The terrorists who ambushed and killed two cops in Las Vegas as the men sat down for lunch were motivated by fringe right-wing politics and hatred for the government and police.  They killed another person before taking their own lives in a manic siege on Sunday a mile away from the famous Vegas Strip.

31-year old Jerad Miller and his 22-year old wife Amanda apparently believed in all of the conspiracy theories swirling around the porcelain bowl that is American conservatism these days – chemtrails, invisible concentration camps, a secret White House link to the attack on the US diplomatic compound at Benghazi, Libya.  He claimed most of the recent mass shootings in the US were “false flag” attacks staged by “the government”. 

Jerad was a convicted felon from drug trafficking charges.  His social media pages were filled with conservative slogans and memes.  His teeth were rotting because he hadn’t seen a dentist in 14 years, and refused to enroll in government welfare or health systems.

The Millers ambushed the police officers as the men had pizza for lunch.  They laid Gadsden Flags on the bodies – the coiled snake on a cowardly yellow banner with the caption “Don’t tread on me” that’s become the unofficial banner of fringe politics in the United States. 

They crossed the street to a Walmart store, where a man who bought into the National Rifle Association’s tagline “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun” tried to pull a concealed weapon on the Millers.  31-year old Joseph Wilcox was gunned down on the spot.  Without a touch of irony, his uncle John Wilson later told reporters that Joseph Wilcox “definitely believed in the right to bear arms and the right to defend yourself and others.”

After a shootout with the cops in the Walmart, the Millers took their own lives.

Police found in their possession evidence that hinted the Millers were planning an even worse event, a siege at a courthouse.  Despite the fact that on the other side of the country just two days earlier, another right-wing terrorist attempted exactly that – an attempted takeover of the Forsyth County, Georgia courthouse that ended with deputies gunning down suspect Dennis Marx – For some reason, Las Vegas police insisted that the Millers’ rampage was an “isolated event”.