The last week has been a big one, to say the least! Here’s a weekly update covering some of the following, in very broad strokes:
The storming of the US Capitol Building
Militias and other militant far-right groups show at multiple state capitol buildings
Social media platform revolt
You’ve likely already read a lot of this, given how high up in the news it’s been this past week, so this one is going to be mainly for record-keeping.
After a brief hiatus to celebrate the holidays away from keeping up with all of this so directly, the weekly update returns with some quick review of the past little bit of time.
Since around 20 December, a lot has happened:
Updates on the Rittenhouse trial
Charges against a former III% leader
III% group indicates they potentially plan to storm capitol building
CA police officer under scrutiny over right-wing bumper stickers
Happy Winter Solstice and (almost) Merry Christmas! This will be the final weekly update for 2020, so Happy New Year, too. Keeping this one a bit minimal, especially as the updates remain a little light this week. Just an update on the Michigan kidnapping case and a couple of readings from around the web.
A day late here (sorry), but here’s a quick weekly update on the militia world for the week proceeding our current. It includes a conviction for a 2017 militia’s bombing of a mosque, threats against GOP officials in Georgia, a fight in a parking garage in Atlanta, and a few articles to peruse on the Oath Keepers.
After a two-week hiatus from weekly updates focusing on some election-related work, a return for the fourth MW weekly news round-up. It’s a long one this week. Here’s the weekly(ish) update for 16 November 2020.
In the third MW weekly news round-up, a roundup of coverage of MilitiaWatch/ACLED’s election violence report, updates on last week’s stories, and some new stories from the week. These new happenings are then related to reading within the MW archives and around the web. Here’s the weekly(ish) update for 26 October 2020.
Norm Olsen, of the notorious Michigan Militia, denounced the Wolverine Watchmen militia’s plot
Olsen now lives in Alaska and started a new, non-Michigan project there years ago. However, he did tell journalists that he was sympathetic to anger against Wolverine Watchmen militia’s target, Michigan Governor Whitmer.
The American Patriot Council, an off-shoot from Michigan re-open protests taken national, looked to hold a 40-location national “Freedom March” series of rallies,
(instead, they held fewer than a dozen)
Ryan Santistevan wrote up a good brief on the organization, available here.
Our report, drawn from data from the past five months, the literature on elections violence, and analysis based on knowledge of right-wing networked violence, we identified five high-risk states and five moderate-risk states. Read the report on ACLED’s site, here. Militia groups covered in the report include the III%, covered extensively here. (Please indulge for a moment, MW rarely gets this sort of coverage)
NPR did a profile of Idaho III%er and GOP State Senate candidate, Eric Parker. Parker was kicked off of Facebook during the summer purges and was highly involved in Bundy Ranch organizing.
Michigan sheriffs/police have indicated they will refuse to enforce bans on guns at polling places this season, despite the alleged planned kidnapping of Michigan’s governor.
In the second MW weekly news round-up, some updates on last week’s stories and some updates on some much older stories, too. These new happenings are then related to reading within the MW archives and around the web. Here’s the weekly(ish) update for 19 October 2020.