The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Law enforcement, military ties among rioters rattle officials
‘Incredibly disturbing trend,’ notes ex-dean of Army War College.
An Air Force veteran from Southern California and ardent conspiracy theorist bent on war against the government. An Army psychological operations officer at Ft. Bragg, N.C. A decorated, retired Air Force officer of 18 years from Texas who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attracted a variety of far-right extremists who shared a devotion to President Donald Trump and his insistence on a false belief the November election had been stolen from him through fraud.
Many rioters also had something else in common: They were ex-members of the military and police or actively employed by the armed services and law enforcement.
“It’s an incredibly disturbing trend,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey D. McCausland, a professor of national security at Dickinson College and former dean at the U.S. Army War College. “These are people who are supposed to uphold the Constitution and the law, yet they were doing the exact opposite.”
Since the Capitol attack, which left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer and an Air Force veteran turned QAnon extremist, law e nforcement authorities, journalists and amateur internet sleuths have scoured images, videos and arrest reports to identify those who were in the crowd.
The participants included members of the Oath Keepers, which recruits from former police and veterans, and Three Percenters, who wear patches and carry flags with the Roman numeral III. Photos show that another anti-government group, the Boogaloo Bois, was also in D.C.
The military and law enforcement ties among some rioters rattled U.S. officials ahead of more possible violence.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff this week issued a memo to the military condemning the attack as “a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building and our Constitutional process.”
The Joint Chiefs, made up of the eight top branch generals, told service members their jobs were to “support and defend the Constitution. Any act to disrupt the Constitutional process is not only against our traditions, values and oath; it is against the law.”
The letter was addressed to the joint force, which covers the 1.3 million active-duty service members. It also includes 811,000 National Guard members and reservists.
Thousands of people took part in the violent insurrection at the Capitol as Congress certified electoral college votes confirming the November election victory for President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office Wednesday. Federal officials have pressed dozens of criminal charges and said they will file more.
One flier shared in rightwing message threads on social media after the Capitol attack instructs Trump supporters to “come armed” in front of legislative houses today, saying, “When democracy is destroyed, refuse to be silenced.”
Those calls for action have grown after the U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-197 on Wednesday to impeach Trump for the second time.
People associated with the right-wing groups “are like dogs backed into a corner and have no option but to fight,” said Joe Biggs, an Army veteran and Florida-based organizer for the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group that counts white supremacists among its members and encourages violence.
Biggs was in Washington on Jan. 6, but he said he did not enter the Capitol and planned to avoid weekend rallies. But the military and police training shared by many on the far-right present a dangerous dilemma for law enforcement seeking to quell riots and protests, especially since many followers invoke the Revolutionary War and see themselves as patriots.
“We take three months to plan an event,” Biggs said on a podcast last month. “It’s like, you’re literally planning to go into a combat zone. It’s not just like, ‘Hey man, we’re going to D.C., we’re going to Portland.’ It’s like: ‘All right, we’re going to Portland. I need satellite imagery. I need to talk to people on the ground. I need them to scout out these alleyways… when we have an escape route, we have four or five ways in and out, in case police close things off or whatever.’”
Those in the Washington mob included 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran from San Diego whom police shot dead as she was among rioters forcing their way through the Capitol.
Another retired member of the Air Force, Larry Rendall Brock Jr., was arrested Sunday in Texas and charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct after photographs showed him on the Senate floor in a military-style helmet, black-and-green camouflage vest and tactical vest while holding zip-tie handcuffs.
Video on social media showed 45-year-old Adam Newbold, who the Navy confirmed as a retired Navy SEAL, saying how proud he was of what happened in the nation’s capital. He posted the video from a car as he returned to Lisbon, Ohio.
Police officers from Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington state, and the police chief of Troy, N.H., were in Washington on Jan. 6, as was a firefighter from Sanford, Fla. On Wednesday, federal officials arrested and charged two Rocky Mount, Va., officers with unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct.
In the attack’s aftermath, researchers and federal investigators have raised questions about how and why so many of those sworn to uphold the Constitution have become involved with dangerous extremist groups.
Kurt Braddock, a professor at American University who has written extensively on extremist groups, said that in recent years greater numbers of ex-military and law enforcement are becoming involved with such groups, which he said provide “a sense of identity and direction.”
“Their past experiences were almost entirely based on being part of a collective unit designed to protect something. The propaganda of the far-right makes this same promise — that you can find brotherhood and belonging in a group with a purpose,” Braddock said.
The history of extremism, law enforcement and the military goes deep in America.
Former Confederate officers founded the Ku Klux Klan in the 19th century. In the 1970s, the Klan operated openly at Camp Pendleton. In 1995, Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security apologized to veterans groups after releasing a controversial report that said extreme right-wing groups could be recruiting from disgruntled veterans who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Civil rights groups have since criticized screening measures in the military that do not outright ban white supremacists.
“Mere membership in a white supremacist group is not prohibited,” deputy director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Robert Grabosky said at a February hearing of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee.
Some militias recruit specifically among veterans and ex-police.
At least 13 off-duty law enforcement officials are suspected of taking part in the riot, a tally that could grow as investigators continue to pore over video and records to identify participants. In some cases, police leaders are turning in their own to the FBI and taking the striking step of reminding officers in their departments that criminal misconduct could push them off the force and behind bars.
Police unions and policing groups backed Trump in the 2020 election, with the head of the National Association of Police Organizations last summer deeming him “the most pro-law enforcement president we’ve ever had.”
However, union leaders said they are shocked by how some of their members appeared to cross the line at the Capitol. They also said officers who breached the Capitol should not expect their union’s support in their legal battles. “We took an oath to protect the constitution and the rule of law,” said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “When people decide they are going to violate that — they are alone.”