# Virginia Declares State Of Emergency After Armed Militias Threaten To Storm The Capitol



## Black Ambrosia (Jan 16, 2020)

Intelligence groups report chatter echos Charlottesville rally, governor says.
ABC News





*Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency on Wednesday that bars any weapons from the Richmond’s Capitol Square from Friday to Tuesday, after he received credible intelligence that hate groups and armed militias are planning violence at next Monday’s Lobby Day against gun control legislation.*

Northam, who discussed the threats at a news conference, said *the* *state’s law enforcement analysis found that the chatter on the internet and other venues mirrored similar messages seen around the time of the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally, which left three dead and more than 30 injured.*

The governor declined to give exact details about the threats and the persons making them, but said that these groups, who were coming from outside of the state, talked about storming the Virginia Capitol.

*"They are not coming to peacefully protest, they are coming to intimidate and to cause harm," he said of the outside groups.*





Gun rights protesters hold signs prior to the start of a meeting of the Senate Judiciary committee at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Jan. 13, 2020.Steve Helber/AP, FILE
The announced weapons ban will include sticks, bats, chains, projectiles, and firearms, similar to the prohibitions issued on airlines and in courthouses, Northam said. State, Capitol and Richmond police officers will coordinate the safety in the square and set up checkpoints to make sure everyone adheres to the weapons ban.

"It makes no sense to ban every other weapon but allow firearms when intelligence shows a threat of an armed militia groups storming our capital," Northam said.

*Gun rights advocates from around the country plan on attending the state's Lobby Day on Monday to speak out against new gun control legislation that is moving forward under the newly Democratic-controlled Virginia House of Delegates and state Senate. Some of the bills include universal background checks on guns, an assault rifles ban and a "red flag" law that would give judges the authority to order an individual to temporarily turn in their weapon if they are deemed a threat.*

Seventeen states including New York and Florida, as well as Washington, D.C., have previously passed red flag laws.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League, VCDL, a group that describes itself as a "non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental human right of all Virginians to keep and bear arms," plans on holding a rally. Northam said he respects the rights of Virginians to protest and speak their mind about the gun control bills, but emphasized that he will not condone any threat of violence.

He called on the VCDL and other gun rights groups to stick to peaceful protests.

"I call on them to disavow anyone who wishes to use Monday’s rally to advance a violent agenda," Northam said. "Hate, intimidation and violence have no place here."

Representatives for the VCDL didn’t immediately return messages for comment.


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## Black Ambrosia (Jan 16, 2020)

I've been traveling so I may have missed it but I don't think this is getting the coverage it deserves. Also, it's interesting that Lobby Day coincides with the MLK holiday.


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## nyeredzi (Jan 16, 2020)

What is a lobby day? I tried to ask the internet. Is it a day set aside for citizens to lobby the government on a particular issue? Seems like they are held throughout the year?


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## Black Ambrosia (Jan 16, 2020)

nyeredzi said:


> What is a lobby day? I tried to ask the internet. Is it a day set aside for citizens to lobby the government on a particular issue? Seems like they are held throughout the year?



I'm not familiar with it tbh but that's basically it. According to wikipedia "Lobby Day is a name used by non-governmental organizations for select days, often annual, when lay members meet politicians or public servants at various levels to advocate and explain support for legislation relevant to the NGO."


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## Kanky (Jan 16, 2020)

White people have been acting crazy in the streets since Trump was elected. I am entertained. And avoiding the area.


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## Peppermynt (Jan 16, 2020)

Governor blackface did the right thing.

https://apple.news/AyjMvbgbxQu6j7B_V5JKMbQ

FBI arrests 3 white supremacists ahead of pro-gun rally

January 16, 2020 04:04 PM EST

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — FBI agents on Thursday arrested a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who are linked to a violent white supremacist group and were believed to be heading to a pro-gun rally next week in Virginia’s capital.

The three men are members of The Base and were arrested on federal charges in a criminal complaint unsealed in Maryland, according to a Justice Department news release.

Tuesday’s complaint charges Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, and Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, with transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony. William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, is charged with “ transporting and harboring aliens.”

The three men were believed to be planning to attend the pro-gun rally planned for Monday in Richmond, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation.

In encrypted chat rooms, members of The Base have discussed committing acts of violence against blacks and Jews, ways to make improvised explosive devices, their military-style training camps and their desire to create a white “ethno-state,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

Mathews and Lemley were arrested in Delaware and Bilbrough was arrested in Maryland, according to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland. All three men were scheduled to make their initial court appearances Thursday afternoon in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Court papers say Mathews illegally crossed the U.S. border near Minnesota in August and investigators allege Lemley and Bilbrough then drove from Maryland to Michigan to pick up Mathews before the three headed to Maryland in late August.

Mathews was a combat engineer in the Canadian Army Reserve. Lemley was a “cavalry scout” in the U.S. Army, according to a court filing.

U.S. and Canadian authorities had been searching for Mathews after his truck was found in September near the border between the two countries. He was last seen by family members in Beausejour, northeast of Winnipeg, on Aug. 24, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Canadian military’s intelligence unit was investigating Mathews for “possible racist extremist activities” for several months, according to the Canadian Department of National Defence.

Authorities say Lemley and Mathews built an assault rifle using several parts, including an upper-receiver that Lemley had ordered and shipped to a Maryland home. In December, the three men gathered at an apartment that Lemley and Mathews rented in Delaware, where they discussed The Base and its activities and members, passed around the assault file and tried to make the drug DMT, a hallucinogen, according to court papers.

A few days later, Lemley and Mathews bought 150 rounds of ammunition and paper shooting targets and Lemley was spotted by an FBI agent at a gun range in Maryland. Court papers say federal agents heard the gun firing in rapid succession and authorities allege that Lemley later told Mathews: “Oh oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun.”

Federal agents appeared to be tracking the men’s movements and set up a stationary camera near the gun range, which captured video of Mathews shooting the gun there on Jan. 5. Court documents say Lemley had also ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition and he and Mathews visited the gun range as recently as Saturday.

Lemley also is charged with transporting a machine gun and “disposing of a firearm and ammunition to an alien unlawfully present in the United States.”

The Anti-Defamation League said members of The Base and other white supremacist groups have frequently posted online messages advocating for “accelerationism,” a fringe philosophy in which far-right extremists “have assigned to their desire to hasten the collapse of society as we know it.”

“The term is widely used by those on the fringes of the movement, who employ it openly and enthusiastically on mainstream platforms, as well as in the shadows of private, encrypted chat rooms,” the ADL says.

In recent months, FBI agents have arrested several members of a different far-right extremist group, the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division. Atomwaffen has been linked to several killings, including the 2017 shooting deaths of two men at an apartment in Tampa, Florida.

Balsamo reported from Washington.

The post, FBI arrests 3 white supremacists ahead of pro-gun rally, first appeared on the PBS NewsHour website.


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## intellectualuva (Jan 16, 2020)

Wow. 

This reminds me to find a nice out of the country vacation spot for the 2020 election.


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