What are Livingston Parish’s CAJUN GUARD’S ties to the III%ers, an organization to which a Louisiana congressman has claimed connections of his own on at least one occasion?
By inserting that “III%” into its logo, Cajun Guard is necessarily affiliating itself with an outfit called the Three Percenters, 3 Percenters, 3%ers, or III%ers (pick one). Whatever name they’re known by, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) categorizes them as an “anti-government,” white supremacist group and some Canadian authorities call them the “most dangerous extremist group” in that country.
The organization draws its name from the dubious assertion that only 3 percent of American colonists actually fought the British during the American Revolution. It was founded in 2008 following the election of Barack Obama as President, apparently in the belief there was something inherently unamerican about his election as leader of the nation.
If the Three Percenters actually represented 3 percent of America’s population today, which is highly improbable, their numbers would be approaching 10 million instead of fewer than 100,000 suspected members of all such groups scattered across the US.
The III%ers are loosely patterned after another militia-type outfit called the OATH KEEPERS, an organization that claims tens of thousands of current and former law enforcement officials as well as military veterans among its membership. The Oath Keepers is one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the nation.
Yale Law School graduate Stewart Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers—not to be confused with the evangelical Promise Keepers—and among his many assertions and conspiracy theories is this 2015 speech in Tempe, Arizona:
“John [Mc]Cain is a traitor to the Constitution. He should be tried for treason before a jury of his peers – which he would deny you. … He would deny you the right for trial to jury, but we would give him a trial by jury. Then after we convict him, he should be hung by the neck until dead.”
Strong words, but consider this:
Oath Keeper Charles Dyer was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping his own 7-year-old daughter. Although Dyer had spoken on behalf of the Oath Keepers and online videos identified himself as the group’s liaison to the Marines and once spoke on behalf of Oath Keepers at a Tea Party event in Oklahoma, Rhodes claimed after the charges were brought that Dyer wasn’t actually a part of his organization.
There have been others to run afoul of the law. The president of a local Ohio chapter was jailed for keeping a live napalm bomb in his home; An armed Tennessee man driving a pickup truck with an Oath Keepers logo on it was arrested when he attempted to place two dozen officials in a town under arrest, a-la Gomer Pyle.
But the III%ers have had their own problems, as well.
In March 2018, Michael B. Hari, a former sheriff’s deputy who once submitted a proposal to build Donald Trump’s wall on the southern US border, was one of three men arrested in connection with the bombing of a mosque in Minnesota. Hari at the time headed up a group called the White Rabbit Three Percent Illinois Patriot Freedom Fighters Militia. Their website called Illinois a “failed state” and encouraged readers to take up armed resistance against the government.
The SPLC says Oath Keepers encourages police officers and military personnel to DISOBEY ORDERS that might be “unconstitutional.”
The Anti-Defamation League issued an eight-page report that said there was “a lot of overlap” between Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters. The report said both organizations heavily recruit members from the ranks of the military and law enforcement. Read the full report HERE.
And while Cajun Guard has not issued any overt threats against the government, its self-proclaimed affiliation with the III%ers and indirectly, The Oath Keepers and any of the other 570-odd white supremacist HATE GROUPS (including 181 militias) now operating in the U.S. certainly gives rise to speculation as to its real objectives.
Nine of those so-called hate groups were said to be in Louisiana, according to the SPLC. The Cajun Guard was not one of those listed.
Louisiana hate groups that were listed include:
- III% United Patriots: statewide;
- American Patriots Three Percent: statewide;
- Constitution Party: Eunice;
- Empire Washitaw de Dugdahmounbdyah: Richwood;
- Gulf Coast Patriot Network: Shreveport;
- Oath Keepers: Central, Covington, and statewide;
- Three Percenters: Avoyelles Parish.
Nor did U.S. Rep. CLAY HIGGINS of Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District do anything to dampen that speculation when he intimated to representatives of the oil and gas industry in March 2018 that he was a member of The Three Percenters.
“Some of you know, some of you perhaps do not, that the Revolutionary soldiers that gave birth to this nation represented only three percent of the populace, the colonists,” he erroneously told attendees at the Expanding Global Gas Infrastructure seminar in March 2018. “Some of us refer to ourselves as ‘Three Percenters,” he added (emphasis mine).
Three Percenters have served as self-appointed, heavily-armed “border patrols, attempted to detonate a car bomb outside a bank in Oklahoma City in 2017, and served as self-appointed security during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that turned deadly in August 2017.
While it was not immediately clear whether Higgins really counted himself as an active member of any Three Percenter chapter, he has done little to dispel any such notion. He would again be linked to the organization two months later when he hawked T-shirts with what appeared to be a Three Percenter logo on the backs.
The shirts were distributed to participants in a “Redemption Ride,” a jeep and motorcycle ride with Higgins and Dog the Bounty Hunter. Online payments for the shirts were processed as individual contributions to Higgins’s congressional campaign.
And you, too, can emulate Higgins by visiting Cajun Guard’s online store to purchase your own military gear, clothing and accessories in preparation for the coming apocalypses by going HERE.
Tomorrow: Livingston Parish’s history of right-wing extremism
I don’t know how many of these groups exist, but in backwoods bike riding and hiking I have come across at least 2 suspicious settings over the last several years. One had small signs at its entrance(?) with the exact skull pictured here with crossed rifles beneath it with a stern warning to go no further. The other had what appeared to be an obstacle course among trees with targets set up throughout, most in human shapes. Permit me to tell you I did not linger at either site. Paranoid or not, I could see little reason to further investigate whether these were hunting clubs and, if so, what kind.
The divisions in our country seem to grow larger every day. This can be expected to encourage more membership in these groups of people who believe they have been ill served by our government.
And so they would replace government with what? Anarchy? These people are just plain nuts.
Stephen, can you give me some examples of this “I’ll service”?
Boy, I hate that autocorrect. I meant “ill service”.
One example: That they have been passed over in promotion of people with lesser qualifications, etc., for reasons of political correctness by our government. They also believe anybody who doesn’t see things the way they see things needs to be subjugated or worse.
I don’t think that happens as often as they think it does. I guess they are also angry about their tax dollars being used to fund a welfare system they believe is wrought with fraud. But, they don’t get upset about corporate welfare and corporate bailouts.
I don’t either and, yes, the theme pushed by many Republican elected officials, including our own former beloved Governor Jindal, of “There need to be more people pulling the wagon, rather than riding in it” is an enduring theme, particularly among those who have not reached their own aspirations.
They seem to be fond of differentiating between what they call “makers” versus “takers.” But I suspect all of it is just a way to rationalize their racism.
Nuts isn’t the right word.
The right word is Putin’s greatest hope. After all Putin had to replace a mayor of moscow that became their first president and the US including Louisiana Legal patrons helping them to establish a ledigimate legal system and then he had to overcome the business persons and even Secterary of State, Hillary Clinton helping to put a limit to his becoming a modern Stalin, but he succeded.
Even to the capacity of even killing reporters and critics, located in England, AND the election of Hilliary’s advocary, the most stable genius, who is removing thousands of troups from Germany! Can we ask if Putin wants anything else from his extraordinary wealthy adversary, the US, like actively trying to take health care from thousands of Americans, as we pay double the rate of the rest of the world for the same care, or causeing white vs black strife by causing two counter demonstrations, on the same opposing corners at the same time……Or having NUTS walk around with military style guns advocating not wearing masks in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 100,000+ americans….. OH, he with his useful idiot, Trump, already got that.
PS.To go to the bathroom 40% of all Russans have to go outside. What GDP does he have to offer China, other than upsetting their relationship with thier best customer, whom they work for on the super cheap making there customer lives even wealthier and as they hold vast loans (known as balance of trade). Not to say some corrections legitimate, but in the greater opportunity to do distruption, Put the useful idiot on that,….OH, already got that.
PSS Reminder, My rule, Trump and his accolytes dont deserve more than draft quality…Sorry. .
Remi…this article from today hits right on your points…and tRump has NOTHING about it…