#fringe groups

Kill Gandhi but take his ideals: it is good politics

The disruption of the meeting has given the group a boost in publicity and support. It also provided a glimpse into the Republic’s political alternate reality and the radical and not-so-radical views of its supporters. Some have had violent confrontations with the authorities, and some are retirees more interested in the minutiae of the establishment of Texas as a country from 1836-45 than in overthrowing the government. “They’re a harmless, clueless and interesting group of generally nice older guys with too much time on their hands,” said Jerry Patterson, a former Texas land commissioner, who recalled receiving Republic letters demanding he vacate the office. “Certainly law enforcement has something else to do. They have never tried to enforce their demands beyond writing amusing letters.” The sheriff of Kerr County, Rusty Hierholzer, who led the raid and execution of the search warrant last month, said the letters appeared to violate a state law that prohibits delivery of documents that simulate a summons or other court process. The large contingent of officers, he said, was necessary because of the group’s history. In 1997, the group’s leader at the time, Richard L. McLaren, and his supporters abducted a West Texas couple and held them hostage, leading to the standoff. A member of the group was shot and killed in the gun battle. Mr. McLaren surrendered and remains in state prison. Other members have been charged over the years with assault, forgery, the impersonation of an officer and, in a 1998 federal case, threats to use a weapon of mass destruction. “I don’t have a problem with this group, but when they do things that violate the laws of this state, then I have to take action,” Sheriff Hierholzer said. “If I had just sent one officer to this meeting, to execute that warrant, I have a serious concern as to how safe my officer would’ve been. “You look at Waco, Timothy McVeigh, some of this ‘sovereign citizen’ stuff,” he added, referring to the 1993 F.B.I. assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco and the terrorist who was executed for detonating a truck bomb in Oklahoma City in 1995. “There’s radicals in everything we do. It’s the radicals that I’m concerned about.”