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The panic over the perceived militia “hunting for FEMA” did more damage than the real threat

The panic over the perceived militia “hunting for FEMA” did more damage than the real threat

It was a terrible report. While North Carolina residents were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suddenly ordered emergency workers to “stand back and evacuate” Rutherford County due to reports of “truckloads of armed militia who said they were chasing FEMA.” The Washington Post reported Oct. 13, based on an email received from the US Forest Service.

The threat turned out to be less serious. Oct. 14, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest one man, William Jacob Parsons, for making a “comment about possibly harming FEMA employees” while armed with an assault rifle. Law enforcement concluded that “Parsons was acting alone and there were no police trucks,” according to statement quoted in The Washington Post.

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

Whenever America suffers a natural disaster, there seems to be a serious anxiety about social collapse and mass violence. And the mass media often play the most fantastic version, as the journalists did reporting violence at the Superdome refugee center after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

These rumors alone can cause serious damage. Louisiana National Guard Maj. Ed Bush told Reason in 2005 that “maybe FEMA would be faster if we didn’t hear all these urban myths about shootings and rapes and deaths and murders and corpses everywhere.” Relief efforts have been underway in Rutherford County and neighboring Ashe County this past week suspended due to an alleged threat from the police.

Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Reason received original email thread about the threat Forest Service fire official Gordy Sachs, citing the FEMA message, did write to other officials on October 12 that “Title 10 troopers encountered two trucks of armed militia who said they were hunting FEMA.” (Both federal troops and the National Guard under federal command are referred to as subordinate “Name of the 10th order.”)

The Forest Service was trying to find out what was really going on. “Do you know about it? Are we engaged? Any updates to share?” Tracy Perry, the agency’s director of law enforcement and investigations, wrote in an email to subordinates. “This is the first I’ve heard of this, I spoke to some LE (law enforcement) around 11:30 this morning and they didn’t mention anything,” the official, whose name and title have been redacted, wrote back.

By the end of that day, officials had found out the real story. The Forest Service’s interim patrol commander, whose name has been redacted, responded to the email thread at 6:52 p.m. with a screenshot of a bulletin asking police to look for a man who “made threats to FEMA and anyone in his path” and a photo of someone who looks like Parsons.

“It is highly likely (there is) a prior threat (unconfirmed),” the patrol commander wrote. After 20 minutes, the commander wrote that “the suspect is detained.”

Only the original e-mail about “armed militia trucks” got into the press. The Washington Post reported about perceived threat on the afternoon of October 13, apparently unaware that the suspect had been identified. “Two federal officials confirmed the authenticity of the email, although it was unclear whether the quoted threat was believed to be credible.” Publish reported

After the news of Parsons’ arrest, Publish updated his story to focus on his perceived threat, and removed the phrase “armed militia” from the headline. As it turned out, US soldiers had threatened after hearing about it from the gas station cashier. “It was a lone individual,” Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office Capt. James Keever said Publish. “We’re trying to get the word out about it.”

But other media have already started to tell this story. “Trump’s hurricane poses a terrible threat” New Republic statedblaming former President Donald Trump criticism of FEMA for allegedly threatening the police. In his own coverage of the police threat, The Guardian reported that the “politicization” of hurricane relief efforts “provided an opportunity to recruit white supremacist groups that had gathered in devastated areas.” The Daily Beast showed a photo of own militia on top of its cover.

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R–NC) said NBC News that two North Carolina counties reported that “various militias are attacking and threatening FEMA.”

On the ground, the picture looked completely different. People mostly started helping each other and their communities. Volunteer aid organizations distributed deliveries across North Carolina and surrounding states. Reason witnessed a police-like operation near Asheville, but instead of attacking emergency workers, “Redneck Air Force“was cooperating with the power to fly helicopters to remote cities.

And instead of a terrifying plague of misinformation, at least one local official finds the anti-FEMA conspiracy theories mostly an annoyance.

“As far as I know, rumors on social media have not affected the response. They tend to be a distraction, but I was concerned that people might stop helping if they felt their efforts were being undermined. This did not happen.” This was announced by the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, Glenn Jacobs Reason. Jacobs says recovery efforts after Hurricane Helen “once again demonstrated how local communities come together to help their neighbors even before the government mobilizes. I’ve seen a lot of that.”