JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 29 (UPI) -- Police officers believed to be members of an anti-government extremist movement have been disciplined, an official with the Jersey City Police Department said.
The group of men from the Emergency Services Unit were "Three Percenters," a movement that believes the federal government must be resisted because it is taking away Americans' rights, the Jersey Journal reported Monday.
The officers were "separating themselves from the others in the unit and we put a stop to it immediately," said Deputy Police Chief Peter Nalbach.
Followers "engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing," including the notion that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were carried out by the federal government, said the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.
The "Three Percenters" take their name from the idea that only 3 percent of American colonists took up arms against the British during the Revolutionary War, a Facebook page says.
Nalbach did not identify the officers who were disciplined.
The department took action after a letter sent to the Jersey Journal said some ESU officers wore a patch saying "One of the 3 percent." A photo of a patch accompanied the letter.
Nalbach confirmed the officers were wearing a patch and that it was removed "because we don't allow unofficial patches."
