NATION/WORLD The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 23, 1996 -11A Militia's ranks are swelling nationwide Los Angeles Times PLAINFIELD, N.H.-It is five miles to State Highway 120, 15 miles to the county seat of Claremont, 50 to the state capital of Concord and 500 to the federal center of power in Washington. Inside Ed. Brown's two-story wood bin between the Green and White Wountains, there is a government of one. His. A year ago, Brown was known to few aroundhere. His place is up along Blow- Me-Down Brook. His "No Trespass- ing" and "No Hunting" signs out front ward off «I's j any motorists or hikers who hap- becoming pen by. But in the last monumea year, the veil has lifted from around numbers Brown's reclu- sive life. His tele- phone now rings incessantly, so University much thathis own phone bill reaches $700 amonth. He has set up an office on the second floor. ' Where he once pored over maps and paramilitary manuals, he now writes anti-government speeches and leads a loose contingent of armed militias in the backwoods of New England. Like the iron-gray pistol always tucked tightly in his waistband, Brown has found a brand new sense of security. What happened a year ago to change everything was the bombing of the fed- eral building in Oklahoma City. The evastation in Middle America turned a ational spotlight on the country's mi- litia movement. But a strange thing took place. Most law enforcement officials and private experts thought the public's anger oyer Oklahoma City would all but shut down the militias and other far- flung extremist groups. But today their numbers have in- creased, by some counts manifold, both by new members joining their ranks and others, such as the 53-year-old Brown, who no longer are afraid for the world to know their politics. Among the public at large, the share of Americans expressing sympathy for themilitiamovement--a minority, but a substantial one - has not declined at all since the bombing. A Los Angeles Times Poll conducted just after the bombing found 13 percent of Ameri- cans said they were at least "somewhat sympathetic" with "armed citizen mili- 1A galmost vital. The are quite - Gerald Carroll of Iowa adjunct professor tia groups," in- cluding 3 percent saying they were "very sympa- thetic." Now, the Times Poll, in a survey conducted nationwide April 13-16, finds 16 percent saying they are sympa- thetic, 3 percent very sympathetic - a change that is not statistically significant. cant part of the national mind-set? "It's just becoming almost monu- mental. The numbers are quite stagger- ing," said Gerald Carroll, an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa who has studied society's fringe element for the last two decades. "Who'd have thought they'd still be increasing like this after Oklahoma City? "But they're like a rattlesnake. If you step on a rattlesnake, it shakes its coil and raises up to strike you." The trend is seen as an odd reflection of the political mood across the country that still holds federal authority in dis- dain. Most people do not embrace the radi- cal theories put forth by the hard-core militias about the coming one-world government. And they deplore the at- tack against the Alfred P. Murrah Fed- eral Building in Oklahoma City, alleg- edly carried out by two defendants who had militia sympathies. But in many regions, public senti- ment remains tolerant or even sympa- thetic to the idea of bucking the power- ful government role in American life. Over the last year, this has helped to insulate the militias from blame associ- ated with the terrorist strike, while the exposure they have received from the incident has only helped them thrive. "Unfortunately, they've literally been able to get their paranoid, hateful mes- sage out to the world through this trag- edy in Oklahoma," said Danny Welch, director of the Klanwatch in the Deep South organization. Rather than being scorned, militia members have found a ready forum for their views. The major blows in stature to their longtime nemeses, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire- arms and other federal law enforcement agencies have emboldened them fur- ther. The current standoff in Montana between fugitive "Freemen" holed up on a ranch and FBI agents wary of going in after them has done nothing to detract from the image of strength. At least for now, the militias are clearly on a roll. Even in Oklahoma, the state trauma- tized by the bombing last April, militia groups are more vibrant, perhaps buoyed by a segment of public opinion that shares their belief that the government had some role in the blast. In New Hampshire, Brown recently sat back in his chair next to the wood stove, chain-smoking Ultra Light 100s, boasting about the movement's suc- cesses and warning all the louder that AP PHOTO "Col." Steve Doney, commander of the Kalamazoo Chapter of the Southern Michigan Regional Militia's 10th Brigade, speaks at a recruitment rally last year. change ("war," he calls it) is coming. Elsewhere, others are touting their new clout: Extremist leader John Trochmann was the keynote speaker at a Prepared- ness Expo last month in Las Vegas, one of countless conferences he has ap- peared at in the last year. A top official of the Militia of Mon- tana, the bearded, fiery-eyed Trochmann emerged as the guru of the telegenic far right after his debut before a Senate panel convened in the wake ofthe bomb- ing in Oklahoma City. Now he drives the talk-show circuit. (He never flies; he said he can't get his guns past the airport metal detectors.) "Attendance is up," he said in an interview in Las Vegas, surveying the several hundred-person audience that was about to hear his 30-minute spielin which he sells his books and videos. U In Del Mar, Calif., Charlene Alden and Terry Sanders are enthusiastic about a "Constitutionalists March" on Wash- ington they are planning for this sum- mer, much like the "Million Man March" last year. Similarly, the poll a year ago found 20 percent of Americans saying that the "activities of the federal government" pose a "major threat" to the constitu- tional rights of average citizens. In the current poll, 19 percent said that. Among the hard core of militia sup- porters, many groups have reorganized into smaller units in the last year, spread- ing out in more states. At the same time, dozens of local militias have coalesced under the banner of a nationwide um- brella group. They have staged several regional training sessions around the country in the last year. Pulled together, they speak in a louder national voice. To federal law enforcement and pri- vate monitors who track their activities, the phenomenon has been a bewilder- ment that raises new alarms over how far the movement will grow. Could the groundswell loosely called the patriot movement be evolving into a signifi- r 74hMICHIGAN --Mmmmmwmm vr 0% daarw o A.0em - 5, ,xric realUpeople real music. , Every Bite Helps! Ca p s Food!11111D Drive...... Move-Ot19 April 29 - May 3 May 6- May 10 Bring your unopened, nonperishable surplus canned goods to the following campus-area congregations between 9-5 weekdays during the 2-week period: First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor 512 E. Huron, Near State Street First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor 120 S. State Street (Across from the Frieze Bldg.) This food recovery program is sponsored by the Hunger Coalition and collected by Food Gatherers. For information on disposing of refuse, reusables, and recyclables, off-campus call the City of Ann Arbor's 24-hour information line at 99-Green. On-Campus Disposal, call 764-3422. Printed on Recycled Paper. " - M phone: 663.5800 1140 south university (above goodtime chadeys), AA mon.-thurs.: 9:00a-10:00p sundays fri.& sat.: 9:00a-11:00p ll: a-8:Oop i r. r i i rrrrr i i rM-" Munk sAW 1 1 to . n I I I ;: >k '{A .4*MgirYt'N Y 4AfF RVKtnlr r}i. i Rv+/nM 1 CPRATES5 &R 6ltsiCa Aes wed 'J e wik vec )fu,' klyp you w;1nyourve w. 9AlCfrDAof CDLPf 4v tAOk/ already~& 4t .11 T 4 % -I". I I *a in AN i I"99 I A 4 1 *91 "If only someone had reminded -w / . . ® .; cfltv., p IM 1t 5 )1 1 'ocr 01--f (MVSIC . j-4f/sac~tz cwR cRE me..." 'CULtN4FLY( &V %Vt * POKeZv * I'll I II 1ur m~