I-95 Partially Closed For Hours After Police Standoff With Armed Men

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Traffic on Interstate 95 was diverted for hours after a group of armed men fled from police near Wakefield, Mass. on Saturday. Massachusetts state police say 11 suspects have been taken into custody.





Michael Dwyer/AP



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Michael Dwyer/AP



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Politics Shape The Debate Over What To Call Far-Right Extremism

As police tactical teams brought in armored vehicles to surround the area, and negotiators interacted with the men, they ultimately surrendered. Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters the suspects were expected to appear in court on Tuesday morning.

State police «don’t have any knowledge about this particular specific group but as state police «it is not unusual for us to encounter people that have sovereign citizen ideologies — I’m not saying that this group does — but we have had those encounters before in the past, Mason said at a Saturday morning press briefing.

«We train to those encounters, Mason continued. «We very much understand the philosophy that underlies that mindset. And we train our officers, actually, at the academy, on these interactions and how to de-escalate those situations, and how to engage with people that have that philosophy and mindset and resolve those situations in a peaceful manner.


The group calls itself «Rise of the Moors


The same man appearing to be Bey said in a later video: «They keep portraying us as being anti-government, but we’re not anti-government at all.

The group’s website lists Bey as a leader of the «Rhode Island State Republic and Providence Plantations. According to the site, Bey served in the military for four years, some or all of that time in the Marines, after which he began studying «Moorish Science.

That website, «Rise of the Moors, explains that Moors are not «sovereign citizens because «sovereignty does not stand alone, but can rather be considered synonymous with «nationality.

«The record show that the Moors are the organic or original sovereigns of this land — America, the FAQ says. «When we declare our nationality as Moorish Americans we are taking back the position as the aboriginal people of the land, to which the sovereign power is vested in.

Bey’s group may be associated with the Moorish sovereign citizen movement, which the Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes as an offshoot of the antigovernment sovereign citizens movement. Moorish sovereigns «have come into conflict with federal and state authorities over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations, SPLC writes.

«The Moorish Sovereign movement is a rapidly growing group of people who believe that they belong to a sovereign nation that has a treaty with the US but otherwise operates outside of the federal and state laws, JJ MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, explained on Twitter.

«They rely on an alternative history that borrows from Moorish Science Temple, Black Hebrew Israelism, Nation of Islam, UFO theories, phony Native American tribes, and the pseudo-legal arguments crafted by white supremacist ‘patriot’ groups in the 1970s, MacNab said.

• domestic extremism