What could have gone wrong?
by digby
Mr. Andrews, a former Defense Department contractor who is now a weapons engineer in the St. Louis area, set to work. Under the auspices of a national group called the Oath Keepers, Mr. Andrews accelerated plans to recruit and organize private security details for businesses in Ferguson, which are receiving the services for free. The volunteers, who are sometimes described as a citizen militia — but do not call themselves that — have taken up armed positions on rooftops here on recent nights.
“It’s really a broad group of citizens, and I’m sure their motivations are all different,” said Mr. Andrews, who is in his 50s. “In many of them, there’s probably a sense of patriotism. But I think in most of them, there’s probably something that they probably don’t even recognize: that we have a moral obligation to protect the weakest among us. When we see these violent people, these arsonists and anarchists, attacking, it just pokes at you in a deep place.”
[…]
On its website, Oath Keepers released a recruiting message to “all skilled veterans and patriots” and asked them to “grab your gear and start rolling toward Ferguson.” The post listed nine types of people the group was seeking, including paramedics, police officers, “private drone operators” and videographers who could “film any encounters with looters.”
Right. The only thing those poor people in Ferguson had to protect them were the city, county and state police and the National Guard. Thank goodness the cavalry came to town. And with loaded guns, ready to start shooting, This fellow does say he weeded out racists which is nice. I wonder if he weeded out trigger-happy yahoos?
The police didn’t want them there and the Oath Keepers ended up protesting the police. Seriously. The good news is that none of them got violent or started looting. But then, they were the good guys. Right? Weren’t they?
What a mess …
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