Symbol Type

Racist Group

Symbol Description

Sheriff’s Star with a noose, sword and book in the center and the words "Sheriff’s Posse Comitatus" written across the top

Also Known As

?

Traditional Use/Origins

Sheriff’s Badge

Hate Group/Extremist Organization

Posse Comitatus

Extremist Meaning or Representation

See Below

Background/ History

The Posse Comitatus was an anti-government movement active in the 1970s and 1980s, many of whose leaders were Christian Identity adherents, and whose ideology formed the basis of later groups such as the Montana Freemen. The Posse died away in the late 1980s but former Posse leader James Wickstrom restarted it in the 1990s solely as a white supremacist group, shedding most of the Posse’s legal theories.

Related Information

• Christian Identity

• CI: Racist Acronym