South Bend mayor says he's shifted his view on militia group; election foes weigh in

SOUTH BEND — Mayor James Mueller says further reading he did about the Three Percenters has changed his view of the militia group, which he now condemns.

Debate surrounding a retiring South Bend police officer's problematic tattoo led Mueller and his opponents in this year's mayoral race to discuss with The Tribune how to enforce the department's ban on offensive symbols.

Exclusive:Retiring South Bend officer says tattoo not connected to extremist group

The South Bend Police Department's policy, updated in July 2021, allows tattoos but bans any that are "obscene, or advocate sexual, racial, or ethnic discrimination." Tattoos also cannot exhibit "gang, supremacist, or extremist group affiliation." The ban applies both in and out of uniform.

"This policy has a lot of room for subjective interpretation of what would classify as an extremist group," Mueller told The Tribune during a phone call Friday.

Mueller's comments signal a shift in his own assessment of the Three Percenters, a right-wing militia movement whose emblem is inked on the right hand of a now-retired SBPD officer. A January Facebook post the department made to celebrate the officer's 25-year tenure prompted scrutiny of the tattoo.

In June of 2021, the Canadian government declared the movement a terrorist organization. The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center classify the Three Percenters as part of a broader extremist movement. Members have been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and convicted for a plot to abduct Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Initially, Mueller told The Tribune that "hate group" seemed too strong of a label for the movement. He didn't know much about it beyond some cursory reading, he confessed.

The next day, after The Tribune published a story in which a Board of Public Safety member and a South Bend Common Council member both said the tattoo shouldn't be allowed, the mayor released a statement at nearly 10 p.m. condemning the Three Percenters as an "extremist hate group."

His opinion changed after more thorough research, he said.

"The Three Percenters have engaged in hateful acts across the country, and extremist groups like them have no place in our city," Mueller said in the Thursday statement.

'How far would you go?'

But, the mayor said, there's still inherent ambiguity in which views count as extremist.

Tolerance for extreme beliefs tends to be higher when the beliefs favor one's personal ideology, he noted. He said the dispute often may come down to the question: "How far would you go?"

Interpreting the policy is even more complicated if an officer and his superiors aren't aware of a symbol's negative affiliations, Mueller said.

Officer Jack Stilp said that when he got the hand tattoo in summer 2021, he didn't know it matched insignia used by the militia movement. Stilp said he considers the symbol a "personal show of patriotism," one he found by searching online for patriotic tattoo ideas.

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