The Michigan Militia is hosting a family-oriented “Militia Field Day” on Saturday — complete with shooting events — with the hope that it will help distance them from the recently arrested members of the Hutaree Militia.
Last month, nine Hutaree members were arrested on several counts, including an alleged plot to attack police.
The Michigan Militia, from the same area, is hoping that their annual “Open Carry Family Picnic & Tea Party” will help distinguish them from the Hutaree, and “take the stigma out of the word ‘militia.'”
The Michigan Militia’s website describes the group this way:
A well-armed citizenry is the best form of Homeland Security and can better deter crime, invasion, terrorism, and tyranny … If you are a United States citizen (or have declared your intent to become such), who is capable of bearing arms, or supports the right to do so, then YOU ARE the MILITIA!
Saturday’s event has a tagline of “show, shoot, shout then sip some tea with us.” Spokesman Mike Lackomar tells TPM that the Michigan Militia “do think about” whether the timing of the event is going to overshadow their ultimate message, but that “the events have happened the Saturday before tax day” for years.
While the event is called a tea party, the Michigan Militia has no official affiliation with the larger Tea Party group, Lackomar said, though there is some overlap among members. He noted that the militia intentionally used the phrase “tea party” to describe their event to remind Tea Partiers that “they don’t own the name” and “they really should refocus on why they’re doing what they’re doing,” instead of “trying to become a third party.”
As for the Hutaree, Lackomar said the Michigan Militia disagrees with “just about every aspect” of their philosophy.
As ThinkProgress pointed out, the Michigan Militia has a page on its site that details a “training” event in 2007 — an event to which the Hutaree showed up “to conduct training of their own.”
When asked about this, Lackomar said that at the time, the Hutaree were “a brand new unit” and his group “hadn’t heard about them.” He added that the Michigan Militia is “the biggest militia around,” and new groups often look to them for “pointers.”
That 2007 event did not go very well, Lackomar said, primarily because the Hutaree “shot the heck of that out of our furniture.” They were asked not to return.
The Hutaree, he said, “threatened” them, and told them “we had to wear their uniforms or we would find ourselves amongst their enemies.” At the time, said Lackomar, “we didn’t take them too seriously.”
