Jenkins Spreads Conspiracy Theories Ahead Of The Capitol Hill Putsch
He spread numerous other falsehoods at a Frederick County Conservative Club Event.
At a Dec. 12th event, hosted by the Frederick County Conservative Club, Chuck Jenkins spread the baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen. He said that in “maybe a short period of time, maybe in a couple of years, we’re going to find out this was the biggest fraud ever played.”
During his 20-minute speech, he spread numerous conspiracy theories, stated he would not enforce gun-control laws and mask mandates, and ranted about the lack of qualified deputy candidates.
In addition, Jenkins stated, “ … you know people of color fault police for everything bad that happens to them.” Commenting on the death of George Floyd and Freddie Gray, “If that individual — would have very simple, had very simply — obeyed the lawful order of that police officer, these things would never have happened.”
Gray died a week after his arrest, due to a serious spinal injury while in police custody. Gray was killed because of injuries he received during a rough ride. He was murdered by a Baltimore City cop who put him in the back of a police van without a seat belt, with his hands cuffed behind his back, and because that officer decided to intentionally take numerous sharp turns that resulted in bodily harm.
In addition to all this, early in the speech, the sheriff boasted about his far-right political connections, “I took a couple of days and went down to a seminar at Liberty University — The Constitutional Sheriffs And Peace Officers Association — and I’m glad I did!”
In 2019, I wrote about Jenkins’s connections to far-right organizations.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) sits in a strategic position and serves as a bridge between the police and the militia movement. Boston University law professor Robert Tsai, author of “Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation,” told CSMonitor, “You see a lot of these self-described constitutional sheriffs also active in the militia movement.” He added, “[The Sheriffs] are now engaged in anti-mask, anti-pandemic actions, and they proudly say, ‘We’re not going to enforce these things.’ They are part of this broader right-wing politicization of law enforcement.”
Some members of CSPOA have defended the planned kidnapping and murder of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Founder and president of CSPOA, former Sheriff Richard Mack currently sits on the board of the director of the Oath Keepers.
The Oath Keepers both attended the deadly Unite The Right Protest in Charlottesville and the Jan. 6th putsch. According to Rolling Stone, several Oath Keepers are currently under indictment for alleged acts during the Capitol Hill putsch:
This development comes following the January 19th unsealing of a criminal complaint and affidavit accusing Thomas Edward Caldwell, 65, of Clarke County, Virginia — who investigators suspect to be a leader of the group — of conspiring to commit a federal offense, in addition to obstruction of an official proceeding, unlawful entry into a restricted building, and violent or disorderly conduct. (Though Caldwell has not pleaded, he did say in a court appearance that “every single charge is false.”)
Two other members of the Oath Keepers have also been changed with related offenses, Reuters reports.
According to a local right-wing blog, the Tentacle, “On January 6th, members of the Frederick County Conservative Club filled 3 buses and headed to Washington D.C. to exercise their First Amendment rights.” Additionally, “The members of the FCCC took no part in any of the bad behavior. They were there to defend their president and the Constitution, nothing more.”
Contradicting this post, also on the Tentacle, members of the Frederick Conservative Club admitted some residents “were close enough to get hit with tear-gas, a couple more had their ears rung by the concussion grenades and 2 got hit by stray rubber bullets.” One Frederick resident has already been arrested for attending the Jan. 6th putsch.
Jenkins and the FCCC have been criticized for enabling far-right conspiracies by Frederick-area activists. A demonstration of 100 hundred people chanted throughout downtown Frederick, “Chuck and the Klan go hand-and-hand.”
