The week of May 25, before George Floyd’s name entered the lexicon of black men killed by police somewhere in these United States of America, I sent a Public Records Act request to Ben Harvey, city manager of Pacific Grove. My request was based on a text message I received over Memorial Day weekend from a resident asking me if I was familiar with The Three Percenters and Molon Labe.
I wasn’t, but I got a very quick education.
The Three Percenters, or III% as the name sometimes appears, is a far-right militia group whose name comes from the misguided belief that only 3 percent of colonists took up arms against the British during the Revolutionary War. If they sound familiar to you, it’s because a group of Three Percenters, along with other protesters at a Memorial Day event, breached barriers in front of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s residence and hung Beshear in effigy, along with the quote “sic semper tyrannis,” from a nearby tree. The Anti-Defamation League has a writeup about the group under the header of “Extremism, Terrorism & Bigotry.” Percenterism is one of three core components in the anti-government militia movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Molon Labe, meanwhile, comes from the ancient Greek for “Come and take them” and refers to the demand by Xerces that the Spartans lay down their weapons. Gun rights advocates have seized on the emblem of Molon Labe – usually a face in profile wearing a Spartan helmet or sometimes the Marvel comics’ “Punisher” skull – as representative of their beliefs. And that’s ironic, Esquire writer and former Army Lt. Col. Robert Batemen pointed out, because Molon Labe glorifies “the most rigidly controlled military state in the ancient world in which the individual had almost no rights.”
Why is any of this relevant to Pacific Grove?
Because a member of the Pacific Grove Police Department has those images on his personal vehicle, which late last month was parked for multiple days at the police station, where Germain Hatcher, a P.G. resident, a black woman and a business owner who works across the street from the police station, spent days looking at it and wondering if the world had indeed turned upside down.
I don’t know the officer’s name and I haven’t yet received a response to the PRA request. But P.G. Chief Cathy Madalone, whose response to the situation once it was brought to her attention was swift and decisive, wants people to know: “This is not what we stand for here and I take it very seriously.
“We do not espouse the values held by Three Percenters and Molon Labe,” she says. “That officer is currently not working and I promise you, I’m addressing it.”
For Madalone, this isn’t a matter of bad optics. And the optics aside – with just a small nod to the irony that a guy who espouses anti-government beliefs still takes a check from the government – Hatcher says she worries about how an officer who would espouse those beliefs might relate to the community.
“It erodes confidence in the police department and it’s a huge problem for me,” she says. “I see a lot of these police every day and they are lovely individuals. But if anything goes on over here, who do I call?
“I’m not anti-police,” she adds. “But I’m also not confident that if something happens, would I be able to walk away from that transaction?”
Hatcher describes her business as a politically neutral space; she wants everyone, regardless of their beliefs, to feel comfortable there. “You can be or think anything you want, but you don’t get to impose that on anyone else. But you see (the emblems) and think, this is a full meal of everything that is wrong,” she says.
In the background, there have been demonstrations every day in Monterey County since May 30, as people come together to express outrage and grief over Floyd’s killing. There’s a demand for change in the air, and Madalone wants the demonstrators who plan to come to Lovers Point on June 10 for one such event to know that she and her officers want to stand with them.
She requests the organizers get in touch with her – she wants to offer up snacks and water to the crowd, in addition to the PGPD’s presence.
(16) comments
I do not like it one bit that this police officer had right wing militia stickers on his car. We are living right now in a country whose leader, Donald Trump, has embraced fascism. He has sent his "Camo Shirts" to Portland to do exactly what Hitler's Brown Shirts did: terrorize citizens! Regarding the 3%, they are a right wing fringe militia group, and use the Second Amendment as some sort of excuse for their existence. In the meanwhile, gun violence in this nation is way beyond what it is elsewhere in the world. There virtually is no real gun control. When right wing militias show up in state capitol's and threaten the governor (Lansing, MIchigan and Governor Witmer), sporting their AK 47's and camo gear, Trump cheers them on and calls them "liberators.". They are on his side of the political spectrum, the Far Right! He's wasn't going to send the "Camo Shirts" there to stop any "revolt" of right wing fringe group of whackadoodles, but he sends them to a city, Portland, which is known for being quite left, though the Proud Boys operate there and are in constant fights with Anti-Fa; but the Proud Boys, a right wing Trump supporting group, aren't the "Camo Shirts" target, and either are the Bugaoloo Boys, who have caused trouble at BLM protests as agitators trying to get things blamed on BLM!. No, their target is average citizens of Portland who are protesting the BLM; and when does a few tags on a federal building have anything to do with such a horrible response as the one we saw on TV the other day, of a Navy Vet and Annapolis grad, who is at least 60 years old, being beaten up by Trump's goon squad!?
Personally, I do not trust any cops who would outwardly let their views be known on their vehicle, especially if they are views that I do not agree with, and I do not agree with any right wing viewpoints politically, especially in this time as this nation is in the grips of a leader who is a wanna-be fascist dictator, Dictator Donald Trump!
Here’s some interesting information on the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers.
Anti-Defamation League
The ADL has been around a long time and although leaning left, are considered a reliable and fair source of investigative reporting on hate groups. They do not declare the Three Percenters or Oath Keepers as violent or racist.
https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/three-percenters
https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/oath-keepers-and-three-ers-part-of-growing-anti-government-movement
Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC was founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 1971 with a staff of three. Today with a staff of 360 and an endowment of nearly $500 million, the SPLC is one of the best known anti-hate organizations in America. The SPLC Intelligence Project listed 576 extreme antigovernment groups active in 2019 including 181militias. They say their list “does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities or are racist.” In fact SPLC also states “Many antigovernment groups are not racist.” Neither the Three-Percenters nor the Oath Keepers are in their list; apparently they are not considered extremist.
Here is a count of their list by Ideology
Anti-Immigrant 20
Anti-LGBTQ 70
Anti-Muslim 84
Black Separatist 255
Christian Identity 11
General Hate 87
Hate Music 15
Holocaust Denial 7
Ku Klux Klan 47
Male Supremacy 1
Neo-Confederate 26
Neo-Nazi 59
Neo-Volkisch 45
Racist Skinhead 48
Radical Traditional Catholicism 10
White Nationalist 155
The only reference to the FBI is that in 2016, three Kansas men quit the Three Percenters to create “The Crusaders” which plotted an attack on a mosque and an apartment complex that was foiled by the FBI. It is possible the FBI were tipped-off by the Three Percenters.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/09/06/three-percent-security-forces-split-highlights-plague-infighting
Wikipedia
Wikipedia lists 16 domestic terror groups but neither Three Percenters nor Oath Keepers are on the list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_terrorism_in_the_United_States
The Department of Homeland Security report on Countering Violent Extremism mentions neither Three Percenters nor Oath Keepers. But ANTIFA, RAHOWA (Racial Holy War), ZOG, Skinheads, Crusaders, Sovereign Citizen, the National Socialist Movement, and several others were mentioned.
https://www.hsdl.org/?collection&id=86563
FBI
I haven’t found any lists of hate or violent groups published by the FBI; but this link might be interesting.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt
California Labor Code § 1101 prohibits employers from having “any rule, regulation, or policy” (1) forbidding or preventing employees from engaging or participating in politics or running for office; or (2) “controlling or directing, or tending to control or direct the political activities or affiliations of employees.” That statute prohibits employers from taking action against employees for their political activities that don’t directly affect their job performance. So employers in California are not allowed to discriminate based on political activities or affiliations. Employers are, however, allowed to take action when employees’ expression of their political views affects their job performance or that of co-workers.
You nailed it Sarah ! And job performance with respect to safety officers is partially measured in their ability to connect with trust with members of the community they are protecting.
I generally find Monterey County Weekly's reporting to be a reliable, high-quality source of local information. This article however is so terrible that I have no idea how it got past your editors.
I agree that government officials, and police officers in general, should leave their politics at home. But there is absolutely no indication that this officer let their personal politics interfere at all with their professional duties. The only evidence used to vilify this officer is a pair of bumper stickers that the author clearly has no understanding of beyond a quick google search that lead to questionable websites (SPLC and ADL, really?).
The fact is that the "III%" and "Molon Labe" slogans are both common pro-2A messages used to advocate for our civil rights. The right to bear arms is a civil right, with the citizen's ability to resist government power implicit in the exercise and explicit in the wording of the right. Promoting that right is neither an act of violence or insurrection. Now more than ever I would think that people like the author would see how important our individual civil rights are, with the current and ongoing backdrop of government sponsored violations of those rights.
Furthermore, there is zero chance that the officer in question is actually involved with some sort of organized anti-government militia. That is like claiming that everybody with a BLM sticker is an actual Black Panthers member. It is absolute slanderous nonsense to make these associations in your newspaper.
This is nothing more than a modern day witchhunt, promoted by the author simply because it happens to align with their beliefs. Would you be similarly supportive of actions taken against an officer with a "Resist" bumper sticker? How could an officer with a "Resist" sticker carry out their duties when they are so clearly anti-government?
I am disappointed in this publication today. I hope that you can drop the misinformed and harmful political nonsense and return to your regular high-quality content.
I'd like to add the oath that the III% organization promotes for its members who are police officers:
1. I will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
2. I will NOT obey orders to conduct illegal searches of the American people
3. I will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.
4. I will NOT obey orders to impose unjustified martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.
5. I will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
6. I will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities and thus turning them into giant concentration camps/civilian war zones.
7. I will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under ANY pretext.
8. I will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control."
9. I will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10. I will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Which of these are "far-right" ideals? Why would we not want our police officers to follow these rules? Aren't several of them (4 and 10 in particular) of extreme importance at this very moment?
Amen Ben, AMEN!!!
As someone who wants to see major government reform in terms of accountability throughout the system, I'm actually very bothered by this. I have also been surprised by poor interactions with a PG police officer.
If he had advertised his affiliations while acting in an official capacity I would understand this reaction, but people, including police officers, have the right to express their beliefs and affiliations and certainly if solely maintained in the realm of their own private lives. There is one exception: if it is shown that he is likely to fail at his duties due to a private complication (e.g., member of an actively prejudiced group). Being a member of a militia does not imply a likely degradation of performance. Him a member of a "militia" is also his right, and the fact that we all aren't members of a militia only shows how far we have moved away from the roots of our nation, supposedly founded upon the individual's liberty.
So long as the officer performs his duties and serves his all of his fellow citizens respectfully I welcome him to exercise his freedom and liberty (including freedom of speech). If his position actually is actively against the present implementation of government then his removal from his position is only justifying his supposed anti-government position as they are officially punishing him for expressing himself!
Freedom of speech and of association are enshrined in the Constitution. But even private affiliations and beliefs that could reasonably cause unease or distrust within a significant portion of the community an individual serves are an issue, if those affiliations and beliefs are widely known or advertised. For example, an individual with a Confederate Flag or an Antifada sticker on their vehicle that they part at work, would likely make it difficult and uncomfortable for some members of the community feel safe under the protection of that individual, and that would grounds for some kind of work action. That is unless the person's beliefs in question fell under the auspices of a protected class.
For example - A teacher in Texas was removed from her position because parents didn't like her showing a picture of her and her wife together in Finding Nemo Halloween costumes (not risqué). She sued and won because sexual orientation / gender identity is a protected class. Not so with personal associations that are broadcast.
Political affiliations/activities are a protected class in California.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/california-employment-discrimination-31690.html
@Daniel Retta,
If you were actually a hiring manager or HR person, your would realize that your link is incorrect. There are indeed California protections for people's political affiliations/activities, but they do not constitute a Protected Class. Your political activities and outward messaging, to the extent that they affect your ability to do your job (including being trusted by the community, in the case of safety officers), can legally affect your employment.
Also it is and should be against any moral code and law to slander someone for their beliefs so bad that they would lose their career! Especially an officer who may not have any black Mark's on his record! Did anyone care to research his performance as an officer?
I agree with all your points, this "reporter" needs to dig a little deeper.
I know I am new to this news site, but I have to point out the absolute contradiction here! You ask us to be truthful in our comments and I will be! This article is a blatant lie!!! Three percenters are nothing more than Veterans and first responders having sworn an oath to the Constitution persons upholding their oath just as another group Oathkeepers does! Molon Labe is a term used by those who support our second amendment rights! Just because someone supports our second amendment and has sworn to uphold our Constitution does not make them a right wing extremist! If that were so then every President, every soldier, every police officer and every elected official would then have to be deemed a right wing extremist! Do not know where you people are getting your facts, but I suggest you do more research otherwise you may just be labeled fake news!
Even if the 3 Percenters and Molon Labe are as innocuous and as "American" as you make them out to be, which they are not, public employees who serve the community have to be careful about actively broadcasting beliefs that might make community members feel uncomfortable with them. And who cares about a clean record - a 2 time Teacher of the Year in Mansfield Texas was pulled from her classroom and reassigned for showing a picture of her and her wife in Finding Nemo Halloween costumes. That doesn't matter if your publicized beliefs (via a bumper sticker) run counter to community norms.
Do a quick Google search of those two terms and you'll find considerable criminal activity associated with both, even if it is via splinter groups. A quick visit to the 3 Percenter Facebook page highlights a fair amount of anti-Liberal hate-speak, all protected by the First Amendment, but certainly not something that would instill confidence that a 3 Percenter would serve and protect with equal consideration to all members of the populace.
ps: Orange Count has also removed an officer that had a III Percenter patch attached to his uniform during recent enforcement actions. Just distracts from their ability serve.
https://www.ocregister.com/2020/06/03/oc-sheriffs-deputy-investigated-for-wearing-right-wing-patch-on-uniform-at-a-george-floyd-protest/
And the Professional Victim movement should not get to set the narrative. I'm confident that you would lose your mind if this incident had been over a BLM sticker.
The 3 Percenters are not a club that you have to join or a militia you swear an oath too. Is acknowledgment of a self belief that has to do with government over-reach, as does those who embrace Molon Labe. Any facebook page or online forums that you find that advocate those causes aren’t run by some national governing body. It is some individual that has created it. And just like in any cause, the militancy of that person can vary and does not necessarily reflect of the attitudes of the next supporter, or the general average attitude of the whole.
BLM has extreme elements and participants. They have been associated with more murders than the III Percenters (Dallas in 2016 - five cops dead). Are you saying that the group as a whole in inclined to "considerable criminal activity" and embrace anti-Conservative "hate-speak"? Should a law enforcement officer with a BLM sticker on their personal car be subject to reprimand?
Are you (and the author of the original article) going to start tracking down cops who own Hawaiian shirts because that means they are part of the Boogaloo movement (which Wikipedia says has links to white supremacists, so it MUST be true)? I’m positive it’s only a matter of time before you spin that an NRA sticker means that an officer secretly is looking for the chance to kill someone.
The active Left has worked tirelessly to make anyone with Conservative leanings, or who believes themselves to be a patriot, to be labeled as neo-Nazis and white nationalists. As morally corrupt as that campaign has been, it has been quite effective. But thank goodness that we are still a nation that enshrines the right to free speech. I'd say that I was sorry that you don't have a right to not be offended, but I'm never go to lose any sleep over the fact that no American has or deserves that right.
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