Original subtitles

-I see I got my boys here in Hawaiian shirts.

Hey, officers, that means boogaloo.

[ Cheering ]

-They said they gonna kill every last one

of these black motherfuckers.

So if they shoot us, they gonna shoot you, too.

[ All grunt ]

-Militias across the political spectrum

are taking to the streets,

sharing an intense support of the Second Amendment

and a vast online presence.

-There is a strong anti-government push right now

on both the left and the right.

-They are both essentially arguing that the only way

to protect what we perceive to be our rights

is through our own armed, mobilized resistance.

[ Gunshots ]

-You have an all-consuming,

very American umbrella brand of terror

that's been devised, largely, and grown on social media.

-There are too many guns at these events

held by too many groups with conflicting roles.

There is a potential street war brewing.

-These militias are taking up arms, demanding justice,

and some are even waiting for or plotting

what they call the next American Revolution.

[ Cheering ]

-If you don't do something about it soon,

you see all of this?

They gonna burn this bitch to the ground, okay?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Hey, if you're with the Second Amendment rights movement,

we're about to start speaking right here.

So if you will, make your way down this direction.

Thank you.

I see I got my boys here in the Hawaiian shirts.

You know... - Hell, yeah!

[ Cheering ]

-Here we go!

And everybody knows what that means.

Hey, officers, that means boogaloo.

-Hell, yeah!

[ Cheering ]

-This is Mike Dunn.

He's a rising star

in what's known as the boogaloo movement,

an emerging militia which is planning

for a literal civil war in the U.S.

-We want a revolution.

We want laws to be changed

in this country that limit our rights.

-This group of modern militiamen,

mostly fueled by guys under 25,

seems to be multiplying not just online,

but at big gatherings, like this July 4th

Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia.

-I sat here, I got doxed.

I've had death threats for what I believe in.

I joined the Marine Corps at 17 years old.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Yeah, Semper Fi, Devil Dogs.

Now I'm trying to serve

in the best capacity that I can serve.

-Mike says he was medically discharged from the Marines

after serving a year,

then after a brief stint as a prison guard, he was fired.

While he says he wasn't given a reason,

we know he was involved in local militias

and over time became more critical of the government,

his former employer.

-How old are you?

Alright, so I am a kid.

-And he's only 19.

-What is the boogaloo movement?

-The boogaloo movement can mean a lot of different things

to a lot of different people.

I'm not gonna answer for everybody.

I'm definitely seen as a representative

of the movement right now.

-A leader, even?

-We don't have a leader,

but we have representatives from every state.

We're not as organized as we want to be,

but we're developing a strategy to organize ourselves better.

-Before he aligned himself with the boogaloo movement,

Mike was busy holding trainings in rural Virginia.

We met him last February

where he was organizing hundreds of people

to join the Virginia Knights,

a non-boogaloo statewide militia he formed

in response to gun-control legislation

introduced by the state's newly elected Democrats.

-I... state your name...

[ Indistinct talking ]

do hereby solemnly swear that I will support and defend

the Constitution of the United States

against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

- against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

-Now, eight months later, Mike has gone full boogaloo.

-We want the government to know that we're sick of the elitist.

We're sick of being controlled.

-The word "boogaloo" comes from the movie

"Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo,"

a very '80s cult classic with lots of killer dance moves

and a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

-It was absolutely panned by critics,

and so it was such a bad sequel that any bad sequel

became termed a boogaloo.

And the boogaloo, the bad sequel that they're trying to incite,

is a second civil war.

-The term "boogaloo," is it fair to say that it refers

to a future civil war in our country?

- No. It refers to a revolution. - That's what a lot of people...

Okay. What's the difference? - Not a civil war.

There is a difference.

Civil war is a war between the people.

A revolution is a war between the people and the government.

-But, like, what does that mean?

Bring war against, like, senators

and, like, police officers?

Literally, what does that look like?

-I'm not gonna comment on that.

That can get me in a lot of trouble.

-The boogaloo came out on social media,

and it doesn't have an old mythology addressing it.

It's a simple idea. There's gonna be an insurgency.

It's that simple.

And it's, like, apocalyptic but also comical.

So it has a very broad appeal.

-The boogaloo started as an Internet joke back in 2012.

And then in 2019, it really started becoming an ideology.

And then 2020, after Duncan Socrates Lemp,

a buddy of mine, was murdered in Maryland,

it really caught fire.

-That's a name you'll hear a lot from these guys... Duncan Lemp.

The details of his death are disputed.

But what we know is this.

Officers executed a high-risk no-knock warrant on him

in the middle of the night and fatally shot him.

Lemp was prohibited from having firearms.

Officers found rifles and handguns in his home.

Lemp is now a martyr for the movement,

similar to how Black Lives Matter

memorializes Breonna Taylor when protesting police brutality.

How did Duncan Lemp's death affect you?

-It broke me and it showed me how far our government's

willing to go to silence the people.

-Had you spent time with him personally?

-Not directly.

Our entire friendship was through social media.

-As their online presence seemed to grow,

authorities started cracking down on Facebook pages

that used the word "boogaloo."

So they started using similar-sounding phrases

like "big igloo" or "big luau," hence the Hawaiian shirts.

-You know, there's some people who are in it for the gags,

probably people who are in college age or a little older

posting memes... Shit posting, as they say.

And then there are core people

who usually have something of a military background

or at least romanticize upon a military background

who are actually showing up in training groups

across the country.

♪♪

-Mike's invited us to join his military training today.

As people slowly trickled into the parking lot,

Mike encouraged us to meet Isaiah.

He was clearly aware of the optics.

Usually when I roll up to these militia trainings,

it's a small group of heavily armed white guys.

Today, it's looking a little bit different.

-Originally, when I first came to it,

I was the first black member.

We're building that bridge between white America

and black America carrying guns.

-Have fun.

-[ Laughs ] Alright.

♪♪

-Alright, this is a Glock 19.

Some people don't like Glocks. Some people do.

I personally do. - Okay.

-Whenever you're racking a round or chambering a round,

you keep it pointed at the ground away from everybody else,

not at your feet.

Now what I'm gonna show you is the AR-15, okay?

-One of the things to keep in mind

is that, like, a lot of the people here

are not currently a part of the boogaloo movement.

They've come here to get the training and just to learn more.

Oh, thanks. - It is loaded.

But there's not one in the chamber.

Don't pump it.

Or if you squeeze the trigger, it'll go off.

- Okay. - Yeah.

It's just a sweet little toy.

I wasn't planning to carry a gun today,

but didn't exactly seem like an option.

I think it's interesting that you work for the sheriff

when, like, a lot of the messaging

is kind of anti-law enforcement.

-A lot of... What people don't realize is local sheriffs

are for gun control.

I'm in the process of leaving now.

- Because of this? - Yes.

-Once we get up there,

you're gonna take your target to the left, okay?

Do not shoot me.

Alright. Moving.

Targets right. - Right.

-Engage.

[ Gunshots ]

I think we need to get her in the next one.

You're in with the next one.

Alright, they can run, and then we'll run with you.

-Okay.

- Ready? - Yeah.

[ Gunshots ]

Back to safety.

That felt good.

Whoo!

Anyone know how anyone did?

-Across the state of Virginia, we've been involved with

and trained around 4,000 people.

-So that's like 500, 600 people a month.

-Yes, correct. We do a lot of training.

-It's hard to verify how real these numbers are,

especially when there are maybe 20 people at a training

and then thousands in a Facebook group.

Today, these two budding militia members are making it official.

They're getting sworn in.

It also seems like a good opportunity

to show their diversity again.

-So these two want to swear in.

So I'm gonna have you swear her and her husband in.

I think that shows the most diversity.

-Okay. Alright, state your full name.

-I, Alicia Moore...

-Do hereby solemnly swear...

- do hereby solemnly swear...

- to preserve the limitations...

- to preserve the limitations...

- placed upon the government by the Constitution.

- by the Constitution.

-This all seems relatively harmless,

but in other pockets of the movement, it's not.

In May of this year, a self-proclaimed Boogaloo Boi

reportedly ambushed federal security officers unprovoked

outside a courthouse in Oakland.

-They say he used a homemade machine gun

in both of these killings.

-He was charged with the murder of Damon Gutzwiller,

a young father whose wife was pregnant

with their second child.

Investigators later found an arsenal with a boogaloo patch

and the word "boog" written in blood on the hood of a van.

He pled not guilty.

Okay, so before this interview, we were talking about

the two guys who fired

on federal officers in Oakland, right?

- Yeah. - Those are dudes who are,

like, self-proclaimed boogaloo guys.

-But did the organization claim them?

I'm saying that in any type of organization you have,

you're gonna have somebody do something stupid.

But we're not known for doing something stupid.

-In order to understand if these guys

are actually violent extremists or just meme-loving jokesters,

you first have to understand

their apparent obsession with guns.

I grew up with guns.

I'm not someone who sits here and says they shouldn't exist.

Why do you have to fight

for something that is already your right?

-Because we feel the government is infringing on it.

When any right starts to be infringed upon,

when any peace is taken away,

you have a 99% right, you have a 98% right.

Right now we're probably at like a 30% right.

With all... I mean, we... - 30%?

-How many... How many... How many gun laws are there

across the United States?

-Gun-control activists on the other side

feel like they are fighting a losing battle every day.

-Good. I'm glad. I hope they do feel that way.

-Okay, let's talk about your belief in limited government.

-Yes, I believe in extremely limited government.

-So what exactly does that mean?

-Almost little to no direct governmental involvement

in my everyday life.

If I want to build a shed on my property without a permit,

I can build that shed.

If I want to buy a firearm I want to buy

and have it on my property, I can have it.

Too much taxes. We're taxed too much.

-Alright, what about, like, the Postal Service?

Can we keep that?

-So once again, I go back to saying

I believe in limited government. - Yeah.

-A lot of aspects of government need to be changed,

and a lot of things in government

I think shouldn't exist.

♪♪

-While the Boogaloo Bois represent the new guard

of American militias,

a lot of these refrains are familiar.

I heard the almost verbatim argument five years ago

in Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona

while documenting the Three Percenter movement.

While the Boogaloo Bois are taking off now,

their central message is not new.

-If you are a politician wanting to sell out my freedoms

and my liberty, you are my enemy, end of story.

-But do I believe we have total freedom

or the freedom that our forefathers intended us to have?

No, not at all.

-The well-armed population

that makes being a tyrannical government dangerous.

-I see the majority of America's government as a tyrant.

-The original intent of the Second Amendment

was that the American citizen would be as armed

as the government itself. - Go!

-If they come to my house and knock on my door

and say they're gonna take weapons,

then I'm gonna give them my ammunition first.

- Meaning you'll shoot them. - I will.

-The source of this messaging

doesn't start with these modern militias.

It dates back to just after the Vietnam War.

Kathleen Belew, an expert on right-wing extremism

and white power movements, says militia activity

was perfectly positioned to take off then,

when, like today, anti-government sentiments

were on the rise.

-So the '80s are a really significant period

for this movement because so many different groups

that have previously been at odds with each other

were able to use the aftermath of the Vietnam War

to come together and to become very anti-government

and dedicated to the overthrow of the nation

in a way that they simply had never been before.

-Ruby Ridge, Idaho,

that's a hard place to find on a map

and, as it turns out, an even harder place to find answers.

-In the early 1990s, there were two major events

that really galvanized the white power movement.

One was the siege and apprehension

of a white separatist family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992.

And the other was the very violent end

of the Waco siege in Texas in 1983.

-In the 1980s, Randy Weaver and his family

settled in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, having moved from Iowa.

They were a family of Christian identity practicing,

white supremacist sympathizers who moved to Idaho

to escape what they perceived to be the coming likely apocalypse.

-The feds had their eye on him.

At one point, a federal informant asked Weaver

to sell him illegal shotguns at an Aryan Nation meeting.

Weaver was charged but didn't show up for his hearing.

He and his family were in hiding in Ruby Ridge, Idaho,

when U.S. Marshals initiated an 11-day standoff.

-It involved the deaths of several people in a shootout,

but it happened in a very remote location.

-Waco was different.

The Branch Davidians were a multiracial religious community

led by David Koresh.

Heavily armed and apocalyptic,

their standoff with the government ended

with more than 80 Branch Davidians

and four federal agents dead.

What made these events similar, though,

is that they fueled the narrative

that the government would use its power to kill citizens.

-One of the people who actually visited the site

of the standoff during the standoff

was a young man from New York named Timothy McVeigh.

And it's one of the steps on his path to radicalization

before the Oklahoma City building.

-The Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995,

was a massive truck bomb.

It killed 168 people.

Within that casualty count are 19 children

who died in the daycare center of the building.

-The bombing at Oklahoma City was not the result

of a specific militia act.

So as the politics evolved, as the movement evolved,

eventually people saw the brink and they stepped back.

-In the wake of this domestic terrorist attack,

militia groups split and numbers dwindled.

The movement seemed to be going away

until the election of President Barack Obama.

Starting in 2008, militias multiplied.

It was a clear backlash

to the historic progressive election of President Obama.

-Some of it's related to the fact

with the Tea Party and the birthers

and the populist response to the 2008 movement,

that, in fact, there was this percolating anger out there.

-Impeach Obama!

-So when you have the economic collapse

following the housing crisis of 2008,

people all over the world took on the idea

that there was some elite population

that was destroying our country.

-You've been ridiculed. You've been mocked.

You've been slandered by the left.

Still, though, you didn't let

big government-loving professional politicians

tell you to sit down and shut up.

Instead, no, you didn't retreat.

You reloaded. You came out even stronger.

And you turned this country around.

-It amplified and increased the amount of anger and frustration

among people.

♪♪

-The two most prominent national militias born out of this time

were the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters,

both umbrella groups that encourage local chapters

to recruit, promote uniform messaging,

and hold military-style trainings

like the ones I went to in 2014.

-So the Oath Keepers, former law enforcement,

former military who all come together

and say, "Yes, we promise to defend the real Constitution

as opposed to the way the federal government

may actually enforce it."

The Three Percenters, who operate under the principle

that during the American Revolution,

only 3% of Americans ever rallied to the cause.

So 3% of Americans can do it today.

Today, with groups like the boogaloos

and other kinds of things,

we're almost seeing, like, flash mob militias.

-There are intersections that are important to understand

between pre-existing militias

and the emergence of the boogaloo.

There's an age gap between the people

who are kind of more boogaloo-oriented,

which are people in usually their 20s, 30s.

The Oath Keepers and, to a lesser extent, Three Percenters

tend to be a bit of an older crowd.

Nevertheless, you can see a lot of Oath Keepers

wearing the... The boogaloo outfits, right?

They think it's pretty cool.

Initially, there's suspicion and resentment.

Increasingly, because of the broad nature of the boogaloo,

there's a reluctant acceptance

that this is going to be the McDonald's brand.

-And that brand potentially has a big market to tap into,

considering the federal government isn't very popular

across the political spectrum right now.

-They are both essentially arguing that the only way

to protect what we perceive to be our rights

is through our own armed, mobilized resistance

and that those groups are therefore, I think,

symptoms of some of the concerns we have in our society

about what justice looks like

and about what freedom looks like

and about whether or not the state as an institution

is sufficiently neutral

that we can all participate in it together.

-I spent a lot of time with Three Percenters,

Oath Keepers, guys, for the most part,

who were like 20, 30 years older than you.

-Yeah, Fudds.

- Fudds? - Yeah.

-Okay, I don't know... What is that?

-So a Fudd is somebody who is like a casual gun owner.

They'll do a lot of talk

and they'll do a lot of typing on Facebook.

But when it gets down to getting down and dirty out here,

they're not really going to do that so much.

-How are you guys different?

-We're actually doing stuff.

I mean, I stood outside the Capitol on July 4th

and made sure three firearms got sold

without any type of background check on them.

We're actually getting out there and sticking to our guns

regarding not complying with any unconstitutional gun law.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

-Certainly not everyone in the militia movement in the 90s

was part of the white power movement,

but almost all of the white power movement activism,

activity, guns, weapons, resources

end up inside of the militia movement.

My sense from the history

is that what's happening with boogaloo is very similar.

Boogaloo seems to be generating

from a lot of white power sources,

but it also seems to be much broader

and to include some people that don't share that same set

of ideological propulsions.

-Hey, let's get a chant going. You know what?

Everybody wants to chant.

We're gonna chant, "White supremacy sucks."

You got it. Alright. Ready? Ready? I'm gonna lead it.

White supremacy sucks!

-White supremacy sucks!

-There's a strong anti-government push right now

on both the left and the right.

That doesn't mean that those groups

really have the true commonalities

that would allow them to come together in one movement.

But what it does mean is that there is a way

that sometimes the right is able

to opportunistically mobilize parts of the left

for its own purpose

and occasionally, perhaps even vice versa.

-Experts say that the Boogaloo Bois

are capitalizing on the most visible social movement

in our country right now... Black Lives Matter.

-Breonna Taylor!

Breonna Taylor!

-Katie Paul tracks how boogaloo boys communicate on Facebook.

While monitoring private exchanges,

she found that after Ahmaud Arbery,

a young black man, was brutally murdered in Georgia,

militia members weren't mourning his death

or outraged by the racism that motivated it.

-You can see the first sentence here is sharing this article

saying, "Good recruiting opportunity here."

-And this is like a young white guy

who's part of the Boogaloo Bois. - Correct.

This is where the Black Lives Matter supporters

who are being courted by this movement

need to really understand

they're being used as recruiting opportunities,

not as brothers in support of this movement.

-Breonna Tyler was a young woman.

She had beliefs that might have been different from y'all.

But one thing she was subject to

was what we call red flag gun laws.

-What do you say to people who say

you're just capitalizing on BLM's momentum?

-Well, ask what is... what is

a lot of your far-left people doing?

They're capitalizing on BLM's momentum.

I'm capitalizing on the fact that a lot of them

are against big government and I'm against big government.

Am I capitalizing on the movement? No.

But am I helping people realize what we're facing in government?

Yes.

-So, like, anybody can join your boogaloo?

-Yeah! Whoo!

Hey, you want to walk with us?

[ Cheering ]

-Given that militias are historically anti-government,

support from elected officials is rare,

but Republican state senator Amanda Chase is an exception.

She's running for governor and agreed

to speak at this July 4th Second Amendment rally.

-How's everybody doing?

[ Cheering ]

Awesome.

Listen, we're... It's Towanda, right?

- No, it's Kiawana. - Kiawana.

Come over here, Kiawana.

Kiawana and I just became really good friends.

Do you know why?

Because we believe souls don't know a color.

- At all. - That's right. Yeah!

-Militias like the Boogaloo Bois and that movement,

online, there's a lot of violent rhetoric.

What do you say to them,

particularly when many of them support you?

-We have people who support us of all different backgrounds.

And we would never, as an elected official,

say, "Oh, you, don't support me."

You know, that just doesn't make any sense.

We would never do that.

-When you show up to this Second Amendment rally,

do you worry in any way that that gives credibility

to a movement that could be perpetuating violence

against government officials?

-I do not support violence of any type

toward elected officials.

The Second Amendment is a unifier,

whether you're the... what'd you call them... the Boogaloo Bois,

whether you're BLM.

The Second Amendment is actually bringing people together

of all walks of life, all different backgrounds.

-It is bringing people together

and seems to be fueling movement.

Joel Finkelstein uses machine learning

to analyze boogaloo comments on message boards like 4chan.

He says the boogaloo mythology exists in two spheres.

One pushes racist messaging, the other distinctly avoids it.

-The myth has a lot of diversity

in terms of the kinds of elements it can attract to it.

K is a board on 4chan for weapon enthusiasts

and militia enthusiasts,

but it isn't thought of

as a kind of racist community inherently.

You have discussions of bandits, ambushes, gunfights,

whereas in places like 4chan's

politically incorrect message board, or pol,

here you have people who are far more motivated

by identity politics and racism.

And right next to the term "boogaloo,"

you have the appearance of "race war."

You have "RaHoWa," the holy race war.

So these are really very different strands of activity.

And we can see that... That, in some sense,

it's like the virus mutates from community to community,

has slightly different features.

Does that make sense?

-Problem with the Boogaloo Bois

is they're not a cohesive movement.

You can have Boogaloo Bois that are white supremacists

and want to harm the George Floyd protesters.

You can also have Boogaloo Bois...

And this is actually the larger group... that are anti-police,

not racist, and they are siding with the protesters.

-JJ MacNab is one of the top experts

on anti-government extremism in the country

and recently testified in front

of the House Homeland Security Committee.

-So just being able to see the Hawaiian shirt,

you can't really prejudge why that person's there

and what they want to accomplish.

-And given its lack of clear ideology,

researchers are concerned that the boogaloo movement

can encompass anyone with an anti-government gripe,

no matter how dangerous.

Can you give us an idea of scale?

How many people are a part of this movement?

-I don't know.

On Facebook alone, within four days,

we built a group of 67,000 members.

- Holy shit. - Within four days.

We say that it got Zuck'd, Zuckerberg'd,

when it gets shut down because of association

with the boogaloo movement.

-That's been happening a lot lately

-Yes.

-In fact, Mike told us

that a week after this interview, he got Zuck'd.

When he tried to create a new profile,

he got Zuck'd again and again.

Mark Zuckerberg is cracking down amid mounting pressure.

So the Boogaloo Bois have to get creative

in order to stay online.

One way they do that is to pretend to be media

because they know Facebook won't shut down those pages.

-They've also started using VICE News

for the groups that they mimic.

And because they have a fiesta theme,

they've taken the VICE logo and put tacos over it.

-I mean, to be fair, I like what they've done with our logo.

-Yes, well, who doesn't like tacos?

There's a whole lot of jargon in here

that's very specific to this movement.

So "when the broadcast starts" means when the war starts,

or the boogaloo, and "your news crew,"

meaning you and your fellow boogaloo supporters,

"decide to hit the local nasty girl armory,"

armory meaning weaponry.

-The guys, though, who are looking at this stuff, they know...

-They know exactly what it means.

-Even if the language wasn't coded,

Facebook leaves it up to group moderators to flag,

which often they don't.

But what Facebook does do isn't much better.

-If you look at Facebook's suggested groups,

this Newsboys group, this is a boogaloo group.

And it's telling me because I recently viewed

the VICE Journalism boogaloo group that I just showed you.

Facebook is handing you a buffet of content

that's going to further radicalize

someone that could potentially be dangerous.

-Ain't nobody gonna fuck this up for us this morning.

So I need y'all to follow simple instructions.

[ All grunt ]

Follow me down to the park so we can get this shit started.

-Militias in the U.S.

and specifically the Boogaloo Bois

are usually made up of white guys who lean conservative,

but that's now changing.

There's a growing movement of left-wing black militia members

who, like white militias,

don't have much love for the government.

The most prominent group is NFAC,

the Not F'ing Around Coalition.

-Now, I'm gonna come down the line

and I'm gonna look at everybody's weapon.

I'm gonna look at your uniform and I'm gonna look at you.

And if I tell you fall out, thank you for coming.

Y'all understand? - Yes, sir.

-The commander of the militia is John Fitzgerald Johnson,

AKA Grandmaster Jay, a hip-hop artist, deejay,

Army vet turned activist politician.

Grandmaster Jay ran for president in 2016.

Since we can't seem to get ourselves together

to make you change the laws,

why don't I just run for the presidency myself

and utilize executive authority and create an agency

that if someone gets shot by a cop,

it immediately goes to the federal government.

It doesn't go into the hands of these people out here.

It's become federal right off the gate.

That was my goal.

So I declared my candidacy for the presidency.

And as you can tell, they did a good job of blocking that out.

So you had no idea that we were running.

There were 24 of us that you had no idea.

Now guess what happened. Look what you got.

[ Indistinct chanting ]

-By 2016, after the killings of black men

like Walter Scott and Freddie Gray,

his failed presidential bid,

and a growing mistrust in the system,

Not F'ing Around Coalition was born.

As history shows us over and over,

oppression breeds revolt.

-All you motherfuckers over here think y'all cute

'cause y'all ain't got to carry a goddamn weapon.

But you're still black, and it don't wash off.

So if they shoot us, they gonna shoot you, too.

They said they gonna kill every last one of you black motherfuckers.

- A goddamn lie. - I know. That's what I said.

Because we gonna kill their ass first.

Black nation! - Black nation!

- Black nation! - Black nation!

-The Not Fucking Around Coalition

was created by and for American citizens

to protect the black community.

We're not fucking around with your excuses anymore.

We're not fucking around with your apologies anymore.

We're not fucking around when someone tells us to calm down

while people continue to act violent against us.

We're just not fucking around with any more of it.

-I cannot imagine how Breonna's mama feels.

I got four sons, God damn it, and I'm telling you this.

I'm not on no peaceful shit.

If the police take one of mine,

God damn it, I'm taking all of yours.

And I mean that.

-When people ask us, who are we, we let them know

at the very high level, we're ex-military

but not all of us.

Legal gun owners but not all of us.

We're your co-workers.

We are members of the black community

that feel that a stronger response is needed

and that we have to be able to defend ourselves

because no one is defending us.

That's who we are.

-This weekend, NFAC is in Louisville, Kentucky,

demanding more government transparency

in the killing of Breonna Taylor.

-Under no circumstances are you to point your weapon at anybody

unless they point one at you first.

If they do, kill 'em.

Do not shoot them, kill them.

Let's walk, NFC.

-This sounds extreme, but many of these militia members

have seen their people killed when they weren't armed,

when a gun was pointed at them and they did nothing.

-I want snipers on the roof, drones in the air.

All weapons loaded.

-NFAC's presence caught the attention

of other local militias,

and with different armed groups in the same vicinity,

there were concerns that violence could erupt.

But while the police created a demilitarized zone

to mitigate the risk of complete mayhem,

other militia members like these guys from Kentucky United

didn't seem to be adversarial.

-If you turn the TV off

and actually go talk to these guys,

we got way more in common than what them or I think.

-Every time they come over,

we have a conversation with them,

it seems that we come to the common ground

that we need to continue to conversate.

We don't need to be listening

to what the government's telling us.

-We got law enforcement that lied.

We're here to self-police our people.

[ Cheering ]

-Grandmaster Jay and some of his followers

have some extreme views.

As an example, they believe in a sovereign black nation

separate from the United States.

But at the center of that argument

is an anti-government sentiment,

and that's what connects NFAC to mostly white militias.

-In many ways, the first left militia

that most people might have ever thought about

would have been the Black Panthers...

- ♪ Time to pick up the gun ♪ - Off the pigs!

-...who explicitly carried guns around the streets of California

while following police officers

to try to make sure that the police

did not behave in abusive ways.

What's interesting, from my point of view,

is that these left militias, anyway,

have adopted many of the same tactics

and many of the same rituals that you see on right militias.

- I... - I...

-Say your name. [ Indistinct talking ]

Will never allow...

-I'll say this when you talk about these other militias.

See, the difference between all of them and us

is that we have one common enemy.

We don't care what they upset about.

If they want peace with us, let it be peace.

But if they want war with us, then let it be war.

Either way, we're gonna enjoy it.

-With militarized groups

from all different political backgrounds

showing up at rallies, experts warn Congress

that they need to take these groups seriously.

-All are interested in bringing about the collapse

of democracies through terrorist violence.

-Memes become viral and evolve

and plant hateful and revolutionary ideas

in public eye.

-There are too many guns at these events

held by too many groups with conflicting goals.

You can find the Oath Keepers taking to the streets

to protect police or businesses from Antifa

while boogaloo members join forces with Black Lives Matter

against the police.

Add in the National Guard, a sudden influx of federal agents,

alt-right agitators and white supremacist groups,

there is a potential street war brewing.

These groups know they need a catalyst, a big event.

They need a Ruby Ridge or Waco so they can be the next McVeigh.

Most are waiting for the big event,

but there are some who will do what they have to

to force this occurrence.

-Experts agree this isn't a long shot, it's likely.

All it takes is for one person to open fire.

And that's exactly what happened

at NFAC's weapon inspection in Louisville.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

While we were filming, one of their shotguns misfired.

-Let's go, medics, let's go.

-Two people were rushed to the hospital.

If more disparate groups were present,

this could have been the street war

JJ MacNab warns is imminent.

Does it concern you as somebody who invites people

to these rallies, like the one on July 4th,

that you're gonna get, like, white nationalists

who you don't agree with and some black protesters

who show up and something pops off

and it's like something that you organized?

Does that concern you?

-I worry more about the government killing me

than I do about people from either side

of the political spectrum killing me.

-Or what about killing other people?

-I worry more about the government killing people

than I do about people from either side

of the spectrum killing people.

-What concerns me about all militia movements, really,

including the boogaloo movement, is that one dude who's unstable

who shows up at a protest

after reading the memes or messaging or whatever

that encourage him to fire against federal officers

and he shows up and he kills someone.

-Gun rights protest... Let's just go with that.

Let's X all other protests out. Gun rights protest.

You know how many have ended in violence?

I'm gonna list them for you. One...

two... three...

None. Literally none.

-Well, there was the shooting of the federal officer in Oakland,

then another right-wing shooter

allegedly killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin,

and then at a protest in Las Vegas over the summer,

three men who had allegedly met on boogaloo Facebook groups

showed up with Molotov cocktails.

They were also members of a group that had instructions

on how to make those bombs.

They pled not guilty.

-There are several images here.

It looks like there are seven total.

We have instructions for Molotov cocktails,

instructions for how to make your own ammunition.

But the gasoline bombs and the Molotov cocktails,

we highlighted those in particular

because this is the same group that the men from Vegas

who were arrested with Molotov cocktails were members of.

-Wow. So presumably they learned how to do it from this post.

-It's entirely possible.

-Unfortunately, the main threat of large-scale violence

isn't an accidental shooting.

-There are a lot of people who openly speak on Facebook

about their willingness to give their life

for that very movement.

When you have people discussing that already,

planning for that to happen, training one another,

this isn't something that's just...

The chances are it just happens out of nowhere.

There's people prepping for this.

The point of being armed

is to fire back at police if fired upon.

And the bad apples that are being referenced

that we've seen are the people that decided to act first

before being fired upon.

And it's not one or two.

We're seeing more and more of these arrests by people

who do have violent intentions

because that's the point of the movement that they joined.

-The larger consequence of leaderless resistance

has been this big public misunderstanding

of what this violence is.

Because what we see and what we remember

and we read about and what we hear about

is the lone-wolf terrorist

when, in fact, what we are looking at

is a broad and interconnected social movement

that joins these people together

and that continues to do violence.

So when we put them together, what do we see?

Then we see a rising tide of violence instead of just

a string of disconnected lone-wolf actions.

-What would be a scenario that would push you guys toward war?

-I feel that, especially in the state of Virginia,

if they start serving these no-knock search warrants,

that's gonna push... put Virginia on the brink of war.

- Hm. - Um, and I hope that if they

serve a no-knock search warrant on me, my boys will go to war

for me, you know? - But, with respect,

they did that to Duncan Lemp, and, like, there's no war

against the government right now.

-Duncan Lemp they murdered,

they murdered in his sleep in Maryland.

We've had protests in Maryland.

We're considering doing another one.

Things take time.

And I can't really say that one thing would spark a war.

But I will say this.

If Virginia keeps heading in the direction it's heading,

it's inevitable that there's gonna be a war.

♪♪

-[ Shouts command ]

[ Gunfire ]

-I love my life. It's wonderful.

Until the government takes it away from me.

In the French Revolution, they took every person in government

and cut their head off on a guillotine.

I'm not saying that's what this is about,

but I am saying that a lot of people in it

believe it's time for a cleansing of government.

-The Boogaloo Bois do not seem equipped

or ready to go to war with the government,

but they could start a major street war,

a mass-casualty event.

And at this point, that seems to be the greatest threat

to the public and to law enforcement.

-We could be looking at a full-fledged insurgency.

Now, I'm not saying that's 100% certain, right?

I'm saying we're playing Russian roulette,

and there's a bullet in there.

-Meanwhile, NFAC is growing

and demanding answers from the government,

not just in Breonna Taylor's death,

but in the killings of all unarmed Black citizens

and in the systemic racism that continues to plague our country.

-We want an answer.

We're not here to make something happen

that hasn't already supposed to happen.

We want what was supposed to happen to go ahead and happen.

I want somebody to tell me the goddamn truth.

-For NFAC, it's not just a vague revolutionary or civil war

at some point in the future. It's now.

It's pressure in the face of the government

and blatant threats from thousands of armed citizens.

-If you don't do something about it soon, you see all of this?

They're gonna burn this bitch to the ground, okay?

-But the question of how real

an uprising against the government is, is up for debate.

-There is this question about,

at what point does the Second Amendment stop working?

Rather, at what point has the American superstate

become so highly militarized

that no amount of Second Amendment

could possibly empower the People

to take back the nation or overthrow it?

-Regardless, the Second Amendment

remains the unifier among these groups.

And now what differentiates them from militias of the past

is their ability to organize

using an incredibly powerful tool... the Internet.

-What it's really done is lower the opportunity costs

to people who are interested and sympathetic.

It's provided you an anonymity that you didn't used to have.

-While Facebook has regulated some pages,

experts say they haven't done nearly enough.

The result is a movement that is multiplying online.

-Facebook has a lot of responsibility,

certainly more than any other platform.

This is the platform where

they are sharing their manifesto in full.

Facebook was warned in February by NBC,

in March by TTP,

and refused to de-platform this movement.

TTP put together a tweet thread showing a lot of the concerning

content that was taking place in these private groups.

12 hours after that tweet, then those posts were removed.

The world's largest social-media platform

should be able to keep up with this.

-With militias inevitably becoming more powerful

online and in the streets during near-constant civil unrest,

it's unclear how they'll respond if Trump does perhaps

the most tyrannical thing come Election Day.

I've heard some fears

that if Trump loses, he may not leave office.

Does it concern you what these groups would do

if he didn't leave office?

-It's difficult to say what the boogaloo movement would do

if Trump didn't leave office, particularly because

so many members in that movement do support Trump.

What it may do is really fracture the movement further.

-So, Election Day 2020.

Let's say Biden wins, and Trump doesn't step down.

What do you think will happen?

-I don't even think that would happen.

Uh, because Trump knows he can't do that.

-He's got the military.

- The military... - He's the commander in chief.

-They have a choice

of obeying a lawful order or an unlawful order.

It is not lawful for a president

to remain seated after an election.

If Trump just blatantly refused to step down,

I mean, what's he gonna do?

He literally has no authority. There's nothing one man can do.

-Time will tell just how much

these Boogaloo Bois reject tyranny

and just how powerful they really are.

-That Second Amendment is the only thing that can protect you.

If we all come together and we're all strapped

and we're all armed, guess who they ain't gassing.

-I ain't never been gassed!

-Oh, and that's not a threat against law enforcement.

That's a promise of self-defense.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪