Here’s another weekly update from MilitiaWatch, covering some of the following:
- Minnesota Boogaloo Boy joins comrade, pleads guilty to terror charges
- Wisconsin man charged with terrorism for Wolverine plot involvement
- Georgia Stone Mountain participant charged for role in J6
- 6th state this year passes “2A Sanctuary” legislation
Michael Solomon, of Minnesota, is the second of two Boogaloo adherents to plead guilty to federal terrorism charges related to their activities in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. He and Benjamin Teeter, of North Carolina, participated in armed patrols around Minneapolis before talking to undercover informants who claimed to be members of Hamas. Teeter pleaded guilty late last year.
Brian Higgins, a Wisconsin man charged in association with the alleged Michigan kidnapping plot, was arraigned last week. He was charged with one count of providing material support to an act of terrorism and his bail was set at $100,000.
Glen Mitchell Simon, of Georgia, is one of the newest charged related to the J6 storming of the US Capitol Building. Simon was also an attendee at the August 2020 neo-confederate/militia rally in Stone Mountain (covered by MilitiaWatch here). He has also said that he has traveled to several other states since summer 2020 to counter-demonstrate against BLM protests.
Christopher Worrell, a Proud Boys member charged in J6, was denied a request to be released from custody. Evidence in his trial includes footage of him spraying pepper spray at police as part of the J6 storming. He also attended November Million MAGA March events in DC, during which he professed his expertise about ice cream sandwiches. Part of Worrell’s request to be released was because he said his DC jurors ‘voted almost unanimously against Donald Trump’.
Oklahoma became the sixth state this year to ratify a bill making the state a “Second Amendment Sanctuary”, allowing it to claim it supersedes the federal government regarding gun restrictions. Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, and West Virginia all passed similar legislation in April of this year. Prior to 2021, other states also passed similar laws at the state level: Alaska (July 2010), Idaho (March 2014), Kansas (April 2013), and Wyoming (March 2010). More counties throughout the country have also passed similar bills at a county or local level, and it’s unclear if any of these will technically hold up in court. Republicans in Texas indicate that a seventh state is considering a similar approach, too.
The Biden administration has been weighing several new policy initiatives regarding the far-right in the US. One potential put forward is particularly Kafkaesque – contracting private intelligence firms to surveil these groups. This would appear to be intended to smooth over a technicality that blocks the DHS from legally monitoring US residents. Some of this is likely related to pushes that are exemplified by this week’s Senate questions against the FBI for failing to stop the J6 breach. This is part of a larger package that does mark a shift from Trump, but it is yet unclear how legal or effective it truly may be. Given new knowledge about the White House ordering the phone records of Washington Post reporters surfaced this past week, setting precedent like this could mean further surveillance of other political adversaries during or after Biden’s term.
Further reading:
- On Oath Keepers’ sketchy finance set-up (BuzzFeed)
- On Carlos Zapata’s 9+ months of threats and violence at critics (anewscafe)