Just the Tip: A Long Look at GarCO’s SPEAR

Why has Garfield County’s Special Problems Enforcement and Response team, or SPEAR, adopted a logo that uses Spartan iconography often associated with anti-government militias, neo-Nazis, 2A activists, and alt-right groups? Are they signaling their alliance with the far right, their racism, or are they just laconophilies? All of the above, maybe?

Laconophilia is the love or admiration of Spartan culture, political systems or constitution, and has long been associated with far-right politics. The Spartan’s culling of weak children, subjugation of the Helot slaves, prowess in battle, and obedience to authority make the Spartans fertile mythology for those on the far-right.

Adolf Hitler’s admiration of both Rome and Sparta is well documented. In his follow up to Mien Kampf, he said, “The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans. This, however, was the result of systematic racial preservation, so we see in the Spartan state the first racialist state.” 

Today’s neo-nazis love everything Hitler loved about the Spartans and more. 

Today’s popularity of Spartan iconography amongst the far-right got a major bump when Zach Snyder’s film “300” came out in 2006. The film came out three years into the occupation of Iraq amidst rampant islamophobia and during years of prolonged saber-rattling towards Iran (Persia) by the G.W. Bush Administration.

The film follows King Leonidas and his 300 warriors in a valiant yet futile effort to stop the invading Persian army. The movie engages in rank racism—it’s a story about a highly militarized vanguard of white men holding at bay the barbarous non-white Persian hoards. The film goes so far as making soldiers in the Persian army literal monsters—sub-humans.

In both the movie and the myth, at the battle of Thermopylae, there was an exchange between Persian emperor Xerxes and King Leonidas. Xerxes called out “surrender your arms.” The Spartan replied “Molon labe,” or literally, “come take.”

“Molon labe” is now the rallying cry of 2nd amendment radicals, and “Molon labe” flags can be seen at alt-right, militia, and neo-nazi rallies across America and Canada.

Sparta, of course, is more myth than reality. Sparta was never the military power, ethno-state, nor eugenic utopia that many on the right envision. In his book, “The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Military Supremacy,” Myke Cole breaks it down: from a king with a club foot, to numerous military defeats and surrenders of the Spartan army, and when the Spartans finally did gain hegemony of the Greek speaking world, they squandered it in less than a year. 

But facts be damned. Right-wing groups from the Three Percenters to the Proud Boys to the Oath Keepers continue to embrace Spartan imagery and sloganeering.

Greece’s neo-nazi party, Golden Dawn, holds an annual rally at Thermopylae where they light torches and chant anti-immigration slogans, continuing a long history of fascist movements co-opting classical history for their own designs. 

In 2018, Oath Keepers leader and founder, Stewart Rhodes, announced the formation of a “Spartan Training Program” in preparation to confront leftist protests in large urban areas.

Around the same time, John Turano became a darling of the alt-right for engaging in street fights across the west coast with leftists while wearing a Corinthian helmet. Known as the “Based Spartan,” he was recently found guilty of libel, along with three other Proud Boys, for over $1 million dollars in damages stemming from a 2020 attack on the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. 

So why is a federally and locally supported taskforce on the Western Slope adopting this kind of racist imagery? Does Garfield County Sheriff’s Office see themselves as the vanguard—the tip of the spear—keeping the barbarians at bay? 

SPEAR was formed around September of 2022, when Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team TRIDENT and the Threat Assessment Group (TAG), an anti-gang unit, combined. SPEAR is a multi-agency task focused on serious crimes, and member agencies include: Garfield County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO), Glenwood Springs and Rifle police departments, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals as well as a Deputy District Attorney from the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s office. 

Garfield County Sheriff Department is the lead agency of SPEAR, the tip of the spear so to speak, and Lou Vallario, a controversial figure, is the Sheriff.

“We have recently declared Garfield County and the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office as ‘hostile’ governments to Latinos and immigrants,” said Alex Sanchez, President and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, a Latino advocacy group based in Frisco and Glenwood Springs, in an email. “This was after the BOCC passed a racist anti-sanctuary resolution that blamed Latinos for bringing crime and disease to the county,” said Sanchez 

“The current Garfield County Sheriff has a well-established track record of being anti-immigrant and supporting radical extremist views on immigration,” he added..

Vallario’s extremist views extend beyond just racism and immigration.

In 2013, Vallario was praised by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), for refusing to enforce state gun control laws in his county. The CSPOA is the formal organization of the constitutional Sheriff movement, which holds that the Sheriff and the county government supersedes any state or federal authority. This idea was originally popularized by Christian Identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970s. 

“I am not a member and never will be,” said Vallario. “Although, we are in agreement with certain political issues.”

Additionally, Vallario has been investigated for using his office’s resources to promote the candidacy of Lauren Boebert in 2022. He was ultimately cleared, but also in 2022, he came under fire for his “hands-off approach” to dealing with criminal complaints filed by Boeberts’ neighbors against her and her drunken then-husband, Jayson. Boebert has extensive and well documented ties with Three Percenters and other right-wing extremists, many of whom have also adopted Spartan imagery.

Earlier this year, Vallario refused to comply with the Roaring Fork School District’s “Safe Haven” policy for immigrant students, resulting in the removal of a sheriff deputy School Resource Officer from the Riverview K-8 school in unincorporated Garfield County.

“We receive complaints from members of the Latino community about the treatment they receive as they encounter patrol deputies in the community as well as their experiences in the county jail,” said Sanchez.

What do you do when your local law enforcement agency is signaling their alliance to the far-right extremists?

Are we all Helots, and the officers and deputies the Spartan slaveholders? What’s the message here? The message that many in Garfield County are getting is that anti-immigrant racism is okay.

“Our own public opinion research of Latinos in Colorado suggests that Latinos in the Western Slope experience more discrimination in their communities than in any other region in the state. We are also more likely to express concern about political violence and the increase of hate groups,” Sanchez added.

“I am a right-wing conservative, but as a law enforcement officer I am bound to enforce and comply with ALL laws, whether I personally agree or not,” said Vallario.

The situation in Garfield County has become untenable for many. Lots of people had a lot to say, but very few felt safe enough to speak on record. Vallario has been sheriff in GarCo for over 20 years and is unlikely to face a challenger in 2026. 

A Garfield County press release from April 2023, finally announcing SPEAR six months after they actually formed, states “bottom line is, if you’re committing major crimes in Garfield County, SPEAR is coming for you!” 

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