Oathkeepers in Ferguson, MO
When the OathKeepers first started forming up in 2008, I thought that they might be useful. I entertained thoughts about joining them. Being a cautious person, I sat back and watched them and read their website and forum for weeks before I arrived at the conclusion that they’re all a little nutty. I’ll keep my oath of enlistment without membership in that organization, thank you. Then I was a little insulted – they act like they’re the only people on the planet keeping their oath. Like Veterans for Peace act as if they’re the only veterans who want peace.
We did internet battle with them when they published an anti-military screed written by a member of the IVAW on their website. During that exchange, their founder, Stuart Rhodes, admitted that he was supporting IVAW member Adam Kokesh who was running for Congress that year. Stuart Rhodes, by the way was one of Ron Paul’s Congressional staff members before he founded the organization. In the last few weeks, some anonymous fellow who calls himself Oathkeeper, is trying to get me to retract the post we did on “Gil” Gilbertson, the former sheriff, by sending me a bunch of irrelevant BS paperwork. This fellow won’t identify himself to me, so he can go screw.
Anyway, the Oathkeepers are injecting themselves into the mess in Ferguson as if there aren’t enough mentally defective people there already. The picture above came from the Washington Post and is supposed to be an Oathkeeper perched on a roof somewhere with his scary black guns.
The St Louis Post Dispatch says the police have asked the Oathkeepers to get off of their roofs;
Police questioned group members early in the week and allowed them to stay. But Saturday, after media inquiries, St. Louis County police officers ordered the Oath Keepers to leave the rooftops.
Threatened with arrest for operating without a license, the volunteers argued but eventually left their positions early Saturday, Rhodes said.
“We are going to go back as protesters,” Rhodes said Saturday afternoon.
Rhodes, who said he is Mexican-American, stressed that Oath Keepers is not anti-government. He said the volunteers handling rooftop security in Ferguson were current or former government employees and first responders, many who have intense military, police and EMS training.
Yeah, there are many, many pretenders in Oath Keepers. They don’t check on their membership’s credentials, so you can tell them that you have “intense” training and they’ll take your word for it. Stuart Rhodes started a rumor that the feds had ordered drone strikes on the Bundy Ranch last year. They’re fans of Alex Jones and they’re rife with “truthers”. I certainly wouldn’t want one of them on my roof with a stack of firearms. At least I know what to expect from the protesters.
By the way, the New York Times reports that now that the Oath Keepers can’t park themselves on the roofs of Ferguson, they’ve decided that they’re going to join the protesters;
But on Saturday, with the county police said to be threatening the Oath Keepers with arrest, the volunteers decided to abandon their posts and instead protest against the authorities. During the evening, Mr. Andrews and some of his colleagues appeared on South Florissant Road, conducting a protest of their own. They ate pizza and stood beneath a handmade sign critical of Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County police.
So what oath is it that they’re keeping?
Category: Oath Keepers
Mexican-American? Okaaaaaay …..
I remember when they first started up their online presence, and how quickly it became apparent that it was acting as a bug light for the conspiracy nuts and posers. There are probably a few there who are sane and honest about who they are, but overall the impression has been that they are more nuts than not.
ANALYSIS:
Goateed dude wearing after-market BDU, with scoped out AR variant, a just in case Mossberg 500 (with attachments) and a very angry look.
CONCLUSION:
Dick!
EASY MCPO, he COULD be a high-ranking member of some Trailer Court M’litia that has a lifetime subscription to “Soldier of Fortune” magazine!! /sarc
Yeah.
Good in theory. But too many kooks just don’t know what they are doing.
I think it might be good to keep in mind that we’re in the pot we’re in, as it simmers to a full boil, because of reasonable people being reasonable in their consistently failed attempts to push back against the destructionists.
Actually, we passed the point of reasonable being of any hope at all a couple decades ago.
Rooftops?
Oh, I get it: birds of a feather flock together. They unconsciously provided the media of a symbol of their profoundly deep and erratic behavior.
When that didn’t work, they ate pizza in protest.
It’s winter. Should we get out the water cannons now?
Okay, so they show up to “protect” the businesses from the protesters but get their pee-pees whacked and decide to join the protesters instead.
Yep-nothing says “committed to a cause” like switching sides when you don’t get your way.
The stupid is getting stronger in that town!
Yeah, I remember when they started up and it became obvious that their ‘leader’ was just an attention whore looking for a platform.
Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.
How is anything in Ferguson being looted/burned/destroyed when these guys are providing top cover and Delta is on the ground there? We need answers, or maybe it’s all a bunch of bullshit?
Protecting whom?
Were they intent on shooting people for looting?
That would put them in the same category as the KKK…..as they also threatened to shoot protesters looting businesses. Indeed Jonn you were wise to use caution when monitoring these fools who appear as considerate and careful as the looters.
Last time I checked the criminal penalties for looting didn’t involve the death penalty even though Missouri has an interesting “castle doctrine” law that applies to property beyond your home to include business leased or owned properties…
Actually, VOV – I see no essential difference between a looter and a mugger. Both are nothing but low-life, strong-arm thieves. One targets people; the other targets places of business.
If someone engaging in either mugging or looting gets an unsanitary high-speed lead injection and ends up doing the big dirtnap, I’ll shed no tears.
If you are protecting the business and are there while it happens to be sure we are on the same page.
However, shooting people from the rooftops is hardly the same as protecting an occupied business. I think you know my stance on killing criminals, were it in my power to control such things there would only be minimum security prisons as anyone needing a higher level of security would be executed. Our laws do not allow for such an interpretation however and we currently do not punish robbery of unoccupied businesses with the death penalty, even in Missouri. That’s where the logic of these people comes apart for me. Were the business owners to ask them to station themselves inside the business and protect it I believe the law is on their side and would allow lethal force in Missouri according to the updated self-defense laws of 2010 in Missouri.
Sniping from a rooftop doesn’t actually fit the requirements of that law however.
VOV…I agree. However much I dislike looters, deadly force within my own home or business is one thing. Outside agitators, which is what they are and no more, killing from the rooftop of a business they have no investment in, is in my mind murder, plain and simple. No different from the New Black Panthers trying to make and use pipe bombs in my observations of the outside factions showing up in Ferguson for their “piece of the fame pie”.
But…but…That’s where those Operational Detachment Delta Force Sniper Unit guys are at their best.
VOV, Sparks: legally, the two of you are correct. And vigilante justice is not behavior I’d advocate or engage in personally.
However, even in that case I’d shed no tears. I have no use for street thugs, whether they be looters or muggers. If they end up dead . . .
“Well . . . bye.”
I’m not crying over the spilt blood of turds either….but these kinds of “oath” keepers stretch the word vigilante as well…
Their own words identify them as to their motives and their conspiracy buff status. Consequently I would be suspicious of most of their motivation for any action they are associated with performing supposedly on our behalf.
No argument that at least some of the Oathkeepers are idiots, VOV.
My point is that the Oathkeeper issue and the looter/mugger issue are two different things. And even stopped clocks give the correct time 2x daily.
Hondo…While I stand by my post, I do agree with you that I shed NO tears and have NO sympathy for the families of thugs, looters, etc. when they assume room temperature…however that comes about. I do believe it should be a “clean shoot” though and not done by clowns such as these ass holes from rooftops. You gave an example of one of them being “invited” into a business to provide protection. As long as they are legally carrying, then I have no problem with them aerating a thug under those circumstances. I just hope the business owners either defend themselves or have the sense to hire a “professional” security service and not these types of tools.
Why is his EOTech so far forward? Is that some new HSLD SEAL, Green Beret, PJ/Delta technique that I need for next round of “intense”training?
With “protection” like that, Ferguson doesn’t need protesters.
“So what oath is it that they’re keeping?” My question as well. I can only imagine the oath they proclaim to be keeping is their own made up oath of “get our 15 minutes of fame, anyway, anywhere we can. “What do we stand for? Well…it depends. If we getting our little way about things, then we’re keeping our oath as veterans. If we don’t, then we’re keeping a new oath with the protestors against, “da man”. Caveat to potential new members…Our oaths may vary from day to day and depend on whether and how bad we feel we are butthurt by any given situation. In the case of Ferguson, the local police embarrassed and butthurt us badly, so we’re all for little Michael Brown now.”
My guess is the only training this yahoo had had is in COD. What good does a shotgun do on a rooftop? Oh, except make you think you look cool to the COD crowd.
What good does a shotgun do? Depends on the application. You want someone losing an appendage within 100 yds? Then put a 12 ga. rifled slug in that bad boy and let er rip. Only makes sense to use that, because if they’re further down the street than 100 yds, then your argument about protecting something close by you goes right out the window.
No need for these chuckleheads to be on rooftops to begin with. You want to keep them from looting, then you best be down on the ground floor TCB face to face.
Like this: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/29/Black-Ferguson-Residents-Armed-With-AR-15s-Save-White-Owned-Business
As several of us have previously articulated, were it our roof, wouldn’t make an iota of dif whether it’s a so-called oathkeeper or black panther stumbling around on my roof. They have no right to be there. Period. End of story.
It’s twits like this that give the neckbeards of the left a little bit of joy. These oath keeping fools validate all the left wing comments about how the anti-government right is full of racist, bitter clinging religious and gun nuts that hate all minorities and don’t believe in America.
The reality is these folks are nutters (just like the occupy folks) who are doing more damage to honest debate about size, role, function and effective government.
When I read what the author, John Lilyea, wrote in this article today, “…as if there aren’t mentally defective people there already.”, I just about fell out of my chair. Jesus, that was a good one! LMAO!!
correction: “…as if there aren’t ENOUGH mentally defective people there already.”
We’re missing a golden opportunity here, folks.
We’ve got a pretty good assortment of shitbags, dickheads, and all-around fucksticks concentrated in a couple square miles.
Give the cops and innocent civilians a few minutes warning, then take off, and nuke the entire site from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure.
Meanwhile, just up the road from Ferguson, three black teenagers beat a white guy to death with hammers.
Mmmmm, where’s the news weenies and oath keepers and Jesse Jacksons now?
The hypocrisy on display is almost laughable, were it not such a human tragedy all around. If any of the opportunists were actually interested in the violent deaths of teenagers they would look where those deaths are rampant. Others have pointed at Chicago, for instance.
Ran into this website recently. Some very interesting statistics presented in a rather unusual way, but maybe not fit for some of our more tender eyes. Or work, maybe.
http://heyjackass.com/
Don’t know these folks and have not checked the accuracy of the shocking numbers.