A number of people were connected to a right-wing militia that wanted to instigate a civil war.
This week 13 men belonging to right-wing militia organizations, like other violent militia Facebook groups that have been in the news, were arrest for a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as well as murder police officers and overthrow the state government. Six men were arrested for plotting to carry out the kidnapping, and were taking into custody while sharing out guns and gathering money for explosives. The other seven men, also a part of militia groups, were arrest for lending material support to terrorists. The six men face a possible life in prison sentence, and the seven other are facing a possible twenty year sentence. Two of the militia groups they belonged to are named Wolverine Watchmen and Oath Keepers. Both have large memberships on Facebook from around the country. Apparently, the men’s motivation was to release Michigan from the “tyranny” of Coronavirus health precautions. The FBI began their investigation into these men a year ago and they had done much surveillance and practiced with explosives. This was a very serious threat. It’s also important to mention that these men hoped to instigate a civil war.
I hate to say this, but I am not surprised at all, as this plot followers a very public pattern among the right-wing. The militia groups in reference have received much negative attention for their promotion of violence and references to civil war. Recently, these militia groups were just in the spot light when member, Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly killed two men at a protest. Facebook has been vowing to remove these violent groups, but many feel that not enough is being done.
While political violence can happen on both sides, the problem is far worse with the right-wing. A report by the American Defamation League reports that there were 42 deaths due to extremism in the US in 2019. They also stated, “As is typically the case, the extremist-related murders of 2019 were overwhelmingly (90%) linked to right-wing extremists. All but one of the incidents had ties to right-wing extremism.” It always has been by conservatives. These men wanted to overthrow their local government. The only time that has actually happened in America is in 1898 in a town called Wilmington, N.C. when white supremacists lost their minds because black Americans were legitimately holding positions of power. Conservative racists again lost their mind in the 1960′s during the first Civil Rights Era, when there were riots, murders, bombings, and shootings. Of course this was followed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King jr. and John F. Kennedy. Later, Timothy Mcveigh would shock the country with a massive explosion for his white power ideology.
When Trump took office hate crimes immediately spiked and white supremacist groups around the country have been emboldened. In 2018, there were over four thousand hate crimes. We are now at an all time high for the number of hate crimes. Additionally, right-wing counter protesters have taken to regularly driving into crowds of BLM protesters to run them over. Trump himself has refused multiple times to condemn white supremacist groups. Earlier in April, Trump tweeted “liberate Michigan,” referring to the strict Covid-19 precautions, which was exactly the motivation for the planned kidnapping.
The issue of right-wing terrorism is so serious and so widespread that even Republican law makers are involved. Washington state lawmaker Matt Shea was found to be involved in the planning of three right wing terrorist incidents that ended in gun wielding stand offs with law enforcement. Please read my previous article on him here. As an update to that article, I want to point out that he is NOT in jail, nor did he leave office. Both Republicans and Democrats called for Shea to step down, but he renounced the calls as a “coup” against him. Now, Shea could have been removed from office with a 2/3 vote by state house. This never happened though because not enough republicans would commit to removing him. Even though the evidence against him is overwhelming, I cannot find a single reason to explain why he has not been arrested. I can only assume that local authorities refuse to act. Shea is not running for the state legislature again, but is running for a different office coming up.
I’ve talked about the constant gaslighting by the right-wing as they slander liberal protesters as being a danger to society, when conservatives have always been the ones committing all the violence. What I’ve mentioned here is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only is domestic terrorism such as this case rising, but the calls for and instigation of a civil war by conservatives is growing louder. I cannot stress enough how dangerous the situation with the right-wing is becoming. We need to make sure we’re putting truth first and dispelling their misinformation that sparks violence like this.
