Belfast tour aims to save America, but critics fear it will spread far-right radicalization

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BELFAST, Maine A former sheriff with links to the Oath Keepers, an anti-government far-right extremist group, will take a decision next week in Belfast that has alarmed some in the community.

Richard Mack is a renowned Arise USA speaker! The Resurrection Tour which makes its only stop in Maine at the Crosby Center in Belfast city center on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

The former Arizona Sheriff is also the founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association, an organization that believes county sheriffs have powers that supersede those of any other law enforcement officer, including federal agents. In 2016, the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative media outlet, reported that Mack was on the board of directors of the Oath Keepers. This group is part of the Patriotic Militia movement and has come under scrutiny after the deadly Jan.6 assault on the United States Capitol. It is known to have attempted to recruit military and law enforcement officials and is classified as an anti-government extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

According to the events website, the tour aims to help save America and includes people who will speak about health, human rights and constitutional freedom.

We the people have to act together soon, we the frogs have slowly boiled in the pot of tyranny, the Crosby Centers Facebook page said about the event. Now let’s step out of the pot together to learn how we the people can claim our constitutional rights while we still can.

News of the events have raised alarm bells in a liberal community where the Crosby Center is best known as the place to vote on Election Day and where residents watch their children and neighbors perform in plays and musicals .

On Facebook, some called for the event to be canceled and a boycott of the venue, saying the tour’s promotion sounded like a call for another insurgency similar to the Jan.6 attack.

Kiril Lozanov, owner of the Crosby Center, defended the choice to host the event.

Someone made a comment that [I] should cancel the event because these people are fascists, Lozanov said. I just told him that I don’t want to discriminate against people, or prevent them from saying what they have to say… if I start censoring people and silencing them, which is not my job to begin with , it’s a kind of fascism that I don’t want to be part of.

But Andy OBrien, a former state lawmaker and freelance writer who studies far-right groups in Maine, doesn’t see it that way.

He has the right to decide who he wants to talk to in his room, OBrien said. But it is not discrimination if you choose not to talk about someone who is spreading hate propaganda.

According to Lozanov, a local group took the initiative to bring the tour to Maine and contacted local sheriffs offices and police departments to invite all staff to the Crosby to hear Mack and other speakers.

A phone call to Shabd Sangeet Khalsa, a woman from Maine who Lozanov said helped bring the tour to Belfast, was not immediately returned on Friday.

The national tour organizer is Robert David Steele, a former CIA agent and 2016 libertarian presidential candidate who holds strong anti-Zionist views. Steele told the Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day, Oregon that the goal of the Arise USA tour is to unite 99% of the country against what he called the 1% of government. His group’s grievances included COVID-19 restrictions, alleged electoral fraud, satanic pedophilia and critical race theory, according to the Eagle.

What is troubling is that they are trying to recruit local law enforcement officials to join their organization, OBrien said.

The event was a last-minute addition to the summer roster at the Crosby Center, Lozanov said.

Maybe if 20 people show up it will be good, he said.

Lozanov also does not expect demonstrators, but would welcome them as long as they are peaceful. He will ask a few local police officers to come to the event to make sure the protesters don’t get out of hand, he said.

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