RAIDS, everybody! Raids!

As unfortunate as it is, the FBI had reason to believe that certain individuals in the area were planning to kill a local law enforcement official, and then attack additional law enforcement officials at the ensuing funeral with IEDs and such. There has been an awful lot of press on this subject on national networks, and even a few global ones such as BBC News out of the UK.

Here are the facts as they stand, because there is an awful lot of speculation on these matters floating around.

1. Nine people were indicted; six from Michigan, two from Ohio and one from Indiana; one from Washtenaw, the same one that resides in Manchester Township.
2. They were being held without bond and had arraignment hearings scheduled for a few hours ago.
3. The charges include seditious conspiracy, weapon possession while attempting to commit a crime, and creating weapons of mass destruction (technically IEDs count under the new definition of weapons of mass destruction...)
4. Those arrested are members of Hutaree, a Lenawee County based militia group that claims it is Christian-oriented.

That is basically all that anybody knows, unless you are an FBI agent or lawyer on the case. So why all the publicity?

Things like this have sensationalism written all over them. I don't want to name names but (who am I kidding... yes I do...) a certain "publication" in Washtenaw County has put together half a dozen stories on this topic. Only two of those were about the FBI raids and/or charges, which were in fact well done. This group used its resources well and got accurate information out to the masses quickly. The other published stories, however, were background on militia members (i.e. the reported leader), the response from residents in Adrian, background on whether or not this group is a militia or a "cult," and various other debauchery.

Any of you interested in why I have written just two stories on this subject? Here's your answer: I didn't think it was merited. First, I could very well go around Manchester asking strangers what they think of this whole mess, but A) I already know the answer to that question and so do you, and B) there is no way to know the background of even the people that I'd be interviewing. That in itself does not (in my humble opinion) merit a "news story." A blog post or a short video, yes, but not a story.

Second, the defendants haven't even seen the inside of a court room yet. Maybe I'm acting naive, but as the reporter of the region I don't think it's responsible to label a group as a cult or radical militia before the charges have been tried in court. I fully intend to cover the proceedings as they develop, but I do not plan to fan the flames any further. It is what it is; let's move on until we know more, shall we?

Third, I don't know of any contact that I've been given that I would trust at this point as an unbiased source. After all of this happened, I've spoken mainly with three groups of people: the police/FBI, other militia members and their families, and militia "experts" that want to share their knowledge. Sorry, but no. The police can't tell me anything and they were targeted, the militia members want to distance themselves from a group that was indicted, and the so-called experts didn't have anything constructive to say. I spoke with a man the other day who said he spent several years studying militias. When I asked him to describe his study, he used visiting Myspace pages as an example. I'm sorry, by Myspace profiling does not a study make. No can do. Plus, his people sought me out rather than the other way around. That smells like an agenda to me.

So in summary, this was a blip for the community. However, I'm not going to exaggerate what it was and churn out after-the-fact stories in response. If you want to read that kind of stuff, you know where to go. I don't really care to ask if someone "seemed off" beforehand, because that's hindsight now and it isn't news. If it's news, that's fine. If it's not, write about it on your blog. Trust me, you'll feel better. I sure do.

P.S.
Thanks to those who took the time to e-mail the Enterprise about what they knew. It really helped to get the story going, and we were the second news source to have an accurate story up on Sunday about the raids. That is exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. If you know something (good, bad, funny, cute, whatever), do let us know. Don't assume that we are already aware.