FBI arrests militia members plotting to kidnap Michigan governor | Hacker News Reader

FBI arrests militia members plotting to kidnap Michigan governor

reuters.com

77 pointsWarOnPrivacy24 comments

Dangerous times, the fact that this is being normalized by certain political parties is very scary indeed.

"LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" Tweet on Donald Trump August 17th

[0] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/12511692175310561...

Historical precedents from other societies that have collapsed into despotism make it very clear that the US is in a very dangerous place. The fact that so many Americans are in denial (or ignorant) of the risks just increases the danger.

"It'll all work out, it always has" isn't a prudent response to a political environment that has proto-Brownshirts running loose, looking for ways to kidnap elected officials.

This kind of thing doesn't usually end well for anyone except for the people who lead the Brownshirts.

Often Not even them eventually.

The canonical example been Hitlers senior leadership.

They either died in the war, committed suicide or where hung.

The problem with leading a dangerous savage beast is keeping it travelling away from you.

Big mistake with Hitler was when he went after members of his own party in the night of the long knives. Was not understanding he was consolidating his power by getting rid of anyone that could turn is party against him.

It's not really surprising that the 2nd amendment lot who've been talking up the right to violently overthrow the government for as long as I've been on the Internet might eventually try it.

The Michigan Supreme Court agreed with Trump when they ruled last week that Whitmer's unilateral continued declaration of a state of emergency an unconstitutional abuse of power.

> Criticizing the Emergency Powers of Governor Act for giving Whitmer “concentrated and standardless power to regulate the lives of our people,” the majority held that the law was unconstitutional because it violated the nondelegation doctrine.

What does that have to do with kidnapping the Governor and blowing up bridges?

Exactly as much as Trump's tweet to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN"?

Unlike FBI's history - where agents handcraft a terror plot while carefully leading around bozos who can barely sound out their own name - this appears to be the real deal.

Militia members are alleged to have concocted the scheme on their own, including planning to "target Whitmer’s home" and "detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the home and Fox [militia member] even inspected the underside of a Michigan highway bridge for places to seat an explosive"

In the beginning, yes. However, it seems that the feeb still ran the standard playbook when the group couldn't get their IEDs to work, and the feeb were happy to help procure working explosives.

Why "militia members" and not "terrorists?"

Because then they'd have to call blm and antifa terrorists too.

No, the FBI already said, "antifa" is not an organised group or movement, so you can't label an idea/ideal/goal "terrorist".

In my opinion it's because 'militia' in the current climate has connotations with right wing groups.

On the contrary, Brandon Caserta appears in several videos with an Anarchist flag behind him saying things like "Trump is not your friend": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnN6ADbUve-hHgGp37oqODg.

Here's his mugshot for comparison: https://twitter.com/CNNNewsource/status/1314316594559025154

This twitter account is showing some of the more interesting clips: https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck

Militias by statute are under the authority of a state's governor. If they aren't under the governor's authority, they are not militias. They might be a gun club if non-violent. If violent, they're an armed gang or a crime syndicate. And certainly they aren't "well regulated" militias if they don't have the sanction of a state's governor. It's also sedition to attempt a violent overthrow of a state government or the federal government.

The U.S. doesn't have a domestic terrorism statute, so they can't be called terrorists in the legal sense, but domestic violent extremists, which is the term DHS and FBI use.

> It's also sedition to attempt a violent overthrow of a state government or the federal government.

Sedition can also be speech that incites a revolt, and it carries a punishment of up to 20 years in the US.

Totally agree with you, this whole story sounds fishy. Kidnap a governor? Why? There's no good outcome.

This was not a concocted plot by the FBI. These guys had a plan, did reconnaissance, acquired supplies. It's crazy how close they actually got before they were arrested, considering how early on the FBI knew about them. Affidavit with more info: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/1...

What's crazy is it feels like no one's been keeping track of all the "Western chauvinist" violence in the past decade. Everything is pointing to some notion of a "last stand of the West" weird shit.

The Dayton, OH mass shooting[0] The El Paso mass shooting[1] The murder of an elderly Black man in Harlem as a prelude to mass murder of Black men with the express aim of inciting a race war[2]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Dayton_shooting

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/nyregion/timothy-caughman...

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