The paranoid - and growing - militia threat

OVER THE last year and a half, far-right extremism has blossomed, fueled by an intense distrust and hatred of the federal government in general and of President Obama in particular. To anti-government extremists, including a growing number of militia groups, the government is not only dangerous but an actual enemy to be defeated.

Pennsylvania hasn't been immune to this rise in anti-government extremism, particularly the increase in militia activity. In January, a number of small militia groups planned to conduct paramilitary training in the Micheaux State Forest. Another schedules similar monthly training in an unnamed location.

Both the economic crisis and the election of a president seen by many as "foreign" are contributing to this anti-government sentiment, which has also found its way into the mainstream.

The press has focused on the comparatively mainstream tea-party movement as the anti-government cause du jour. But it's the extremist groups that vilify the government the most and have the greatest potential for violence.

In March, members of the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and elsewhere were charged with allegedly plotting to kill law-enforcement officers and possibly their families. Their aim was to spark an armed confrontation with the government that they thought would lead to an uprising.

Disturbingly, though, the Hutaree is just one of scores of new militia groups that have sprung up in the last two years. Between 2008 and 2010, the militia movement has grown from about 50 groups nationally to nearly 200. Many groups are preparing for what they believe is an inevitable confrontation with federal authorities. Their beliefs are driven by conspiracy theories that paint the government as a tyranny poised to imprison or kill "dissidents."

In many cases, anti-government sentiment can give way to threats. In April, Walter Fitzpatrick, an anti-government extremist, tried to arrest officials in Tennessee after a grand jury refused to consider a complaint he attempted to file claiming that President Obama was an illegal alien and should be arrested for treason. After authorities arrested Fitzpatrick on various charges, another anti-government extremist and militia member, Daniel Huff, traveled from Georgia to allegedly arrest those officials and free Fitzpatrick.

Although Huff, too, was stopped by police, there are other conspiracy-driven anti-government groups that have shown a willingness to take violent action. In May, Jerry Kane and his teenage son were driving through eastern Arkansas when West Memphis police pulled them over during a drug-interdiction operation. The Kanes came out of the car with weapons and killed the two officers before speeding away. They were killed in a second shootout with police, during which they injured two more officers.

The Kanes were members of the extreme anti-government "sovereign-citizen" movement, which has also exploded in growth over recent years. It's a loose collection of groups and individuals who believe that virtually all government in the U.S. is illegitimate, having been subverted by an evil conspiracy. They seek to restore their vision of the original government through a variety of means, including violence.

THE NOTION of the government as enemy has spread to increasingly wider circles. "The greatest threat we face today is not terrorists," wrote a retired Arizona sheriff, Richard Mack, on his Web site. "It is our own federal government. If America is conquered or ruined it will be from within, not a foreign enemy."

Mack is a prominent member of the Oath Keepers, a group formed in 2008 that targets current and former law-enforcement and military personnel for recruitment. The Oath Keepers claim they'll refuse to carry out certain "orders" that they expect the federal government to issue, such as putting citizens in concentration camps, assisting foreign troops in invading the country and declaring martial law.

These fantasies reflect the degree to which the Oath Keepers consider the government a sinister enemy. And their ranks are growing - Mack was able to attract over a thousand people to a recent speaking engagement in Idaho, and he is in high demand.

When people can convince themselves that the government is the enemy, they can also talk themselves into taking action, including violent measures like those allegedly taken by the Hutaree and the Kanes. And there's a danger that extremism can gain a foothold in the mainstream, subverting or replacing legitimate criticism of the government. If that happens, the violence we have seen so far will only grow.

Marilyn Mayo is co-director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.