The Oath Keepers in Ferguson: Three Updates

Yesterday I
noted that the Oath Keepers, a controversial group that
I’ve covered
in the past, had organized rooftop anti-arson patrols in
Ferguson, Missouri—and that police there had ordered them to stop.
Here are some updates on the story:

• The Oath Keepers are
challenging the order in court. The authorities
“claim that they had a St. Louis County ordinance that prevented
anyone from securing a building or conducting a security operation
without a St. Louis County license,” one of the group’s organizers,
Sam Andrews,
tells KTVI. The Oath Keepers intend to argue that the
regulation restricts businesses, not volunteers.

• The rooftop patrols have not ceased entirely.
There are a number of retired cops in the Oath Keepers, and they’re
still on the roofs. “They’re exempt from local regulations about
security,” Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes
explains to Vice. “[But] you shouldn’t have to be a
cop to do the right thing by your neighbors.”

• The group is about to try its hand at community
organizing. More from Rhodes: “When I get [to Ferguson],
my main goal is going to be to organize the community and encourage
them to start their own neighborhood watches. They don’t need
outside help. They should be able to do it themselves. We’re going
to offer assistance in training them.”

Rhodes also gave Vice this explanation for the Oath
Keepers’ interest in the situation:

in Ferguson, what they’re being told is you only have
two choices: 1) a hyper-militarized police state to stop violence,
including arson, or 2) let it go and burn the town down. Twenty
different buildings have burned to the ground. That’s a false
choice.

For Ferguson in particular if…they don’t believe that the police
department is legitimate, they should be protecting themselves and
secure themselves because the more they secure themselves, the less
reason there is for the police to be in their neighborhoods and
communities. So they should take care of themselves for both
reasons—to be secure, but also to be more free.

In addition to charging the authorities with failing to protect
people (“it became apparent on Monday that the National Guard was
only guarding government buildings”), Rhodes criticizes them for
the ways they’ve mistreated peaceful protesters in the past few
months, accusing the police of “gross violations of free
speech and assembly, shooting rubber bullets at everybody, pointing
their guns at everybody, spraying CS gas at everybody.”

It’s not surprising that local business owners
appear to be pleased with the guards. More interestingly,
Andrews claims that the Oath Keepers and the protesters have been
getting along, despite some initial mistrust: “Once they got to
know us they said, ‘We’re so glad you’re here. Thank you for
coming; we appreciate everything you’re doing.'” On the other hand,
there have also been exchanges like this one. Rhodes
calls the reaction to the group “mixed.”

I wrote a feature on the Oath Keepers and their critics four
years ago; you can read that article here.
I discussed their activities in Ferguson here
and
here. For yet more from Reason on the group, go
here.

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