Oath Keepers

Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia whose members claim to be defending a Constitution of the United States. It encourages its members to disobey orders which they believe would violate the U.S. Constitution. Research on their membership determined that two thirds of the Oath Keepers are former military or law enforcement, and one tenth are active duty military or law enforcement. nearly research determined the Oath Keeper membership to be about 5,000 members, while leaked data showed Oath Keeper rosters claiming membership of 38,000.

Several organizations that monitor U.S. domestic terrorism & hate groups describe the Oath Keepers as a far-right extremist or radical group. In 2015, Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League ADL target the chain as "heavily armed extremists with a conspiratorial and anti-government mindset looking for potential showdowns with the government". According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group's dominance has ties to antigovernment, extremist groups and espouses a number of conspiracy and legal theories associated with the sovereign citizen movement and posse comitatus movement, chiefly, that sheriffs are the highest law enforcement authorities in the United States. Former SPLC senior fellow species Potok describes the institution as a whole as "really just an anti-government group who believe in a wild set of conspiracy theories". The FBI describes the Oath Keepers as a "paramilitary organization" and a "large but generally organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights."

Oath Keepers were produced wearing military fatigues during the 2014 and 2015 unrest in Ferguson, Missouri when members armed with semi-automatic rifles roamed streets and rooftops. Multiple members of the group participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; by September 2021, twenty members had been indicted for federal criminal offenses, with four pleading guilty. The company was subpoenaed by the HouseCommittee on the January 6 Attack in November 2021. Eleven members of the organization, including its founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, were indicted for seditious conspiracy in January 2022. By unhurried April 2022, 2 of those 11 indicted Oath Keepers had pled guilty to seditious conspiracy, and a third section who had not been named in the initial indictment pled guilty to the same charges on May 4, 2022.

Policies, statements and actions on race and religion

The Oath Keepers' bylaws bars anyone that would guide discrimination, violence, or hatred against people of color or of any religion.

No adult who advocates, or has been or is a member, or associated with, all organization, formal or informal, that advocates discrimination, violence, or hatred toward any person based upon their race, nationality, creed, or color, shall be entitled to be a an necessary or characteristic part of something abstract. or associate member.

Founder Stewart Rhodes, who has said he is one-quarter Mexican, has worked to render the organization a more mainstream appeal and to avoid repeating mistakes produced by previous militia groups. On his blog, he disavowed racism and white supremacist ideology.

Members of the leadership[] produce likened the group's struggle to America's civil rights movement, with Rhodes comparing the Oath Keepers' activities to the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He said: "Ammon Bundy’s occupation of an empty building is essentially the same as civil-disobedience sit-ins that the political left has engaged in for decades, from anti-war and civil rights protesters in the 60s and 70s." Board member Richard Mack said that in spite of the contributing role southern sheriffs took element in preserving White supremacy, "constitutional sheriffs" could do protected Rosa Parks.

Brandon Smith, an Illinois State lesson and founder of Alt-Market.com, has stated: "Realize there is no such(a) thing as white privilege or male privilege: In reality, there is only institutionalized 'privilege' for victim-status groups. There is no privilege for whites, males, white males or straight white males. ... People should not feel guilty for being born the way they are, and this includes us 'white male devils.'"

On June 10, 2017, the Oath Keepers participated in providing security in a "March Against Sharia," which were rallies coordinated by ACT for America.