Militia member calls new SPLC watch list unfounded


Gina Redmond, Reporting
Lynne Jones, Producer
Jamey Bryan & Mike Dodd, Photographers
Jamey Bryan, Editor

Updated: March 4, 2010


BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Shocking new numbers represent the growth of extremist right-wing organizations across the U.S.

On March 2, 1010, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, released its findings on these so-called radical groups.

The SPLC says hate groups remained at record levels in 2009.

Anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by 80%.

And the most dramatic rise—a 244% increase in the number of “patriot groups” and militia organizations throughout the U.S.

But NBC13 talked with a militia member with the Three Percenters who said militias do not want a revolution and there is no threat to the public.

It’s an image most of us would like to forget. 1995 in Oklahoma City, 168 people including children were killed in the bombing of the Federal Building. The attack was carried out by men deeply rooted in conspiracy theories of the militias.

Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report magazine, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center said, “The ultimate concern is another Oklahoma, no question about it.“

In a room filled with books on hate crimes and anti- government groups, Potok talked to NBC13HD’S Gina Redmond about the latest magazine issue which details the dramatic rise of the patriot movement.

Potok said, “Fundamentally the patriot movement is a movement which sees not black people, not the Jews, not white people or another group of people as the enemy, but the Federal Government as the primary enemy. The militias are groups with the same set of beliefs.

But additionally they engage typically in training, paramilitary training in the woods or whatever it may be. We have seen a 244% rise in the number of patriot groups in the United States in a single year. We saw 309 new groups appear last year, and that is really extraordinary.”
So what’s behind this dramatic spike? Potok maintains the crumbling economy and high unemployment are both significant factors.

So too is the changing landscape of America. For the first time, the leader of the free world is a black man. Potok believes that is a factor, “I think a very important driver of the growth of these groups has been non-white immigration that kind of culminates in the election of Obama.”
Although members of patriot and militia groups cross all socio-economic levels, what they do what is a perceived belief in what is happening in this country.

Potok said, “I think the country has probably not been this polarized in a very long time.”
A recent CNN poll shows 56% of Americans believe the Federal Government has become so large and powerful that is posts an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. 46% of those polled disagreed.

Mike Vanderboegh is a Three Percenter, which is one of seven active patriot groups identified in Alabama by the SPLC. He was also actively involved in the militia movement of the 1990s. He asked, “Are we to serve the government or is the government to serve us? The founders said the government was to serve us.”

Vanderboegh is vehemently opposed to having militia groups labeled as dangerous by the SPLC. He said, “For years they’ve called us anti-government, constitutional militia folks. The only people I know that are anti government are anarchists. What the Three Percenters are is pro-government of the sort of government that the founders would recognize, small government, safe government, a government that doesn’t have the power to shove you around and tell you what to do. We don’t claim to be three percent of the American population today. We claim though, and I think quite rightly, that we are three percent of American gun owners. That’s the muzzles of three million riffles who can be, if required, pointed directly at the hearts of anyone who wants to be a tyrant in this country.”

Vanderboegh maintains Three Percenters do not pose a threat to the public, “The people have nothing to fear from us, absolutely nothing.”
Mark Potok’s top concern is another militia group among the seven identified in Alabama by the SPLC. He said, “To me the Oath Keepers is one of the more worrying groups out there.”
The Oath Keepers declined our request for an interview. They too are among the seven groups identified in Alabama by the SPLC. But unlike the Three Percenters, Oath Keepers are made up of present and former police officers and soldiers.

Potok said, “This is a group of men and women, in many cases, police officers who are armed by the public by you and me in order to protect the rest of us who on occasion may have the power of life and death over you and I or any other citizen they encounter.”

Yet Potok admits it’s not the groups themselves he fears, but the individuals who may join and take matters into their own hands. “Some tiny percentage of them goes out and wakes up one morning and decides I’ve got to start shooting because the government is going to put my family in a concentration camp.”

Vanderboegh doesn’t believe in government conspiracy theories like that. He said his focus is on restoring our God-given liberties that have slowly eroded away over the past 75 years. “Regardless of race, creed, color or religion, the Constitution contifies what God had in mind for all of us. We’re not after a revolution. We don’t want a revolution. We’re restorationists. We want what we had we want what the founders gave us, that’s what the Three Percent wants.”

NBC13 also contacted the militia group, Alabama Shoals Badgers, based in Tuscumbia, which is also on the SPLC watch list. They declined our request for an interview.