Portland police investigation clears officer who joined Oath Keepers militia

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/14/portland-police-investigation-clears-officer-who-joined-oath-keepers-militia/

A Portland Police Bureau investigation concluded that one of its officers did not violate professional conduct directives when he joined the Oath Keepers in 2018.

A monthlong internal affairs investigation that concluded in December confirmed Officer Joseph Webber joined the militia. In an interview explaining his membership in the group, Webber told investigator Stacey Rovinelli that 2018 “was kind of hard times for law enforcement.”

“I heard they were pro-law enforcement,” Webber told Rovinelli. “So, I looked at their website, nothing bad because I’m obviously, like, trying not to associate with anything bad. They looked okay. They were pro-Constitution and things like that.”

The Oath Keepers are an anti-government militia group founded in 2009 that recruits people with experience in law enforcement and the military to prepare for what the organization characterizes as an inevitable armed conflict with the U.S. government.

The Oath Keepers have faced intense scrutiny for years because of extremist activity, but that attention reached a new height after federal prosecutors alleged the group helped organize the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. This week, the U.S. House committee investigating the attack revealed startling details about the group’s efforts during the insurrection, including that they coordinated with the Proud Boys and Trump allies Roger Stone and Michael Flynn. Court records have also revealed the Oath Keepers brought explosives to D.C. prior to Jan. 6 and staged an armed quick reaction force just outside the city.

*snip*

That seems legit....

[CentralMass]

2. Go figure.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Lots of Oath Keepers around here, and they describe it as a pro-police, pro-military group.

They have the little decals on their vehicles, but I don't think their involvement goes much beyond that.

A few years back, they tied blue ribbons around trees in their yards to symbolize support of police.

[Nevilledog]

4. What makes you think their support doesn't go beyond that?

Look at the number of law enforcement involved in Jan. 6th.

[ck4829]

5. Police clear police, move along

[Historic NY]

6. They did a horseshit job of investigating remember the guys with the gun at the Bundy standoff

Few people had heard of Bundy and his ranch until a few days before the stand-off. Right-wing websites and advocacy groups such as Americans for Prosperity, founded by one of the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, cast his tale in a folksy David and Goliath light and helped spread it online.

Someone who has known Bundy since his early 1990s fall-out with the BLM is Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who founded the militia group Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.

Mack is also a prominent member of Oath Keepers, a similar group of serving or former soldiers, police and firefighters who view themselves as defenders of the U.S. Constitution. More than 100 Oath Keepers headed to the desert, Mack said.

Mack, who proposed putting women on the front line of the stand-off with the agents, said armed resistance was a justified response to a “totally unnecessary” show of force by the BLM.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ranchers-nevada-militia-insight-idUSBREA3G26620140417

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/the-irony-of-cliven-bundys-unconstitutional-stand/360587/

One local LE groups started making these people associate members, mind you they were not in any agency. It was time to stop supporting them then . This was just the beginning .

[RockRaven]

7. Fucking cops. People don't say ACAB because of stuff like this guy joining the Oath Keepers,

people say ACAB because of stuff like the conclusion of this IA investigation.

The organization's explicit purpose is to take up arms against the government. The claims that this was "muddled" in 2018 is 100% gas lighting bullshit. The conduct policy specifically forbids actions which "unduly erodes public trust" and during the investigation the joiner stated that joining would do that. But that doesn't violate department policy, because unnamed reasons. Yeah. Okay. Well then, all cops...

[empedocles]

8. Yep

[duckworth969]

9. Recruitment

The troubling thing for me is the obvious conflict of interest that recruiting the police into the Oath Keeper ranks can potentially cause.

The Law vs.The Lawless, Cop vs. Vigilante.

If shit goes sideways (which lately is happening a lot these days), where does their allegiance lie, with their brothers and sisters in blue or with their Oath Keeper militia buddies?