The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent “Armageddon” appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a “righteous ‘Mission from God,'” as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.
As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was “preparing for domestic and political turmoil,” and feared martial law would soon be imposed.
Girard’s wife said her husband had recently told her: “Don’t talk to people, shoot them instead,” and “it’s fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it.”
But it appears that Girard had lately found a community with which to share some of his growing fears. A “Greg Girard,” listing his location as Manchester, Mass., has a personal page on the “Patriots of America” online network, a popular site affiliated with the Tea Party movement. The phone number listed on the page is the same as the number listed on the website of Girard’s consulting firm, which appears to have been run out of his home.
Girard’s apparent apocalyptic anxiety about a coming effort by federal thugs to crack down on personal liberties surfaced frequently on his Tea Party page. His writings may shed light on the mindset that allegedly led him to assemble his arsenal.
For instance, just last week, after another Tea Partier wrote a post railing against gun registries, Girard responded by invoking a potential “murderous rampage” by “state and Federal gangsta’s (sic),” trying to take his weapons.
He wrote:
Federal efforts to take away guns during emergencies were outlowed (sic) after the Katrina incident. And at all times, the Constitution would prohibit such a thing. So, one can know that any such effort is against the Constitution and against specific laws regarding states of emergency, and thus the effort, if it involved breaking into your home, would be no different than any felonious breaking and entry by one or more armed assailants. The Castle law in one’s state, or simply the common law of the right to self defense, would ensure that close range discharge of double-ought buck from a 12 ga at the assailant’s face (from behind cover!), would be a perfectly legal defense in response to an attack of armed assailants tearing the door from your home and threatening with deadly force, in the form of loaded rifles pointed in your direction. The hard part is not preventing the confiscation, but surviving the murderous rampage of the state and Federal gangsta’s (sic) that would almost certainly be very enthusiastic about gunning the defending homeowner down.
In another recent post, Girard warned that President Obama is creating a “secret police force,” likely made up of “inner city youths”:
I have studied the “National Security Force,” which is Obama’s name for the secret police force he is creating. I have read the new law that gives them the right to operate as an extension of the DoD, carrying firearms, and executing search warrants, executing arrest warrants, and the like. Needless to say, it’s a secret police force of some kind, and it appears likely to be created from inner city youths.
And a third recent post by Girard — an erratic speller, it appears — stoked fears that “gov’t troops and police would freely be able to use lethal force against anyone for just about any reason, and entire sectors of the population could be subject to mass murder or indefinate (sic) detention,” and asserted, “we have been in a state of war and state of emergency of some time for decades uninterupted (sic), causing us unwittingly live on the very razor edge between between civil gov’t and an apocolyptic (sic) destruction of our society, our liberties, and many of our lives.”
In Girard’s view, only one person can save us: Sarah Palin. Later in the lengthy post, he wrote:
I believe that the ONLY —– ONLY —— potential presidental (sic) candidate I have seen with the sheer force of will and God-insprined (sic) rightous (sic) determination to bringdown (sic) this “War Powers” evil is Sarah Palin.
Girard praised Palin’s “magical combination of charisma, a remarkable reserve of personal strength and committment (sic), and her righteous ‘mission from God’ drive (sic) return this country to its convservative (sic), Constitutional foundation.”
Neither Girard nor his lawyer, Christopher Beares, responded immediately to messages left by TPMmuckraker.
