Marc Stargher

“	LAPD still has a chance to be on the right side of history...War is coming.	„
	~ Stargher threatening the LAPD online.

Marc Stargher is the overarching antagonist of Season 4 of S.W.A.T.. He is a white supremacist who leads the Imperial Dukes terrorist group in its efforts to destroy all minority groups and turn America into a Christian dictatorship.

He was portrayed by Austen Brewer.

Biography[]

Marc Stargher is a resident of Los Angeles who once served as the vice-president of a local thinktank, until he was fired for manipulating data to support his racist theories. He became leader of the Imperial Dukes in 2020. According to FBI Agent Carr in "Crusade", Stargher spends most of his time posting racist screeds online where he calls for a crusade and the killing of all racial minorities in America.

Stargher communicates with the other Dukes using an encrypted messaging forum. He uses the forum to give orders to the cells based in Los Angeles, coordinating the group's terror attacks this way. In the Dukes' first appearance, he directed one cell to carry out small-scale attacks against businesses owned by minorities, killing three people. When LAPD SWAT try to arrest the Dukes, black officer Erika Rogers is killed by Abel McConnell. Stargher and the other Dukes consider this a victory.

In a later episode, Stargher gives orders to Jared Lewis to carry out a gas attack at Camden College during a ceremony to rename a building that was previously named after a segregationist. Stargher and Lewis name the plot "The Reckoning". When SWAT infiltrate the Dukes' encrypted forum posing as another Duke, Cormac Hill, Stargher questions "Hill" and deduces that he is an imposter. He directs SWAT to a random restaurant before using the Dukes' internet followers to promote a false claim that black rioters are going to burn it down, hoping to distract SWAT and provoke a confrontation. While the officers are distracted, Stargher and the others abandon the forum to avoid being traced.

After The Reckoning is foiled, the LAPD receive a message from Stargher telling them that it isn't too late to join his cause and warning of more attacks. Commander Bob Hicks and Sergeant Hondo Harrelson deduce that he is the leader of the Dukes but cannot identify him.

In the season four finale, "Veritas Vincit", Stargher buys police uniforms from Tanner Tactical for himself and his remaining men so he can frame the LAPD for police brutality and provoke his race war. He orders the bombing of a local police station and frames Black Justice Now activist Kevin Hilliard, resulting in his arrest. When this leads to protests all over the city, Stargher prepares sniping positions along the street where the next march will take place so he and the Dukes can massacre the protestors. Stargher, Tripp Rathman and Don Fairburn arrive at the protest and take up their positions to open fire.

When SWAT arrive to prevent the attack, Fairburn and Rathman are arrested before they can do more than drop stun grenades into the crowd. Stargher realises what's happening and manages to escape via a makeshift slide, which he then destroys. He tries to provoke the police into attacking the protestors by blowing up a squad car and then driving through the middle of the crowd on a motorbike while firing at officers so that SWAT will fire into the crowd to get him. Fortunately, Hondo orders the officers not to fire, and SWAT officer Jim Street chases Stargher on a bike. Street chases Stargher into a tunnel and then through a park to keep him off the freeway. When Stargher drives out of the park and onto the road, he is cut off by Hondo and crashes. Hondo then points a gun at Stargher's head and tells him that it's over before arresting him for his crimes.

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