A prominent former FBI informant who spent years working with the KKK issues a warning in a new book that the contentious 2024 election in the United States could be marred by violent far-right protests.
For ten years, Joe Moore was assigned the mission of infiltrating KKK chapters in Florida and investigating the long-standing connections between the white supremacist group and law enforcement. As part of this duty, Moore foiled a murder plot hatched by three Klansmen serving as prison guards.
In his new book, White Robes and Broken Badges, the former US Army sniper recounts his ordeals and draws on his experiences to address the upcoming election, which is rife with concerns about the influence of racist and extreme right-wing organizations.
According to a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, 66 percent of Americans are worried that political violence may break out after the November 5 election.
Despite the current election, Moore believes it is pertinent to the nation’s history as large. He now knows that far-right ideology can be traced back to two distinct places. One is where you were born and brought up; if that ideology is prevalent in your community, it may just be part of your belief system. The second is its origin in passing down through the generations.
This is the beginning of the story of Moore, a Florida resident who became involved with white supremacists in the 2010s, who eventually became the klan’s security official and the Grand Knighthawk. Moore thwarted a plot by Klansmen, who were all prison guards, to kill a Black ex-inmate and bring down two high-ranking KKK officials, Grand Dragon Jamie Ward and Exalted Cyclops Charles Newcomb.
In the book, Moore chronicles his experiences within the Ku Klux Klan, the nation’s first domestic terrorist group that was established over 150 years ago. During this time, he thwarted a plot to assassinate then-candidate Barack Obama. However, he also observes how the Klan exploited Obama’s election as a recruiting tool and rallying cry, leading to a furor on the white nationalist right.
Nothing I saw in any of the other totalitarian regimes scared me as much as what we’re facing here at home right now, he says, drawing on his experience serving abroad. Are we to be scared? A healthy dose of dread is warranted given the impending 2024 election and the fact that democracy is up for grabs.
Near Rosewood, Florida—the location of a racist murder that killed dozens of Black people and destroyed the town in 1923—Moore detailed meeting a regional Klan leader, also known as Grand Dragon. “I had the power to stop the next Rosewood after an evening at the Grand Dragon’s home,” he claims, describing his visit to the remains of Rosewood.
Moore’s new biography has an obvious political message, but his incredible experience has been detailed before in a documentary called Grand Knighthawk: Infiltrating the KKK and in an Associated Press report from 2021 that was supported by court records and trial transcripts.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) writes the preface after sharing with Democratic conventioneers in Chicago last week his account of the disturbance that occurred on January 6. Raskin portrays the “mobilization of domestic violent extremist groups to act as the frontline shock troops in the assault” in his book.
“Shows how the KKK remains a central entry point and organizing force for violent white nationalism in America,” Raskin wrote of Moore.
Moore claims he avoided being overtly political because he was afraid of making mistakes if he did. He alleges that Florida officials were unwilling to hear his message about the KKK’s infiltration into law enforcement, which made it more difficult to find the appropriate individuals to denounce the corruption he had discovered.
Officials were reluctant to acknowledge how widespread and significant the problem was; in fact, state officials publicly said that they were unaware of any evidence suggesting the problem extended beyond the specific case at hand. However, I possessed a roster of officials who were not only active members of the Klan but also actively sought out new recruits and even included Klansmen in their employment practices.
Militia groups and movements such as the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers absorbed the Klan’s ideology and membership even if the Klan itself is not as powerful as it once was.
According to Moore, by 2014, a third of the Klan’s members were also members of another such group, and the change was being promoted from the top echelons of the organization.
“It would be interesting to note that families and locations would be pitted against each other in the event of another American civil war, rather than north versus south, due to the dispersed nature of geographical and generational origins.”
Affluence drew white supremacists northward in the United States, where they joined locals already living there. However, “they brought with them the generational origins of racism and seed different areas of the north for racism to grow generationally,” he adds.
Jon Land, known for his works such as the insurrectionist thriller Murder at the CDC, numerous mystery-suspense novels, and the teen comedy Dirty Deeds, ghostwrites White Robes, resulting in a collision of styles and messages.
That is irrelevant. When it comes to the infiltration of law enforcement, Moore makes a valid point. It is believed that around 20% of the individuals arrested during the January 6th attack on the Capitol had ties to US law enforcement.
Any criminal group worth its salt would kill to have more influence in law enforcement, whether at the state, municipal, or correctional level. Moore notes that they desire information in order to exert control over their surroundings. “However, the Ku Klux Klan isn’t in it for the money; they have an ideology that demands a new system or government.”
He claims this sets a precedent for subsequent generations of racist law enforcement officials. The crux of the matter is propaganda, which perpetuates itself through ideology and the need to stay alive. They are worried about having their beliefs overturned.
