User:Scottperry/hutaree-non-violence

Note: this page is not intended for public display. It is designed as a potential reference source for an ongoing dialogue that I am now engaged in with Jimbo Wales. Please do not try to delete or vandalize it. Thanks, Scott P. (talk) 22:25, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Hutaree ( (IPA) ) is a Christian militia group based in Adrian, Michigan. The group was formed in early 2008. The name "Hutaree" appears to be a neologism, that according to the group's web site means "Christian warriors".

The group was allegedly preparing for what they believed would be an apocalyptic battle with the forces of the Antichrist, who they believed would be supported and defended by local, state and federal police departments. On their website, all police and military members who would support the current U.S. system of local, state or federal government were described as members of the "brotherhood", and were considered by the Hutaree to be "enemies".

From March 28 to March 30, 2010, nine people thought to be Hutaree members were arrested in police raids in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana (in Hammond), for their alleged involvement in a plot to kill various police officers and possibly civilians using illegal explosives and/or firearms.

Doctrine
The Hutaree claim that an apocalypse is near but has not yet begun and will occur in the future. In one position piece, the Hutaree suggested that Javier Solana, former Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and of the Western European Union, may be the Antichrist. According to some sources the group is described as practicing survivalism. Most of the members were active voters with unidentified political party affiliation, though one of them has been identified as a registered Democrat.

Many videos posted on the Hutaree's website support several right-wing organizations, politicians, and news commentators. A former fiancee of Hutaree leader David Stone, has claimed that he was a "Ron Paul fanatic". Several of their site videos include coverage of congressman Paul. Some of their videos claimed that the aims of the United Nations were hostile to American values and philosophy, and also included unsupported assertions that the UN leadership and the U.S. government were secretly plotting to subvert or destroy their own Charter Documents, namely the U.S. Constitution and the UN's Declaration of Human Rights.

The Hutaree insignia includes a sword, crossed spears, and the letters "CCR" which stand for "Colonial Christian Republic." Hutaree members use a unique system of paramilitary ranks with titles from highest to lowest: Radok, Boramander, Zulif, Arkon, Rifleman (three grades), Lukore, and Gunner (three grades). University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor Mark Lieberman commented: "I don't see basis in biblical or military history for Radok, Boramander, Zulif, Arkon, and Lukore. They sound kind of like Pokémon names (e.g. Arbok, Charmander, Zubat, Rokon), but there's no precedent there, either." One man who once contemplated joining the group, a Mr. Savino, was refused admission due to his being a Muslim. This same individual later provided information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which appears to have assisted them in capturing the last indicted Hutaree at large, Joshua Stone.

The recent federal indictment against the Hutaree members in federal custody centered around the Hutaree's apparent plans to employ extreme violence to replace all (or most) current forms of U.S. government. What appears to have been the primary motivating factor behind their plans was the Hutaree's seemingly consuming resentment of all police and military, the current U.S. government in general, and the United Nations.

Context
According to a recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the doctrines of such groups are often fueled by a certain "anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Barack Obama that have been branded 'socialist' or even 'fascist' by the heated rhetoric of his political opponents." Another SPLC report notes that the number of U.S. militia groups like the Hutaree have increased three-fold since 2008 (from 42 in 2008 to 127 in 2009), and the number of sympathetic groups has doubled in the same two-year period.

Criminal investigation
The United States Attorney's Office stated that the Hutaree allegedly planned "to kill an unidentified member of local law enforcement and then attack the law enforcement officers who gather in Michigan for the funeral". The press release further stated that nine had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. The indictment said that the Hutaree planned to attack law enforcement vehicles during the funeral procession for the officer(s) they planned to kill, using improvised explosive devices of the explosively-formed projectile variety, thus constituting the formal, Federal statutory definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Some articles suggest the Hutaree had not yet determined whom in law enforcement they would kill, and even that they wished to kill a law enforcement officer in order to begin a war with law enforcement, while not having any specific target.

Members taken into custody
In order as shown in group photo:
 * Tina Mae Stone, 44 (a.k.a. "T-Bod", "She-Stone")
 * Joshua Matthew Stone, 21 (a.k.a. "Josh")
 * David Brian Stone Sr., 44, center (a.k.a "RD", "Joe Stonewall", "Captain Hutaree")
 * David Brian Stone Jr., 19 (a.k.a "Junior", "Jaggers", "BearBack" )
 * Thomas William Piatek, 46 (a.k.a. "T-Rock" )
 * Michael David Meeks, 40 (a.k.a. "Mikey" )
 * Kristopher T. Sickles, 27 (a.k.a "Pale Horse")
 * Joshua Clough, 28 (a.k.a. "Azzurlin", "Az", "Mouse", "Jason Z", "Charles")
 * Jacob J. Ward, 33 (a.k.a. "Jake", "Nasty Nate")

Reception
Deacon Keith Fournier, commenting on Catholic Online, said about them: "They attempt to use strange ramblings on their website to try to make their ultra right wing, violent anti-government crusade somehow "sound" Christian. There is nothing new to this tactic; one has only to look at the same tactic used by the virulently racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan."

Jim Gulliksen, the Executive Officer of the Lenawee Volunteer Michigan Militia, said of the Hutaree: "Their philosophy and ours differ in many ways, so we don't do a whole lot with them. They are too extreme and radical for us. I just kind of got a bad feeling about the group and we did not want to associate with them too much. They are a little too paranoid for me."

Baptist minister and conservative political activist Chuck Baldwin has expressed tentative support of the actions taken by the Hutaree. His rationale is his belief that the teachings of Jesus would have advocated and justified the killing of random local police officers, if such officers supported a government that abused its power, and which had fired the first shot. Such a 'first shot' is believed by them to possibly have already been fired in what is described by them as an armed conflict apparently already under way between their people and the US government. Baldwin also suggested that the federal government had planted agents provocateurs with the Hutaree and other militia groups.