Armed militias are traditional in America. They are even mentioned in the Second Amendment. Though there have been times, during Shay’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion, they haven’t been very friendly to the federal government and thus were put down. But that was over two hundred years ago and today’s armed militias, generally conservative, are a different breed. Apparently though not the breed to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, as documents show. They are likely another Antifa-like anarchist group.

The Wall Street Journal reports, “Seven of the 13 men charged this past week in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor were part of a self-styled militia known as the ‘Wolverine Watchmen,’ prosecutors say. ‘Sedition cases are very difficult to prove,’ said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and now a law professor at Wayne State University Law School. ‘Charging the defendants with kidnapping is a much easier road to go down.’ ”

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However, John Nolte, in an article in Breitbart, notes that one or more of those charged are not conservative or Trump supporters, “One of the alleged plotters, 23-year-old Daniel Harris, attended a Black Lives Matter protest in June, telling the Oakland County Times he was upset about the killing of George Floyd and police violence…Overall, 13 people have been charged in some capacity with this plot and we now know, according to the actual charging documents, that they stand accused of wanting to attack police officers in their homes, which is anathema to everything Donald Trump has stood for throughout his presidency and stands for now as the left wreak havoc across the country with the blessing of the national media and Democrats.” The mainstream media is burying this. Given their ideology, for obvious reasons.

 

LifeZette talked to a militia member who lives in one of the Mid-Atlantic states. He is a military veteran, an attorney, and an upstanding member of his community. He harbors no seditious or insurrectionist views. He merely sees his group as a possible aid to law enforcement in the event of national calamity, natural disaster, or, indeed, left wing sedition or insurrection. He would never conceive of kidnapping an elected official or other such lunacy. But he knows that when acts like that are planned by other militia groups it taints the entire movement. Actually, I’d probably join a militia. But I hear their Officer Clubs suck.

WSJ: “Concerns about such groups from law-enforcement officials have been mounting, particularly after protesters armed with AR-15 style rifles showed up at Michigan’s state capitol earlier this year, calling for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to reopen businesses barred from operating during the coronavirus pandemic. Law-enforcement officials and researchers have also expressed concerns that private militias will turn up at Election Day polling sites.”

But that is speculation. Can you prosecute militia groups for merely being armed and organized? And it seems, at least some of those charged in the Whitmer plot are not right wing at all, but more likely an anarchist group more closely aligned to the thinking of Antifa.