Editor’s Note: It has been almost exactly 15 years to the day (April 19th, 1995) since Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. On Feb. 18, 2010, Joseph Andrew Stack flew his single-engine airplane into a seven-story office building in Austin, Texas that housed an office of the Internal Revenue Service. Most recently, a Christian militia leader allegedly plotted the murder of law enforcement officers as a prelude to a larger war against the government. Terrorism in the United States is most often the work of domestic attackers, not foreign ones.
A while back I wrote an article listing eight books I thought everyone should read. One of those books was the Art of War by Sun Tzu. One of the dictums in the book was “Know your enemy and know yourself and in a thousand battles you will never know defeat.” With the news that has come out over the past several weeks concerning militia groups — particularly those that specifically target police — this dictum now appears to have more importance than ever before.
The news that a militia group intended to wage war against the United States and had targeted police officers came as no surprise to me. I’ve studied militia and hate groups for years because I’ve always thought they were a more serious danger to the United States, and to law enforcement, that any foreign terrorist group. If you think about it, they are members of the social group, share the same social outlooks, know the customs of America, and can blend in far better than any foreign terrorist. In my book, this makes them far more dangerous. However, how much do officers really know about militia groups and what they stand for?
Probably not much.
This article then is the first of a two part article on militia groups. I’ve also attached some intelligence reports that I’ve collected over the years in PDF form. The first report is from 1986 and covers what was taught at a militia compound in Idaho. For as old as it is, it’s apparently very current, given the events of the last few weeks. It is chilling when you read it. They brief their members on weapons, bank robbery, rudimentary disguise and how to kill police officers.
Another page had a small blurb from a magazine that existed at the time and they had a section called COP FIND. This was nothing more than a section where the directions to the home of a police officer could be printed.
The last two pages were from an article written in the Blackwater weekly e-mail magazine from 2005. This shows the notes that were found on a robbery suspect at that time — again, frightening when you take the information to its logical conclusion.
Before you read on, I urge you to check out that PDF. NOTE: It takes a minute to load the page, so be patient, it will appear for you in a few seconds after you click!
The first thing in dealing with any extremist group, then, is to follow Sun Tzu and know you enemy. When it comes to hate groups, the best place is the Southern Poverty Law Center. The best thing about their website is what they call the Hate Map. Looking at it I know that there are 28 separate hate groups in Pennsylvania and, around my hometown of Pittsburgh, there are six that could cause problems. There are two Black Separatist groups, a Racist Skinhead group, two White Nationalist groups, and a Neo-Nazi group. Once you know what’s around you, the next thing is to find out what each group stands for. This will be the focus of part two of this article (coming a couple of weeks from now).
After you’ve studied these groups and know what they stand for, the next thing might prove to be a bit tougher. You may have to swallow a little pride and understand that, on the whole, these groups train harder than you. They spend a significant portion of their waking hours brooding over what they perceive as a country gone bad and how to fix it — and usually by violent means.
This violent means, by definition, involves how to destroy you, the police. Many individuals in these fringe militia groups see you as the force that maintains the status quo. Many members of these groups have spent time in the military and pass their military training on to those who have not. Many members have spent time in a prison facility where they’ve done nothing all day but learn how to be better criminals and you can bet they pass this information along.
Next, you, the police, have to spend time improving your tactical skills. The important thing to remember is that these tactical skills are not necessarily physical. You’ve think tactically. You’ve got to think the whole time you’re out on the road because if you realize that an ambush is about to happen you can defeat the ambush before it is completely formed.
It’s particularly painful to come to the understanding that your enemy might not be who you think. If you read the first two pages I’ve attached you’ll find that two police officers taught much of the material to the Idaho militia in 1986. They were only asked to leave their department once their involvement became known.
Also, know that you cannot develop habits. As proof I’d ask you to check out two websites. One is COP FIND, which you’ll remember from reading that PDF I’ve attached (you’ve read that already, I hope). This website allows people to put down where police like to park on a consistent basis. Someone who wants to locate a police officer bad enough need only register on cop find and look you up. Check out the site yourself and see what happens when you check your area.
The second one is similar, although not packaged as expressly for the function of “finding cops.” It’s called Trapster and it’s been covered here on Police1 before. The purpose of this site is to let its users “avoid cops” and not drive into speed traps. But again, if you think tactically — think like your enemy — then you can easily see how it can be used for nefarious purposes.
I hope you find the attached documents informative — maybe even an eye opener. I ask that officers who have seen information like this to post it in the comments area below.
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with part two. In the meantime, stay safe.
