Tea Partiers, some seeking to create militia, to clash with anarchists and federal provocateurs?


By ANDREW W. GRIFFIN

Oklahoma Watchdog, editor

Posted: April 13, 2010

andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org

OKLAHOMA CITY — With Tea Party activists gearing up for major rallies in towns and cities across the nation this Wednesday April 14 and Thursday April 15 – Tax Day – the Associated Press featured a story this week headlined “Oklahoma Tea Parties and lawmakers envision militia.”

Interviewed was Al Gerhart, with the Sooner Tea Party, who said that he and other fiscally conservative Tea Party activists are fed up with increasing federal tyranny, said a state-sanctioned militia could be formed within the next year to protect Oklahoma citizens.

“Is it scary? It sure is,” Gerhart told AP. “But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?”

The AP story accurately notes that “militia talks” are the result of frustrated Oklahoma activists who are “seeking new ways of fighting recent federal initiatives” like the unconstitutional ObamaCare law that Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a Democrat candidate for governor this year, has refused to fight.

Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at OU was interviewed and rhetorically asked, “Have they heard of the Oklahoma City bombing?” It’s not clear how concerned citizens forming a state-sanctioned militia would lead to a bombing of a federal building. According to researchers and witnesses interviewed by Oklahoma Watchdog in the past year, that horrible tragedy, sadly, has the fingerprints of the federal government all over it. More on that in coming reports.

The militia, Mr. Thai, is constitutional, experts note, although it is not clear how a constitutional law professor does not know that.

And Gerhart and his fellow Tea Partiers have supporters from Oklahoma legislators like State Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso) who is running for governor and State Rep. Charles Key an Oklahoma City Republican who has pushed for the state to take the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution far more seriously.

J.W. Berry, with OKforTea, told AP that while he encourages citizens to buy more guns and bullets, forming a state militia to protect against federal tyranny is “(N)ot a far-right crazy plan or anything like that. This would be done with the full cooperation of the state Legislature.”

And while Brogdon and Key are two liberty-minded legislators, State Sen. Steve Russell, also an Oklahoma City Republican and retired Army lieutenant colonel is concerned, telling AP that a Tea Party militia should “be viewed with great concern and caution.”

In light of the Hutaree militia raids in the Upper Midwest last month, Wednesday and Thursday’s Tea Party activities and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing coming up next Monday, April 19, the media and federal government are ramping up concerns about violence and hate as connected to Tea Parties and militia supporters.

Oklahoma Watchdog has been watching these developments closely and is looking into the shadowy anarchist “Infoshop” group. Reports earlier this month have noted that the Infoshop anarchists are looking to disrupt the Tea Parties and may be linked to undercover federal operations looking to frame Tea Partiers.

Check out CrashTheTeaParty.org for more on this. Many media outlets are reporting on this website, with some saying it is just a bunch of hype. “This is a left-wing conspiracy,” is the way radio talk show host and Fox News Channel figure Sean Hannity put it on his radio show Tuesday afternoon. “This is a coordinated effort.” Hannity noted that the Tea Partiers, according to left-wing sources, are allegedly trying to “incite the public.”

Here in Oklahoma City the Infoshop anarchists are known for operating the Scissortail Social Space, located at 3012 N. Walker, and is known for its lending library and hang out for local hippies and collectivists. While they are known to operate in the “spirit of mutual-aid and co-operation,” according to their website, their fellow Infoshoppers, as noted last week in a post out of Olympia, Washington at Infoshop News, report that they are marching against police violence and that cops “continue their wretched conquest of the earth and its inhabitants.” In the march “Black bloc is encouraged.” The reference to “Black bloc” is a protest march involving anarchists dressed in black clothing – ski masks, helmets and such – and basically wreak havoc in the community. This was thoroughly covered during the 1999 Seattle WTO protests where Black bloc anarchists were coddled by cops and peaceful marchers were rounded up and locked up. And at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last summer, cops were caught disguised as anarchists.

While the Oklahoma City Infoshop/Scissortail group has not proven to be violent or provocative, in light of previous Infoshop calls to infiltrate the Tea Party and cause trouble is duly noted here at Oklahoma Watchdog.

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