Panic over imaginary militia ‘hunting FEMA’ caused more damage than real threat

It was a chilling report. As North Carolinians recovered from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suddenly ordered emergency workers “to stand down and evacuate” Rutherford County due to reports of “trucks of armed militia who said they were hunting FEMA.” Washington Post reported on Oct. 13, according to an email obtained from the U.S. Forest Service.

The threat turned out to be somewhat less serious. On October 14, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man, William Jacob Parsons, for making a “comment about potentially harming FEMA employees” while armed with an assault rifle. Law enforcement concluded that “Parsons acted alone and there was no truck full of militiamen,” according to a statement cited in Washington Post.

Parsons he told the BBC that he was not a member of any militia, that he had not threatened any federal officials, and that he was there to help distribute supplies to hurricane victims.

Every time the United States suffers a natural disaster, there seems to be serious anxiety about social collapse and mass violence. And the media usually publish the most fantastic version, as journalists did with reports of violence at the Superdome refugee center after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

These rumors alone can cause serious damage. Louisiana National Guard Major Ed Bush said Reason in 2005 that “maybe FEMA would have been quicker if we hadn’t heard all these urban myths about shootings, rapes, deaths, murders, and bodies everywhere.” Last week, relief efforts in Rutherford County and nearby Ashe County were slow due to the alleged threat from the militias.

Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Reason has obtained the original email thread about the threat. Gordy Sachs, a Forest Service firefighting officer, citing a FEMA message, wrote to other officials on October 12 that “Title 10 troops had encountered two armed militia trucks saying they were hunting FEMA.” . (Both federal troops and the National Guard under federal command are referred to under “Title 10 orders“.”)

The Forest Service scrambled to find out what was really going on. “Are you aware of this? Are we engaged? Any updates to share?” Tracy Perry, the service’s director of investigations and law enforcement, wrote in an email to subordinates. “This is the first time I’m hearing about this, I spoke to some LE (law enforcement) staff around 11:30 this morning and they didn’t mention anything,” responded one official, whose name and title were redacted. .

That afternoon, officials had discovered the real story. An acting Forest Service patrol commander, whose name was redacted, responded to the email thread at 6:52 p.m. with a screenshot of a bulletin asking police to be on the lookout for a man who “threatened FEMA and anyone in his way” and a photo of someone who appears to be Parsons.

“This has a high probability of being the previous (unconfirmed) threat,” the patrol commander wrote. The commander followed up 20 minutes later and wrote that “suspect is in custody.”

Only the original email that talked about “armed militia trucks” was leaked to the press. Washington Post informed about the alleged threat on the afternoon of October 13, apparently unaware that a suspect had been identified. “Two federal officials confirmed the authenticity of the email, although it was unclear whether the threat cited was considered credible,” he added. Mail reported.

After Parsons’ arrest was made public, the Mail updated his story to focus on his alleged threat and removed the phrase “armed militia” from the headline. It turns out that American soldiers had He shouted the threat, after learning about it secondhand from a gas station cashier. “He was a lone individual,” Rutherford County Sheriff’s Capt. James Keever said. Mail. “We’re trying to get the word out about it.”

But other media outlets had already started publishing the story. “Trump’s hurricane lies create a terrifying threat” The New Republic fixedblaming former president Donald Trump criticism of FEMA due to the alleged threat of the militia. In its own coverage of the militia threat, the guardian reported that the “politicization” of the hurricane relief effort “has provided a recruiting opportunity for white supremacist groups that have gathered in devastated regions.” The daily beast presented a photo of a royal militia above your coverage.

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) said NBC News that two North Carolina counties were reporting “different militias attacking and threatening FEMA.”

On the ground, the picture looked quite different. Most people stepped up to help each other and their communities. Voluntary aid organizations supplies distributed in North Carolina and surrounding states. Reason witnessed a militia-like operation near Asheville, but instead of attacking aid workers, the “peasant air force” was cooperating with the authorities to carry out helicopter flights to isolated towns.

And rather than a terrifying plague of misinformation, at least one local official sees anti-FEMA conspiracy theories as primarily a nuisance.

“As far as I know, social media rumors didn’t affect the response. They tend to be a distraction, but my concern was that people might stop helping if they thought their efforts were being undermined. That didn’t happen.” Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, said Reason. Jacobs says recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene “It showed once again how local communities come together to help their neighbors even before the government moves in. I saw a lot of that.”