[4][5] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), it "was inspired by identitarian movements in Europe and it was trying to bring their philosophies and violent tactics to the United States.
It is described as a "militant racist and anti-Semitic group"[8] and sees itself as defending Western civilization, which they claim is being undermined by "Muslims, immigrants and Jews",[5] as well as liberals.
[2] Heidi Beirich, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, said that members of the Rise Above Movement "think they're holding onto the old California, which was white, which was conservative, which was male-run, which was connected to the military ... and now that culture is being lost and they're fighting to bring it back.
RAM's members spend weekends training in boxing and other martial arts, and they have publicly boasted about the acts of violence which they have committed during protests in Huntington Beach,[7] San Bernardino and Berkeley.
[5] According to NoCARA: [It is] a loose collective of violent neo-Nazis and fascists from Southern California that's organized and trains primarily to engage in fighting and violence at political rallies.
They have been a central participant in the wave of far-Right protest movements in California during the first half of 2017 which have attempted to mobilize a broad range of right-wing constituents under the banners of protecting so-called "free speech,: unyielding support for Donald Trump, and antipathy towards Muslims, immigrants, and other oppressed groups.
[15][16] In August 2020, the unanimous United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the convictions of Daley and Miselis because, it found, any unconstitutionally overbroad elements of the Anti-Riot Act were fully severable.
[17][18] When Miselis was arrested, a search of his house found assault weapon ammunition, smoke bombs and flares, as well as a poster which read "88", code for "Heil Hitler" — "H" being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
In June 2019, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney dismissed the indictment because, he held, the Anti-Riot Act is "unconstitutionally overbred in violation of the First Amendment".