Every Halloween, ominous warnings about lurking, sinister dangers threatening innocent citizens during the holiday make you wonder if the nation’s various law enforcement agencies try to see who can panic the American public the best leading up to Oct. 31.

Police departments around the country already have alerted parents to watch out what kind of candy their kids bring home after trick or treating. Why? Drug dealers might be passing out candy mixed with MDMA or pot ’cause that’s what they do.

Pashelinsky

Well, not really, which has left some Reddit users with a lot of questions:

The latest national alarm bells, however, are related to a possible “Halloween revolt” aimed at police officers around the country. A report posted by user insurgentclass in the Anarchism community claims the attack is being coordinated by the National Liberation Militia, an anarchist group with a stock name that sounds like it was lifted from a fledgeling screenwriter’s NCIS spec script.

Remember when anarchists had more panache and showmanship, like V from “V for Vendetta?” (DC Comics)

The news site Photography Is Not a Crime couldn’t find any traces of the NLM’s existence online, nor could it turn up anything about the group or details about the warning from the FBI, the agency responsible for sending out the alert. But user reinschlau was able to track down a mention of the group—one that wasn’t connected to the alert—on the Facebook page of a Texas armed militia:

While the theories—conspiratorial or otherwise—as to why these fear-mongering reports pop up annually are as numerous as the reports themselves, here are some things to keep in mind: