An Oklahoma man is accused of vandalizing a TV station’s climate radar, police stated Thursday, in what the station says may very well be an assault impressed by an anti-government militia group.
Anthony Tyler Mitchell, 39, has been booked on suspicion of felony malicious damage to property, housebreaking and injury to important infrastructure, Oklahoma Metropolis police Capt. Valerie Littlejohn stated in a press release.
CBS affiliate KWTV reported that it has video of a person destroying the ability provide to the station’s NextGen Dwell radar in northeast Oklahoma Metropolis.
The station linked the assault to rhetoric by Veterans On Patrol, an anti-government militia group.
“Right now, we aren’t capable of affirm any reference to him and the group Veterans on Patrol,” Littlejohn stated.
In an interview with NBC Information on Thursday, group founder Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer denied giving any instructions to assault climate gear.
However he welcomed such acts in Oklahoma, insisting that radars and different meteorological gear are a part of a authorities conspiracy to govern climate. The claims of such conspiracy are baseless.
“Once we destroy and get rid of over 15 in a state of Oklahoma, your radar maps are going to vary large time, and the climate is simply going to be utterly totally different over Oklahoma and the encircling space,” he stated Thursday.
Authorities officers stated they learn about threats on climate gear.
“NOAA is conscious of latest threats towards climate radar websites and is working with native and different authorities in monitoring the state of affairs carefully,” in accordance with a Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assertion.
Police detailed the radar allegations towards Mitchell whereas he was in jail on an unrelated case involving alleged vandalism and violations of an order of safety.
It wasn’t instantly clear if Mitchell has an legal professional to talk on his behalf.
His father, mom and three brothers did not instantly return messages left by NBC Information in search of their feedback.
False conspiracy theories about climate have turn out to be more and more seen on-line in recent times as excessive climate occasions proceed to have an effect on cities across the U.S. Particularly, baseless claims that the federal government is by some means manipulating or controlling the climate to create such occasions have gained important traction, receiving help from quite a few Republican lawmakers.
In 2024, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stated “they will management the climate,” after Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and on Saturday, she introduced a invoice that she stated would prohibit climate management by way of the discharge of chemical compounds into the air.
At the least one member of the Trump administration has seemingly nodded to such claims. On Thursday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated, “Individuals have official questions on contrails and geoengineering, they usually deserve straight solutions,” in a information launch asserting a brand new web site about climate manipulation and analysis on contrails, a pure phenomenon from plane or rockets.
