social media platforms or simply dropped the word “militia” or “Three Percent” in their name. 

Yet, as the summer wore on and social, racial, economic, and political pressures mounted both nationally and locally more patriot groups sprung up on Facebook, appearing to be made up of a combination of Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists. In particular, one local group the Chaffee County Patriots formed in early August and quickly rose to more than 600 members.

After Ark Valley Voice’s subsequent article identifying its formation and exposing a large majority of local law enforcement being involved in this extremist group, the group’s numbers swelled to close to 1000. Since then however, the group’s numbers have dwindled back down to just over 600 members. The group still retains the majority of the law enforcement that initially joined. 

When asked, most prominent local leaders did not appear to be very concerned about law enforcement’s involvement in this extremist group promoting violence against fellow citizens.

Yet, with Wednesday’s insurrection at the United State Capitol along with our local leader’s relative nonchalance about the Chaffee Patriots, Ark Valley Voice decided to compare Chaffee to other counties around the state to see if there really was any cause for alarm.

A cursory search of Facebook reveals there are hundreds of these Patriot groups throughout the country and probably dozens in the state. No big surprise there. Yet, upon closer analysis, Ark Valley Voice again found reasons for concern.

First, when comparing Chaffee County Patriots 609 members to our surrounding rural counties, only one appears to contain another patriot group, Patriots of Cañon City Colorado, which stands at 252 members.

Second, Chaffee Patriots with its 609 members, is more than half the size of one of the largest purported state-wide patriot groups, Colorado Patriots for the Republic, with over 1,100 members. Given that Chaffee has a population of roughly 20,000, the percentage  of membership here could be seen as alarming.

Finally, it is unclear how many of these other comparative groups’ members also include the number of law enforcement that is evident in Chaffee Patriots. This makes it difficult to know or assess what level of law enforcement involvement is normal, or whether it is even accepted as normal by these groups.  

Also, to be fair, most of the violent rhetoric that filled these more visible  extremist groups from the summer has been drastically toned down, or is now just veiled suggestions hidden in memes. Much of the more violent rhetoric seems to have moved to underground social media sites like Parler (which also happens to be the home of rampant  pedophile and sex-trafficker activity).

On the other hand, disinformation and conspiracies are now being mixed with far-right propaganda, on all these social media sites, much of which fueled Wednesday’s insurrection. Hearing these people be interviewed following Wednesday’s mob scenes, where they continue to claim that they and Trump represent truth and democracy, is surreal.

The fanatic belief in the lies they have been told, their insistence on not taking responsibility for their own actions, their new claims that it wasn’t them at the Capitol Wednesday, their counting of  grievances for which they insist on  finding scapegoats, their willingness — which they appear to see as their duty to incite violence —  is an alarm bell for America. 

While history will be the judge, there are some examples from the past century that offer warning to the rest of us as we all face the threat presented by this Trump cult.

It could be compared to the German people prior to and during World War II, who quite literally worshipped Hitler. They believed him when he told them that he had to attack their neighbors such as Poland, Austria, France, Netherlands, Norway… “because they had attacked Germany first”. They refused to believe that the Holocaust had killed millions of Jews, Christians, the disabled, and those who Hitler considered his enemies, even though it had happened right under their noses.

It took American Generals, among them Dwight D. Eisenhower  to march them into concentration camps and make them look at what they had done. Even then, many refused to believe that it was they, not some other “force” that had done this. 

The liberation of Dachau by American troops on April 26, 1945, wasn’t the first such deliverance by Allied troops. The Soviets had found and freed what remained of Auschwitz and other death camps months earlier. But the wrenching images and first-hand testimonies recorded by Dachau’s shocked liberators brought the horrors of the Holocaust home to America. It should be pointed out that many of these right-wing militia groups that took part in the violent mob take-over of our Capitol on Wednesday are Holocaust deniers.

Given some of the questionable police activity surrounding Wednesday’s insurrection — especially the obviously unprepared, some say complicit, nature by some charged with the protetion of our Capitol against what was a well-known threat publicized on social media, and Chaffee County’s disproportionally massive patriot group, perhaps local leaders should re-evaluate. There were some true heros that day, including one officer who led the mob away from an anti-room where Vice President Pence and his family were being protected. But he was not among the Capitol Hill police taking selfies with the crowd. Society’s divisions appear to be alive and well without our law enforcement.