RWDS: A Massacre in Texas and a Warning to Us All

Another horrific mass shooting in Texas over the weekend added to the grim tally of some 200 nationwide so far this year. As with other massacres, the shooter wielded an AR-15 and gunned down people in a public place, this time an outlet shopping mall in the town of Allen outside of Dallas.

Something about this attack, however, caught my eye and deserves our full attention. The gunman bore a patch on his chest with the letters RWDS—which stands for “Right Wing Death Squad.”

It’s a chilling four letters. It has appeared lately emblazoned on the attire of members of extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups. 

The killer’s patch is part of a larger backdrop that has investigators scouring for more evidence of his dangerous and violent views. Investigators have discovered that he had a general fascination with white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs, leading them to view the attack as a possible hate crime. More broadly, the attack may be part of a larger domestic terrorist movement involving heavily armed, right-wing militias.

With RWDS showing up at the violent insurrection of January 6 and now the mass shooting in Texas, we need to know more about these letters and what they represent, beyond the obvious call to arms and threat to life. Let’s wade in.

To what “death squad” do the letters refer?

The far-right operates in a world of winks, catch-phrases and memes to stay under the radar of law enforcement. So it takes a bit of unpacking to understand what they are advocating.

In 2018, Proud Boys began attending rallies wearing RWDS on their sleeves. Those shirts also bore a version of a far-right meme of a snake wearing the officer’s cap of notorious Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, according to a report by The Intercept.

Image of a Hoppean Snake wearing a Pinochet cap, courtesy of The Intercept

The snake is referred to as a “Hoppean Snake,” which again takes some explaining. Hans-Herman Hoppe is an author who advocates for the “physical removal” of undesirable citizens—e.g., homosexuals, communists, hedonists—in order to attain a “libertarian social order.” While he denies he advocates for anything but peace, extremists have adopted him as an avatar for terror.

Why Pinochet? That military dictator seized power in Chile back in 1973 in a coup d’état. His government, assisted by right-wing death squads, proceeded to torture and disappear thousands in a campaign of terror. As a nod to that regime, the Proud Boys and other militia groups menacingly often offer “free helicopter rides” and “helicopter delivery”—referring to one horrific version of Pinochet’s program of extermination where death squads would dump victims out of helicopters, often with their guts split open so they wouldn’t float when dropped in the sea.

Image of a snake with an offer of “Helicopter Delivery” courtesy of The Intercept

On the now-defunct “The Donald” subreddit, going “full RWDS” also appeared on a now-deleted post, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), while Pinochet-related memes proliferated. The SPLC reported back in 2018 that the once highly popular subreddit was a recruitment site for extremist and violent white supremacists.

When RDWS appears on the sleeves of militants, as it did five years ago at a Proud Boys rally in Colorado protesting Facebook censorship, it is often in connection with a direct nod to Pinochet and a call for such squads to operate in the United States. 

Photo courtesy of the Colorado Times Reporter

Should RWDS be taken as a serious threat?

In a word, yes.

RWDS showed up in August of 2019, when a tipster provided the FBI with evidence of violent conversations within a Facebook Messenger chat group, according to a report by The Daily Beast. Inspired by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, active duty Marine Travis Owens plotted with two other men within the RDWS group chat to assassinate minorities. Specifically, they targeted employees within the Democratic National Committee, plotting to use explosives, rocket launchers and rifles against them. One of the conspirators had ties to the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group that has sought the overthrow of the U.S. government and is linked to five murders.

“We can take care of druggies anytime. We need to get rid of Jews ASAP, though,” wrote one member of the chat.

“Do both at the same time,” replied the Marine, who was later convicted and sentenced to 78 months for illegal gun possession. “Clean up the white community and show them who’s controlling and manipulating and our numbers go up.”

“SP**CS AND NI**RS NEED TO HANG FROM TREES,” the group participants had exhorted. “Racism isn’t real, whites are the only humans,” one said, also adding, “Just fucking McVeigh the DNC.”

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Proud Boys—the group ex-president Trump instructed to “stand back and stand by”—as a hate group. Its members wore RWDS hats and patches when they gathered to hear white supremacist Nick Fuentes speak in Washington D.C. and on their tactical vests when their leader Enrique Tarrio and others burned a Black Lives Matter banner. (Tarrio and three other Proud Boys were recently convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, D.C. jury in connection with the attack on the Capitol.)

The kind of violence intended by people associated with the RWDS ideology should not be viewed as hypothetical. It is planned, active and deadly, as the mass shooting in Texas demonstrates. In the coming days we likely will hear more about the gunman’s affiliation with neo-Nazi groups and his extremist, white supremacist views. 

The public, especially all law enforcement, should take note of the connection between RWDS and right-wing militias. It is a bright flashing warning sign that extremist violence could be imminent.