By Luke Rosiak. Media: DailyWire.
Outrage ensued in Virginia on Thursday after The Daily Wire detailed how Loudoun County leftists took part in a secret group that discussed shooting and ruining the lives of conservative parents, and made a list of 115 of their neighbors who they said were “bigots.”
Members of the group, called the Loudoun Love Warriors, included a campaign staffer for the local prosecutor, a Satanist, a newspaper reporter, and a consultant for the Democrat sheriff candidate. One member, who boasted of his “direct relationships” with Democrat politicians who “know me well”–posed with a gun alongside the caption “all this love is waiting for you.”
Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and graduate of Loudoun County Public Schools, wrote of his alarm at the situation in a letter to school board Chairman Ian Serotkin—whose aide was a member of the private online chat.
“This appears to be a part of an aggressive and orchestrated campaign to infringe upon parents’ First Amendment rights through fear and intimidation — specifically, by scaring them away from ever petitioning their local or State government and advocating on behalf of their children’s wellbeing and education in the public square,” Roy wrote.
The letter, which was also signed by Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, noted that the Biden administration moved against conservative parents in part due to an ugly incident the Loudoun Love Warriors sought to downplay.
“President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) used Loudoun County parent Scott Smith’s advocacy on behalf of his daughter – who was sexually assaulted in a girls’ bathroom by a male student in a skirt that was allowed to use said bathroom due to LCPS policy – to justify their launch of an unprecedented federal investigation into parents across the country,” the letter stated. “Scott Smith spoke out about what happened, the National School Board Association equated his advocacy to ‘forms of domestic terrorism,’ and the Biden DOJ eagerly obliged to their request.”
“Any attempts by staff and associates of Loudoun County officials or school board members, to further harass, intimidate, or otherwise silence American parents” must be held to the same standard, the letter stated.
The list of 115 enemies was populated mainly by private citizens—adorned with epithets like “pedophile” and “pychopath”—but also named top Republican law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Jason Miyares, who it called a “criminal,” and Sheriff Mike Chapman. Miyares said on Twitter that he was “upset” that he was only #5 on the list:
It’s truly an honor to make this list – but I’m upset I’m only #5.
In all seriousness, this is unacceptable. There’s no room for any type of violence in our society.https://t.co/y0dX9bFlBf
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) May 11, 2023
Chapman’s office began an investigation on Wednesday, with a detective contacting one mom targeted by the group, Elicia Brand. Brand is a sexual assault survivor who advocated for the ninth-grade girl who was raped. A group member—a self-proclaimed Satanist named Amanda Pettis—said “Please leave me in a room alone with Elicia… She is so lucky that there are laws, because she would be curbstomped.”
Brand told The Daily Wire the revelations left her shaken.
“I was terrified when I saw what the Loudoun Love Warriors had threatened me with,” Brand said. “Curb-stomping is such a violent act that involves one person grabbing the victim and forcing their head down onto a curb with their mouth open, and a second person stomping on the back of their head. I can’t imagine hating someone so badly that you resort to threatening violence.”
The group frequently tried to get people fired, repeatedly emailing the employers of Mark Winn, a 65-year old man who quoted the Bible in a speech to the school board, and Scott Mineo, who sued the school district over its racial policies. Mineo ultimately lost his job.
Group member Jan Mercker, a reporter for the local newspaper Loudoun Now, wrote of physically attacking Mineo.
“It might be worth an assault charge to f***ing slap that guy next time I see him,” she wrote. She also said she would like Superindendent Scott Ziegler—who was fired and indicted for lying about the rape—even more if he adopted the dress of the rapist by wearing a skirt to court.
Loudoun Now on Thursday published a story about the so-called Love Warriors that included an “Editor’s note: A freelance writer who previously contributed regular features for Loudoun Now, Jan Mercker, was a member of the Loudoun Love Warriors Facebook group. In addition, a Loudoun Now reporter was named and criticized in the group, including by Mercker.” The paper did not return a request for comment.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin told WJLA “It’s shocking that, in fact, in Virginia today, we have progressive left Democrats who have organized themselves in order to not just intimidate, but to really try to destroy Virginians who are showing up at school board meetings in order to advocate on behalf of their children… And this is the kind of standard that Attorney General Garland has set when he allows parents to be called terrorists, simply for standing up for their children.”
Smith, the father of the rape victim, said in a statement that the unearthed messages show the forces that have been dogging him for years.
“We all are now seeing what my family and I have been subjected to on a daily basis for the past two years,” Smith said. “This crowd has chosen to engage in hateful and unconscionable behavior against parents like us, merely because we dared to challenge their radical policies.”
A spokesman for the Loudoun County Democratic Committee issued a statement condemning the group.
“Those that use this kind of dangerous rhetoric should not be welcome in the public square,” spokesman John Block said in a statement. “We have seen too many times how violent rhetoric ignites violent actions that hurt and kill people.” But school board chair Serotkin and prosecutor Buta Biberaj did not say whether they would continue to employ aides who were in the group.