FBI arrests militia member near border, described as "armed vigilante"

The man, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, is a Flora Vista, N.M., native also known as "Johnny Horton Jr.," according to an FBI release.

ABC-7's Mauricio Casillas interviewed the United Constitutional Patriots Commander in a story that aired in March.

Armed militia patrolling border near Sunland Park

 "This country was built on three things: God, guns and guts," Hopkins told Casillas. "That American flag has to keep flying. It's in danger, a lot of danger right now."

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families," said New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. "Today’s arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

The Flora Vista, N.M. native is expected to have an initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Las Cruces on Monday at 10:30 a.m.

FBI arrests militia member near border, described as "armed vigilante"

so this guy rounds up illegal immigrants, and hands them to authorities, unscathed, now he is due to apoear in court Monday.


on one hand, if this vigilante mindset is romanticized, where will it end?
on the other hand what these folks did are not a bad thing (except for the leader...whos a felon, he had no place owning guns and ammo and serving justice)
most of those people are prior law enforcement, military, government.


2 wrongs make a right?

a reply to: odzeandennz

If he broke the law, he should be charged

If only law enforcement was allowed to arrest everyone who broke laws

Imagine if flora vista where he is from was a sanctuary city for gun rights, and not informed the fbi of his breaking the law

That would be bad

a reply to: odzeandennz

Im not sure we have the full story, however, I think this type of patriotism is a bit skewed.

a reply to: odzeandennz

We need more vigilantes.

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: odzeandennz

If he broke the law, he should be charged

If only law enforcement was allowed to arrest everyone who broke laws

Imagine if flora vista where he is from was a sanctuary city for gun rights, and not informed the fbi of his breaking the law

That would be bad

well hes a felon, who happens to lead a group of people who apprehended people entering the country illegally. ... but hes an armed felon..

a reply to: odzeandennz

The movie Desierto is likely a training manual for some of these numpties.

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: odzeandennz

If he broke the law, he should be charged

If only law enforcement was allowed to arrest everyone who broke laws

Imagine if flora vista where he is from was a sanctuary city for gun rights, and not informed the fbi of his breaking the law

That would be bad

well hes a felon, who happens to lead a group of people who apprehended people entering the country illegally. ... but hes an armed felon..

My feeling is the law is the lawvin cases such as these

My feeling I’m whether he was doing something good is irrelevant l; he broke the law and should be charged

Now perhaps there is more to the story, but that’s my feelings based on what we know

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: odzeandennz

We need more vigilantes.

thats easy, get more illegal immigrants and the number of armed vigilantes will go up😏

a reply to: odzeandennz

If certain monied interests continue seeding a literal invasion of our nation, I foresee more militias coming together to protect their communities.

originally posted by: Grambler

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: odzeandennz

If he broke the law, he should be charged

If only law enforcement was allowed to arrest everyone who broke laws

Imagine if flora vista where he is from was a sanctuary city for gun rights, and not informed the fbi of his breaking the law

That would be bad

well hes a felon, who happens to lead a group of people who apprehended people entering the country illegally. ... but hes an armed felon..

My feeling is the law is the lawvin cases such as these

My feeling I’m whether he was doing something good is irrelevant l; he broke the law and should be charged

Now perhaps there is more to the story, but that’s my feelings based on what we know

perhaps there is more.
the mayor was ranting about how they don't have authority to make arrests, just last week, then boom, fbi arrests him today.

im very skeptical about the motivation behind the arrest.
im going to assume that this man knew the legality of owning guns with his history, yet was public about being the leader of an armed vigilante group.

we'll see monday.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: odzeandennz

We need more vigilantes.

Troll

I need more info about the situation in order for me to make any proper assertion.

a reply to: Allaroundyou

We are raised and trained to put all our faith into "the authorities" and "law enforcement".

Look where that's gotten us.

Maybe we really do need more vigilantes.

a reply to: odzeandennz

Maybe the government don't want the people to see how regular joes can do the job better and it cost's taxpayers a lot less money.

a reply to: Grambler

My feeling I’m whether he was doing something good is irrelevant l; he broke the law and should be charged

Yeah, but isn't that the same mindset that allows a criminal to sue the home owner if he gets hurt robbing his house?

If there is no room in law for common sense, then it Justice is not blind.

From another article...

The FBI arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, for alleged unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition , days after his group posted videos that appeared to show armed men stopping migrants at the border in New Mexico, ordering them to sit on the ground and coordinating with US border patrol agents to have them taken into custody.

And then...

The Daily Beast reported that Hopkins has a history of pushing far-right conspiracies and has a conviction for impersonating an officer and felony firearm possession.

theguardian.com

So basically he's allowed himself to be filmed and have the footage posted on the internet of him doing something he knew for a fact was totally illegal.

Whatever your opinion is about what these "patriots" are doing, one thing that can't be denied is that this guy isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Probably not the kind of guy who should be trusted holding women and children at gunpoint.

You can either have patriots at the border patrolling, or have them in your subdivision.

The dude was an idiot for touching a gun if he's a felon.

Because once his group made the news cycle, the anti-gun unit of the FBI started pulling files indicated by facial recognition software. Then they came running.

Or, scenario B:

The guy was an agent-provocateur, inserted into the group to discredit all of them. So the news cycle captures him being perp-marched into the local jail. They don't mention the fact that he gets an adjudicated sentence and is out joining other constitutionalist groups, where he encourages people to show up armed to various "street actions."

I'm sure I'm way out of line, posting rants like this one on ATS. The feds haven't played these kinds of games since the militia movement was marginalized in the nineties, by the Murrah building blowing up in 1995. I always thought it was funny that in the whole federal building, only one office was closed that Tuesday morning.

The FBI office.

Sorry, double post.

The space-bar on my computer is equipped with a bump stock...

a reply to: DBCowboy

We are going to end up with more vigilantes if the arseholes in DC don't quit playing games. By the time they are done flucking around it's going to be too late. Maybe that's the plan anyway.

I'm a little confused here. Only the felon was arrested and not the rest of the group, so the rest group is still very well guarding the boarder. What's the issue? The guy shouldn't have had any weapons on himself, he could have lead the group while unarmed, but he didn't. Now he has to pay the price.

A few things that bothered me though;
What was Larry Mitchell Hopkins felony conviction?
If only Larry Mitchell Hopkins was arrested, then shouldn't his second in command just assume command?
Why was the story focused on Larry Mitchell Hopkins, but concludes with

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families," said New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. "Today’s arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

have to do with the civilans on the boarder helping out in "boarder-hood watch"?


Is this a hit pice on Larry Mitchell Hopkins, or an attack piece on civilans patrolling the boarder?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: odzeandennz

We need more vigilantes.

Against your own government, get the real enemy understood here