If you’ve been watching the news lately or even scrolled through social media, you’ve seen the protests for the Black Lives Matter movement that have been happening worldwide for the past few months. These protests have recently been infiltrated by armed militias consisting mostly of white men, who claim to be protecting small businesses from the supposed violent nature of the protests. However, as we’ve been seeing through videos and posts, many of these protests start off peacefully and only turn violent in the face of confrontation by the armed militia men or the police.
Now if you’re like me, the word “militia” probably sounds scary and may remind you of learning about the American Revolution back in a history class. But these armed militia groups are a little different. Generally, they’re formed on Facebook pages and share military tactics to “protect businesses”. Of course, these groups aren’t affiliated with the government or police officers but even then, police officers generally don’t condemn them, which tends to send them the message that their actions are acceptable if not encouraged. The men showing up to the protests are dressed in what appears to be military uniforms, giving off the impression that they are part of an official entity.
Many of these groups can be traced back to protests from long ago but we’ve seen them showing up more than ever this year. In fact, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, militia groups have shown up to Black Lives Matter protests at least 55 times since they began in the spring. One of the most recent examples was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where protests became more frequent after the police shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake. The group, calling themselves the Kenosha Guard, posted a call-to-action on Facebook, urging individuals who were “patriots willing to take up arms and defend our city tonight from evil thugs” to come to the protest ready with weapons. A 17-year-old white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, who appeared to be responding to the Facebook post, showed up to a protest one night with an assault rifle, killing 2 people and injuring a third. It turns out that earlier that day, Rittenhouse said he was in Kenosha because his job is to “protect people and businesses”, the common theme all of these militia groups are built upon.
Another common theme among these militia groups circles around race: all the members involved tend to be white men. This significantly worsens race relations between Black people and White people. The protests are happening due to police brutality towards Black people in America, and in response, these men are showing up and inciting more violence rather than respecting their cause. As more police brutality shootings occur, the frequency of these protests increase and so does the frequency of these militia groups showing up. And despite all this, police still aren’t condemning the violence, indirectly supporting these groups and pushing Black people even further into a corner of feeling unsafe and unprotected.
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