Posts Tagged As: Neo-Nazis

WITNESS: Neo-Nazis, Florida, Villanova, Philadelphia, U. Penn, Michigan, Wellesley

Jim Burroway

November 13th, 2016

A disturbing pattern of assaults, vandalism and other threats has emerged following Donald Trump’s victory after a vicious campaign plagued by the candidate’s xenophobic, Islamophobic and racist comments. Alt-right web sites are encouraging attacks like some of the ones being reported. According to Newsweek:

The Daily Stormer's home page features this image.

The Daily Stormer’s home page features this image.

The Daily Stormer, a Neo-Nazi website, published a list of dozens of Twitter users who expressed sadness over the election outcome on Wednesday, urging its readers to target and harass them to the point of suicide.

The frontpage of the white supremacist website shows a large photo of President-elect Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, meeting with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. “You should probably go ahead and be afraid now,” writes Andrew Anglin, the website’s publisher. The post suggests it’s readers “can troll these people and definitely get some of them to kill themselves.”

This is an excerpt from the end of the post:

You can troll these people and definitely get some of them to kill themselves.

Just be like “it’s the only way you can prove to the racists that Hillary was right all along.”

“Mass Suicides After Trump Victory” would be a headline the media would play up, but all it would do would demoralize the left even further.

GOGOGOGOGOGOGO!

Police are investigating harassment at Villanova:

Villanova University’s Department of Public Safety is investigating a reported incident in which a black female student was assaulted by white males as they ran toward her yelling, “Trump, Trump, Trump!”

According to a university source with knowledge of the event, it occurred Thursday night as the female student, who has not been identified, was walking through a SEPTA tunnel on campus.

There, she encountered multiple white males who allegedly ran toward her, shouting the name of the new president-elect. One male forcefully knocked her to the ground, causing her to hit her head, the source said.

And vandalism in Philadelphia:

drexel_prof_car_vandalized-2e16d0ba-fill-735x490…yet another vandal has maliciously damaged property in South Philadelphia, this time the car of a research psychologist at Drexel University.

On Friday night, at 18th and Reed Streets, Adrienne Juarascio discovered the following message carved into the passenger side of her parked Toyota Camry: “It’s our p—- now, B—h.”

…I’m not sure [why I was targeted],” Juarascio told PhillyVoice on Saturday morning, a few hours after she reported the incident to Philadelphia police. “I am a big HIllary supporter and had signs at my house. Maybe somebody saw me get out of my car going home.”

On Wednesday morning, police responded to a report of two swastikas spray-painted on the window of the former Meglio Furs building at 1300 South Broad Street, one of them a replacement for the “T” in Trump’s name. Later that afternoon, offcials reported two other acts of vandalism in South Philadelphia, including a racial message sprayed on a car (“Trump rules black b—h”) and another swastika painted on a utitlity box.

And racial threats at the University of Pennsylvania:

Several incidents in and around the University of Pennsylvania’s campus, including a video of people shouting “Build a Wall” and black students being added to a racist GroupMe called “N***** Lynching,” left many on the West Philadelphia campus visibly shaken Friday afternoon.

The disturbing events began with a video circulating on social media that shows people, who cannot be confirmed as Penn students, chanting “build the wall” as election results poured in early Wednesday morning. The scene unfolded at Smokey Joe’s, a popular bar adjacent to the school’s University City campus that dubs itself “a standby for UPenn students since 1933.”

…Calvary Rogers, a sophomore at Penn and the vice president of external affairs for the class of 2019, told PhillyVoice there’s implicit racism at the school that’s been fueled by this past presidential election. Though, he was completely shocked when he found out Friday that most of the the black members of the freshman class had been added to a GroupMe that he said was called “N***** Lynching,” a story originally reported by the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.

GroupMe is a mobile messaging app that makes it easy to talk to large groups of people. Members are added to GroupMe messages by using a name, phone number or email address. Rogers, who’s actively involved on campus, said he’s not even sure how to get access to that information.

Similars groups called “Mud Med” and “Trump is Love” were also created along with an event called “Daily Lynching.”

…In a statement,  University of Pennsylvania spokesperson said the GroupMe originated in Oklahoma and the situation was being investigated… This was later confirmed by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, who announced the temporary suspension of a student following a joint investigation by Penn Police and the FBI.

And a threatening note at Bay City, Michigan:

21506929-largeKris Harris and Neil Wolicki on Thursday, Nov. 10, said they found a handwritten note in their mailbox that read: “Faggots Get Out! Trump Country!” The “O” of “Out” contained a backward swastika.

“We’re very saddened by this and hope it’s not going to become a trend, whether against gays, Muslims, or any other community and/or religious group,” Harris told MLive in a text message. He declined to further comment or be photographed for this story.

…Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini said the note was reported to Bay County Central Dispatch Thursday afternoon.

And at Wellesley College:

In the first incident, two men who were identified as Babson College students by school authorities drove through Wellesley College in a pickup Wednesday while waving a Trump flag, and uttered words and enagaged in actions that were “racially offensive and gender demeaning,” Babson officials said Thursday.

Wellesley student Sydney Robertson posted details to facebook, including a celebratory video posted to social media by the two students, identified as Parker Rand-Ricciardi and Edward Tomasso, both of Babson College

Rand-Ricciardi and Tomasso have both been expelled from Sigma Phil Epsilon, and the college says they face disciplinary action. Edward Tomasso has posted a lengthy apology.

Brazilian Police Arrest Neo-Nazis Over Gay Pride Bombing

Jim Burroway

December 5th, 2009

Police in São Paulo have arrested seven members of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group linked to a June 14 bombing during a gay pride parade that injured twenty-two people:

The four men and three women arrested are members of the “Hooligan Impact” group suspected of setting off a homemade bomb inside a bar in the city’s gay district after a gay pride parade, according to the police’s Racial Crimes and Hate Crime unit.

…They will be charged with organised crime and with injuring 12 people, police said, adding that only 12 of the 22 injured people came forth to press charges after the bombing.

Police tracked down the suspects from a threatening email sent to the parade’s organiser. The message led to a neo-Nazi website with photographs of its members that were then compared to pictures taken near the bar that was attacked.

Police are investigating whether the group is involved in the murder of a 35-year-old man during the parade.

Last April, a Brazilian advocacy group Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB) claimed that, based on news reports, murders of LGBT people were up sharply in 2008.

In Today’s Army, Neo-Nazis Are In But LGBT People Are Out

Jim Burroway

June 16th, 2009

Iraq veteran Forrest Fogarty sailed through recruitment despite his neo-Nazi tattoos (Photo: Matt Kennard/Salon)

Iraq veteran Forrest Fogarty sailed through recruitment despite his neo-Nazi tattoos (Photo: Matt Kennard/Salon)

This is what is so particularly galling about the foot-dragging and finger-pointing going on between President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While more than two hundred American servicemembers have been discharged from the armed forces in a time of war since the start of the Obama administration simply for being honest about who they are, neo-Nazis — complete with neo-Nazi tattoos and criminal records — are sailing right on through.  This is Forrest Fogarty. He decided to become a Nazi at the age of fourteen:

For the next six years, Fogarty flitted from landscaping job to construction job, neither of which he’d ever wanted to do. “I was just drinking and fighting,” he says. He started his own Nazi rock group, Attack, and made friends in the National Alliance, at the time the biggest neo-Nazi group in the country. It has called for a “a long-term eugenics program involving at least the entire populations of Europe and America.”

But the military ran in Fogarty’s family. His grandfather had served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and his dad had been a Marine in Vietnam. At 22, Fogarty resolved to follow in their footsteps. “I wanted to serve my country,” he says.

Army regulations prohibit soldiers from participating in racist groups, and recruiters are instructed to keep an eye out for suspicious tattoos (PDF: 188 KB/25 pages). Before signing on the dotted line, enlistees are required to explain any tattoos. At a Tampa recruitment office, though, Fogarty sailed right through the signup process. “They just told me to write an explanation of each tattoo, and I made up some stuff, and that was that,” he says. Soon he was posted to Fort Stewart in Georgia, where he became part of the 3rd Infantry Division. [Hyperlink in the original]

Fogarty’s ex-girlfriend even tried to disrupt his military career by sending photos of him at Nazi rallies and performing in his band. The military brought him before a commission and he was asked to explain himself. But despite the photographic evidence, he denied the charges and the commission refused to take any further action. He went on to serve as a military policeman in Iraq, where he learned to add yet another group to his long list of people to hate: Arabs. “Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I’m concerned,” he told Salon’s Matt Kennard.

Conservative talk radio and Fox News howled with protest when a Homeland Security assessment on right-wing extremism warned about a very tiny minority of military veterans joining extremist groups after leaving the military (PDF: 2MB/10 pages). Pundits demanded — and got — an apology from Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano. But all of that attention ignored the fact that in 2005, the Defense Department concluded that the military had become a training ground for these very same extremists (PDF: 672KN136 pages):

Effectively, the military has a “don\’t ask, don\’t tell” policy pertaining to extremism. If individuals can perform satisfactorily, without making their extremist opinions overt through words or actions that violate policy, reflect poorly on the Armed Forces, or disrupt the effectiveness and order of their units, they are likely to be able to complete their contracts.

Except there isn’t a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with respect to extremism — at least not in a way that LGBT servicemembers would recognize it. The “Don’t Ask” part of the anti-gay policy is routinely violated by military investigators. Many LGBT servicemembers were identified via their use of LGBT web sites, yet the mlitary doesn’t do any sort of organized internet screening for supremacists among Nazi or Klan websites and forums. They also don’t follow-up when presented with evidence that a servicemember is a member of a Nazi or Klan-style organization.

Furthermore, right-wing extremists routinely flaunt the “Don’t Tell” part of the policy with no repercussions. Fogarty revealed that other members of his outfit knew about his Nazi affiliations, but it just became something of a joke among fellow soldiers and commanding officers. A police officer in Fayetteville, North Carolina who used to be a paratrouper at nearby Fort Bragg said this:

[Hunter] Glass says white supremacists now enjoy an open culture of impunity in the armed forces. “We’re seeing guys with tattoos all the time,” he says. “As far as hunting them down, I don’t see it. I’m seeing the opposite, where if a white supremacist has committed a crime, the military stance will be, ‘He didn’t commit a race-related crime.'”

Fogarty left the military in 2005 with an honorable discharge.

A 2008 FBI report on White supremacists in the Military (PDF: 118 KB/14 pages) found:

Military experience—ranging from failure at basic training to success in special operations forces—is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement. FBI reporting indicates extremist leaders have historically favored recruiting active and former military personnel for their knowledge of firearms, explosives, and tactical skills and their access to weapons and intelligence in preparation for an anticipated war against the federal government, Jews, and people of color. FBI cases also document instances of active duty military personnel having volunteered their professional resources to white supremacist causes.

…A review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period. This number is minuscule in comparison with the projected US veteran population of 23,816,000 as of 2 May 2008, or the 1,416,037 active duty military personnel as of 30 April 2008. It is also a small percentage of an estimated US white supremacist extremist population, which, based on FBI investigations, currently numbers in the low thousands. However, the prestige which the extremist movement bestows upon members with military experience grants them the potential for influence beyond their numbers. Most extremist groups have some members with military experience, and those with military experience often hold positions of authority within the groups to which they belong.

From the FBI report, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11." Click to enlarge.

From the FBI report, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11." Click to enlarge.

Fifty-eight of the 2003 individuals identified by the FBI were members of the National Alliance, the group where Fogerty got his start before joining the military. Another 44 of the 203 individuals were members of the National Socialist Movement, the same group which protested at PrideFest in Springfield, Missouri over the weekend. The FBI report describes the National Socialist Movement as being relatively stable and cohesive. They have also been very successful with their strategic decision to target returning Iraq war veterans for recruitment:

In contrast to the NA [National Alliance] and other white supremacist groups, the NSM—although not immune to factionalism—enjoyed a greater degree of stability during the post-9/11 period and benefited from the membership exoduses of other struggling organizations. This relative stability included a sustained campaign to recruit current and former military personnel overseen by a respected figure in the extremist movement and unverified former Marine, who left leadership roles in the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Aryan Nations (AN) to become a Colonel in the NSM and Director of its “Stormtroopers” (the NSM\’s security force) from 2002 until his retirement in December 2007. The NSM\’s military structure also adds to its recruitment success by offering a familiar organizational context for veterans, including a system of rank that serves as an incentive for joining the group. In addition, NSM literature has outlined the development of a Special Projects Division consisting of “Werewolf Units” intended for special military operations and with a membership favoring those with military backgrounds.

According to sensitive and reliable source reporting in October 2006, the NSM received a number of queries from active duty Army and Marine personnel stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan expressing interest in joining the organization or inquiring about chapters located near domestic US military bases. This report followed—and was consistent with—December 2005 source reporting on the NSM stressing the need to place units close to military bases nationwide in order to recruit military personnel. Whether as a result of group recruitment efforts or self-recruitment by active military personnel sympathetic to white supremacist extremist causes, FBI information derived from reliable, multiple sources documents white supremacist extremist activity occurring at some military bases.

Read the whole article by Salon’s Matt Kennard. It’s an amazing eye-opener. It describes supremacist leaders encouraging members to enlist in the military so that they can be trained at taxpayer expense for what they see as a coming “race war,” which is central to their beleifs.

Extremist Watch: Neo-Nazis, Dominionists Protest PrideFest In Ozarks

Jim Burroway

June 15th, 2009

Several members of the National Socialist Movement protested at a PrideFest celebration in Springfield, Missouri. Another anti-gay group, Minutemen United, was also at the rally. Gregory Thompson told a local Fox affiliate, “We love them so much that we want their soul in heaven for eternity. That’s the greatest love that there is.” That was just after footage of protesters shouting, “Death to Gays!”

The Minutemen United appears to be an offshoot of a similarly named group based in Ohio which disrupted two central Ohio church services in 2007. “Coach” Dave Daubenmire, who heads the Ohio group, was in Springfield in advance of the protest. Daubenmire also heads Pass the Salt Ministries, a Christian Dominionist group. The Missouri chapter of Minutemen United describes itself as “Christian men that are ready to run to the battle; at a minute’s warning!  To take to the field with arms (our arms is the sword of the Lord-the Bible).”

The National Socialist Movement in Springfield is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi hate group.

Update: The Springfield News-Leader has more. Another chant: “Thank God for AIDS!” Where have we heard that before?

    

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