Sheriff’s Department Lets Armed Boogaloos Waltz Onto School Grounds

Gloucester, Virginia utility worker Patrick Millen describes himself as “pro-Second Amendment all the way, every day.” The 56-year-old lifelong resident considers himself a responsible gun owner, and doesn’t think his constitutional right to bear arms should be infringed upon in any way.

At the same time, Millen told The Daily Beast on Monday, “Everybody knows you ain’t supposed to have guns on school property.”

On Saturday evening, a small group of men in camouflage showed up at the Thomas Calhoun Walker Education Center, toting military-style rifles. Their leader, Mike Dunn, has long been affiliated with the Boogaloo Bois, a loosely organized anti-government extremist group aiming to foment a second Civil War. He told local reporters that he and his armed crew were there to publicly decry the felony charges laid against four associates who showed up to a Gloucester School Board meeting at the same location on July 11, carrying concealed handguns.

“We will protest on August 19th and try to force them to perform arrests,” Dunn announced on social media.

The crew of about five showed up to demonstrate “with weapons on school premises, contravening established regulations,” according to a Monday statement from the Gloucester School Board. The event “occurred without proper authorization,” and in addition to bringing deadly weapons along with them, the organizers did not “follow the protocols for conducting events on school grounds.”

By his own account, Dunn was practically taunting law enforcement to put him and the others in handcuffs.

“I’ll probably face a felony charge after this,” he told a reporter at the scene.

But, while police immediately arrested those who carried pistols into the school board meeting last month, law enforcement wasn’t on hand at all during Saturday’s protest. Instead, sheriff’s deputies “monitored the event remotely to ensure the safety of all individuals present,” according to the school board’s statement.

Millen, for one, thinks the demonstrators should have been held accountable, and wonders why nothing happened. Aside from a modest clutch of apparent counter-protesters who shouted slogans such as, “Everybody likes our Second Amendment, but get off of our school property with it,” Dunn and his armed associates were left entirely unchallenged.

“I do believe there should have been charges pressed on them,” Millen told The Daily Beast. “... You can’t go into post offices, or any federal reservation, or onto a government installation with them, so why would you go on school property with them?... I don't care a whole lot for the way they go about doing things. It makes people who are pro-Second Amendment look like kooks.”

The morning of the protest, the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that “attendees will be open carrying firearms during this event as supported by the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” and that they were taking “the necessary measures to help ensure that these individuals are able to express their rights peacefully.” After it concluded, the sheriff’s office announced that there had been “no incidents to report,” and that it would “have no further comment” about the event.

Sheriff Darrell Warren and his top brass, along with Gloucester County’s public affairs officer, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday about why no officers were assigned to the protest and why no arrests had been made.

Dean Vines, a social worker in Gloucester County, said on Monday that he would like to believe charges are in the works.

“I hope arrests are coming,” Vines told The Daily Beast. “I hope the sheriff was just depriving them of attention and avoiding escalating the situation, with follow-up warrants to come. That would be prudent.”

Vines, 71, called the Boogaloo Bois “clowns” who have been co-opted as “unwitting distractions for the real perpetrators,” namely, right-wing dark money groups trying to undermine public education nationwide.

“I hope good people everywhere wake up and speak out against threats to local officials,” Vines said. “They are citizens serving for the good of fellow citizens… The media and others including local officials treat it as if it occurs in a vacuum. It is systematic targeting. The poor folks buying into it will one day wake up to no public education for their children and grandchildren.”

Reached by phone on Monday, Gloucester school board member Darren Post, whose policy goals have been described as “transphobic,” said he hadn’t “fully digested” the matter, and declined to comment. After the concealed weapons arrests in July, Post issued a public statement saying he was “deeply committed to the safety, well-being, and the education of our children.” He went on to “clarify the relationship” between himself and one of the four men arrested at the board meeting, arguing that the two “simply share membership in a regional grassroots’ conservative political organization,” which he did not name.

“Our interactions have been limited to a handful of occasions, mostly at group meetings which are open to the public,” Post’s July 14 statement said.

The earlier stunt involved a Post supporter and four others who attended the July 11 board meeting, one of whom got up to speak and claimed his tires had been slashed outside a previous confab. He told the board that he suspected one of three members was the culprit, warning, “Make things right while you have the opportunity to do so, before things get worse, instead of engaging in further violence.” However, when police checked security footage from the parking lot outside, they said they saw “no evidence” of any tampering. Four of the five were arrested on concealed weapons charges.

Millen told The Daily Beast he is especially upset that the instigators came into the community from elsewhere, “trying to stir up trouble where there ain’t none.” As one witness told a local reporter at the time, “You could see [the gun] poking through the top of his pants. A person in the audience noticed and immediately notified deputies. It was 100 percent an act of intimidation.”

The Gloucester School Board, in its Monday statement, said the incident over the weekend “serves as a reminder of the importance of adhering to laws and regulations that are in place to maintain the safety and security of the educational environment in Gloucester County Public Schools.” School officials are “working closely with law enforcement and the Commonwealth Attorney’s office to investigate the incident and determine appropriate actions to prevent similar incidents,” it said.

Only one member of the Gloucester School Board, Randy Burak, responded to a request for comment, but declined to share his thoughts on Saturday’s incident. Board Superintendent Anthony Vladu, did not reply to a message seeking comment.