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Armed standoff shuts Rte. 128 in Wakefield
By adamg on Sat, 07/03/2021 - 10:29am
Standoff scene around 7:30 a.m. Photo by State Police.
State and Wakefield Police shut Rte. 128 in Wakefield - and ordered Wakefield, Stoneham and Reading residents to shelter in place - after they say a check on two cars in the northbound breakdown lane near Parker Street turned into a standoff between law enforcement and heavily armed members of a Black sovereign-citizen group early this morning.
Around 10:30 a.m., State Police reported all of the men - a total of 11 so far - have been taken into custody. Rte. 128 southbound was re-opened, but the northbound side remained shut as investigators swept the vehicles and the nearby woods for possible weapons and evidence.
The incident began around 2 a.m. State Police reported:
We have several armed persons accounted for at this scene on Rt 95. They are refusing to comply with orders to provide their information and put down their weapons.
Wakefield Police told residents to lock their doors and stay inside:
During a motor vehicle stop, several heavily armed men claiming to be from a group that does not recognize our laws exited their vehicles and fled into the woodline off 128 in the area of Parker Road / Elm Street. Approximately 8 males fled into the woods carrying rifles and handguns and appear to be contained in the wooded area adjacent to the highway.
Two of the "Moorish sovereign citizens" were taken into custody, but the rest remained in the area - and even started livestreaming their side of the issue on YouTube:
“I’ve expressed to you multiple times we are not anti-government.”
An armed uniformed man speaking with MSP negotiators in the middle of a standoff on 95 as it’s being live streamed on an IG account for the Moorish Constitutional Convention Committee. @wbz https://t.co/swiYDUFnIT pic.twitter.com/2oKJqrGg5G— Anaridis Rodriguez (@Anaridis) July 3, 2021
Like their White counterparts, Moorish sovereign citizens do not believe the government has any power over them. Unlike the Whites, however, some believe they are the rightful owners of much of the US, in particular the land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase, because they, not Native Americans, are the original settlers of the land.
Last November, a Moorish soverign citizen living in Dorchester was arrested at the Ruggles T stop, allegedly while wearing a bullet-proof vest under a jacket with "Security" written on it and packing a loaded pistol, three spare magazines that were also fully loaded and a knife. His case, in Boston federal court, remains pending.
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Comments
All In All
These guys are still alive because they got pulled over here.
Maine and / or NH State Police would have nuked these guys on site if they had gotten pulled over further north.
There is no way that they were not being tracked by RISP and MSP. 8 people with long rifles, wearing tactical gear moving in the middle of the night brings attention.
Also, has anyone noticed, no aerial shots from copters. The stations send up copters to hover over people falling on the tracks underground at State Street, armed situation in Wakefield; nothing. This means the MSP is trying to resolve the situation with no bloodshed and are trying to keep things calm.
I don't care if you politics are Emma Goldman or Benito Mussolini, "militia training" brings pain to the innocent.
helicopters
I was guessing that the weather had the helicopters grounded.
I am glad this sounds like it has reached a peaceful resolution.
Extremists
Their social media channels, branded Rise of the Moors, is interesting and unsurprising at the same time.
Themes of Black nationalism, guys with assault weapons in tactical gear “training”, misogyny, get-rich quick tips, DOGE coin memes, faux intellectualism, pro-Cosby posts, anti-Catholicism, terrible pro-gun legal takes, and highlighted Koran versus about war and fighting.
Extremism + easy access to high powered weapons. Sure, there is video of the one guy who calmly explains that he is not anti-government or anti-police and his intents are totally peaceful. But it seems like a word game - of course you can’t be against something that you don’t acknowledge existing. They view this land as “Morocco al-aqsar” and don’t acknowledge US sovereignty.
What were they training for? Who funds this group where they have vans, weapons, and land in Maine to train? There is no way I buy any sort of “self defense” organization explanation from this group.
You have to wonder what their motive in traveling while overtly advertising their militancy through tactical dress and openly carrying such weapons when it is easy to imagine that you could wear a treat clothes and throw the guns in suitcases. I echo John’s sentiments that I am glad this wasn’t Ruby-Ridge-on-128.
Wackos
Actually, I don't. They're wackos if it's true that
If they're that far afield, trying to understand their motives is a waste of time.
anti-Catholicism
Even crazy gun nuts are right about one thing.
So, you like these guys?
I guess the company one keeps tells a lot about a person. Kino is a fan of the sovereign citizen folk. Who would have guessed?
Eh what?
How do you get from his “even a stopped clock is right twice a day” comment to “he likes these whackos”?
He complimented the beliefs of a hate group
I could point out some things that horrible tyrants have done throughout history, but I don’t, because, well, the horrible things they are better known for.
In Kinopio’s severely deranged mind, when he read about their beliefs, the first thing he thought was “hey, they hate Catholics, too” probably because he is such a hateful person that he thought that fact was good.
I don't see it
He didn't. He said
There's nothing complimentary in that, unless you think "crazy gun nuts" is a compliment. All he did was note that they believe something that he apparently also believes. And "anti-Catholic" is not the same as hating Catholics, nor does it make him a hateful person.
[Edit] You're also very free with that word hate. You label these Moorish Sovereigns a "hate group," but the SPLC doesn't call them that, and neither does the ADL or almost anyone else. Who, besides government, are the targets of their supposed program of hate? I have to point out that the biggest government-hating group is the Republican Party. Have you found an affinity with them?
It Does
Spokeboy has been adamant about his hatred for the Catholic Church time and time again.
I'm lapsed but I see Anti-Catholic statements posted here that if any other religion, Adam would s-can in a minute.
I knew priests who were pedophiles. I also know priests that exhaust themselves to help the poor and the sick.
There is a double standard on Uhub when it comes to the Catholic Church versus other religious groups being slandered here.
I have seen people here dismiss defacing of statues at churches in Dorchester or someone breaking into a church and walking in around and defacing vestments in Cambridge dismissed as tom foolery. Other religious places get defaced and its is the coming of the devil. It is not right in either way, but somehow there is a double standard.
Yea we all know Kino is a POS.
And that comment should probably be removed. I’m not sure Kino should be banned, as I’d bet a lot of money he is a sad loser who has never been loved and will never love, but that comment needs to be pointed out and taken care of.
Is hatred a family value?
Because if you did just a modicum of research into anti-Catholic thought, you’d see a lot of hatred towards those whose “crime” is believing in the faith of their fathers.
Is your (and Kinopio’s) contention that hating members of a religious group is somehow okay?
No
My contention is that I can be anti-Catholic without hating Catholics. Is it your contention that priests molesting children is OK? Didn't think so. But that's the kind of corner you're trying to paint us into. You appear to believe that any criticism of the RCS is "Catholic hating." For the record, I think most Catholics are fine people who happen to have an unfortunate belief system. Their support of the RCS organization enables it to commit some horrendous atrocities, and while I wish they would not do that, I don't hate them for it.
I'll explain this to you, Kino, Swirls, and the rest
To say that there is a difference between being anti-Catholic and opposing some of the moves of the Catholic church is either born of ignorance or stupidity.
For example, Swirly proudly says that she is anti-Catholic, and at least part of that comes from her husband working for a Catholic school. Now, there is an example of anti-Catholicism in Boston from 1834 where the townsfolk of Charlestown had an issue with a local Catholic school. Some might have an issue with the Catholic Church's stance on hot button issues, but that's a different thing that the Rev. Ian Paisley referring to the Pope as the anti-Christ, which is a common statement of anti-Catholic thought.
On a personal note, my great, great, grand was kicked off his land and forced to resettle because he was a Catholic, so that's where my feelings on people who proudly call themselves anti-Catholic comes from. In my eyes, you guys are no better than Klan members.
Conversely, there are movements within the Catholic Church's membership to deal with issues with the hierarchy. But at the end of the day, do you guys seriously think this group is really concerned with reforming the Church? No, they are the kind of folks who what the Church destroyed with no concern for its members. It's no different than being anti-Semitic or anti-Islam.
1834
I agree with much of what you say and would like to add that the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was rooted firmly in anti-Catholicism.
Anti-Catholicism started way before 1834. Puritans in 1630 felt pushed out by the Crown and held antipathy for the Church of England. Additionally, Puritan ministers felt that the Church of England was too similar to the Catholic Church and equated both to the “harlot of Rome” and “the Whore of Babylon”. Anglicanism, the child of Catholicism, was a major motivator for the Winthrop Fleet Puritans to leave for New England.
Religious tolerance was never a true characteristic of New England; anti-Catholicism in Massachusetts starts ~ 200 years before the wave of Irish migration hit Boston.
Well, then
What insult can I use to characterize your mistaken premise that I am saying that? I'm not, and I don't think SG is, either. We're not saying there's a difference between being anti-Catholic and opposing its atrocities; we're saying there's a difference between being anti-Catholic and hating people who are Catholics. Didn't I explicitly say that? Yes, I did. You seem to be so invested in defending the institution of the RCC that it's impairing your reading ability.
Thanks
For pointing out that you don’t get it.
But at least I tried.
Opposition to the Catholic Church
Disdain for the Catholic Church, with its long history of institutional corruption, whose leaders live with all the trappings of imperial splendor while asking the poorest to place money in the collection plate, with its documented history of providing cover for abusive pedophiles, is in no way the same as anti-Catholic hatred. The former is acknowledging the extensive failures and misdeeds of an organization, the latter is bigotry against a group of people on account of their faith. The Church as an institution, of course, wants you to see the former as the latter.
When Cardinal Law sees the inside of a prison cell
We can talk about your bizarre "rules" about how criticism of a hateful religion that was responsible for aiding and abetting and covering up kid rape, lot of dead children in its care - in Canada and Ireland and elsewhere - and now seeks to control even our US president is "hate".
I'm proudly anti-Catholic if that is your little game here. Until and unless your special church gets the fuck out of trying to regulate my non-Catholic body, and stops promoting hate against anyone who doesn't buy your heirarchy or chatechism or whatever, and stops rewarding those who covered up child rape, I will continue criticizing and demanding removal of tax exemption.
And I will do the same for any religion that plays this "wahhhhh I'm the vicccctuummmmm game" when covering for hate crimes and hateful attempts to control governments.
Got it?
Way to take a stand, Swirly!
Way to take a stand, Swirly!
--
When the guy who's been dead for three or four years, who was never charged or indicted with anything in the fourteen or so years before that (since he was canned) that there was any opportunity to do so, who was never in hiding... when that guy is "behind bars" - THEN you'll be ready to talk.
---
Such open-mindedness! Such readiness to dialogue! ...and on something that doesn't have much to do with the actual topic under discussion!
You know, you're a real profile in courage.
It’s telling that you get
It’s telling that you get more mad about people criticizing the Catholic Church than you do the Catholic Church raping and murdering thousands upon thousands of children.
It’s a lot more telling
That you found a kinship with a group on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s radar.
In all honesty, you need help. I’ll be praying for you.
Stop
You should stop doing that. No kinship was found.
No kinship
You know perfectly well that “these assholes were right about one thing” is not a statement of support for the group in question. What is your purpose in sticking to the obviously ridiculous claim that it is?
On the other hand…
…Rise of the Moors views are extremist and untethered from reality; do you think their strand of anti-Catholicism is the one view that they hold that is rational and rooted in fact?
Their IG account on which I based my original observations is no longer active, but I can tell you it wasn’t a rational denouncement of the Church’s many crimes, rather it was a broadside on practitioners of the faith as a whole. And that is what Kinopio is saying said a-holes were “right about”.
There is no credit that needs to be given to ROTM.
I'll say this
Hitler did a good job building the autobahn, and Mussolini made the trains run on time, but if someone lists a bunch of things that either of them did, the last thing I'd do it point out the efficiency of their governments.
Kinopio is a hateful asshole. He looked at what these guys believed in and thought "hating Catholics is a good thing, and I will note that it is good they do so." But if you are okay with hating people because of the religion they belong to, well, all I can say is that I used to respect you.
Except
Mussolini did not make the trains run on time. He was just a good liar.
Nor did Hitler really do that good a job building the Autobahnen
The vast majority of the Autobhanen were built after World War II and were a part of the greater European post war recovery effort.
Yeah, but this is Waquoit
He does, but that's never stopped him in the past from manufacturing straw men. It's his signature move.
He found solace in one of their hateful views
And as he is generally a hateful person, I was calling him out. Honestly, I was not expecting the hearty defense of anti-Catholicism. I mean, the Twelfth is a week away, but it still kind of amazes.
Are you yet another of the crowd that things that hatred towards religious groups is perfectly fine?
There you go again
"Kinship." "Solace." None of that. You really need to stop making shit up, or get your perceptions adjusted, or something.
Okay, explain me this
So, a commenter goes through a list of hateful things this group believes in, one of the tenants being anti-Catholicism. Kinopio points out that this is a good thing. I believe I've been clear on this. First, hatred of Catholics is, well, hatred. Second, assuming that Ian Paisley was right, why the fuck is anyone going to say that this group has good ideas?
But sure, enjoy your Twelfth. Keep on hating Catholics, or at least saying that it is great that these guys hate Catholics. Or maybe y'all can do a little studying and see why someone might take offense of anti-Catholicism.
Same old
You have a really bad case of word in mouth disease. No one here is saying that "it is great that these guys hate Catholics." No one. You believe you've been clear that anti-Catholicism is the same as hating Catholics, and I've been just as clear that I disagree with that. We're not gong to persuade each other, so you go on defending your child-molester-defending, culture-erasing institution. Go on insisting that my not liking that institution means I hate all of its members. Go on being wrong about that.
You have a big problem with reading
To wit, Kinopio highlighted that they are anti-Catholicism and said-
Look, that you are ignorant of what anti-Catholicism is is on you, but at the end of the day, much like how anti-Semitism predated the establishment of Israel (and actually played a big role in that event) even though the establishment of Israel is used for cover for that version of hate, anti-Catholicism predates all the scandals you refer to. By the way, I think it's interesting that you used the policy of the United States for several centuries, centuries when anti-Catholicism was rife in the country, as a way to attack Catholicism.
I will once again ask that you read up on the history of anti-Catholicism and anti-Catholic thought. It has very, very little if anything to do with reforming the Church and a lot to do with hating a people. Convents were burned to the ground. People were denied rights. All for being Catholic. That's what we are talking about with this group.
Just keep on hating, but be intellectually honest about it.
No kinship
You know perfectly well that “these assholes were right about one thing” is not a statement of support for the group in question. What is your purpose in sticking to the obviously ridiculous claim that it is?
Anti-Catholicism..
..is terrible.
Yes, the trans-national organization/church that covered up 100,000 sex abuse cases in the United States (and infinitely more internationally) is abhorrent.
But any person or organization promoting violence against our Catholic friends and neighbors, especially if you belong to a fringe or religious extremist group, should be viewed in the same light as anti-Semites.
EDIT: I don’t mean to say Anti-Catholicism is the exact equal as Anti-Semitism, because they are not equivalent. I am merely saying that the two should be held in the same disdain.
Thank you, Mass. State Police
That is not something I say very often, but kudos for finding a way to arrest all of these people without firing a shot or injuring any of the arrestees.
Ammosexuals are huge cowards.
Ammosexuals are huge cowards. One cop stopped on the side of the highway to assist these gun nuts and a bunch of them pissed their pants and went hiding in the woods.
Please be fair
Not everyone has the raw courage you display from behind your keyboard.
And yet...
...he's not wrong. That IS pretty much what happened, is it not?
I had the same reaction, Ron
Can you imagine stopping to assist a supposed breakdown and finding yourself in the middle of a group of heavily armed whackos? This cop showed amazing coolness and handled the situation very well.
Moors or Moops?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0uYJjDHeDU
Two more arrests, total of 11 now
https://twitter.com/MassStatePolice/status/1411341425908797445
"Two additional suspects were located in their vehicles, bringing the total number of those arrested to 11 (two initially on North Avenue and nine outside and inside the vehicles)"
"Sovereign" citizens
Like their White counterparts, Moorish sovereign citizens do not believe the government has any power over them.
Sounds like they've slipped their moorings.
Moorish resistance?
OtHELLno.
Suddenly hearing of this group all over it seems
About 10 days ago, a customer at the national chain store I worked at pulled out a Moorish American Nationality/ Aboriginal American National/ Allodial Aboriginal card (it goes by many names). They said they were exempt from taxes. I was looking at the weird card, with all its incredibility fine print and fancy words, thinking "this is BS.", when the manager, who has a really bad case of "I know everything-itis", was all "oh I know Native Americans don't pay taxes. and did the keyboard work to take off the taxes off what they were buying.
So that night I was all over the internet researching this group. They are ... something. Many of them get some of their income selling the cards even though they not exempt from taxes or any laws.
Then I thought my manager should get help for their "I know everything-itis". Now I'm thinking maybe they did know exactly who and what these people are and was just trying not to engage the crazy and get them the hell out of the store.
Are real Native Americans exempt from state sales taxes?
yes and no
Generally, based on my fast, "thorough" reading on "reliable internet sites", Native Americans who live and shop on tribal lands, don't pay taxes. There is also fine print and nuances involved for a variety of situations that create exceptions in which some might be required to pay some taxes.
When Native Americans are off tribal lands, they pay taxes. So Native Americans shopping in the store I work have to pay sales tax.
Groups, not persons
Organizations can be tax-exempt, not individuals.
Having worked in retail in two states, the policy was the same. To be tax-exempt, the group has to registered with the state (and have a form/card, or be in a database we checked), and you must pay for your purchase with the organization’s credit card — no personal form of payment.
if you made early assumptions...
Early this morning, threports only said there was a standoff with armed individuals who said they were exempt from our laws.
I saw a lot of discussion along t lines of, "must be the magas".
If you made assumptions like that, remember the od rule about AssUMe ing things.
ALWAYS wait for some facts first.
yet you’re assuming they *aren’t* MAGAts
because they’re black, right?
maybe they are, maybe they aren’t - i haven’t seen any information that suggests one way or another.
In your world
Sounding like the Bundy Clan while being black makes them liberals?
The only difference their being black makes is that the NRA isn't issuing favorable news releases supporting their cause and they won't get a presidential pardon because FREEdumB!
Maybe they should have occupied and trashed the Parker River NWR to get such honors?
President Biden will somehow
President Biden will somehow bring climate change into this.
That remains
to be seen, but what is incontrovertible is that you managed to bring him into this.
Just wait
Climate refugees are a thing and they will be coming here before your brainsludge manages to comprehend what is going on.