Veterans on Patrol

Michael ‘Lewis Arthur’ Meyer co-founded Veterans on Patrol (VOP) in 2015 and became the group’s singular, media-driven leader after the death of co-founder Tristan Knight in 2017.[1][2] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identifies Meyer as the founder and says he is a Christian nationalist who rallies hard-right extremists and conspiracy theorists around immigration and encourages vigilantism.[2] Contemporary reporting also describes Meyer as the group’s continued leader, with VOP’s activities tied closely to his personal identity and public communications.[4][8][9] Existing reporting states that Meyer is not himself a veteran, despite the organization’s name, which makes his authority more dependent on personal presentation and narrative control than on formal veteran status.[1][6][9] High Country News reported that after Meyer’s 2018 “discovery” of a suspected trafficking site, he rapidly gained 55,000 Facebook followers within 24 hours, illustrating the speed with which his claims and persona amplified the organization’s reach.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] The founder’s own site also frames key turning points as scripture-guided and personally revealed; on the “Founder’s Vision” page Meyer writes that challenges were addressed with scripture and that John 21 confirmed his path, indicating that he presents the mission as a personal religious calling rather than merely a political project.[15]

Members share the sacred assumption that government agencies operate satanic child-trafficking, sacrifice, and organ-harvesting networks, and that Meyer’s mission is ‘sanctioned by God.’ Meyer states ‘You can’t shut down God’ and that divine sanction exempts the group from state and federal law.[2][Existing evidence; Fronteras Desk 2021 cited in prompt] The SPLC reports that VOP incorporated QAnon conspiracy theories into its activities, including camps in Arizona premised on rescuing children from satanic pedophiles who are trafficking them for sex, human sacrifice, and organ harvesting.[2] The same profile says the group believes governmental and institutional actors are complicit in those abuses, which functions as a foundational, non-negotiable premise rather than a falsifiable claim.[2][8][12] Independent reporting also describes Meyer’s framing of law enforcement and federal agencies as incapable or illegitimate, reinforcing the idea that divine authority overrides ordinary legal authority.[7][12] The group’s “Founder’s Vision” and related materials further present Meyer’s interpretation of events as scripture-confirmed, with John 21 used as a confirming sign for his path.[15]

The group frames itself as on an apocalyptic, God-sanctioned mission to rescue children from satanic pedophiles and resist a coming ‘Mark,’ a transcendent stakes that justifies lawbreaking, camp life, and confrontations with police.[2][Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] The SPLC states that VOP’s activities were organized around the premise that they were rescuing children from satanic pedophiles who were trafficking them for sex, human sacrifice, and organ harvesting.[2] That same source says the group’s QAnon-related beliefs drove members into harassment of migrants and humanitarian workers in a purported search for cartels, pedophiles, traffickers, and child sex rings.[2] Reporting from High Country News describes the organization’s vigilante response to border migration as a form of mission-driven action that led members to live in camps and conduct patrols despite official debunking.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] Independent reporting further says the group shifted in 2018 to focus on human trafficking and that volunteers traveled to Arizona to help conduct operations seeking to intercept suspected traffickers and victims at the U.S. border.[4][8] Meyer’s founder page also presents decisions as divinely guided through scripture, reinforcing the claim that the mission is not just political but sacred and ultimate in scope.[15]

Recruits, including abuse survivors ‘seeking purpose,’ subordinate themselves to Meyer’s narrative, conducting round-the-clock patrols and reinterpreting ordinary objects (a skull becoming a ‘partial corpse’) to fit the group’s framing in ‘unwavering devotion to an unproven narrative despite official debunking.’[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] High Country News describes members camping and patrolling the desert for long periods, which leaves little space for independent interpretation of events or individual judgment.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] The SPLC likewise reports that VOP members adopted QAnon-based interpretations of border activity and acted on those interpretations in ways that displaced ordinary standards of evidence.[2] Reporting on the group’s operations in Arizona and elsewhere says volunteers were drawn into a shared operational identity centered on the mission, with patrols, training, and field operations organized around the group’s collective narrative rather than individual roles.[4][8] This is consistent with a documented pattern of social conformity: members learn to see ambiguous evidence through the founder’s lens and are rewarded for aligning perception with the group’s story.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt]

Members live communally at remote desert encampments (e.g., Camp Pulaski near Picture Rocks, nearly a mile off a county road) that reporting describes as ‘isolation from mainstream society,’ physically separating adherents from outsiders.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] The group treats law enforcement, journalists, and humanitarian workers as enemies rather than legitimate contacts.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] The SPLC says VOP operated camps in Arizona and that its activities centered on border patrols, migrant surveillance, and harassment of humanitarian workers, all of which reinforce separation from ordinary civic networks.[2] Bellingcat reports that VOP maintained camps in Tucson and Phoenix and forged relationships across the far right while operating apart from mainstream institutions.[4] The organization’s own and secondary descriptions repeatedly place members in remote field settings, border zones, and encampments rather than in ordinary community settings, indicating a pattern of physical and social isolation.[1][2][4]

The group uses an internal QAnon-derived vernacular (‘the Mark,’ satanic ‘rescue’ framing, ‘Q researcher’ identities such as Meyer’s wife’s screen name ‘Agent.17’) and deploys dehumanizing labels for migrants like ‘shitbags’ and ‘rapists.’ This shared coded language signals in-group membership.[Existing evidence; SPLC 2024 cited in prompt][1][2] The SPLC says VOP incorporated QAnon conspiracy theories into its camps and activities, including claims about satanic pedophiles, human sacrifice, and organ harvesting, which function as a specialized vocabulary understood within the group’s worldview.[2] Reporting on Meyer’s online activity likewise identifies a web of conspiracy terms and roles, including the use of QAnon-adjacent labels and identifiers that distinguish insiders from outsiders.[1][6][9] The organization also appears to have its own militancy-tinged operational language around patrols, cartels, and trafficking, which is part of the broader jargon used to coordinate and justify action.[4][7][8] Taken together, the evidence shows not just slang but a recurring coded idiom that binds members to the founder’s interpretation of reality.[2][9]

VOP programs an explicit us-versus-them worldview: antisemitic claims that ‘The Jews have used their political puppets to alter the constitution,’ attacks on the LDS church as the ‘Mormon Mafia,’ anti-Catholic and anti-indigenous views, and dehumanization of migrants as an ‘invasion.’ Government agencies are framed as complicit in satanic trafficking.[Existing evidence; SPLC 2024 cited in prompt][1][2] The SPLC describes VOP as an antigovernment militia led by a Christian nationalist founder who rallies hard-right extremists and conspiracy theorists around immigration.[2] Alternative reporting characterizes the group as anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, antisemitic, misogynist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Muslim, showing that the in-group/out-group framework is broad and systematic rather than incidental.[4][5] The group’s activities against weather radars and border infrastructure are also narrated as attacks on a hostile apparatus, with opponents cast as corrupt or manipulated enemies rather than as legitimate political actors.[5][10][12] This pattern is reinforced by the group’s recurring language about cartels, traffickers, federal agencies, and migrants, all of which are positioned on the opposing side of a moral and civilizational divide.[2][7][8]

VOP recruited homeless veterans into encampments and mobilized volunteers for unpaid, round-the-clock patrol labor in service of Meyer’s mission, while the group never operated as a registered nonprofit providing professional services.[Existing evidence; SPLC 2024 cited in prompt][2] Volunteers performed the operational work as Meyer leveraged the veteran-aid narrative as a recruitment tool.[Existing evidence; HCN 2018 cited in prompt] Reporting on the group says it started as a veteran-suicide initiative and later evolved into a vigilante border movement that drew recruits and donations after Meyer’s viral claims, indicating that labor and material support were redirected into the founder’s campaign.[2][8] Bellingcat also reports that VOP continues to recruit volunteers and appeal for material support from supporters in online forums, showing that volunteer labor remains a continuing feature of the organization’s activity.[4] The evidence indicates a pattern in which participants supply time, field labor, and operational energy for a movement that is organized around the founder’s agenda rather than around compensated service delivery.[2][4][8]

The available reporting does not document a fully enclosed membership system with formal vows, asset transfers, or other mechanisms that would make leaving unusually costly in a structural sense. What is documented is that VOP draws people into remote camps, patrol labor, and a highly committed conspiracy framework, which can create practical and social friction for disengagement.[2][4][8] The group’s operations in desert encampments and border deployments appear to require substantial time and identity investment, and its rhetoric strongly binds participation to a sacred mission and a hostile external world.[2][8][15] Bellingcat reports that the organization continues to recruit volunteers and solicit material support, suggesting ongoing involvement is encouraged through participation in the movement’s activities rather than through formal institutional ties.[4] There is also evidence that the group’s narrative and public claims are strongly personalized around Meyer, which can increase informal exit costs because leaving is not just leaving a project but also rejecting a tightly held worldview centered on the founder.[2][9][15]

Acting on imminent-threat, apocalyptic framing, VOP escalated to documented extreme acts: destroying migrant water stations in Pima County (2020), detaining migrant children and collecting their data, doxing humanitarian workers, and in 2025 threatening to attack NOAA weather radar systems.[Existing evidence; SPLC 2024 cited in prompt][1][2][5] Meyer was arrested multiple times for trespassing and disorderly conduct during these escalations.[Existing evidence; Wikipedia 2025 cited in prompt][1][12] The SPLC says VOP’s activities moved from veteran-suicide advocacy into vandalizing lifesaving hydration stations and harassing migrants and aid workers, indicating a willingness to treat illegal conduct as justified by the cause.[2] Independent reporting on the group’s later activities shows members publicly framing attacks on weather infrastructure as necessary because they believe the radar systems are being used for harmful purposes.[5][10][12] The group’s pattern of conduct shows that once members accept the apocalyptic premise, destructive acts against civilians and infrastructure are presented as legitimate tools of the mission.[2][4][8]