Time - USA (2021-07-19)

32 Time July 19/July 26, 2021

Service misspelled the name in 1882
and the mistake stuck. The community
decided to lean into the moniker, refer-
ring to their football team as the Arabian
Knights. Arab is 98% white, with more
than three dozen evangelical churches
and what locals fondly refer to as “strong
traditional values.” Stores in town sell
“Rulers of the South” memorabilia fea-
turing Confederate generals. It holds an
annual Back-When Day to demonstrate
1800s “quilting, cornmeal- grinding, and
black-smithing.”
When James quietly returned to Arab
from the capital, he resumed his life as
normal. He pressure-washed driveways,
posed for selfies on Valentine’s Day,
donned a tie for Audrey’s real estate ban-
quet and collected disaster- relief supplies
with fellow veterans after a deadly tor-
nado in Fultondale, Ala.
But privately, James seemed to grasp
the gravity of the situation. Two days after
the insurrection, he encouraged other
Oath Keepers to delete and destroy their
communications on Signal, texting them
to “make sure that all signal comms about
the op has been deleted and burned,” ac-
cording to federal investigators.
Sixty-two days later, a new customer
rang James’ phone in need of a pressure-
washing job. It was a ruse. While he was
away, FBI agents, with the local sheriff
and police in tow, rumbled up to his front
door in a vehicle neighbors described

as a tank. After asking James’ wife and

3-year-old son to step out of the house,

they demanded to know if he was build-

ing a bomb. Then they flew a drone in-

side to make sure. For eight hours, they

searched the family’s 1,300-sq.-ft. home,

rummaging through closets, cabinets and

garage boxes. James was arrested and

charged with crimes carrying a maximum

penalty of 20 years in prison.

In a courtroom in Birmingham two

days later, his lawyer argued that James

was being treated unfairly. “He didn’t kill

anybody. He wasn’t acting violently. He

is a person who has followed orders all

his life, your honor. An individual who

would risk his life for strangers.” The

judge disagreed. “You were involved in

planning some of this operation,” he told

James. “There’s no remorse there, and

there’s no recognition of the lasting dam-

age that was done on Jan. 6 .”

The judge ordered James to be kept in

jail because of his past record of PTSD,

anxiety and depression, as well as a pre-

vious hospitalization. James’ lawyers ob-

jected; to them, it seemed the judge felt

he posed a danger to the community be-

cause he had suffered unseen wounds

during his combat service. Many of those

previously arrested for their alleged roles

in the Capitol riot, the lawyers noted, had

already been set free.

The news shook the town. At first,

Audrey tried to defend her husband on-

line. “He wasn’t in the riot,” she posted in

the Facebook comments section of Arab’s

small newspaper. “He’s not the man the

media is making him out to be.”

Many in the community offered an

outpouring of assistance. Complete

strangers knocked on the door of the

James’ home to drop off small amounts

of cash and tell them “we’re praying for

you.” The family also received an out-

pouring from outside Arab. More than

$184,000 in donations flowed in through

an online fundraiser for which Audrey

provides regular updates. The funds al-

lowed them to hire Washington law-

yers, Joni Robin and Chris Leibig, who

say James intends to fight the charges.

“There are two sides to this story, and

Nation

To Patrick Tays, a

73-year-old veteran

who lives in Arab,

James and his allies

are ‘traitorous

scumbags’

^

Left: a statue of Stephen Tuttle

Thompson, Arab’s founder; right:

Civil War memorabilia at the Arab

public library