A private group formed on Facebook on Aug. 7 called Chaffee Patriots. It was formed less than 24 hours after Ark Valley Voice ran a story about the “something” that happened in Buena Vista on July 4. In less than a month, it grew to more than 700 members.
September 5 call to commit violence on the Chaffee County Patriots Facebook page. AVV has blocked out the name of the poster in the featured image, but we know the identity. The claim in the main visual of this post is a false piece of disinformation.
The criteria for joining the closed group includes the willingness of its members to arm themselves and be ready to “defend their values”. While the general public can’t see the content, Ark Valley Voice learned that Chaffee Patriots is filled with right-wing memes advocating violence and hatred, disinformation, and expressions of threatening attitudes to those moderates and liberals with whom they apparently disagreed.
Who would belong to something like this? A lot of our neighbors, apparently.
In little more than three weeks, the group’s membership grew from zero to more 600, then to more than 700 the following week. It includes no less than 17 Chaffee County law enforcement personnel and a dozen people from the Department of Corrections.
Most law enforcement members appear to have been invited as part of a much larger list invited on Aug. 8-9 by Chaffee Undersheriff Andy Rohrich. The list of law enforcement includes some members of the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, the Salida Police Department, and the Buena Vista Police Department.
Facebook has shut down other militia social media sites, including Three Percenter and Boogaloo militias groups and it appears many of these members gravitated toward new “patriot” groups. On Sept. 5, Facebook took down the pages of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and its founder Joey Gibson, as part of efforts to remove “violent social militias” from the platform.
Courtesy Facebook
There appeared to be a presence in Chaffee Patriots of people with connections to the right-wing militia groups reported on by AVV earlier this year.
Chaffee Patriots doesn’t appear to have any party affiliation, but some of the comments echo supporters of President Donald Trump, who when referencing the 2018 White Supremacist rally and confrontation with protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia (where one protester was killed) said, “there were some very good people on both sides…”
The site includes multiple postings with violent posts/reposts on current events in other parts of the country, with “likes’ by Chaffee Patriots, including members of local law enforcement. One, a comment about the 17-year-old who used his (illegally possessed) AR-15 to shoot three protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two of them, was ‘liked’ by local law enforcement.
Another post by a local resident said “I see a few blm signs [Black Lives Matter] in yards and think those people are probably not protected (armed) and think police they want to defund will protect them from the same terrorists they support. Perfect targets.”
Violent meme promoting 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse’s shooting protesters. Comments from a group calling itself “Kenosha Guard” appear to be behind some of the more violent comments being reposted on patriot sites.
This threat is not only NOT free speech; it appears to be “threat speech”. According to the U.S. Senate Report on the First Amendment, threat speech is not protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Chaffee Sheriff John Spezze and Salida Police Chief Russ Johnson are not members of Chaffee Patriots. AVV has confirmed that they had received invitations to join which neither answered. But members of their staff are.
“I’ve heard about them, but I”m not terribly familiar. I hear they posted about the rally last weekend,” said Johnson. “I don’t do social media and I’m not getting in the middle of politics. We’re not picking sides, we’re here to protect everybody who lives here or visits regardless of their political beliefs.”
He said that there probably were some members of his force who were members of Chaffee Patriots, but that what they do on their own time is their business. He added that his officers don’t do yard signs.
Chaffee County Patriots post suggesting it is hunting season for Antifa.
Spezze said, “I’ve heard of the group, but it’s not illegal to join. Sometimes law enforcement joins things for a reason, if you know what I mean.” He added that he remembers being invited but that he is too busy to join and that “Andy says he’s not a member.”
“I think it’s more a curiosity thing [with the department.]. I’d be very surprised if any of my people were involved, but I will talk with them. As law enforcement we have to be hypersensitive,” said Spezze. “I’m not taking this lightly…. I can’t tell them ‘you can’t be part of something,’ but it’s a good opportunity to remind my people you got to watch your stuff … What you do here follows you down the road and I will remind them to be cautious about what they join.”
He volunteered that this same local Chaffee Patriots group had asked him to talk at their meeting at the VFW this Thursday, but that he had turned them down.
Widely shared misinformation. This story was actually from 2008 in England. Broomfield was not a U.S .Marine.
Buena Vista Police Chief Dean Morgan said “there are general town policies regarding social media things, as far as joining groups, we wouldn’t want people joining any groups that could bring discredit to the department, the profession or the town.” He said he had “seen what they posted and he believed its purpose was dedicated to the preservation of the constitution and individuals’ willingness to defend our communities.” But then he added, “I can’t speak to the content – it looks like political to me.”
When told about the threat contained on the site which appeared to reference Salida, Johnson said, “ I don’t know the person so I don’t know his thoughts. People say stuff all the time, there are comments on social media daily, and different people think differently. I can tell you if somebody feels threatened individually they can contact us or the sheriff and we will respond and taken appropriate action based on the circumstances.”
While Salida might well be an oasis, in fact, multiple sources across the country are beginning to point out the radical element in law enforcement. Sources at the Brennan Center for Justice say their research shows that racism and white supremacy and far right attitudes are actually hidden in plain sight right within law enforcement.
Asked whether they were aware of Chaffee Patriots and what it espouses, county leaders say until asked by Ark Valley Voice if they had heard of Chaffee Patriots, they were in the dark.
“No, what is it?” asked Chair of the Board of County Commissioner Greg Felt. “What is it they stand for?”
Commissioner Rusty Granzella said he was unaware of the group or what it stood for and neither was Buena Vista Mayor Duff Lacy, or Salida Mayor P.T. Wood. Commissioner Keith Baker said someone had just mentioned it to him, but he didn’t know what it was. “Where I grew up (in a rural area of the South) I’ve seen groups intimidate people and it’s not a good thing. I’m not saying that’s what this group is because I don’t know.”
“People have right to own a firearm, have a gun over the mantlepiece, in a gun cabinet or a gun safe to hunt, for sport, for personal protection in a responsible manner,” said Baker.
Baker added that “the vision most people tell me they have for our community is they want to feel safe and have a beautiful place to live and work and play. Safety in all respects is huge in this – if people feel threatened in any way, by an erratic neighbor, fear of famine, flood, fire, then that’s not feeling safe.”
“Our council and our government have worked really hard at addressing inequities in Salida,” said Wood. “Equality, tolerance, those are values that we hold very important.”
“We ask a tremendous amount from our law enforcement. We expect them to be able to deal with extremely tense dangerous, challenging situations, that escalate out of nowhere and respond with exactly the right amount of force, then de-escalate immediately as soon as they have the situation under control,” said Felt. “I have compassion and sympathy and I know they are under a lot of stress, but in this line of work, your words really matter. Whether elected or in a government department whether on the job or not, in terms of how people perceive you, the expectations are that our words matter. Situations arise — like the one you’re writing about — I offer my support to law enforcement leaders and I expect that they will address whatever issues are connected to this situation.”
As a matter of safety, the question may be — should Chaffee residents be concerned?
Editor’s Notes:
Undersheriff Andy Rohrich has not yet responded to Ark Valley Voice request for comment, but when he does, his comments will be included in this article.
Three members of the Ark Valley Voice staff contributed to this article, Stephen Hall, Adam Silverman and Managing Editor Jan Wondra.
It’syour Second Amendment right to be armed it’s part of the Constitution and with BLM and antifa tearing up and destroying cities and 32 people have been killed since the riots I don’t know why you’re surprised that people are getting nervous and scared. How about stay safe to take care of your families and vote red and then you won’t have to worry about any of this.
Brandee, This article is not about guns, it is about bias; hate-speech, and threats, which are not protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment comes FIRST in the Bill of Rights for a reason. It is also about the pledge required to join this Chaffee Patriots group which brings into question where the loyalty of some of the county law enforcement is to serve and protect ‘we the people’ which means all of us, or is it to advance the agenda of this group.
Please address the reason that you did not list the name of every member of Chaffee county law enforcement that is also a member of this group. I feel that the people that pay their salaries have a right to know.
We agree the public has the right to know, which is why we did the story But the entities that should be releasing the names of these law enforcement individuals are your law enforcement. The names came from a private Facebook page, and while we know the names of the individuals, there are legal reasons that AVV cannot be the entitity that releases the names.
Hannah Hannah DID NOT speak at or even attend their meeting. That is a fact.
Jennifer, Hannah Hannah was not mentioned in the article, so we don’t know to what meeting you’re referring.
I think that you should have asked someone from the group rather than infiltrating the group and forming your own opinion. Truth does NOT have a voice on this website.
Mark, Truth does indeed have a voice at Ark Valley Voice, but it is based on facts, not beliefs. You and I could surely sit down and talk, since I hear you are this group’s leader. What brought you to Chaffee county this year, may we ask?
The founder of Chaffee County Patriots is a man by the name of Mark Wolfgang. He is wealthy, and owns a private security firm by the name of Shorebreak Security. He only moved to Chaffee County in MAY OF 2020. Yes you read that correctly- 4 months ago.
He is from Boulder, Colorado. Yes, Boulder. The hated “Radical Left Bubble” of Colorado.
He hardly seems like the voice of our citizens, and I find it somewhat comical, and also alarming that locals would blindly follow a man who seemingly showed up recently with the goal of starting trouble.
The other founding member also works for a private security firm, and moved to Chaffee County 2 years ago from Kansas.
So what gives? Do these men have an interest in stoking fear because it benefits their business? Are they registered members and trainers for the NRA like Hannah Hannah? The Right Wing loves their conspiracy theories- so maybe they should be taking a closer look at their own “leaders.”
We should all be very concerned. Even members of Chaffee County Patriots.
The leaders of the county’s law enforcement entities, whose members joined Chaffee Patriots have a responsibility to county residents to answer the question you ask. AVV informed the pubic of this activity under the news ethics that the public has a right to know. We know the identities, but because these came from the list of members on a closed Facebook site, AVV is not the party responsible for releasing the names, nor have we in past articles about topics related to this.
Thank you for bringing this to the surface! I believe Chaffee County should be concerned, as I feel that these groups are forming nationwide. Hard to believe there would be one here in this valley. Keep up the great reporting!
I have gone to a couple meetings to see what is going on. The article written above is one full of fear, so I was wondering how grounded in truth it was.
My conclusion, after just a couple meetings is these people are just neighbors who are concerned about ANTIFA, not BLM or Chaffee Co residents!
It looks like what is needed in this county is for folks to talk, remembering that two years, or so, ago, we would never have been so crazy as to think our neighbors would harm us. I think the referenced article fears that.
I don’t know the FB person writing about Denver’s ANTIFA or BLM, but that attitude is just opposite of those I encountered. ALL sides of the political spectrum have to not listen to the scare words of people whose motivation is to get amused by stirring hatred. It appears ARKVSLLEYVOICE(s) and this other loose affiliation of conservatives have far more in common than not.
The AVV story focused on the social media presence of Chaffee Patriots, not whatever happened at meetings. Comments on the story on Facebook are not by AVV, but the public. Getting your history straight is one way to see who is really armed — and who is not. We share with you the sense that if more talking was going on, there might be less hate speech. But you should know that neighbors who have lived beside each other for generations in places like Sarajevo and Crimea, and South Osetia in the Republic of Georgia, let alone Rwanda, have turned on each other because of inciting hate speech and accusations. Those who don’t think this could happen in America do not have their eyes open. This is not an outcome anyone would wish for America.
Admins from Colorado Springs?
Ark Valley Voice is not quite sure what you mean by that question? We are based (living nad working ) in Chaffee County. Are you referencing something or smeone else?
referring to the admins of the FB group. ‘Mark Wolfgang’ had something in his profile that seemed to indicate he was from Colorado Springs, but his info seems to have been zipped up since then. One of the mods still says lives in the Springs, but unsure about the other two. Just curious, and FB profile information (along with much other FB content) is less than reliable.
The Admin is from Boulder
Sad to learn that local law enforcement leadership seems to have no issues with their employees joining a Facebook group that allegedly promotes vigilantism and political violence. I doubt that they’d be so cavalier about this issue if the vigilantes were left-wing nuts instead of right-wing nuts.
I don’t use Facebook, so I can’t judge for myself, but if the Chaffee County Patriots group is actually violating the Facebook policy against promoting violence, it should be reported to Facebook.
As a veteran myself, and also as a gun owner who would never support the NRA, I find it sadly funny how fast these vigilantes have gone from “I need these guns to defend against a tyrannical government” to “dear tyrannical government, let me help you threaten and oppress these people that I don’t like”.
I hope this article does not represent AVV’s standard of reporting news or opinion. I would very much have been interested in his verification of his article’s thesis, but, unfortunately, he only offered accusations and opinions while asking me to believe his concerns.
What gives? This is no way to encourage serious readers.
This article was prepared by several AVV journalists and it is based on facts, not a thesis. The only opinions offered were those stated by the people interviewed. The screen shots speak for themselves.
And guess who is speaking at their meeting tonight in BV- Hannah Hannah.
These are HER “people.”
I am not worried about BLM or Antifa……I am worried about my own neighbors. These folks are delusional. There is not some radical left presence here, no one is threatening to take away their guns. They are fabricating a threat out of thin air, so they can put on all of their gear, get out their guns and play war.
Hannah Hannah DID NOT speak at their meeting. That is a fact.
Hannah Hannah did not speak at or even attend their meeting. This is a fact.
There is a great group in Chaffee County whose aim it is to get our worried selves together and talk. It is called BRAVER ANGELS, and we have ZOOM meetings where we find our “vast” differences are actually nit vast but normal. Where we can see we are all being manipulated by others’ agendas. PLEASE JOIN.
Strange that PT Wood says he doesn’t know about this….because I sent him and email about it on September 8th.
PT Wood was out-of-town in the back country and arrived back late the night of Sept. 9, so he would not yet have seen that email at the time we spoke with him.