A heavily armed pro-Trump militia dressed in fatigues stormed a city council meeting in San Antonio on Wednesday to protest the removal of a monument to the Confederate Army that sits in Travis Park in the city’s center.

Their presence at the council meeting is part of an increasing trend of pro-Trump politicians and other public figures using hard-right militias as an intimidation tool.”

Brandon Burkhart, vice president of the ‘This Is Texas Freedom Force’ ( TITFF ), spoke up in favor of blocking the relocation of the controversial monument.

As reported by San Antonio’s Rivard Report, Burkhart was escorted through San Antonio’s streets to the city council chambers by men and women wearing tactical vests and carrying military-style assault weapons. Their ranks were reportedly drawn from the Alamo Militia and members of the nationwide Three Percent militia movement.

“Do you guys see the problems that you’re causing? … Do you know the death threats that I’ve received?” Burkhart told Councilmen Roberto Treviño and William Shaw during the meeting, according to the online San Antonio news outlet Rivard Report.

“A lot of Texans are watching,” Burkhart told the Councilmen. “We are not going to stand by and let you remove a monument that represents veterans, not race.”

“They’re trying to silence me, which is not going to work,” he said, claiming people threatened to shoot him and other TITFF members. “We will come armed every time and we will come [with] even bigger armaments if we have to. If we have to bring a bigger security team with us, we will.”

The city council is set to decide whether to debate the monument’s removal in the next three weeks.

Militia members also patrolled the streets of Charlottesville during the rally.

To be clear, these are NOT national guard but racist private militias posing as state actors to protect nazis and provoke. pic.twitter.com/PuoHNmXRpg — Tom Perriello (@tomperriello) August 12, 2017

A member of the ‘Three Percent Militia’ told the Rivard Report that when TITFF announced that they would be speaking at the City Hall meeting, “they received what they felt to be credible death threats.”

The militia member, who identified himself only as Tunnel, said it’s necessary for them to carry weapons because of left-wing violence. “In the event something were to happen like it did in Berkeley, or Portland, or Charlottesville, there needs to be somebody to protect the innocents,” he said. “What we found is the narrative from the left is anybody who doesn’t agree with them is a Nazi.”

Texas law allows people to openly carry rifles without a license as well as handguns. The presence of armed militiamen disturbed Shaw. When you bring guns to an event, that doesn’t express peace. That’s violence, and San Antonio is better than that,” he said. ShareTweet