When a pastor lifted his shirt to expose a pistol on his belt last month, reality depended on whom you spoke with.
The gun was carried legally. It’s irrelevant to the pastor’s views on his love for humanity. It was a necessary sign of muscle directed at the American government, warning that violence may come if the rule of law and freedom continue to be smothered.
That’s how Andrew Manuse saw it. He’s the leader of ReOpenNH, a conservative group that loves the snake-adorned, don’t-tread-on-me flag. He staged the event, invited the pastor and made his nemesis, liberal activist Zandra Rice Hawkins, nervous.
She’s the leader of the Granite State Progress, and she believes Manuse speaks with a forked tongue. She thinks the rallies have attracted white supremacists and charged that Manuse knows it.
That touched off a spicy discussion between the two, with me in the middle, searching for answers.
Their divisions are emblematic of the bigger issues we’ve seen unfold in recent days, recent months, and far beyond, seemingly to the founding of our country.
Those divisions have been heightened here in New Hampshire as displays of racial elements – some more subtle than others – have appeared at demonstrations billed as protests against government overreach.
That’s why New Hampshire and other states began protesting in the first place. Americans were questioning the government’s right to shut down their businesses and reduce the size of their religious gatherings.
Then George Floyd died at the hands of police, in broad daylight, the ghastly scene of a man choking and pleading, the video shown over and over.
Now, protests are a mixed bag and getting hotter, with equality under the law, and constitutional rights, and civil rights, and police brutality and looting in the streets jockeying for position.
At a ReOpenNH rally at the State House in mid-May, it was impossible to differentiate protesters’ motives. No doubt some people were peaceful and seeking change, some were angry and seeking change, and still some were ready to rumble.
We got a taste of that recently in Manchester, where reports said protesters were shooting fireworks and throwing bottles at police. There were also 700 peaceful protesters there earlier in the day.
When was the last time a video stirred this much emotion? Nearly 30 years ago, Rodney King wondered on live TV, “Can we all get along?” after the four cops who pounded him with nightsticks were acquitted, sparking the L.A. riots.
We saw that on TV as well, and George Floyd’s death has created the same climate.
“The murder of George Floyd is a national tragedy that exhibits the impact on society and the rule of law that abuse of authority can have,” Manuse emailed to me. “Because one man in a position of authority murdered a fellow human being in a different state hundreds of miles away, seemingly without purpose and while other authority figures looked on, our nation has now been thrown into total chaos.”
After I introduced the Granite State Progress leader into our dialogue, Manuse, measured and calm, went after her, saying, “They are trying to change the country to socialism as a political theory, and they will destroy anything by lying.”
Countered Hawkins, “The ReOpen NH rallies have provided fertile ground for far-right extremists, and that segment often has a lot of cross-over with white supremacists. The Southern Poverty Law Center has pointed out how such groups are using ReOpen efforts around the country to make extremist groups look mainstream.”
She continued: “There is nothing on the ReOpen NH website that disavows participation by groups like this, and militia members are welcomed with open arms.”
Hawkins is the heartbeat of a group described as a “research hub for progressive issue advocacy in New Hampshire.”
Speak with her for a few minutes and you get the feeling she’s suspicious of everyone who attends these rallies.
Another part of her job goes deeper: spot trouble, using the instincts and focus of an eagle. Her group monitors racist gatherings, and she’s confident she found one in Manuse and his followers.
She says she fears the hidden agenda that gatherings like this produce. The one about a race war and white supremacy.
She’s seen members of the Boogaloo group, a far-right extremist movement, wearing their fatigues and gas masks, carrying their AR-15 rifles, looking intimidating. She’s seen some wearing Hawaiian shirts, another part of their fashion.
While his ReOpenNH organization trashed Gov. Sununu’s closing of non-essential businesses, Hawkins sees a smokescreen, a diversion. She says these events are filled with an undercurrent of violence. She looks at the signs people carry. She’s heard the speeches.
I saw a man wearing fatigues, and a face mask and helmet that could have stopped a train. He told me there was no ammunition in the chamber of his AR-15 rifle, but instead it was stored in easily accessible magazines he had.
Hawkins said all segments of Manuse’s meetings scare her. White supremacists, who vow to stir up enough trouble in the future to create a race war, sure do. So do the Boogaloo Boys, who seek violence against the federal government, left-wing opponents and anyone else who dares try to take their guns, all of which, they hope, will lead to our second Civil War.
I asked Hawkins if her guilt-by-association was fair to Manuse, and she told me his organization has allowed Boogaloo groups to use their events to recruit and organize.
“There is no way Andrew Manuse and other ReOpen NH organizers do not know who these people are, or the violent message they are disseminating,” Hawkins told me. “They absolutely know what these groups are doing and the violent nature of their rhetoric.”
Hawkins added that religious leaders have spoken at these events, using inflammatory words and body language to push their messages.
She sent me a video of Pastor David Berman speaking at the May 16 rally. She told me to hit play at the 8:25 mark, at which time Berman said, “We must stand for liberty and you have a right to your Second Amendment. You should always use your right to the Second Amendment.”
At which point Berman pulled up his shirt to display his pistol in its holder.
“I never, ever want to use this, I pray to God that I never ever have to,” he told a few hundred people. “But we must defend liberty.”
To be honest, I figured Berman was going to say something more inflammatory, like, “hands up, liberals,” but the sudden display of his gun had a message nevertheless. Also, Berman cited perhaps the greatest Civil Right leader of all time in his 13-minute speech, asking, “Was Martin Luther King not to resist discrimination and Jim Crow laws? Of course he did.”
Which creates an interesting contrast when you hear Hawkins say that ReOpenNH has “embraced” hate groups.
I brought this information to Manuse and he laughed. Scoffed.
“I say no, emphatically,” Manuse told me during one of three interviews I had with him. “I would like to get (minorities) back to work like everyone else.”
He denied knowing that Boogaloo members have attended his gatherings. The next rally is Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at Hampton Beach.
“I spoke to the camouflage guys, and as far as I could tell they were there to keep the peace,” Manuse said. “I don’t have to completely agree with them, but I did not ask them to come and I did not ask them to leave.”
The usual suspects, in Hawkins’s mind, were at the State House last month. Lots of people I approached wouldn’t give their name. The scary camouflage guy with the AK-15 said he attended, “So we can defend the people’s religious rights if the First Amendment right of assembly has been infringed upon.”
One of the two bearded, ZZ Top lookalikes sat in a pickup truck and said, “We are a unique state with unique laws. We’re the freest state in the nation and it needs to stay that way, period.”
You could feel Hawkins rolling her eyes.