MilitiaWatchThe III% movement is a far-right national brand of militias based on the ahistorical notion that only 3% of the US colonists fought against the British in the American Revolution. Like the Oath Keepers, the III% movement was founded in 2009 in reaction to Barack Obama’s 2008 electoral victory. The group is insurrectionary in nature but engaged in paramilitary activity during the Trump years when the action was against their claimed political adversaries–BLM, ‘antifa’, communists, etc. The movement is highly prone to splintering, coverage of which is a fixture of MW writing.
Below, you will find all MilitiaWatch articles mentioning the brand of militias.
Another Monday, another weekly update. Here’s a glimpse at what’s covered in this brief piece:
This article follows up a previous MilitiaWatch article on the use of Zello, a free walkie-talkie app, by the US-based armed far-right, including aggressive activists working in support of former president Donald Trump. That article with visualizations is available here:
Since that article, further investigation of right-wing militant groups’ use of Zello resulted in the direct recording of it being used at the 6 January storming of the US Capitol Building. This was then published in The Guardian. As references in that article, a list of over 800 channels was sent to Zello with a request for comment. Zello subsequently announced that they had banned 2000 militia-related channels, though they described groups’ use of the platform as “social media vanity messaging”. An On the media podcast covering this can be listened to at this link.
Chag sameach to those observing and happy Holi to those celebrating! Here’s a weekly round-up that’s a bit shorter than the last few weeks. This one covers the following:
MilitiaWatch would like to extend our deepest condolences to the friends, family, and communities impacted by the brutal attacks on Atlanta-area spas this past week. It’s an absolute tragedy and our hearts ache for those impacted.
This week, the update features the following and more:
This week, more developments covered in the update, including:
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:
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:
Georgia, like many other US states, is awash with militia groups. This can be measured by the presence of those who represent larger coalitions nationwide like the Georgia Security Force III%, the regional or nationwide calls-to-action around armed right-wing activism such as the 15 August Stone Mountain event, as well as a continuing comradery between right-wing politicians and our sizeable militia field here. In this piece, we explore relationships between a candidate for higher office and local right-wing movements and militia groups.
This piece is intended as a piece to go alongside Micah Loewinger’s co-created On the Media/MilitiaWatch radio piece covering Zello. In the radio piece, you will hear in their own voices some of the militia groups referenced in this visual article intended to accompany and expand upon that piece. You will also hear some discussion about the app’s leadership and PR response to our investigation.
Next, it is important to note that this visual accompaniment is intended only as a first look into these networks on Zello. More data work is being completed to follow this article and the audio piece it accompanies.
Micah Loewinger has experience with Zello and militia organizing directly, as he reported from a ‘command station’ for Virginia’s 20 January anti-gun regulation rally. This station, as Micah reports in the piece here, was manned by AJ Andrews of the National Patriots Coalition III% (NPC III%), a country-wide movement.
MilitiaWatch has been covering the Three Percent movement for nearly 4 years now. In that time, splinter, disintegration, and reintegration events have been plentiful as a field of highly competitive and extremely opinionated armed folks vie for influence and authority in outbursts that punctuate the seasons’ passing. A new shattering of the III% movement has led to new realignments amidst a season of great turmoil and action.