“Ready to speak at the polls” – Corriere.it

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Blood Agent, the commander of Georgia Security Force III%, which is the paramilitary militia of the Three Percent of this Southern State, in everyday life his name is Chris Hill and he is a plump 46-year-old of average height, medium tattoos, hair thin and reddish beard, with a boring job (he doesn’t tell me more) in Morrow, a suburb of Atlanta. That’s where he finds me, in front of a nondescript office building on Jonesboro Road. He gets in the car, we’re going to have a coffee at an outdoor bar. Those who put me in contact with him say that in the movement (300 groups of Three percent in the 50 states, for a total of 15-20 thousand militiamen) some criticize him because he talks too much. Above all, aggressive claims on the network, since it has broken all ties with the American press. “I’m fed up,” he explains, “of being called a violent racist. Let’s see if you foreigners can be more objective.

Well, don’t you cultivate the myth of white supremacy?

“No. There are those who think so, but what matters to us is the defense of our freedoms. Among my men there are also Hispanics and African Americans.”

“Of course. The hardest part of my job is recruitment: in my military, 350 men, I do not accept neo-Nazis, people from the Ku Klux Klan or people who have served in white supremacy groups. Neither are people who cannot bearing arms after a criminal conviction. “

Are they not even considered Trump’s militia? Wear your own bracelet. The president has invited you on television to “back off, wait” – are you ready for action if he asks you?

“Don’t mix everything up: I’m a Trump supporter like most of my men, but not all. I already told you: we are not a political organization, we defend principles. We exist before Trump and we will exist after. In that message, he told the Proud Boys that they are different: more political, less ideal. And they also accept people with a fairly dirty criminal record. “

Are you not involved in politics? Do the police in the rallies of the Republican candidates in Georgia. Trump called for surveillance at polling stations on Election Day Tuesday. In Michigan, militias prepare to preside over them. And you?

Make a mess again. The ones moving to Michigan are the Oath Keepers. We here in Georgia are not going to do it. Wasted time and resources, unless abuse is reported. If they call us, we are ready to intervene. For the rest, yes, we are almost all Trumpians and we support their candidates, but not the conspiracy theories: QAnon’s, to me, suck. “

In short, who are you? What’s the difference between you and the Oath Keepers given, furthermore, that their founder – you were born in 2008 in reaction to the Obama presidency – came from that movement?

«I already told you: we are people -especially veterans of various weapons and former policemen- who organize ourselves in an almost military way to defend certain values. The Oath Keepers are similar only in appearance: they speak and march like a militia, but they do not have a military organization.

What military experience did you have? And why did he join the Three Percent (name linked to the mistaken belief that only 3 percent of American settlers participated in the war of liberation from British rule)?

“I spent four years in the Marines. Based in Okinawa, Hawaii and then Virginia as an instructor. I joined the military in 2012. Fed up with government corruption: an increasingly unrecognizable America.

Obama has not radically changed it. Couldn’t he stand a black president?

“He threatened our right to arm ourselves, he wanted to extend the sovereignty of the federal government, to make it enter local realities: we do not accept it, it is against Land law».

Do you want to weaken the state? Anarchist temptations like those of the Boogaloo Bois, does the movement seem more agitated and dangerous?

Here we go again: Boogaloos are something else, not even politically labelable. I am not a military and there is everything inside, from anarchists to neo-Nazis. We defend our freedoms, we reject state interference. We recognize authority, but above all we respect local authority: for us the sheriff is the true guarantor of Land law. Try to understand: there are states, like New York, that have introduced laws Red flag– Means all it takes is a suspicious neighbor and two federal FBI agents can come to your home and disarm you. Even if you have not committed any crime. It is enough for an old woman to say that she feels threatened by you.

Well, if you run with semi-automatic weapons of war and a magazine with 45 rounds …

“It is not for the government to decide what weapons can scare people and what capacity a magazine can have. The Constitution gives us unlimited freedom to arm ourselves precisely against the danger of the government turning into a tyrant. For us it is tyrannical if it does not fully respect the Second Amendment and considers illegal the behavior of citizens who, instead, respect it.

There are collective interests to protect. As in the case of the coronavirus epidemic. I see you allergic to masks. Your ideological dispute too?

“At first I was scared too: I gave my wife and two children the gas masks that I had in my army. Then I realized that everything is a hoax: a slightly more serious infectious disease, nothing more. And who raises the alarm every day? Johns Hopkins. Who finances it? The Rockefellers: they are the ones who rule the world, they want to go back to globalization.

Simplified schemes, sometimes based on unfounded theories, Chris’s: close to those of Trumpians opposed to multiculturalism and a world without barriers. They would like an America that was only Christian, outside the abortion law, immigrants only from Europe. The liberal left in power alongside the pc worldie the digital elite, it is a nightmare scenario.

With Biden as president, will you and the other groups continue to train and display their weapons (also to break the monotony of post-military life) or will you rebel? Is there a risk of insurrection?

“We are individualists, coordination between such different groups is impossible. I answer for my men: we are not violent, we need weapons to defend freedoms. But if they are violated, rebellion is not an option: it becomes a duty.