Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:26:50 AM
Claims police shooting suspects had extremist 'anti-government' links
Two police officers were shot with an assault weapon and killed in West Memphis, Arkansas.
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 22, 2010 6:08 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Two suspects accused of gunning down Arkansas police officers this week may have ties to extremist anti-government groups, two civil rights organizations say.
Jerry R. Kane, 45, and his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane fatally shot two police officers and wounded two others during a wild shootout Thursday, according to Arkansas state police.
The father and son were shot and killed during the battle on the streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.
The Anti-Defamation League said the two suspects belonged to "an extreme right-wing movement that believes that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and which seeks to restore an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed."
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization, also said the two member are part of the "sovereign citizen" movement [below].
"If Jerry Kane is proven responsible for these tragic murders, it would be a new page in the same old book for the sovereign citizens, who have assaulted or killed a number of law enforcement officials in the past 20 years, especially during traffic stops," the ADL said in a statement.
The Southern Poverty Law Center released Internet footage they say is the elder Kane preaching the sovereign citizen philosophy.
Police in Arkansas have been tight-lipped about a motive in the killings, stating that releasing too many details could hurt their investigation.
The incident began at 11:36 a.m. (12:36 p.m. ET) Thursday, when West Memphis patrolman Bill Evans made a traffic stop on a white minivan traveling eastbound on I-40 , said Bill Sadler, spokesman for the Arkansas state police.
After the vehicle exited the Interstate onto an off-ramp, Sgt. Brandon Paudert arrived on the scene as backup, Sadler said.
"It is our belief that Officer Evans was shoved to the ground by one of the suspects in the minivan and gunfire was directed at both officers," Sadler said.
The suspects then fled, driving east in the minivan, leaving one man dead and the other fatally wounded.
Within minutes, officers from other agencies -- including the Arkansas state police and the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission -- began to converge on the area, looking for the suspects, he said.
About 90 minutes later, a minivan believed to be the one that had been seen leaving the shooting site was spotted in a parking lot of a nearby Wal-Mart, Sadler said.
There, it was approached by Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Enforcement Officer W.A. Wren, who were traveling in the same vehicle, he said.
Both men were wounded in a gunbattle initiated by the suspects, who were using a long rifle and a handgun, Sadler said.
The gunbattle ended after "a very brave, young wildlife officer in his state truck rammed the suspect vehicle, preventing an exit of the suspects," who were then killed, Sadler said.
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/22/arkansas.police.shot/ [with an embedded video report on the incident, and comments]
=====
Arkansas Cop-Killer Apparently Part of ‘Patriot’ Movement
Posted in Extremist Crime [ http://www.splcenter.org/blog/topics/extremist-crime/ ] by Mark Potok on May 21, 2010
Jerry Ralph Kane Jr., the man who was killed with his son Thursday after apparently gunning down two West Memphis, Ark., police officers [ http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/may/21/relatives-id-west-memphis-suspects/ ], traveled the country before the encounter giving classes in “redemption foreclosure mortgage fraud” — an apparent variation on a scheme [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2002/winter/beyond-redemption ] common among antigovernment “Patriots.”
According to a blurb [ http://www.bddot.net/jerry-kane-class-hour-4-part-5-of-7/ ] on a website called Pro Blog: Blog for Professionals, that was the title that Kane gave to an all-day class he gave on Aug. 29, 2009, in Fontana, Calif. In several YouTube videos of the Fontana class, Kane can be heard discussing such Patriot theories as the idea that only gold and silver are real money.
In addition, another website, My Private Audio, carried a tribute to Kane and his son [ http://privateaudio.homestead.com/Jerry-and-Joe-Kane-Memorial.html ] and also included links to information about “redemption.”
Redemption theory varies across the country but arose in the Patriot movement, which generally sees the federal government as an evil entity involved in various conspiracy theories aimed at ordinary Americans. In its best known version, redemption theory claims that every U.S. citizen has a “straw man,” or secret legal twin, that the government uses to capture the economic value of citizens unknowingly sold into slavery to a banking cabal. Redemptionists often claim that by filing certain documents individuals can reclaim their sovereignty and the money that was deposited into a special account at their birth. Kane appeared to be teaching a variant of the theory that supposedly allowed people who have lost their homes to foreclosure to get them back at a fraction of their value.
In addition, the My Private Audio site, apparently written by a friend of Kane and his son, talks about how Kane was pulled over in New Mexico last month for not having a driver’s license. Many Patriots who call themselves “sovereign citizens” do not believe they are required to carry driver’s licenses, pay taxes, or obey most laws. The site also carried other signs of Patriot beliefs, including discussions of implantable microchips and the Council of Foreign Relations, an object of much Patriot conspiracy theorizing.
According to reports, the minivan driven by Kane during Thursday’s shootout — which also left two other police officers injured — was registered to an address in New Vienna, Ohio, called House of God’s Prayer. The building once housed the Ohio headquarters of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations, which was sometimes known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. The Ohio unit was headed by a violent white supremacist named Ray Redfeairn [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2001/winter/neo-nazis ], who died in 2003. The church is reportedly owned by a man named Hoge Tabor of Middletown, Ohio.
The New Vienna Aryan Nations operation was infiltrated in the late 1990s by an FBI informant named Dave Hall, who wrote a 2008 book — Into the Devil’s Den [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2008/fall/books-on-the-right ] — with his FBI handler, Tym Burkey. In the book, Hall writes that Tabor had been a Klansman for close to five decades. In an interview today with Hatewatch, Hall reiterated that Tabor was a long-time Klansman who actually had a calming influence on Redfeairn, who once shot and nearly killed a police officer [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/fall/at-deaths-door ]. “I saw Hoge talking a few times with Redfeairn, saying he ought to tone down his sermons a little bit and discuss the positive side of being white,” Hall said. He also recalled that the House of God’s Prayer building was once a Klan meeting hall, long before Tabor acquired it and Redfeairn began using it as an Aryan Nations office.
It’s not yet known what connection Kane and his son, Joseph Taylor Kane, may have had to Tabor or Aryan Nations. What is clear, however, is that the elder Kane was involved in a world of Patriot conspiracy theories and had spent much time traveling the country and teaching them to others.
Conflicts between so-called sovereign citizens and law enforcement are common, probably because such people do not believe they need driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations and so are often pulled over. In June 1995, for instance, a Frazeyburg, Ohio, police officer shot and killed Michael Hill, a sovereign citizen activist. Hill tried to shoot the officer after being pulled over.
Copyright 2010 Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/05/21/arkansas-cop-killer-apparently-part-of-patriot-movement/ [with comments]
Two police officers were shot with an assault weapon and killed in West Memphis, Arkansas.
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 22, 2010 6:08 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Two suspects accused of gunning down Arkansas police officers this week may have ties to extremist anti-government groups, two civil rights organizations say.
Jerry R. Kane, 45, and his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane fatally shot two police officers and wounded two others during a wild shootout Thursday, according to Arkansas state police.
The father and son were shot and killed during the battle on the streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.
The Anti-Defamation League said the two suspects belonged to "an extreme right-wing movement that believes that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and which seeks to restore an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed."
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization, also said the two member are part of the "sovereign citizen" movement [below].
"If Jerry Kane is proven responsible for these tragic murders, it would be a new page in the same old book for the sovereign citizens, who have assaulted or killed a number of law enforcement officials in the past 20 years, especially during traffic stops," the ADL said in a statement.
The Southern Poverty Law Center released Internet footage they say is the elder Kane preaching the sovereign citizen philosophy.
Police in Arkansas have been tight-lipped about a motive in the killings, stating that releasing too many details could hurt their investigation.
The incident began at 11:36 a.m. (12:36 p.m. ET) Thursday, when West Memphis patrolman Bill Evans made a traffic stop on a white minivan traveling eastbound on I-40 , said Bill Sadler, spokesman for the Arkansas state police.
After the vehicle exited the Interstate onto an off-ramp, Sgt. Brandon Paudert arrived on the scene as backup, Sadler said.
"It is our belief that Officer Evans was shoved to the ground by one of the suspects in the minivan and gunfire was directed at both officers," Sadler said.
The suspects then fled, driving east in the minivan, leaving one man dead and the other fatally wounded.
Within minutes, officers from other agencies -- including the Arkansas state police and the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission -- began to converge on the area, looking for the suspects, he said.
About 90 minutes later, a minivan believed to be the one that had been seen leaving the shooting site was spotted in a parking lot of a nearby Wal-Mart, Sadler said.
There, it was approached by Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Enforcement Officer W.A. Wren, who were traveling in the same vehicle, he said.
Both men were wounded in a gunbattle initiated by the suspects, who were using a long rifle and a handgun, Sadler said.
The gunbattle ended after "a very brave, young wildlife officer in his state truck rammed the suspect vehicle, preventing an exit of the suspects," who were then killed, Sadler said.
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/22/arkansas.police.shot/ [with an embedded video report on the incident, and comments]
=====
Arkansas Cop-Killer Apparently Part of ‘Patriot’ Movement
Posted in Extremist Crime [ http://www.splcenter.org/blog/topics/extremist-crime/ ] by Mark Potok on May 21, 2010
Jerry Ralph Kane Jr., the man who was killed with his son Thursday after apparently gunning down two West Memphis, Ark., police officers [ http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/may/21/relatives-id-west-memphis-suspects/ ], traveled the country before the encounter giving classes in “redemption foreclosure mortgage fraud” — an apparent variation on a scheme [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2002/winter/beyond-redemption ] common among antigovernment “Patriots.”
According to a blurb [ http://www.bddot.net/jerry-kane-class-hour-4-part-5-of-7/ ] on a website called Pro Blog: Blog for Professionals, that was the title that Kane gave to an all-day class he gave on Aug. 29, 2009, in Fontana, Calif. In several YouTube videos of the Fontana class, Kane can be heard discussing such Patriot theories as the idea that only gold and silver are real money.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG4bk3aajDU (with comments)] [embedded]
In addition, another website, My Private Audio, carried a tribute to Kane and his son [ http://privateaudio.homestead.com/Jerry-and-Joe-Kane-Memorial.html ] and also included links to information about “redemption.”
Redemption theory varies across the country but arose in the Patriot movement, which generally sees the federal government as an evil entity involved in various conspiracy theories aimed at ordinary Americans. In its best known version, redemption theory claims that every U.S. citizen has a “straw man,” or secret legal twin, that the government uses to capture the economic value of citizens unknowingly sold into slavery to a banking cabal. Redemptionists often claim that by filing certain documents individuals can reclaim their sovereignty and the money that was deposited into a special account at their birth. Kane appeared to be teaching a variant of the theory that supposedly allowed people who have lost their homes to foreclosure to get them back at a fraction of their value.
In addition, the My Private Audio site, apparently written by a friend of Kane and his son, talks about how Kane was pulled over in New Mexico last month for not having a driver’s license. Many Patriots who call themselves “sovereign citizens” do not believe they are required to carry driver’s licenses, pay taxes, or obey most laws. The site also carried other signs of Patriot beliefs, including discussions of implantable microchips and the Council of Foreign Relations, an object of much Patriot conspiracy theorizing.
According to reports, the minivan driven by Kane during Thursday’s shootout — which also left two other police officers injured — was registered to an address in New Vienna, Ohio, called House of God’s Prayer. The building once housed the Ohio headquarters of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations, which was sometimes known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. The Ohio unit was headed by a violent white supremacist named Ray Redfeairn [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2001/winter/neo-nazis ], who died in 2003. The church is reportedly owned by a man named Hoge Tabor of Middletown, Ohio.
The New Vienna Aryan Nations operation was infiltrated in the late 1990s by an FBI informant named Dave Hall, who wrote a 2008 book — Into the Devil’s Den [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2008/fall/books-on-the-right ] — with his FBI handler, Tym Burkey. In the book, Hall writes that Tabor had been a Klansman for close to five decades. In an interview today with Hatewatch, Hall reiterated that Tabor was a long-time Klansman who actually had a calming influence on Redfeairn, who once shot and nearly killed a police officer [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/fall/at-deaths-door ]. “I saw Hoge talking a few times with Redfeairn, saying he ought to tone down his sermons a little bit and discuss the positive side of being white,” Hall said. He also recalled that the House of God’s Prayer building was once a Klan meeting hall, long before Tabor acquired it and Redfeairn began using it as an Aryan Nations office.
It’s not yet known what connection Kane and his son, Joseph Taylor Kane, may have had to Tabor or Aryan Nations. What is clear, however, is that the elder Kane was involved in a world of Patriot conspiracy theories and had spent much time traveling the country and teaching them to others.
Conflicts between so-called sovereign citizens and law enforcement are common, probably because such people do not believe they need driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations and so are often pulled over. In June 1995, for instance, a Frazeyburg, Ohio, police officer shot and killed Michael Hill, a sovereign citizen activist. Hill tried to shoot the officer after being pulled over.
Copyright 2010 Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/05/21/arkansas-cop-killer-apparently-part-of-patriot-movement/ [with comments]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
