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After January 6, white supremacist militias like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and AP3 didn’t disappear. They’ve been organizing. And according to ProPublica and wilderness survival trainer John Williams — who infiltrated militias — they’ve been building relationships with police.
Some do armed vigilante border patrol. Others stake out ballot boxes and polling stations. They threaten journalists. Paramilitary training is critical. As we saw on January 6, some have a more ambitious goal: overthrowing the national government.
Opposing federal governance, particularly Democratic, doesn’t mean all authority is their enemy, though. Former detective Bobby Kinch was in Las Vegas’ “Black squad” before the Secret Service called him a potential threat to Obama. He’s now an Oath Keeper. Scot Seddon was an Army reservist before founding AP3. He devised the “charity” American Community Outreach Network to fund it, using community service projects and presence at protests to court local police.
AP3 references the claim that 3% of colonists fought the British in the American Revolution — only a small number will stand up to “tyrannical governance.” Still, their bylaws call sheriffs “the supreme law of the land.” Black Americans are “lawbreakers.”
These militias aren’t groundbreaking resistance. Like cops, they’re reviving lynchings, white vigilantism, and scapegoating and brutalizing marginalized communities. The U.S. was built on that violence. It’s no coincidence that the power of both militias and militarized policing has grown.