Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer and Veterans on Patrol Leave Washtucna, Washington
"Hopefully he'll stay away," Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner said
Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer and his “co-pastor” Butterfly are leaving Washtucna, Wa less than a week after announcing plans to build a “beautiful compound” in the small town of about 200 nestled among the wheat fields of the rolling Palouse hills of South Eastern Washington. At a Washtucna City Council meeting last week, Meyer said they planned to use the town as a staging point from where the group would combat human trafficking in “the northwest sector.”
The pair are leaders of a group called Veterans on Patrol, which is an antigovernment militia according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC labeled VOP an “extremist group” and described Meyer as “a Christian nationalist who rallies hard-right extremists and conspiracy theorists around the issue of immigration and encourages vigilantism.”
Since the confrontational meeting in which Meyer told the council, “You can’t tell me no!” he has posted videos on YouTube lashing out at the town council and the pastor of the non-denominational Christian church.
“This, this, this lady, their spiritual leader, locked their church, put masks on their people, got jabbed – and this is how sick this town is, ok?” Meyer said.
He also had words for Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner, and has for days made claims that the sheriff and his deputies are working with the “military-industrial complex.”
“See the sheriff doesn’t want the people to know that the United States military is poisoning them,” Meyer said.
You can watch that entire 42-minute video here.
Meyer and Butterfly planned to set up their compound on property owned by a local man named Pat, who was at the city council meeting and vouched for Meyer and VOP. But Sheriff Wagner said Pat began to get cold feet about the plan after he saw the way Meyer reacted to pushback from the city council, the sheriff, and some within the small community.
Wagner said he has been working with the man all week and in a post in a Facebook group called “People of Washtucna, WA” he addressed the people of the town.
“I personally have worked with the landowner to reach a positive resolution to the recent situation that has impacted our community,” the sheriff wrote. “The landowner has expressed their sincere apology for any inconvience or disrutuption caused. The individuals havbe apparently gone to Spokane as far as we are aware. If they or others come we need to address it in a similar fashion.”
Meyer confirmed he and Butterfly were heading for Spokane in a message on the Veterans on Patrol Telegram channel, which has a little more than 7,000 subscribers. But he said he’d be back soon.
“I will return to Washtucna in 3 days to either be welcomed on Live Video as a Christian, or shake the dust from my feet and go wherever God sends me,” Meyer wrote.
He also wrote: “We are in Biblical end times” and that “Jesus will return whether Washtucna wants Him to or not.”
You can see most of that message in the screenshot below.
Once again, Dominick - thanks for publicizing this so that folks could get involved!
They thought "conquering" a tiny town was going to be easier than it turned out to be.