Some days you wake up and flip on the news and wonder if you really rolled out of bed in America. The morning that a breaking news report basically said picking up a legally owned rifle and helping friends and neighbors protect their property from dangerous rioters, could get you arrested – well, it was one of those days.
Working together, especially when faced with adversity, is what this country was founded upon. Banding together to protect one another during troubled times is exactly why preppers form mutual assistance groups. The motto of the non-partisan Oath Keepers group sums of their sense of duty quite simply – “Not on our watch.”
When the Oath Keepers arrived in Ferguson, many after watching the morning news and could not believe the danger and strife the business owners in the St. Louis suburb were dealing with, they quickly mobilized and drove into town to off their assistance.
Sam Andrews, 50, is a former Defense Department contractor and currently works as a weapons engineer in St. Louis. When he woke up one morning to his wife watching a Ferguson bakery being vandalized on the news, his beloved turned to him and said, “You’ve got to go help her.” So Andrews “accelerated plans” within the Oath Keepers group to recruit and organize private security protection details in Ferguson.
Unfortunately, the political powers in the region were baffled, frightened, or just downright angry about their appearance in the town, and threatened them with arrest.
The Oath Keepers were told to take their guns and remove themselves from the rooftops or they would be arrested for operating a security service without a license. The business owners gratefully welcomed them in, turned over their keys, and slept a bit more soundly, during the rioting. The Oath Keepers stood with their guns out of a sense of community and duty – they did not ask for a dime in return.
The group is reportedly comprised of primarily current and former military, police, and firefighters. Oath Keepers offered free security services to Ferguson businesses in dangers of looting during the rights, and arson. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, two rioters physically accosted a female Ferguson Papa John’s manager when she attempted to stop them from looting her place of business.
Ferguson private businesses, at least 12 of them, burnt entirely to the ground in the wake of the Darren Wilson decision in the Michael Brown shooting case.
“It’s really a broad group of citizens, and I’m sure their motivations are all different,” Sam Andrews said when describing the Oath Keepers group. “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.”
“When we hear information that someone, or a group, is providing security without a license, our department has to investigate the issue,” St. Louis County Police representative Shawn McGuire told the New York Times. South Florissant Road dentists, Victor Clark, said he was happy to have the Oath Keepers in Ferguson during the Michael Brown shooting protests.
During the riots after the Darren Wilson decision, Clark has the front door and windows destroyed by looters and had dental needs and anesthetic stolen. When the Oath Keepers came calling, the Ferguson dentists turned over the keys to his business. “We didn’t know much about them, but we got a feeling of trust. You have to do something to protect our building,” Dr. Clark told the local media. “When they’re here, there’s definitely a weight lifted off our shoulders. I’d be lying if I said otherwise.”
Excerpt from the Oath Keepers website detailing what reportedly happened on the Tuesday after the intense evening of riots after the Darren Wilson decision was announced to the public:
“Some Oath Keepers volunteers were boarding up the window-fronts, some thugs walked up and said ‘we’ll just tear those down to get in’ to which one of our men said ‘we won’t let you get that close to the buildings.”’ The thugs responded with ‘then we’ll just throw Molotov Cocktails on the roofs tonight and burn these Fu*%@#g buildings down.’ But that didn’t happen, because our military and police veterans were on the rooftops that night, wetting them down, and standing guard with a fire-extinguisher in one hand, and a rifle or shotgun in the other.”
Stewart Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and libertarian, founded the group in 2009 to protect t.he constitutional rights of all Americans. During an interview about the Oath Keepers being told to leave the rootops of Ferguson, Rhodes said they were there to protect the rights of all impacted by the rioting; the store owners, the residents, and even the protesters. He also expressed concerns about an overly militarized police force.
“We thought they were going to do it right this time,” Rhodes said when asked about the government response to demonstrations after the Michael Brown shooting Darren Wilson grand jury decision. “But when Monday rolled around and they didn’t park the National Guard at these businesses, that’s when we said we have got to do something. Historically, the government almost always fails to protect people.”
The Oath Keepers are still on the rooftops in Ferguson, in spite of a police order they reportedly intend to fight. The group maintains that since they are on private property, were invited in, and are receiving no compensation, they have not violated any laws.
What do you think about the Oath Keepers being kicked of the rooftops of Ferguson? Do you think mutual assistance groups will face similar obstacles during an emergency or disaster in the United States?