A Look Inside an Anti-Government Militia

POLICY REPORT The Three Percenters: A Look Inside an Anti-Government Militia February 2021 rev.051021 The Three Percenters: A Look Inside an Anti-Government Militia By Alejandro J. Beutel and Daryl Johnson Contents Executive Summary � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3 Forecast � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13 Introduction � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 4 Policy Recommendations � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 14 The Contemporary U�S� Far Right, the Anti- Conclusion � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 21 Government Movement and ‘Militias’ � � � � � � � � � � � � � 5 Appendix A: Beyond “Militias” – A Broader Snapshot A Brief Typology of the U.S. Far-Right Milieu and U.S. of the U�S� Far-Right Anti-government Movement � � 22 Anti-Government Movement . 5 Faith-Based Categories �� 23 The Contemporary U.S. ‘Militia’ Movement ��6 Non-Faith-Based Categories . 23 Rise of the ‘Three Percenters’ � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 7 Appendix B: Analyzing and Categorizing the Use of Historical Narratives and Imagery . 8 NSGP Funds � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 23 Movement Activities ��8 Endnotes � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 24 Incorporating Anti-Muslim Hate into Anti-Government Extremist Narratives and Target Sets � � � � � � � � � � � � � 9 COVER PHOTO: A “Three Percenter” patch is seen at a rally at Delta Park in Portland, Oregon in September 2020. (MARANIE R. STAAB/Getty Images) 2 February 2021 Executive Summary ■ The U.S. far-right milieu is not monolithic. It can be divided into at least five sections: racist extremism, namely white nationalism/supremacy; anti-government extremism; nativist extremism; anti-abortion extremism; and male supremacy. ■ The anti-government movement, which is the most relevant to this brief, can be categorized into six further sub-sections: militias, tax protesters, sovereign citizens, National Guard soldiers secure the U.S. Capitol grounds on Feb. 8, 2021 in preparation for Congressional hearings for the impeachment of former constitutional sheriffs, far-right President Donald Trump. The Three Percenters movement has been linked segments of survivalist or to the Capitol riots that fueled the impeachment process. “prepper” communities, and (TASOS KATOPODIS/Getty Images) conspiracy propagandists. Lives Matter, George Soros, ■ Second, before proposing ■ The Three Percenter Muslims, and others). additional federal domestic movement is a subset of the terrorism statutes related larger far-right anti-government ■ Like other anti-government to penalty enhancements, militia movement, organized extremists, Three Percenters frame their activities – including officials must rigorously enforce primarily around intense fear paramilitary, firearms, and and loathing of the U.S. federal existing federal and state legal other weapons/survival government. Although fixated prosecuting authorities and training – in defensive terms. on the federal government, carefully study their effects. Nevertheless, the movement’s anti-government extremists ■ Third, enhance physical supporters have engaged in use coded rhetoric that also armed confrontations with law security for nonprofits and expresses anxiety toward enforcement and engaged in places of worship that are historically disenfranchised planned violence against various often the object of fixation racial/ethnic/religious minorities. targets, including American and/or targeted violence by Their ideology and narratives Muslim faith-based institutions. anti-government extremists, are malleable enough to identify including Three Percenters. additional perceived enemies, Policy Recommendations including Muslims. They ■ Fourth, we reiterate and reemphasize our call that law also often attempt to portray ■ First, increase public themselves as armed protectors awareness and understanding enforcement, military, and of the U.S. Constitution of the potential threats Three intelligence community leaders against tyrants-in-waiting Percenters and the broader U.S. need to implement stricter (the U.S. federal government) far right pose, in terms of their measures and policies to purge and various collaborators associated extremism, hate, and militia members and extremists (anti-fascists [“antifa”], Black violence, to local communities. from their ranks. 3 February 2021 Weapons lean on a panel during military-style drills of the III% Georgia Security Force in Flovilla, Ga. in November 2016. The militia calls itself the Georgia Security Forces (GSF). The group is part of the Three Percenters movement. (MOHAMMED ELSHAMY / Getty Images) Introduction included adherents of a dozen other groups traditionally targeted different far right extremist by far-right actors, Muslims The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol groups and movements.1 Among tend to be understudied.2 Yet in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, them were supporters of the the growing importance of 2021, is the latest in a string of Three Percenters, a subset of anti-Muslim hate on the far right events shining a spotlight on the the broader anti-government must not be overlooked. Unlike dangers of far-right extremism militia landscape. This publication more traditionally recognized and its propensity for violence. provides background and analysis motivations, anti-Muslim hate is Thousands of devout followers of on who they are, what they believe, one of the few issues that brings former President Donald Trump the types of challenges and violent together otherwise disparate answered his call to assemble threats some adherents pose, and and fractious elements of the near the White House and march policy recommendations on how to far-right, both within3 and beyond to the U.S. Capitol to contest the mitigate for the risks they pose. national borders.4 false claims of a “stolen election” and unsubstantiated allegations of Some may wonder why we chose Moreover, for analysts interested rampant “voter fraud.” to examine anti-Muslim animus in in forecasting trends, closely the context of a publication about watching dynamics of anti-Muslim Using the rally as cover, more the Three Percenter movement. prejudice may hold insights for extreme elements of the crowd In recent years, the expression future developments on the far came prepared to enact violence of prejudice toward Muslims right. Starting in the late 1970s and and insurrection. According has become a key feature of early 1980s, far-right actors began to academic researchers and various far-right movements to pivot their focus from pseudo- watchdog advocates, they around the world. Relative to scientific biological distinctions 4 February 2021 toward greater emphasis on socio- the Three Percenter movement in perspectives has been described cultural differences – what some particular, the intent is to add our by at least one scholar as researchers have called “biological voices to the growing chorus of “conceptual chaos.”8 racism” versus “cultural racism,” researchers providing policymakers respectively.5 In turn, this has with a sober, but urgent analysis of These issues notwithstanding, coincided with shifts in ideology, far-right violence and extremism to set the wider context of this rhetoric, and violent targeting challenging our nation. brief’s topic we categorize the U.S. preferences. Muslims now reside far right as an umbrella political in far-right actors’ expanding target The Contemporary U.S. Far milieu divided into at least five 9 set and are increasingly confronted Right, the Anti-Government types: racist extremism, namely by various forms of ideologically white nationalism/supremacy; motivated violence.6 This ranges Movement and ‘Militias’ anti-government extremism (also from sporadic hate crimes to sometimes called the “Patriot” planned mass casualty incidents A Brief Typology of the U.S. movement), which is animated at Utoya Island and Oslo, Norway Far-Right Milieu and U.S. by intense fear and loathing of (2011), Quebec City, Canada (2017), Anti-Government Movement the federal government rather Christchurch, New Zealand (2019) than racial/ethnic/religious and Hanau, Germany (2020). Many researchers have attempted hatred, per se; nativist extremism, to define and categorize what characterized by anti-immigrant As we will discuss further in this constitutes the contemporary and anti-Muslim sentiments; publication, these shifts have also American “far right,” leading to anti-abortion extremism, which occurred in the United States. different definitions and typologies, advocates for and condones Although the focus here is on each with their own strengths unlawful violence against abortion anti-government extremism, and and limitations.7 This plethora of providers; and male supremacists, 5 February 2021 who believe women are innately The Contemporary see as the armed protection of physically, intellectually, and/ U.S. ‘Militia’ Movement constitutional rights against an or morally inferior to men due NWO-type threat. Therefore, in to biology, which justifies their According to Arie Perliger, line with their tradition of civil advocacy for oppression of women. professor at the University of activism (see below), they tend Massachusetts Lowell,12 the militia to vehemently oppose laws and The anti-government movement movement is concerned with three regulations

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