Let militia play army somewhere other than George Floyd protests
Volunteer militia members who turned out Saturday in Oakdale to keep in check a rumored Black Lives Matter event that never happened are nothing more than wannabe soldiers who put themselves and others in danger.
Dressed in camouflage fatigues and toting dangerous weapons — which may or may not have been loaded — these misguided souls played G.I. Joe, guarding property against a nonexistent enemy at the invitation of a delusional business owner.
Oakdale Police Chief Scott Heller didn’t want them there, he told Modesto Bee reporter Deke Farrow.
Neither did Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse, who repeatedly called them “yahoo militia” in an interview for this editorial. “That wasn’t about protecting a business,” the sheriff said. “That was about making a political statement.”
The sheriff has never had any intention of asking National Guard troops to help maintain order in a county that has not gotten out of control since George Floyd was killed May 25 in the custody of Minneapolis Police. The National Guard may be trained in military tactics, Dirkse said, but they have little police training.
If he doesn’t want the National Guard here, why would he want “yahoo militia”?
These armed militia members strutted around Saturday with big rifles acting very macho indeed. Just think what might happen if any were to level a gun at a crowd or even a single person, whether an actual or perceived threat. Real law enforcement would be forced to react with deadly force.
No law enforcement officer should have to figure out which are the bad guys. No sane property owner should invite such liability. And no one in their right mind would want that potential bloodbath in their city, or on their hands.
It’s understandable if business owners — whipped up by TV news footage of protests turning violent — fear for their property. They have good reason to call police and the Sheriff’s Department for reassurance. They have zero reason to reckon that local law enforcement is not up to the task and conclude that they have no other choice but to call in wannabe cops.
Don’t make this about conservative values. Few know them like Kristin Olsen, chairwoman of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, a longtime local and state representative and former California Assembly minority leader. She tweeted a photo of the fake weekend warriors with these words: “This group was not welcomed by any official agency and caused more harm than good this weekend.”
Waterford City Councilwoman Elizabeth “Lise” Talbott has been active in social media since Floyd’s tragic death touched off demonstrations across the United States and beyond. She did a bit of internet sleuthing and quickly determined that one of Saturday’s militia members was a security guard until his California license was canceled in 2008. He also was a registered nurse until Arizona yanked his license for that job in 2016. If this guy is not worthy to be a security guard or a nurse, why would any law enforcement official want him toting a gun in public?
They don’t.
The prospect of violence involving untrained gunmen “is why I don’t like groups like that thinking they’re helping us,” Dirkse said. “We would never ask for assistance from a unit — I don’t want to even give them the stance of a `unit’ — from a group like that.”
Oakdale has put up with more than its share of this macho nonsense. On Wednesday, tough-guy counterprotesters tried intimidating an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter gathering that presented zero threat to property.
Saturday’s pathetic mini-war game had little to do with Second Amendment rights to bear arms. By law, any home or business owner has a right to defend her property, so sharpshooter aspirants on the roof of a bar Saturday probably did not run afoul of the law, while posers on the public sidewalk likely broke it because California is not an open-carry state.
Members of the California State Militia or any such group wanting to play army can do so to their hearts’ content somewhere safe, far from public streets and sidewalks. Their silly display in Oakdale protected no one, needlessly raised tension and had potential for terrible disaster.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 7:14 AM.