Extremism in the North Bay: Three Percenters in Solano and Napa counties

The Vallejo Sun

Ian Rogers of Napa and Jarrod Copeland of Vallejo were arrested and charged with plotting to blow up the Democrats Sacramento headquarters in 2021. Investigators seized 49 guns and several pipe bombs from Rogers and more guns from Copeland. Prosecutors alleged that the two were specifically motivated to violence by President Donald Trump’s election loss, the lie that the election was stolen, and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They belonged to a radical right wing ideology called the Three Percenters, which was founded in 2008 by militia leader Mike Vanderboegh in reaction to the election of President Barack Obama. The loosely-affiliated movement has many different groups under different names. Rogers and Copeland belonged to the Three Percent United Patriots or 3UP, a national group founded by Mike Morris in Colorado that organized and recruited on Facebook and conducted rogue border patrols in Arizona. Prior to his arrest, Rogers had numerous contacts with law enforcement, including a domestic violence arrest he was not prosecuted for. Some Solano County Sheriff’s deputies have displayed support for the Three Percenter movement online, including Daniel “Cully” Pratt, the brother of actor Chris Pratt, Sgt. Roy Stockton, also a Vacaville city councilmember, and Deputy Dale Matsuoka, the department’s homeless outreach coordinator. Sheriff Tom Ferrara said that before Jan. 6, he had never heard of Three Percenters. Guests: Shane Bauer, a reporter who went undercover with 3UP in 2016 for Mother Jones, and Kurt Braddock, a fellow in the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University.