A Cedar City man who objected to fellow members of an Iron County-sponsored ham radio group inviting the head of Oath Keepers USA to speak to the volunteer club has been expelled.
Brad Biedermann said Iron County Emergency Management Director George Colson was so angry at him for speaking to The Salt Lake Tribune and voicing opposition to the invite that he told the ham radio volunteer on June 22 that he was being expelled as a member of the Rainbow Canyons Amateur Radio Club Emergency Communications Group and could no longer serve as an Iron County volunteer.
Biedermann, who has logged more than 1,600 volunteer hours over the past decade assisting the county, Cedar City Hospital and the Southwest Utah Health Department with emergency communications, said Colson’s action was unwarranted and profoundly disappointing.
“I have broad shoulders,” Biedermann said, “but this is still sad because my volunteer work helped me give back to the community and fend off the depression I’ve experienced ever since losing my wife, Mardi, six years ago.”
Biedermann’s ouster came after he opposed the invitation Dennis West and other Rainbow Canyons leaders extended to Bobby Kinch, the controversial founder of Oath Keepers USA, to speak to the group. After The Tribune learned about the invite and began questioning club members and county officials, West informed group members via email that Kinch’s June 20 speech had been scrubbed due to logistical issues.
Biedermann said Colson expelled him the following weekend for speaking to The Tribune. Neither West nor Colson, who regularly attends Rainbow Canyons meetings and coordinates with its leaders, responded to requests for comment.
Iron County provides Rainbow Canyons with a trailer, radio equipment, storage space and relies on its members to assist with communications during emergencies and major events. The county also helps facilitate Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, a federal program available to the general public.
Spinning conspiracies, promoting sedition
Kinch, who lives in the Cedar City area, founded Oath Keepers USA in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The group is an offshoot of the now-defunct Oath Keepers, which was involved in the insurrection and has been characterized by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups that keep tabs on domestic terrorism as a far-right, paramilitary hate group.
Among the unsupported conspiracies spun by Kinch and his organization is the contention that the Jan. 6 attack was an underhanded attempt by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her cronies to entrap Oath Keepers, undermine the election and destroy former President Donald Trump. His group further contends that former President Barack Obama — not President Joe Biden — is running the country behind the scenes.
(Brad Biedermann) Ham radio operator and Iron County volunteer Brad Biedermann.
A former Las Vegas detective, Kinch was embroiled in controversy before retiring in 2016 and resurfacing in southwestern Utah. Chief among his troubles were remarks he posted on social media in 2013 that many in law enforcement circles deemed to be racist, seditious and unhinged.
Among Kinch’s troublesome posts, according to the Las Vegas Sun, was one in which he called for a race or civil war or a revolution and declared he was “as fed up as a man (American, Christian, White, Heterosexual) can get!”
In another, he decried the nation’s decaying “morale [sic] fabric” and said there was a need for “ethnic cleansing,” according to the Las Vegas Sun. And when a photo surfaced of Kinch pointing a handgun at a collectible plate of Obama at a party, the Secret Service stepped in to investigate before determining the detective did not pose a “credible threat” to the president.
Kinch eventually received a written warning for violating the Las Vegas Police Department’s social media policy and, after an internal investigation and monthslong suspension, was reinstated and returned to active duty before he retired.
Recruiting law enforcement and public safety officials
Oath Keepers USA essentially has the same goals as Oath Keepers, which Southern Poverty Law Center media assistant Ricky Riley said has a long history of engaging in vigilantism and recruiting military, law enforcement and public safety officials to join their clandestine ranks.
Biedermann said most members of the Rainbow Canyons Amateur Radio Club Emergency Communications Group did not see a problem with listening to Kinch, who they said would help them understand more about Oath Keepers USA and how the two groups might work together in an emergency.
Neither did Colson, according to Biedermann. Colson told group members on a few occasions that he himself was a member of Oath Keepers, Biedermann asserted, and, like Utah Sen. Mike Lee, carried a copy of the Constitution in his pocket, which he often whipped out when he pontificated on far-right politics.
Again, Colson did not respond to requests for comment.
On one occasion, Biedermann remembers reading an article about Ammon Bundy, the anti-government crusader and fugitive from justice, possibly hiding out in southern Utah.
“I called George and asked him if there was a reward out for the guy,” Biedermann recalled, “so we could get some buddies and go out looking for him and bring him in. He got perturbed and said Ammon was a friend of his, he knew the family … and that if he knew where Ammon was hiding, he wouldn’t tell anybody.”
Colson, who wears a sidearm, is not a sheriff’s deputy but has been deputized to help officers with search and rescue and other police duties, according to Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter. The emergency management director is not authorized to make arrests.
Confederate quotes
Colson quotes from several insurrectionist leaders on his Facebook page, including Confederate States President Jefferson Davis: “Truth crushed to the earth is truth still, and like a seed will rise again.” He also quotes Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston: “We may be annihilated, but we cannot be conquered.”
After Kinch’s speech was canceled, Biedermann said he was participating in a field exercise that involved the county and was setting up radios in the emergency communications trailer when Colson approached and motioned for him to step outside.
“He demanded that I look him in the eyes and tell him if I had contacted [The Tribune] reporter to do the article, which was difficult to do because he was wearing sunglasses,” Biedermann said. “But I did and told him the reporter had contacted me.”
By opposing Kinch and talking to the media, Biedermann said Colson told him, he was interfering with Kinch’s constitutional right of freedom of speech. “He then told me that the trailer belonged to the county’s Emergency Operations Center and to get out, that I was no longer a member of the ECOMM group or an Iron County volunteer.”
Biedermann isn’t sure if Colson has the authority to boot him and wonders if county commissioners, who appointed him to the emergency management director position, are involved. Rainbow Canyons’ memorandum of understanding with the county does not spell out what constitutes grounds for expulsion. Fred Govedich, a group member willing to speak on the record, also isn’t sure.
“We are basically just seeing what the county does because there’s nothing we can do,” he said, adding Biedermann’s expulsion is likely up to Iron County Attorney Chad Dotson.
Maintaining silence
Dotson did not respond to calls and an email requesting comment. County Commissioners Mike Bleak and Paul Cozzens also declined to comment on their role, if any, in Biedermann’s removal. Reached by phone, Commissioner Marilyn Wood refused to answer questions.
At this point, Biedermann doesn’t know if he will fight to stay in the group but has no regrets about speaking out, come what may. He argues Kinch and extremists of his ilk have no place in amateur radio, which is about helping people rather than spewing hate or promoting baseless conspiracies.
“I feel very strongly,” he said, “that I am right about this.”
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