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North Carolina authorities arrest armed man after threats against FEMA workers (archive.ph)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

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On Monday, the Rutherford County sheriff’s office released a statement confirming that it had arrested an armed suspect for making threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency employees but had concluded that the suspect had acted alone and that there were not “truck loads of militia” targeting relief workers.

Around 1 p.m. Saturday, an official with the U.S. Forest Service, which is supporting recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene along with FEMA, sent an urgent message to numerous federal agencies warning that “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, N.C., to stand down and evacuate the county immediately. The message stated that National Guard troops ‘had come across ... trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.’”

“The IMTs [incident management teams] have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county,” the email added.

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[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

this is part of a growing trend of militia people (both acting alone and in unison) intervening in disaster areas--and it doesn't bode well for the future. the first real flashpoint that most people might be aware of is the 2020 wildfires in Oregon, where there were dozens of panics about "antifa infiltrators" that engulfed entire towns, led to militia checkpoints, and saw police officers have to be rebuked by their commanding officers for peddling conspiracies. but it's gotten significantly worse since then--pretty much every wildfire year there's been at least one story of one militia group or another going into a disaster area and causing problems or stopping people randomly.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

My sister lives in those areas. There's still signs up on the roadside threatening to shoot looters on sight.

Like how can you tell anyone's a looter on sight alone? They just want to shoot at black people.

[–] hungprocess@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 month ago

[–] drwho@beehaw.org 3 points 1 month ago

They'd do that, anyway. Right now they just have a legally defensible excuse.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 9 points 1 month ago

Chimney Rock, in Rutherford County, has become one of the centers of tension and conflict after a rumor spread on social media that government officials planned to seize the devastated village and bulldoze bodies under the rubble. Authorities and news outlets debunked the assertion, but people still took to social media imploring militias to go after FEMA.

Wow trolls really like to ruin it for everyone.