![]() ![]() ![]() Jensen said he felt compelled to join because he "believed in the oath that we took to support the U.S. Jensen told the AP he paid for a one-year membership in 2014 but never received any Oath Keepers' literature, attended any meetings or renewed his membership. Phil Jensen, who won a June Republican primary in his bid for reelection. 6 was too much for many of those folks," she said.Īmong the elected officials whose name appears on the membership lists is South Dakota state Rep. That's partly because Oath Keepers had been associated so strongly with Rhodes that the removal of the central figure had an outsized impact, and partly because many associated with the group were often those who wanted to be considered respectable in their communities, she said. 6 and Rhodes' arrest, the group has struggled to keep members, she said. The Oath Keepers has grown quickly along with the wider anti-government movement and used the tools of the internet to spread their message during Barack Obama's presidency, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim deputy director of research with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers - including Rhodes - have been charged in connection with the Jan. It asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic," promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny. The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. Mobley told the AP in an email that he distanced himself from the Oath Keepers years ago over concerns about its involvement in the standoff against the federal government at the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, among other things. ![]() "Their views are far too extreme for me," said Shawn Mobley, sheriff of Otero County, Colorado. Some said they were never dues-paying members. Some people on the list contacted by The Associated Press said they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. Even the simplest act of communication, reaching out on social media to an athlete or club, can provide a meaningful and much needed point of contact and demonstrate positivity.Appearing in the Oath Keepers' database doesn't prove that a person was ever an active member of the group or shares its ideology. We simply need to readjust our focus and to look at both what we can do in the current environment and how we can do it. It’s incredibly important for us to remember this and realise that the LETR still has an important role to play in keeping people connected, active and healthy. What we need to ensure is that that we align with the edicts and wishes of Special Olympics and seek to protect both our athletes and ourselvesĮven though our normal ways of doing LETR activities are forced to change for the foreseeable future, what doesn’t change is the fact that under normal circumstances our athletes were already some of the most vulnerable and socially isolated members of our communities. We are heading into uncharted waters with no real understanding or expectation as to when life may return to normal. Whilst the council cannot ‘instruct’ programs, we recommend that all LETR activities should now be postponed or cancelled for the foreseeable future. We are living in a rapidly changing environment, with the obvious risk being that any specific advice provided today could well be redundant tomorrow, given the pace of the pandemic and the reactions and responses of governments in the many countries that the Law Enforcement Torch Run operate. On Thursday, 26 March 2020, the LETR International Executive Council met (by videoconference) to discuss a number of important issues that had arisen in the past month.Īmongst those points of discussion was the question of whether we (the Council) should publish advice or guidance to LETR Programs about how best to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. ![]()
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