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The Militia Movement From Ruby Ridge to Y2K
The militia movement is a right-wing movement that arose following controversial standoffs in the 1990s. It inherited paramilitary traditions of earlier groups, especially the conspiratorial, antigovernment Posse Comitatus. The militia movement claims that militia groups are sanctioned by law but uncontrolled by government; in fact, they are designed to oppose a tyrannical government. Adherents believe that behind the "tyranny" is a left-wing, globalist conspiracy known as the New World Order The movement's ideology has led some adherents to commit criminal acts, including stockpiling illegal weapons and explosives and plotting to destroy buildings or assassinate public officials, as well as lesser confrontations.
In December 1999, as the year, century, and millennium all wound to a close, police came to arrest Donald Beauregard, the manager of a Hickory Farms store in the Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg, Florida. Beauregard had done nothing to offend holiday shoppers; instead, he had been indicted by a federal grand jury on serious charges related to his other role. Beauregard was a person of prominence in the militia movement, both locally and nationally, having served for some 3 years as a leader of the Southeastern States Alliance, a militia umbrella group (Dougherty, 1999).
Beauregard, the indictment claimed, along with unnamed others, had identified various targets he wanted to destroy, including a nuclear power plant and other utilities, as well law enforcement offices. Beauregard tinkered with explosives and planned to break into a National Guard armory to steal weapons and explosives. He also plotted to kill another militia member whom he thought was an informant (Dougherty, 1999; Zitrin, 1999).
Although citizens of central Florida were alarmed (Minai, 1999), members of the militia movement were outraged. "He's a patriot," said a Michigan militia leader, Dave Rydel (St. Petersburg Times, December 10, 1999). Shortwave broadcaster and militia leader Mark Koernke, also of Michigan, warned militia members not to cooperate with law enforcement officers, claiming that they had declared war against the American people. He cautioned everybody to keep weapons at hand: "Don't be scared, be prepared" (SLATT Program Archives, December 13-14, 1999). He also lamented the fact that nobody had come to the aid of militia members recently arrested in several states. "We all...