Armed & Dangerous: Several groups using the name "militia" have appeared in Florida.(6)
Among them are groups whose handbooks and leaflets variously engage
in anti-Semitic innuendo. serve up alarmist warnings of a government
conspiracy to abolish individual rights (especially gun ownership
rights), and specify the amount of ammunition and other material each
militia member is expected to carry.
One such outfit is the Florida State Militia, whose prime mover is
Robert Pummer of Stuart, in Martin County. Pummer, a Kansas native
who was a drug dealer in Michigan in the early 1970's and served time
for second-degree murder, has been agitating on some of the same
issues exploited by militia-style groups around the country: gun
control, the Branch Davidian conflagration in Waco, the Randy Weaver
siege at Ruby Ridge in Idaho, allegations of Russian and other
foreign troops operating on U.S. soil, and other conspiracy-minded
themes. He claims members in every Florida county.
The Florida State Militia's handbook, published by Pummer, declares:
"We have had enough -- enough drugs and crime, enough violence and
bloodshed, enough Waco- and Ruby Ridge-style government attacks on
Christian Americans." The handbook explains how to organize militia
regiments. It prescribes the recommended survival gear and weaponry:
"BUY AMMO NOW! YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY IT LATER! while expressing
worry over the possibility of infiltration, the handbook offers the
following reassurance: "[Y]ou still have your inner circle, and this
the FBI, ATF, or any other federal scumbags cannot penetrate, if you
keep up your guard."
Publications contained in a "Patriot List" in the Florida State
Militia's handbook include several anti-Semitic periodicals: The
Spotlight, organ of the Washington. D.C.-based Liberty Lobby, the
wealthiest and most active anti-Semitic propaganda organization in
the country: The Truth At Last, an obsessively anti-Black and
anti-Jewish hate sheet produced by longtime extremist Ed Fields of
Marietta. Georgia; Criminal Politics, a conspiracy-oriented
anti-Semitic, "anti-Zionist" and anti-establishment monthly; and The
National Educator, whose pages have honored the leaders of the
far-right terrorist gang called The Order and the neo-Nazi
paramilitary group, Aryan Nations. The handbook says a short-wave
radio is an essential piece of communications equipment. It
particularly endorses the Liberty Lobby-controlled program "Radio
Free America" as one source that transmits "what the mainstream media
will not tell you ."
Pummer's militia sponsored an Information Fair and Campout in St.
Lucie County on the weekend of September 17, 1994. The event
attracted approximately 100 attendees, including some parents who
came with their children. Most attendees carried firearms, including
some semi-automatic weapons. Many wore knives. A workshop on radio
communications was conducted by a man who identified himself as a
retired police chief and Air Force officer. All attendees were
encouraged to attend the U.S. Constitution Restoration Rally in
Lakeland. Florida. on October 1 (see below).
A Key Largo-based group calls itself alternately the United States
Militia and the 1st Regiment Florida State Militia. Making a specious
claim to legitimacy from such documents as the U.S. Constitution, the
Federalist Papers, the Florida Constitution and Florida statutes,
this group has been attempting to recruit members at "patriotic" and
anti-gun control gatherings in Florida. Mimicking the style of the
Declaration of Independence, its literature speaks of a "Train of
Abuses" perpetrated on state and local governments and the citizenry
by the federal government. "Just as our Founding Fathers of this
country shook off their shackles of bondage," the group declares, "so
must we."
The militia's regulations state that "County units will be organized
in each county of the state." Militia members are told to expect to
spend one weekend a month engaging in unit activities including
rallies, shooting events and fund raisers. A list of suitable
equipment is provided, which includes one thousand rounds of
ammunition per weapon and six 30-round magazines for each militia
member. While the group's regulations state that "The unit may not be
used against the police or governmental authority within the state of
Florida," an exception may be made when such an "entity" commits
"crimes of violation of their oath of officer and "of "sections or
articles of the Constitution of the United States of America and of
this state."
The United States Militia's material was distributed at a U.S.
Constitution Restoration Rally in Lakeland, Florida, on October 1,
1994. Attended by 1,000 to 1,500 people, the event was sponsored by
Operation Freedom, an outfit created by Charles and Ruth Ann Spross
of Maitland Florida. The Sprosses describe their effort as a "for
profit partnership," and, indeed, they offer for sale scores of video
and book titles, such as "The Planned Destruction of America" and
Linda Thompson's "Waco, The Big Lie." Featured on the schedule at the
October 1 gathering was a speech by M. J. "Red" Beckman, of Montana,
who has been influential in the militia movement in his home state.
Distributed along with the speakers program at the rally was a sheet
bearing the heading: "Paul Revere Rides Again." It proclaimed: "A
strong and growing Underground Patriotic Movement with state-wide
militia groups exists against The Sinister Ones that is unreported by
the monopolistic and controlled establishment media." (sic)
Identifying such enemies as the House of Rothschild, international
bankers, the Federal Reserve System and the Trilateral Commission,
the flier asked: "What is the range of British and Israeli influence
in the upper tiers?" It urged readers to "Stockpile food, water, guns
and ammo. Never surrender your weapons.... Subscribe to the weekly
populist newspaper The Spotlight.... Form or attend meetings with
other spirited patriots.... Consider yourself warned!"
Also distributed in large numbers at the rally was a flier urging
that "All Gun Owners Should Fire A WARNING SHOT As A Signal To The
New Congress" on November 11 at 11:00 pm. "Congress has failed to
safeguard the Bill of Rights," it reads, "especially the 2nd
Amendment." It further declares:
A warship will fire a warning shot across the bow, a rattlesnake will
sound off: these warnings are never ignored. It is time to warn
politicians that if they do not respect the Bill of Rights they
should at least fear the wrath of the People. Congress is forcing the
country into a civil war.
A group in Tampa that claims alignment with a national "patriot
movement" has ordered four judges and several Hillsborough County
officials, including the tax collector, to give themselves up for
arrest to the group's so-called Constitutional Court. Founder of the
group, Emilio Ippolito, and his daughter, Susan Mokdad, reportedly
said they have an unarmed militia composed of volunteers to execute
the Constitutional Court's orders. Subsequently, Ed Brown, an
activist with an armed militia group in New Hampshire, contacted
Florida law enforcement authorities, prosecutors' offices and the
Florida Bar Association to express support for Ippolito's court.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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