‘WE’RE NOT RACISTS’
Private militias bring uncertainty and weapons to protests
Some of the starkest images from the recent violent unrest in Charlottesville, Va., were those of camouflage-clad men carrying semiautomatic rifles, wedged between white nationalists and counterprotesters.
They weren’t police or National Guardsmen. They were part of a patchwork of private militia groups from Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and other states. The armed members said they were there to keep the peace and were not affiliated with any side — and their numbers at street protests are growing.
Militia participation in the USA is at an all-time high, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“We’re not racists,” said Christian Yingling, head of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, who commanded the militia members at the Charlottesville rally. “I was there to ensure that — even though I disagree with both sides — they have a right to say what they want.”
As tense protests between farright and left-wing groups continue to spread throughout the USA, private armed militias are increasingly stepping into the fray, sometimes as neutral peacekeepers — as in Charlottesville — other times firmly on the side of right-wing agitators.
This month, members of the This Is Texas Freedom Force militia showed up to protect a Confederate statue in San Antonio during a protest between those who wanted to tear it down and others who wished to maintain it.
In April, members of the Oath Keepers militia traveled to Berkeley, Calif., to protect rightwing activists from counterprotesters. “I don’t mind hitting ” the counterdemonstrators, Stewart Rhodes, the group’s founder, told the Los Angeles Times. “In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.”
Militia participation in the USA is at an all-time high as hundreds of groups claim thousands of members across the country, said Mark Pitcavage of the AntiDefamation League, which monitors extremist groups.
The groups began forming in the mid-1990s, spurred by strict- er federal gun laws under President Clinton and the federal siege of the Branch Davidians compound in 1993 in Waco, Texas, Pitcavage said. President Obama’s election in 2008 brought a surge of more militias, many of whom feared the federal government would seize their weapons, and the groups further multiplied after the advent of social media, Pitcavage said.
Militias tend to be heavily armed and highly suspicious of the federal government. Some on the fringes have planned largescale attacks against government and other targets.
The election of President Trump — whom many militia members backed — caused a conundrum among their ranks: They could no longer oppose a government led by the man they supported for president, Pitcavage said. So many militia members turned to a new enemy: the “antifa,” a loose network of leftleaning activists who oppose — at times violently — white supremacists and right-wing groups. As the antifa movement (short for “anti-fascist”) shows up to the protests, so do the militias.
“They’re an ideological private army, not beholden to any authority,” Pitcavage said of the militias. “They’re extremely dangerous.”
Yingling, 45, said he got into militias about eight years ago. A Navy veteran, he was depressed and spiraling into a lifestyle of drinking and partying.
Militias turned his life around, he said. “I needed that structure back, and the militia gave it to me,” said Yingling, a machinist by trade.
Trump’s election has emboldened many militia members, he said.
“A lot more people in this community are more willing to step out of the shadows,” he said.