Who are these guys in Provo?

[revchuck38]

How is it possible we are 12 pages in and nobody has recognized Nightvisionary and his Tier 1 LARP team??

Not Gecko45?

[Borderland]

I've always thought the LDS folks were good people. I had neighbors in Mesa AZ who were Mormon. Great couple. Invited me to diner and let me pick all of the grapefruit I wanted from their trees. I love grapefruit.

Had a girlfriend that was Mormon when I was in my 20's. Went to her parents house and peaked into their garage. It was full of food. Not part of the garage, the entire garage. That was a bit strange. I ask her about it and she said it was common for Mormons to keep a years supply of food. I think there was more than a years supply of food in there.

[Eric_L]

I had a LDS friend in a professional school. The LDS has an institutional memory of what happened on their westward trek in the 1800s. They were subjected to organized violence multiple times. They have a history of protectors for the prophet going back to that time. What Lost River says rings true.

[wvincent]

Just to be clear, Iv'e no issues with Mormons.
My issue stems from when citizenry and the church meet in the public square, it appears the church has the power of the state behind it.

I'm all for the church having a PSD for leadership, and security teams for the congregation. But those teams should have no more power than the local Brinks or Wackenhut. A church security team or member, having the power and ability to detain me or arrest me, with the power of the state behind it, is one of the main problems when the lines get blurred.

And lastly, @Lost River, please don't think I'm trying to start an argument here, I sincerely appreciate the insight you provided in this thread.

[RJ]

I live in FL, and we are used to stocking for Hurricanes. But damn, today, I realize we have some lessons to learn from the folks in Utah, for sure. A year? Smokes.

We have stayed several times in Hurricane Utah, visiting Zion National Park. Lovely town. People there are very polite. There's not a lot to do of an evening, though...for sure...

[Lost River]

Everything you have mentioned i.e. a 100 billion dollar org that sends people all over the world having armed security for their leadership and real training for people going overseas is reasonable.

However, comma, while the camo clad guys in these photos may be Mormons, that doesn't mean this particular group is an officially sanctioned organ of the LDS church.

I've heard China described as a "50 yard country" meaning everything looks impressive until you get within 50 yards and notice the little things that are not quite right. These camo guys are a "50 yard" tac team.

Given your description of official LDS security I'd be a little disappointed if these guys were an actual Mormon militia instead of a militia made up of Mormons.

Yep, it would be quite difficult to get much of anything "officially recognized" that is for certain.

I doubt that The LDS church is going to put out for publication "Yep, we have "these guys", or even consider using the word militia. Too many people would go nuts over that and make too big of a deal over it.


The other things is the LDS really want to avoid the militia word, as it brings up a dark chapter in their history. So with good reason they concentrate of positive optics and being good neighbors.

One thing I have learned over the decades is that nobody is better at "optics" than my white shirt and tie neighbors. You will be hard pressed to get them to get an admittance to anything controversial. At most sometimes all you will get is silence.

[DMF13]

I’m surprised I didn’t catch it, much as I used to love that show. And I didn’t watch it as re-runs.

My Turkey Day T-shirt:

I need one of those shirts. That was a great episode too.

[Lost River]

So did any of these camo clad "concerned citizens" do anything that reflected poorly on their community, that anyone could see?

The reason I ask is that in looking over this thread, as I finally had a chance to read it from start to finish, (I had actually read the first couple pages, the posted w/o reading all the comments in between) I did not see anything negative at all with these guys.



They wished to remain anonymous, which I understand, especially in this age of internet stalking and doxxing. They stood up to protect their community and presumably their church members, when so many sit on the sidelines and just sharp-shoot and nit pick everybody, right down to the smallest detail.

Frankly I say more power to them.

[Duelist]

I live in FL, and we are used to stocking for Hurricanes. But damn, today, I realize we have some lessons to learn from the folks in Utah, for sure. A year? Smokes.

We have stayed several times in Hurricane Utah, visiting Zion National Park. Lovely town. People there are very polite. There's not a lot to do of an evening, though...for sure...

Wife has strong family ties to Hurricane and Zion. We may end up relocating to that area if we get tired of AZ.