Recent investigations have found direct ties between major police departments and the extremist right-wing militant group the Oath Keepers, which was a major player in the January 6 attack on the Capitol and regularly participates in violent intimidation of left-wing protesters.
Documents purported to be from the Oath Keepers, leaked by whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets, show direct overlap between their members and active police officers in major cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to a recent NPR report.
Of active police in major cities, the Chicago Police Department reportedly has the highest portion of Oath Keepers membership, with 13 active members, NPR found. One of those officers, who lists their profession as a firearm trainer for the Chicago PD, has included membership in the far-right militant group as one of their “accomplishments” on LinkedIn.
Another officer in Chicago told NPR that he joined the group years ago because he was upset over the city’s ban on handguns, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2010. The Oath Keepers pride themselves on their militant anti-government stances and baseless conspiracy theories about the governments’ supposed trampling of civil liberties — while also engaging in police-like vigilante activities like armed patrolling of polling sites to ensure that the election wasn’t being “stolen” from Donald Trump.
At least three people in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and two active members of the New York Police Department are listed on the Oath Keepers roster, NPR found. An analysis from USA Today, meanwhile, showed that over 200 people on a nearly 40,000-person roster identified as active or retired police, including officers in states across the country.
Joe Wright, a constable in Texas, told USA Today that he joined in 2012 because of political pressure. “To be honest, I felt pressured to join it in this county for political support,” Wright said. “The Oath Keepers, if you didn’t support them, you were going to get bad reviews.”
When contacted by the media, many of the officers had excuses for their name appearing on the list, claiming to know very little about the group. However, some police departments, like the NYPD, are conducting internal investigations of the officers whose names appeared on the list, meaning that the officers have reason to obscure their affiliation with the group.
According to Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the group is made up largely of active and retired members of the military, police and first responders. “The group openly and intentionally recruits these individuals to their ranks, mostly in an effort to capitalize on the skills and knowledge these individuals acquired during their time of service,” the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.
One of the group’s primary stated goals is to build militias in the U.S. by stockpiling military equipment and holding paramilitary trainings. The group’s members trained for months in the lead up to the armed attempted coup on January 6, according to documents from the Department of Justice. Earlier this year, a leader of the group said that active police officers help the group with paramilitary training.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that any members of the NYPD who are revealed to have loyalties to the group should be fired from the force. But such a small move is unlikely to address the widespread issue of extremist right-wing sentiments and violence within police departments.
Recent investigations have found numerous incidents of active police expressing outright hostility towards Democrats, Black people, women and Jewish people in Facebook groups, where they post vile, dehumanizing statements about various marginalized groups. As investigation after investigation has documented, there are strong links between police departments and white supremacist groups .
When police brutality and murders occur, police are often given more funding for initiatives like diversity training. But, as Garrett Felber wrote for Truthout, “If history is any guide, liberal professionalization reforms such as community relations training, racial diversification and data analysis will not change the violent outcome of police murder.” Police and prison abolitionists have said that the violence is structural and inherent to policing, which is why police “reforms” often do more harm than good.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 9 days to add 500 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.