Militia Group Leader Finds Friction in North Texas
Denton Area Police Briefly Investigate
Hello Friends,
Ordinarily, we would consider this story beneath notice— not worth burdening our readership with. On the surface of it, it all seems a small thing. Some men get into an argument at a North Texas Budget Inn and Suites, one threatens to get a gun. Police are called. No one goes to jail. No one presses charges. End of story.
But, there remains a high level of interest in some quarters of the state and country as old news about the possibility of armed volunteers active in Kinney County continues to circulate. And one of the parties involved in the above incident is the leader of the most visible militia organization in Kinney County. The only one still active that we know of here.
Most who have been following along know the name Sam Hall and the Patriots for America Militia group. They showed up in Kinney County sometime back in mid-October, pledging their assistance at a time when it wasn’t clear if Governor Abbott and Operation Lone Star would be extending any aid to Kinney County whatsoever.
Almost as soon as they made their announcement at a packed Commissioner’s Court Meeting, however, the Governor’s Office kicked in a 3-million dollar grant, and heavily increased the presence of DPS troopers in the area— mostly eliminating the perceived need for any kind of volunteer efforts in Kinney County.
Nonetheless, Sam Hall and his people have maintained a presence— coming and going between fundraisers in North Texas, and extended visits to Kinney County, with some disputed amounts of success. The group has published some videos of themselves interacting with illegal aliens ready to give up— walking along the side of the road— distributing them water, inquiring after their wellbeing, and directing law enforcement to their location. One could debate their overall level of effectiveness, as most landowners appear unwilling to shoulder the risk and responsibility of allowing them access to their property, but there’s no debating a certain persistence in their presence— even as they’ve claimed harassment from the Department of Public Safety.
That all may’ve hit a snag. When not visiting Kinney County, the group lays claim to an ongoing mission of aiding in the recovery of missing and exploited children. They were apparently contacted by a panicked mother— or a charity organization that was influenced by the mother, in Highland Village, TX, a subdivision of Denton, North of Dallas.
Someone gave them a tip that a girl was being held by traffickers at a Budget Inn and Suites in another area of Denton County, called The Colony. Based on a video released on social media by Hall, he and his friends suited up in their military style plate carriers and other accoutrements and got into a verbal altercation with a man staying at the hotel— essentially accusing him of trafficking the girl. Local police indicate the militia group was carrying sidearms. The man is said to have threatened to go and get his gun. In the video, shot seemingly minutes after the altercation in the parking lot of the hotel, Hall can be heard to say something along the lines of: “Don’t threaten me with a good time boy, we all got guns.” Hall later posted a flyer indicating the girl had been found— possibly allowing folks to assume that it was entirely through his and his people’s efforts at the hotel.
Not so.
Highland Village police say they have no knowledge of Hall or his organization. And had nothing to do with his involvement. They say Detectives found the girl at a friend’s house— nowhere near the hotel— tracking her down with “cellphone pings.” It turns out, she and her mother had been arguing, and she’d run away from home— a very common occurrence, as anyone who’s worked in a newsroom or police station can tell you.
The Colony Police Department, in response to a public information request, produced a brief report— indicating that the incident happened on February 15 and confirmed many of the basic details.
This means that the militia group may have inserted themselves into a potentially dangerous situation— perhaps even created a dangerous situation— on the basis of a mistaken tip. The best of intentions are all fine and good— but theatrics and mistaken efforts create the very real risk of unnecessary danger where none existed before.
As it happens, it appears Hall and his friends will not be charged with trespassing or any other crimes. The management of the hotel appears to be leaving the matter between Hall and the man that was being allegedly harassed. And it seems that man will not be pressing a complaint, leaving very little for Denton area authorities to do in the matter. For them, the case is closed.
Even so, it should stand as some food for thought for those following events along the border and the activities of volunteer militia groups.
Volunteer efforts along the border have long been controversial. Look no further than a recent TIME magazine article, that seems to equate any efforts at all with David Duke and the KKK.
The piece is worth a read, if only for a look at some recent, but forgotten episodes along the border.
One thing that has been illustrated again and again over the course of the Border Crisis has been the level of expertise held in trust by the U.S. Border Patrol.
What is increasingly becoming obvious, is that most volunteers and current and ex-military personnel are incredibly ill-prepared to accomplish what Border Patrol used to do day in and day out. It’s a matter of training, procedure, experience, and also logistics.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is learning quickly, of course, but, “locking down the border” as an exercise is going to be much easier said than done. Don’t believe anyone telling you “Mission Accomplished” this election season. The average soldier is just not ready to hit the desert running. Period. Outside of a comparative few, select, special forces members, there are almost too many gaps in training to list. Right off the top of the head, there’s language barriers, old-fashioned tracking and brush cutting techniques that aren’t taught in many places, and not to mention simple things like: How do you even approach a group in the desert and take them into custody, without making them scatter to the winds? How do you approach them in a way that uses the land to help you?
The Texas DPS Brush teams have been learning quickly— and expanding their ranks in Kinney County. Officials have taken their initial teams of trained men, broken them into two, and paired them up with others for further training. They’ve also been leveraging drones and other technology, of course, but it’s apparent that a certain amount of their success is stemming from the fact that there’s just so much foot traffic coming through, the technology can’t help but find some of it, and the troopers are getting all the real world practice they can stand. Why are we telling you this? To make it clear— the border does not come with a big ol’ switch that says “Open,” and “closed” on it. It’s going to take a lot of work for quite some time to come— and some of that work is going to have to happen in places many miles away from the border. Places like Austin, and Washington D.C.— locations partly responsible for screwing it all up to begin with.
Ironically, Texas History is once again being mirrored by current events. Many know the broad strokes of the Texas Rangers— initially a volunteer fighting group of men who were remainders from the revolution— many were young, rootless individuals that arrived too late to fight Mexico, and were pressed into service as Rangers and went on to great fame and infamy both. Known for ruthlessness and their effectiveness in combatting Indians on the frontier, they kept the peace between the far flung and separated homesteads and villages scattered around the state, and did it at very low cost. A bargain for taxpayers and cash-strapped lawmakers in Austin.
What many don’t know, is that the most legendary rangers of the 1830s and 40s were simply those lucky enough to survive the initial one-sided encounters with Indian raiders. They learned on the job, in the most brutal and hardest of ways— as fellow Rangers were cut to pieces by the Comanche and others— spitted on the ends of their buffalo lances, or turned to pincushions by the legendary accuracy of their horse bows. Some early Rangers were simply outwitted— their horses stolen and men left to die alone in the wilderness.
The toughest of those early Rangers that survived this merciless winnowing process was perhaps John Coffee “Jack” Hays— the man Hays County is named after.
He and others at the time, came to believe that in order to fight the Indians one had to be willing to endure worse deprivations on the trail, just to keep up with them. Cold camps. No fires. No coffee. No food, other than what they called “cold flour” a mix of sugar and parched corn that could be kept in the saddle bags. Endless hours of tracking and trailing. And when it came time to fight, there could be no hesitation and little mercy. The savagery of the plains fighting cannot be overstated in most cases. To modern audiences it can be hard to grasp or conceive without the most graphic of description. Suffice to say, there was little true glory to speak of for Indians, or Rangers— just a series of brutal encounters that savaged the sensibilities of all those participating.
One wonders what unrecorded words were spoken in the aftermath of the Mexican-American war that saw Coffee Jack Hays and the rest of the original class of rangers shut down and dispersed, despite their legendary performance on the frontier and in Mexico. It is most likely that it was simply a matter of money and jurisdiction, and the perception that the U.S. Government was now in charge and would be using federal troops. In any event, Hays never returned to Texas, becoming an early Sheriff of San Francisco, and later an early settler and leading light of Oakland, California. Hays was apparently well-respected by the Comanche. One chief, named “Buffalo Hump,” sending Hays a golden spoon to commemorate the birth of Hays first son. The spoon was engraved with “Buffalo Hump, Jr.”
The hard lessons learned— the sacrifices of their own health and humanity by that first class of Rangers were squandered and allowed to depart state service. Years later— other groups of men were formed, dissolved, and reformed again, and also called Texas Rangers, but at first, they were Rangers in name only— forced to relearn many of the same hard lessons— lessons that the U.S. Cavalry were having to learn also.
Once again along the Rio Grande, Texas is being forced to relearn how to police itself, and patrol its own borders in the vacuum created by the already well-documented changes in federal government policy that have effectively neutered the U.S. Border Patrol.
Awaiting them, instead of a barren no-man’s land of savage combatants, is an overrun border of communities drowning in asylum seekers, some legitimate, others less so— creating a unique human crisis that allows criminal smugglers to run the rest of the border almost at will.
Primary Thoughts:
As we write this, some votes are still being counted in some places, but some Texas Primary races appear to be settled.
It looks like the conventional wisdom out there was correct, and Governor Greg Abbott has cruised to a comfortable win— he’ll be up against Beto O’Rourke in the general election.
The margin of victory seems to be catching some folks off guard, who have been supporting Don Huffines or Col. Allen West. Both men have been campaigning heavily on the argument that much more could be done to secure the border— that they would go further than Governor Abbott. We believe them. But, we also believe that most voters have not yet fully woken up on the border crisis. And, many of those who are somewhat aware of it are liable to believe it’s in the process of being taken care of. And why wouldn’t they, when many progressives are squealing to the high heavens about Operation Lone Star.
Having recently had the opportunity to listen to Col. West address the matter of pay issues and other snafus in the Texas National and State Guard, we believe his military experience might’ve been of some assistance if he were to secure a place in Austin.
All that said, we still must reiterate what we said some time ago: If money talks, the Operation Lone Star funding the Governor’s Office has been distributing around the state speaks quite loudly.
We hope Mr. West will maintain his organization in some form or fashion, and continue seeking office in Texas. Likewise, Mr. Huffines seems to have a future, tapping into the same threads of conservative discontent.
Meanwhile, it looks as though Ken Paxton is heading for a runoff, though as of midnight, it’s not clear who his opponent will be. Some analysts have opined that his opponents all failed to distinguish themselves— basically asserting that they were just like Paxton, only not encumbered by lawsuits.
The other race that’s been of interest here at the Dispatch: Congressional District 28, Laredo/Webb County’s Henry Cuellar has apparently lost a lot of ground in the San Antonio and San Marcos area to Progressive darling Jennifer Cisneros. But, after some gangbusters numbers breaking his way in Zapata County and Duval County, it seems he and Cisneros are headed for a runoff.
That’ll do it for now. Thanks again for reading. As always, this newsletter is produced independently of our employment at the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office, without the input of County officials. Any mistakes or errors committed within are entirely our own.
In the days and weeks ahead, expect more coverage in statewide media as additional counties join Operation Lone Star. Much of the focus on Kinney County will likely depart as this process continues.
Until the next time— have a great day and don’t get too absorbed by the alarming events happening overseas in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Much of what we are seeing is hasty propaganda, being produced in Moscow and Kiev both, and presented to us as truth by a ridiculously out-of-touch commercial media, falling for obvious fakes— including glamour shots of Miss Ukraine posing with a high end bb gun.
She’s wearing makeup. A little bit— but it’s there. And her hair is nicely braided. Even if most modern U.S. Journalists don’t recognize a bb gun when seeing one, the lack of critical thinking surrounding the spread of this photo is just astounding.
So again, don’t get too absorbed. Make time for family and other events. Try and ignore some of this stuff. The reality of it will still be waiting— and it is grim enough— but, on the upside, you’ll avoid filling your thoughts with the propaganda.
We’ll see you again soon.
Corrected the misspelling of Col West's first name. Allen instead of Alan. The person responsible for this error cannot be sacked.