There was a time when Missouri would have been ready for Taylor Michael Wilson.
Earlier this month, federal authorities against the self-described neo-Nazi from St. Charles County who last October allegedly forcibly stopped an Amtrak train in Nebraska and was arrested, released and then arrested again.
Law enforcement officials found a stockpile of weapons in Wilson’s home, including an illegal fully automatic assault rifle. that he planned to kill black people during protests in ºüÀêÊÓƵ last fall, along with a trove of racist messages and evidence that he belonged to various racist organizations including the National Socialist Movement.
Wilson, 26, had attended the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last year that led to the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer after another racist rammed his car into her during a counterprotest.
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In short, Taylor Michael Wilson is a dangerous man.
He was the sort of man law enforcement officials were warned about in a 2009 report produced by the , one of dozens of national “fusion centers†set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help local, state and federal authorities share information.
That report, titled “The Modern Militia Movement,†seems almost quaint today, after the resurgence of open white supremacy that has swept the nation since the election of President Donald Trump brought the so-called “alt-right†movement into the mainstream.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism that white supremacists were responsible for nearly 60 percent of all extremist related deaths in 2017, more than twice as many as Islamic extremists.
Despite the rise once again of dangerous activity in the militia movement, the Missouri Information Analysis Center hasn’t produced a new report warning law enforcement officials about things to look for.
If the fusion center is tracking people like Wilson, there is no public evidence of it. In fact, the center hasn’t produced another public strategic report since the one in 2009.
Why?
Politics.
When it was released nine years ago, Missouri’s report on the rise of militia activity was meant to give law enforcement officers across the state additional information to prepare them for the Taylor Michael Wilsons in our midst.
It talked about the history of the movement and its various arms, it warned of the sorts of bumper stickers and paraphernalia that might appear on cars that could indicate to a police officer that a dangerous extremist was inside.
But the report created because some of those details, perhaps inartfully presented, made too many conservative politicians uncomfortable. Some, for instance, misinterpreted well documented concerns about white supremacists in the “Christian Identity†movement and extremists who advocated for violence against abortion doctors.
The report mentioned the fact that some militia groups identify with the old “Don’t Tread on Me†Gadsen Flag, but the report came out around the same time that conservative Tea Party groups were adopting the flag for their movement, as well.
The overreaction by Missouri Republicans is embodied by a quote from then Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder:
“There is no reason why Republicans, Libertarians, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, atheists, Christians, pro-life and abortion advocates or vegetarians should be targeted because of certain beliefs which they hold dear,†Kinder said at the time.
The problem was, the report never did target people because of their beliefs, except for those who believed in violence and thus put citizens, and law enforcement, in danger.
And in the time between the report being released and lawmakers holding a hearing to grandstand about it, the details proved prescient:
• In late May, a militant anti-abortionist named Scott Roeder shot and killed George Tiller, a doctor who performed abortions in Wichita, Kan. Police arrested him after pulling him over in a traffic stop.
• Muslim convert Abdulhakim Muhammad shot two soldiers, killing one of them, in a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station. Missouri Information Analysis Center reports had warned both of prison Muslim converts such as Muhammad, and also of specific danger to military facilities such as recruiting stations.
• A white supremacist named James von Brunn killed a security guard in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the nation’s capital, literally hours before the legislative hearing on the analysis center’s report.
In the years since politics killed common sense, and Missouri’s analysis center stopped producing reports, extremism, specifically tied to white supremacy, has been on the rise in Missouri, highlighted by the 2014 triple homicide in a Kansas City area Jewish community Center by , an avowed anti-Semite from southwest Missouri long known to law enforcement.
Reading the federal indictment of Wilson, it’s shocking really that he was caught before he did serious damage. But it’s also a stark reminder:
He’s not alone.