Militia Rising

Bloodshed can be inspiring.

Soaked in and shaped by Revolutionary and Civil War history, this part of South Carolina is rife with monuments and markers dedicated to stories of individual sacrifice for a greater cause.

One of those got to Clark Brown.

"I was walking through Ninety Six National Historic Site, and I saw this marker set aside for a man named James Birmingham, and it just spoke to me," said Brown.

Felled by a British musket ball in an early Revolutionary battle, Birmingham is considered the first South Carolinian to die in the name of freedom. He belonged to a small Patriot force called Long Cane Militia.

Inspired by the story, Brown, a former Air Force Security Forces officer who lives in Greenwood, decided last fall to start a modern day militia by the same name.

"I have already served my country. I see this as a way to give back to my state," said Brown.

The fledgling group seems to have noble motives. Brown says they want to lend assistance to state agencies in times of disaster and, following the lead of large militia in other states, adopt community service projects. 

"With the National Guard deployed overseas, someone has to be ready to step in with immediate response," said Brown. "If there is a hurricane or something like that, we can be there very quickly to lend a hand with sand-bagging or crowd control."

He says Long Cane will conduct disaster training in the future. But on this particular Saturday, he and a few other members have gathered at a public rifle range in Abbeville County to practice shooting.

"It's important to know how to defend yourself," said Brown as he squeezed off cannon-like shots from a massive Soviet rifle.

Next to him, his girlfriend, Raquel Pizzarello, fired a 9-millimeter handgun at a close-range target.

"If you're not dedicated to four years of military service, a militia is the way to go," said Pizzarello.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

400 miles away, in Montgomery, Ala., a man named Mark Potok finds the existence of Long Cane and other new militia disturbing.

"These kinds of groups produced an enormous amount of criminal violence in the 1990s," said Potok.

He works for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit organization founded in the 1970s to take on civil rights cases. SPLC is now known for educating tolerance and for tracking hate groups and militia, which it classifies as an “extremist” group. Potok says SPLC employees constantly search internet chat rooms and websites for evidence of new militia. They also rely on law enforcement tips and media reports.

And lately, there has been no shortage of new material.

"The militias have come roaring back in a huge way," said Potok. “We’re seeing a lot of training in many places around the country.”

He says the militia movement, which saw its heyday in the 1990s, had grown quiet in the past decade. But over the last 18 months, it has exploded; growing from an estimated 42 militias in 2008 to 127 in 2009.  Potok believes this surge is fueled by profound changes happening in this country.

“I think the most obvious is the election of a black man to the Presidency,” said Potok. “And we’ve also had a great deal of non-white immigration which is really changing the complexion of the country, the demographics of the country.”

FEAR FACTOR

But Potok says fear - not race - is the biggest factor prompting people to grab their guns and get organized. Political discourse has taken a more vitriolic tone. The crashing economy coupled with the unpopularity of some of the Obama administration’s policies has stoked anti-government rhetoric to a level not seen since the ‘90s.

“There is so much anger over the changes this country is going through,” said Potok. “I think we’ve reached a really frightening point. While we’re probably not quite at the stage we were right before Oklahoma City, we’re getting close.”

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is the poster child for most anti-militia arguments. According to the Anti-Defamation League, he never joined a militia, but he did attend a couple of meetings and made a half-hearted attempt at starting his own in Arizona.

And Potok says that’s what makes militia dangerous. While the general concept of a militia is innocent and even supported by law, and while most members may have pure motives, the groups also appeal to extremists who feed off of conspiracy theories and see the US government and its agents as their enemies, according to SPLC.

“When you talk in those kinds of terms about ‘evil’ Federal agents or police officers or whoever you imagine your enemies to be, it’s not long before somebody pulls out a gun and starts shooting or builds a bomb and blows up a Federal building,” said Potok.

The recent arrests of eight members of the radical Hutaree militia in the Midwest seem to underscore his point. Federal prosecutors say the men were plotting to attack and kill police officers at an upcoming funeral in Ohio, hoping retaliation by police would spark a nationwide uprising against the government.  

The few members of the Long Cane militia we spoke with said they do not have strong political views and do not advocate violence, but founder Clark Brown admits militia can attract those who buy into the anti-government conspiracy theories.

“They see militia groups as a place to go when they’re not happy with the way things are going,” said Brown. “But we have more in common with a gun club than anything Timothy McVeigh would be interested in. He’s just one man who somehow gave all militia a bad name even though he was never in one.”

THE COLONEL OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S UNREGULATED MILITIA

SPLC cannot estimate how many Americans claim membership to a militia, only that the number is rapidly growing. Long Cane, a new militia, has less than ten members.

But Bob Fondry claims to have hundreds of faithful troops.

He lives in the Upstate (presumably in the Easley area since he says his group regularly holds meetings at the library there). He’s a former Navy hospital corpsman who was assigned to the Marines in Somalia and the first Gulf War. He now designs operating rooms for hospitals all over the world.

“I was shot at in Somalia,” says Fondry. “A sniper bullet missed me. How often do sniper bullets miss?”

So he has the “street cred” to be a leader. He says a few years ago, militia members approached him and asked him to be theirs. He agreed. They gave him the rank of Colonel, he says.

“We are the South Carolina Unregulated Militia, which is provided for in the state constitution,” says Fondry. “We cannot be deployed outside the state, whereas the National Guard is currently being deployed outside of South Carolina.”

He claims to have “just under” a thousand members all over the state – though he could not convince them to let us talk to them or observe their training. He says most of them are former military and are professionals from all walks of life.

“We have medics, we have firefighters, operating room personnel, carpenters, plumbers, we have some people who are SCUBA certified to do diving missions,” says Fondry. “We have housewives. I think you’d be surprised to see who some of our people are.”

He says they conduct regular training sessions so that they are ready to help in times of disaster. He even met with Governor Mark Sanford in January to tell him about his group and let him know they are available when the state needs them. He has a picture to prove the meeting took place.

“If buildings collapse, there’s going to be a need for a group of people to step in and provide services our National Guard would have normally provided,” says Fondry. “We are not a vigilante, wacko group. We are your neighbors. If South Carolina needs help, we are there to stand in the gap.”

He agrees with SPLC’s stance that militia can attract those with extreme views who have a potential for violence, but he says it’s the duty of militia leaders to reject the radicals who wish to join.

“Timothy McVeigh did happen, and that’s why it’s up to me and my company commanders to know our men and women so that we can be vigilant and weed out those who have hateful or violent tendencies,” says Fondry. “I have no place for hate.”

Fondry also says a growing frustration with the Federal government has prompted people to join his ranks. One of the pivotal issues is illegal immigration.

“We want to secure our borders,” says Fondry. “We don’t want this illegal invasion. That’s what I call it. An invasion.”

He says he doesn’t advocate violence, but says his troops are very skilled marksmen who routinely hone their skills. He says past events have shown an unarmed civilian is a defenseless target.

“I was in a militia in Texas during the siege of Waco (the event credited with igniting the original militia movement in the early ‘90s). American military is not to be used against civilians in this country. We saw a huge increase in militia because that was not going to happen again without resistance.”

Yes, bloodshed can be inspiring.

But Potok warns, it can also be unnecessary.