West Virginia Klan Leader Claims Returning Military Will Help Them Train for ‘the Upcoming Battle’

[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]


A British television crew filming a gathering of Ku Klux Klansmen in West Virginia this spring recorded one of the group’s leaders discussing a plan to use returning military veterans to train KKK members in combat techniques for “the upcoming battle” – presumably the “coming race war” that the Klan and other white supremacists have long predicted.

The nine-minute video documentary by Barcroft TV is a striking portrait of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization based in Pelham, N.C., with chapters throughout the South, including this one in West Virginia. It includes some appalling insights into their children’s upbringing and their certainty about a looming social apocalypse.

But most disturbing is the segment in which the hooded Klansman leading the rally tells the crowd about the group’s future plans:

We’re looking at something a little different for probably the next couple of years, trying to get our men and women ready for the upcoming battle that we’re about to take upon us. And this is something that no Klan has ever done, and we’re going to start it. All our boys are finally coming back home from the military, which is good. And we’re getting a lot more military members joining, which is good, as we’re going to start doing a lot more military training.

Now that we got our Marines and our Army back, they’re going to start showing us how to skin, how to survive off the land. We’re going to try to move in another direction with the Loyal White Knights, and that is starting armed training, hand-to-hand combat, and stuff like that, just for the upcoming battle.

The Klansman is not correct, of course – this has been attempted previously by other KKK organizations. Indeed, the presence of far-right extremists within the military is a longstanding problem and frequently involves a Klan recruiter joining the armed forces.
The plan described by the Klan leader in the video is exactly the type of scenario that the Department of Homeland Security warned about in a 2009 law enforcement bulletin:

Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.

At the time, the conservative media erupted in anger, wildly distorting the bulletin’s contents on one talk show after another, notably at Fox News. The reportage there – or more precisely, the shouting from their pundits – described the bulletin as specifically singling out veterans and targeting them for suspicion of far-right extremism; claimed that there was no similar bulletin regarding Islamist extremists from the DHS (there was); and said the report was based on nothing but speculation. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly said the report was “unnecessary,” cooked up by a bevy of myopic “far-left” bureaucrats who chose to ignore Al Qaeda while pinning the terrorism label on ordinary conservatives.

Eventually, the furor drove DHS to disavow the report and discontinue its task force assigned to monitoring right-wing extremism. In the ensuing years, the DHS bulletin has nonetheless proven to have been remarkably on-target, particularly in the wake of such domestic terrorism incidents involving former military members as the massacre at a Sikh temple in 2012 and the formation of the murderous “FEAR Militia” in Georgia, all of whom fit the bulletin’s profile perfectly.

The Southern Poverty Law Center first drew attention to the issue in 1986, and after a period during which the military subsequently clamped down on extremists within its ranks, the problem returned during the Iraq War, as a 2006 SPLC report explained in detail. A later report in 2008 explored how the problem was worsening with racist skinheads signing up for service overseas.

The FBI drew up its own assessment in July 2008, and pinpointed the potential danger then: “The military training veterans bring to the [white supremacist] movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the movement’s fringes.”

As criminologist Brian Levin explains in his interview with the Barcroft TV reporters: “I think the real danger does not lie with the Klan being some kind of widespread army that has tentacles across the United States. That’s not going to happen. But what we do have to worry about is individuals, autonomous cells, or duos committing terrorist acts on their own because they get training, they get inspiration, and they get knowhow from being in the orbit of these hate groups,” Levin said. “Loose radicals coming out of that orbit represent a threat of continuing terrorism here in the United States.”

Near the end of the video, one of the Klansmen expresses his own hopes for what they all call “the upcoming battle”: “White people, we’re all getting tired of the government,” he says. “And pretty soon you’re gonna see the government collapse. And when the government keeps on sending their money over to Israel and it finally collapses, you’re gonna see the Klan take it back, and we’re gonna make this nation the way it needs to be.”

Jerad Miller’s Posts at Infowars Included Speculation about Killing Cops

 
[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]


In the wake of Sunday’s deadly attacks in North Las Vegas, at the hands of two antigovernment “Patriot” extremists, Infowars host Alex Jones warned his listeners that the media would soon start claiming that there’s a connection between his conspiracist media operation and the killers.

As a matter of fact, Jerad Miller – the 31-year-old Indiana man who led the attack, assisted by his 22-year-old wife, Amanda – liked to post on the Infowars member forum. And he constantly promoted Infowars on his Facebook page.

In one of his Infowars posts, Miller even speculated about whether or not he should kill police officers.

“The emerging narrative in the Las Vegas shooting now includes Alex Jones,” the Infowars site complained shortly after news of the shootings broke. In short order, Jones began calling the shootings a “false flag operation” secretly staged by nefarious federal government operatives who set it up to look like it was a crime committed by domestic terrorists.

“The incident is custom-made to demonize the patriot movement,” the Infowars site claimed. “The Southern Poverty Law Center has consistently attempted to forge a link between white supremacists and members of the patriot and constitutional movements.”

Jones became downright imaginative, explaining to his listeners, in one rant, how he would go about setting up the murders if he were a government agent, and then warning that the shootings mean that “civil war is coming”. He also began assigning responsibility for the “false flag operation.” In one rant, he accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of being behind the crimes. In another, it was the work of President Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Jones’ wild claims must be intended to distract from the fact that, as Media Matters reported, Miller avidly posted Infowars links on his Facebook page and urged his readers to the website – saying, in one such post, to “get informed or get stupid”.

What those claims fail to explain is why, beginning in May 2012, Jerad Miller became an Infowars forum member and began posting long pieces there. In all, he appears to have published five posts, though one of them titled “A Short Story About Protesting” is no longer available.

By far the most striking and disturbing of these posts is the May 28, 2012, post he titled: “The Police (to kill or not to kill?).” Most of it is devoted to him explaining at length that he’s mostly a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t steal from people, but police oppression over his marijuana business is driving him to think of violence: “I am like a wild coyote,” he wrote.  “You corner me, I will fight to the death.” He continued:

I feel that I have been violated and tread upon.  That the so called justice system has done me harm.  I do not wish to kill police.  I understand that most of them believe they are doing the right thing.  Yet, I will not go to jail, because I have not committed a crime!  I would rather die than be labeled as a criminal.  Let them call me a terrorist.  Let them label me as a fanatic, some nut job.  I know the truth, and so does God.  I’m sure our founding fathers were labeled as such.

It concluded with what appears in hindsight to be a conclusion:

So, do I kill cops and make a stand when they come to get me?  I would prefer to die than sit in their jail, when I have done nothing to hurt anyone.

Some of the posts are typical conspiracy theorizing of the kind that Infowars specializes in, such as the post that wondered if children’s lung cancer could actually be caused by “chemtrails” from jets. They also are mundane – one complained bitterly about his difficulties obtaining dental care, in part because of his ongoing legal and employment difficulties.

One of the posts, titled “After the Event,” is a short story depicting a conversation between a father and son – who evidently are now capable of levitation – in a post-apocalyptic world, set in the year 2041. The father tells the son about “the event”, when the Earth’s population was decimated (in 2012) by a barrage of meteors and other calamities, while a handful of the wealthy prepared shelters for themselves underground and survived. In the intervening years, it seems, the handful of human survivors have developed tremendous psychic powers that enable them to fly and other things.

The father warns the son that there will be a war in the future with the people who went underground. “Us elders cant predict how long we will live, but we all understand how the world cant go back to the way it was,” Miller wrote.  “It is not the same place and we are not the same people.  We are all equal and nobody rules except the rules.  We are now a people of love and compassion and unity with the earth.  It is our responsibility [sic] to care for everything around us because its in our power to do so.  They would seek to destroy and exterminate and abuse.  They would taint the water as they did before.

“Son, I cant tell you how precious life is,” it concludes.




 

Las Vegas Shooting Suspect Jerad Miller Threatened Violence in Interview at the Bundy Ranch

[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]


Footage shot by a Las Vegas TV news reporter covering the standoff between federal authorities and Cliven Bundy and his antigovernment “Patriot” supporters in mid-April shows Jerad Miller – the Indiana man who with his wife, Amanda, shot and killed two police officers and a bystander on Sunday in North Las Vegas – threatening violence against government officials.

After telling the reporter for KRNV-TV that “Minutemen” were supposedly ringing the scene of the standoff, he said: “So, you know, I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around, or anything like that. I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re gonna come bring violence to us, well, if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it.”

The reporter was shocked: “Well, that sounds kind of like a menacing statement, I have to tell you,” she said.

Miller responded: “You know, the people here, that have come here to support Bundy, we’re not afraid,” he said. “You know, we know that in the past the government has used force against civilians, like Waco, Ruby Ridge. Alright, we’re not afraid of that.”

Miller was filmed wearing camouflage gear and a T-shirt promoting Brandon Martines, a conservative candidate for Clark County Sheriff. Martines recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Jerad and Amanda Miller had shown up at his campaign events and had offered to work on the campaign, but that when he had checked their background he discovered that Jerad Miller had an extensive criminal history, including DUI, assault, theft and mischief charges. Martines told them, “Look, I appreciate your support but I can’t be associated in any way, shape or form with you.”

“They were just trying to infiltrate,” Martines said. “They obviously had an agenda.”

At the Bundy ranch, Miller indulged in the paranoid fantasy-based strategizing that was typical of the “Patriots” on the scene there, who at one point began turning on each other over fears that a federal drone attack was about to strike the camp.

In the KRNV interview, Miller touted the upcoming “Operation American Spring” – the planned “Patriot” march on Washington, D.C., that was supposed to draw millions of people out to demand President Obama’s resignation but only managed to draw dozens – as a possible counterweight to any assault on the “Patriot” encampment and the Bundys.

“But with American Spring coming up, you know, a lot of their resources are in D.C.,” he told the reporter. “They can’t send the ATF and the FBI out here in full force. You know, and we know that.”

He also made clear that he, like many of the Bundy supporters, was deriving much of his inspiration from web-based conspiracist outlets. When asked to ruminate on the upside of the government’s capitulation in the standoff, he said: “It’s going to show a lot of people that the federal government isn’t Almighty God. You know, they can’t just go around pushing people around doing whatever they want anymore. We have the Internet, we have alternative media – you know, we, we pick up on things faster, we can get around, we can support each other.”

He also mentioned that friends whom he described as being even more prone to violence nearly came out to Nevada to join him: “I know personally a couple people that wanted to come out here, um, and join up, but they were afraid they might get a little trigger-happy, you know, and wouldn’t wait for them to fire the first shot,” he said. “So they were advised to stay home, we only need cool-headed people here that aren’t going to antagonize them, you know, and – pretty much make it to look like we fired the first shot, or had anything involved in any of that kind of thinking.”

Indeed, Miller insisted that he and his fellow “Patriots” were not going to take the initial steps to violence:

So we’re not instigating anything. We are here in response to their criminal activity, as we see it. Sure, they have “the law” [air quotes] on their side. But is it constitutional law? That’s the issue.

Now, another big issue is our definition of constitutionality differs from theirs. You know, we are a little more strict on following the Constitution in their opinion. But I am pretty sure if our founders were alive today, they would be rolling over in their graves, or picking up a gun and doing what we’re doing.

More likely, they would be rolling in their graves at the thought of having a man like Jerad Miller claim their names for inspiration.

Full transcript below:

MILLER: Hopefully, people will see that there’s people out there willing to put their lives on the line, or just their, you know, physical bodies out there and put them in front of the tasers, be beaten, and help stand up for people, you know. Because, if this stuff was happening to me, I’d want people to be there for me, you know. So I can’t expect that out of people if I’m not going to be willing to come out and support somebody else in their time of need.

REPORTER: Well, tell us though – it’s got to be a good feeling that this weekend, if you want to call it a victory – I mean, certainly the BLM blinked.

MILLER: I mean, we can’t feel good about something like that because we shouldn’t have to be out here in the first place. Sure, um, you know, it give us a lot more hope. It’s going to show a lot of people that the federal government isn’t Almighty God. You know, they can’t just go around pushing people around doing whatever they want anymore. We have the Internet, we have alternative media – you know, we, we pick up on things faster, we can get around, we can support each other.

And that’s the real important thing. We need to be backing each other up and we stand for our rights and our liberties, because we’re losing them at an alarming rate. And –

REPORTER: It was getting pretty tense. It seemed that there was definitely a – fear that it was gonna become violent.

MILLER: You know, the people here, um, that have come here to support Bundy, we’re not afraid. You know, we know that in the past the government has used force against civilians, like Waco, Ruby Ridge. Alright, we’re not afraid of that.

REPORTER: Well, this was the fear that it was gonna become another situation like that – until the government backed down.

MILLER: Yeah, but this is an entirely different situation than Ruby Ridge and Waco. They didn’t have the Internet back then, you know. Cliven Bundy has been involved for over twenty years dealing with these people. This isn’t something new. It’s just it’s escalated to this point, you know.

So, it’s not that Cliven Bundy escalated it to this point. It’s the federal government. They came down here and started abusing protesters and stuff. Sure they might have been getting in the way of a truck, but they were just curious about what was going on up there, because it is illegal to bury cattle out there in the desert, and they were breaking the law. You know, they had backhoes, dump trucks – why do you need that stuff if you’re rounding up cattle? I can understand helicopters, but as far as the heavy machinery? That was totally uncalled for. So they were just wanting to know what was going on.

REPORTER: Does this change your strategy going forward, that there has been – you know, put one in your corner, in your tally.

MILLER: Well, we don’t see it like that. OK? We know they’re just falling back to regroup. They’ll be back. This isn’t over. Um, the BLM is just right down the road. They didn’t leave.
But with American Spring coming up, you know, a lot of their resources are in D.C. They can’t send the ATF and the FBI out here in full force. You know, and we know that –

REPORTER: You don’t think that federal government can’t mobilize at a moment’s notice if they want to? Come on.

MILLER: Not without people getting a little, I mean, suspicious of what they’re doing. The more they bring out here, the more will come. Plain and simple.

You know – this week, you know, people can’t just take off work right away. People can plan for vacations and things like that. If they come back, and there’s a standoff for a couple weeks, people will make it down here.

You know, people are just – a lot of people are just waiting to see what would happen. I know personally a couple people that wanted to come out here, um, and join up, but they were afraid they might get a little trigger-happy, you know, and wouldn’t wait for them to fire the first shot. So they were advised to stay home, we only need cool-headed people here that aren’t going to antagonize them, you know, and – pretty much make it to look like we fired the first shot, or had anything involved in any of that kind of thinking.

The armed people here are just here to keep the peace. You know, certainly, we did have yesterday morning like a little armed confrontation with them. But yet the sheriff was there one our side – which he shoulda been here, you know, Day One. Telling them to get out – they have no right to this land. The Constitution only allows the federal government to own land for military bases, shipyards, arsenals, capital buildings and emergency shelters. I don’t see any of that out here. So are they literally declaring –

REPORTER: But the sheriff said he cannot supersede the federal government.

MILLER: Ah, that’s not what the Constitution says.

[Break]

MILLER: Ah, there’s a lot of these guys that are self-set. And they’re really dedicated to freedom, that’s all they do, is they train, they go out, you know, and they protect our borders and things. Like that Minutemen are coming – and we’re just gonna be, uh – They’re out here. They’re out here right now. You don’t see ‘em. You know – that’s what they do.

So, you know, I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around, or anything like that. I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re gonna come bring violence to us, well, if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it.

REPORTER: Well, that sounds kind of like a menacing statement, I have to tell you.

MILLER: Well, I mean, you hear this kind of rhetoric from the government all the time. We’ll put down citizens, we’ll put down protesters, we’ll beat you up, we’ll gas you, we’ll shoot you with rubber bullets. I mean, heck, down in New Mexico they shot and killed a homeless man out in the desert. You know. They shot and killed this man. Sicced a dog on him while he was laying there dying. And they caught this all on video.

REPORTER: On this issue, you’re saying you guys aren’t going away.

MILLER: No, we’re not going away, but we’re not firing the first shots, either. We will defend ourselves, if it has to come to that. But we’re hoping that, you know, our show of force yesterday is enough to get them to go, ‘Hey, this is a sensitive subject, this is a sensitive area, perhaps we should leave it alone.’
Because any further involvement with the federal government is just going to be seen as instigating. Alright, if they come back here – ‘cause the only reason we showed up here is ‘cause they were here doing what they were doing. It’s not like we came here to get their attention and they came. No, they came here and got our attention, and we came. So it’s what they’re doing is what’s bringing us here.

So we’re not instigating anything. We are here in response to their criminal activity, as we see it. Sure, they have “the law” [air quotes] on their side. But is it constitutional law? That’s the issue.

Now, another big issue is our definition of constitutionality differs from theirs. You know, we are a little more strict on following the Constitution in their opinion. But I am pretty sure if our founders were alive today, they would be rolling over in their graves, or picking up a gun and doing what we’re doing.

[END]

Suspected Las Vegas Shooter Jerad Miller’s Paranoid Video Rant about Drones, Courthouses

[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]

Jerad Miller, the Indiana man who with his wife, Amanda, shot and killed two police officers and a bystander Sunday in North Las Vegas before dying in a suicide pact at a Wal-Mart store, posted several videos at YouTube in the past year that revealed his paranoia and antigovernment views.

One of the videos contains an extended soliloquy by Miller on government drones that turns into a quasi-philosophical rant about the nature of courthouses as centers of “authoritarianism.”

The latter is noteworthy in light of a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal that among the documents found at Miller’s apartment was a carefully laid out plan to attack an unidentified courthouse building in Las Vegas, taking it by armed force and then executing public officials inside.

The video begins with Miller pulling out a conspiracist magazine devoted to government drones, titled “Drones: Are They Watching You?,” which was published in 2013 under the auspices of magazine publisher Source Interlink – a company that changed its name earlier this year. Miller waxes paranoiac about the likelihood that people like himself are under surveillance by them.


After complaining at length about the ankle bracelet he was forced to wear as a result of being placed on house arrest in 2013 (according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier, Miller was accused of violating his in-house arrest twice that year), he turns his attention to the local courthouse near his home, which is within view of his window:

A beautiful building, even though it is a monument to authoritarianism. It’s just a big concrete building a … thing … that people have to go to, or else they go to jail. You gotta go get your marriage license, you gotta go get gun permits – whatever it is, you have to go down to that big stone structure monument to tyranny, and submit, crawling, groveling, on your hands and knees: ‘Oh, give me permission to do this, give me permission to do that.’

I dunno. Sounds a little like Nazi Germany to me. Or maybe Communist Russia. ‘Where are your papers? Do you have the authority to be here? Do you have the right to be here? Where are you going? Where are you coming from? Who’s in your car with you? Can I search your car? Can I stick my finger up your butt? No, oh, that’s probable cause, you probably got drugs up there.’ Because that’s what they’re doing now. They’re sticking fingers up people’s butts – lookin’ for drugs. Big scary drugs.

Really, people? It’s time to wake up. This is getting ridiculous.

Other videos that Miller posted on the channel suggested that he was emotionally devastated by his conviction and sentence for marijuana possession in 2013. In a couple, directed to Amanda Miller, he weeps bitterly as he soliloquizes about how much he will miss his wife while he is in prison, saying she always makes him smile, “no matter how crabby of a mood I’m in because of the New World Order and shit.”

In another video, he frets briefly about the possibility of something monumental happening while he is behind bars: “I pray to God that this Sunday is not the last time I ever see you again,” he says. “I swear to God that they better not fucking do this shit while I’m in jail. I’m pretty sure they won’t. Pretty sure it’s not happening that fast.”



This kind of paranoia is common among antigovernment “Patriot” movement followers, particularly the reliance on conspiracist publications for information. It’s also reflected, with greater intensity, in the Facebook post that Miller published on June 2:

We must prepare for war. We face an enemy that is not only well funded, but who believe they fight for freedom and justice. Those of us who know the truth and dare speak it, know that the enemy we face are indeed our brothers. Even though they share the same masters as we all do. They fail to recognize the chains that bind them. To stop this oppression, I fear, can only be accomplished with bloodshed.

It appears that in the space of the intervening year, Miller’s paranoia graduated from weepy-eyed frustration to boiling hatred. The combination of radical antigovernment views with personal problems has driven others to commit violence in the past, and Miller appears to be the latest to fall into this downward spiral.

Man and Woman with Alleged White Supremacist Ties Kill Two Las Vegas Police Officers, Bystander before Killing Selves

[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]

A man and a woman who neighbors say were militant white supremacists walked into a North Las Vegas mall pizza shop on Sunday and, shouting declarations about the “start of a revolution,” opened fire on two Metro police officers eating lunch there, killing both men. The two then walked into a neighboring Wal-Mart and ordered everyone out, though not before shooting one bystander to death. The two then shot themselves after exchanging gunfire with police inside the store.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, police found swastikas in the couple’s apartment, and the couple’s neighbors described them as “militant” people who talked about conspiracy theories, killing police officers, and “going underground”.

One of their neighbors said the man told him he had come out to Nevada to participate in the recent standoff with federal authorities over rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. He also told the neighbor that he had been kicked off of Bundy’s ranch property, though Bundy’s wife said
she was unaware of any such person having been on their ranch.

The neighbor described them as “weird people” and said he suspected they used methamphetamines.

Sunday’s nightmarish scene in Las Vegas erupted shortly before noon at the Cici’s Pizza restaurant near the Wal-Mart in North Las Vegas on Nellis Boulevard. The man, described as a tall, bald white man with a scruffy beard, and the woman walked in and opened fire. According to witnesses, before opening fire, they shouted that “this was the start of a revolution.” The woman reportedly walked up behind one of the officers and shot him in the head at the soft drink stand. They then took the officers’ guns and ammunition.

The Review Journal reported that they then draped a Gadsden Flag – the yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” banner long popular with antigovernment “Patriot” movement followers, and more recently adopted by the Tea Party – over the corpses of the two officers.

The slain officers were identified as Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31.

The pair then emerged from the shop and headed toward the nearby Wal-Mart, telling other bystanders to “tell the cops it was a revolution.” Shortly after entering the Wal-Mart, the man fired his gun at the ceiling and began ordering everybody out, upon which a scene of mad panic ensued as people fled the store. At some point during this, one of them shot and killed a female customer at the store. Her identity has not yet been released.

Then the pair retreated to the rear of the store and, as police arrived, began exchanging gunfire with police. At some point, the couple proceeded with what police described as a “suicide pact”: The woman shot the man first, and then shot herself.

According to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, Beck leaves a wife and three children, while Soldo is survived by his wife and a baby.

“It’s a tragic day,” Gillespie said at a news conference at which he was visibly shaken. “We have lost two officers with young families.”

Gillespie said the reports of “revolution” talk were still unconfirmed, and added that his office was still working on uncovering a motive for the killings.