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Updates

Weekly: 3 May 21


This weekly update features some of the following:

  • Formations of a few militia groups in CA and elsewhere
  • Boogaloo adherent and defense contractor charged in TX and NM
  • Wolverine Watchmen planned to blow up a commuter bridge
  • Georgia cop outed as Nazi leader, arrested with 11 illegal guns
  • Ammo shortages impacting militia training

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Updates

Weekly: 19 April 21


Another Monday, another weekly update. Here’s a glimpse at what’s covered in this brief piece:

  • An OK founder pleads guilty; the QRF looks more material
  • III% adherents assault interracial couples for second time in three weeks in SC
  • Wolverine Watchmen brothers removed from house arrest

Categories
Updates

Weekly (x2) : 12 Apr 21


After a hiatus last week, we catch up with two weeks’ worth of weekly updates, including the following:

  • Texas MyMilitia poster plotted to blow up an Amazon data center
  • California Boogaloo adherents arrested for destroying evidence
  • Another Proud Boys leader revealed as a Fed
  • APC founder announces run for Michigan governor
  • III% members assault SC couple at gunpoint
  • Mother of Kyle Rittenhouse calls for audit of funds raised by Lin Wood

Categories
Updates

Weekly: 22 Mar 21


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:

  • Ammon Bundy spends night in jail for missing court date due to refusal to don mask
  • Texas III% member arrested in connection to J6 planned to use LLC to purchase weapons for militia group
  • Michigan militia was prepared to engage police or feds in combat, informant details
  • ODNI releases ridiculous ‘terror’ risk report

Categories
Updates

Weekly: 15 Mar 21


Beware the Ides of March! This week, we dive into some of the news about the following:

  • Neo-Nazi arrested on illegal possession of a firearm, seems to think old crimes don’t count
  • Wolverines informant says he got involved via Facebook
  • DOJ charges to soon target Oath Keepers more aggressively
  • Bundy hints at equating mask mandate protests to a revolutionary struggle

Categories
Updates

Weekly: 1 Feb 2021


This week, more developments covered in the update, including:

  • Updates on Capitol Police response to J6, regarding both preparation and individual response
  • III% caught with pipe bombs, texting friend planning to use them against “Twitter or the democrats”
  • Wolverine Watchmen member plans to cooperate with Feds
  • Kansas III% members lose appeal in bomb plot
  • GOP member links to militias continue to be unearthed
  • DHS bulletin indicative of new trajectory?

Categories
Updates

Weekly: 11 Jan 2021


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.


Categories
Updates

Weekly Update: 21 December 2020


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.


Categories
Updates

Weekly Update: 16 Nov 2020


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.


Categories
Updates

Weekly Update: 26 Oct 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.


MilitiaWatch + ACLED release risk assessment report

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)

The report has been covered, for example in:
Local outlets, including:

Other stories:

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.