White Nationalists March in Charlotsville Again
Update:
Just days after Unite the Right's 2nd anniversary, white supremacist and Charlottesville attendee James Patrick Reardon Jr., of New Middletown, Ohio, was arrested for allegedly making threats to the Youngstown, Ohio, Jewish community middle. Reardon was charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing for allegedly posting an Instagram video of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the groundwork. The video was captioned, "Police force identified the Youngstown Jewish Family unit Community shooter equally local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon." While executing a search warrant at Reardon's home, members of the FBI's Violent Crimes Job Strength allegedly seized several weapons, a gas mask, body armor, and dozens of rounds of ammunition along with anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda. In a media interview at the Unite the Correct rally, Reardon described himself as a white nationalist and fellow member of the alt right, and said he wants "a homeland for white people."
In August 2017, hundreds of far-right extremists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, ostensibly to protest the removal of a Confederate statue from a local park. Dubbed "Unite the Right," the gathering was the largest and nearly violent public assembly of white supremacists in decades. It as well demonstrated a resurgent and emboldened white supremacist movement.
The violence on the streets of Charlottesville has kindled two major tracks of white supremacist activity. The first is the rampant dissemination of propaganda designed to promote their views and attract attention. The other, more troubling track is a broader series of violent attacks in the two years since Unite the Right.
White supremacists take committed at least 73 murders since Charlottesville, 39 of which were clearly motivated past hateful, racist ideology. These numbers include the deadly white supremacist shooting rampages in Parkland, Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, the deadliest white supremacist attack in more than 50 years. In each of these cities, white supremacist murderers acted on the threat embodied in the dirge made famous in Charlottesville: "Jews volition not replace us! You will not supersede u.s.!"
While violence has surged since Charlottesville, it didn't begin at that place. The bloodshed nosotros run across today is part of a four-yr resurgence in white supremacist action and activism, driven in large role past the rise of the alt right. Information technology'south function of the emboldened white supremacist culture that led rally organizers to believe Unite the Right could happen in the get-go identify.
The events of August 11 and 12, 2017, are etched in the nation's memory, and the violence and aftermath of those days continue to shape the white supremacist groups and individuals who were on the ground, as they struggle to reinvigorate and reimagine their motility. We expect that the fallout from Charlottesville will keep to impact these extremists for the foreseeable future.
Who was there?
Unite the Right drew far-right extremists from at to the lowest degree 39 states. The Heart on Extremism has identified 330 of the estimated 600 who participated in the event. Well-nigh were from the Eastern half of the U.s., but farther-flung states like Alaska, Arizona, California and Washington were as well represented. Some attendees traveled even farther, coming from Canada, Sweden and Due south Africa.
Though the Unite the Right rally was organized by individuals associated with the alt right, and most extremists who attended were white supremacists, participants represented approximately 50 different extreme-correct movements, groups and entities.
Well-nigh every segment of the white supremacist movement was represented that twenty-four hours: Neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Movement (NSM), Vanguard America, and Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP); Klan members from the Rebel Brigade Knights, Global Crusader Knights, Confederate White Knights, and Knights Party; racist skinheads from the Hammerskins, Coiffure 38, and the Blood & Honor Lodge; neo-Confederates from the League of the S (LoS), Identity Dixie, and the Hiwaymen; Christian Identity adherents from Christogenea; Odinists from the Asatru Folk Assembly; and many others.
Also nowadays were a variety of "media" entities, as well as armed paramilitary groups continued to the anti-government militia movement. They have since claimed they attended the rally to confront left-wing activists -- not in back up of the white supremacists.
Irresolute of the guard
In the two years since Unite the Right, several white supremacist leaders take made dramatic departures from the motion, while others have stepped into new leadership roles.
Elliot Kline, as well known every bit Eli Mosley, of Pennsylvania, was the outset to step down. Kline, a fundamental organizer at Charlottesville, briefly led Identity Evropa (August 27- November 27, 2017) after Unite the Right before teaming upwards with Richard Spencer to create a new white supremacist organisation, Operation Homeland. In February 2018, Kline vanished from the scene after a New York Times documentary revealed he had lied to his followers almost being an Iraq state of war veteran.[i]
Neo-Nazis Jeff Schoep and Matthew Heimbach who led their groups (NSM and Traditionalist Worker Party, respectively) as function of a large column march into Charlottesville, besides announced to have left the movement. Heimbach has been unable to redeem himself in the eyes of his followers since allegations surfaced in March 2018 that he had assaulted his wife and begetter-in-police force, Matthew Parrott, after they confronted Heimbach about his affair with Parrot's wife.[ii] Heimbach pleaded guilty in September 2018 to the assault on Parrot, and the Traditionalist Worker Party, which he co-founded with Parrott, soon dissolved. A brief stint with the NSM lasted only long enough for Heimbach to accept office in the group's November 2018 rally in Piddling Stone.
Schoep, who had allowable the NSM since 1994, came under fire in March 2019 after James Hart Stern, a blackness civil rights activist, claimed Schoep, evidently exhausted past ongoing Charlottesville-related lawsuits, gave Stern legal ownership of the NSM.[iii] In a March 6, 2019, press release, Schoep denied Stern'southward claims, but announced his retirement and his successor, Burt Colucci of Florida.
While these leaders faltered, other Unite the Correct participants take stepped into the leadership void. Many were bolstered by internal debates over the all-time mode to promote the white supremacist crusade and were seeking new means to maintain momentum while fugitive the kind of fallout they experienced after Charlottesville.
Thomas Ryan Rousseau benefitted from having evaded the spotlight in Charlottesville.
Rousseau, who now leads Patriot Front, a Texas-based alt correct grouping that now has members all over the state, led an aggregation of Vanguard America members at Unite the Right. Afterward the rally, images showed James Fields – who has since been convicted of murdering counter-protester Heather Heyer -- standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Vanguard America, and carrying a shield bearing the grouping'due south fascist symbol. But Rousseau largely escaped the public attention and shaming, because the spotlight fell on Dillion Hopper, VA's national leader, who ironically didn't fifty-fifty nourish UTR.
Later that Baronial, Rousseau, who already controlled the group's Discord servers and website, seized the moment, but rather than taking over the troubled Vanguard America, he created Patriot Forepart. The motion allowed those now associated with Patriot Front to distance themselves from Charlottesville, Vanguard America and any clan with James Fields.
Others who attended Unite the Correct as rank-and-file members and now lead diverse groups include: Patrick Casey, who attended as a member of Identity Evropa now leads the American Identity Movement; John Kopko, who attended as a Confederate Hammerskin now leads a racist skinhead crew dubbed "United Skinhead Nation"; and Colton Williams, who attended equally a member of the Traditionalist Worker Political party now leads The Legion of St Ambrose.
Lingering repercussions
It's very easy to discover images from Unite the Correct, which has proved problematic in numerous ways for participants who hoped to remain anonymous.
In the two years that take passed since Unite the Right, many rally participants have experienced a host of repercussions, including imprisonment, job loss, de-platforming - or banning users who violate their terms of service - on social media platforms, travel bans and rejection by friends and family.
Equally more data about the rally emerges, more participants are identified. Over the last few months, previously unidentified UTR rally-goers were exposed when rally images were paired with information obtained from Discord chat logs. Those logs were released in March 2019 by Unicorn Anarchism, an independent media arrangement.
One of the newly exposed individuals, active duty Marine lance corporal Logan K. Piercy, was spotted in images taken at Unite the Correct. Piercy, whom the Marine Corps discharged in May 2019, reportedly used Discord to post his anti-Semitic and racist views. He as well posted images of himself and comments indicating he attended Unite the Right.[i]
The Marine Corps has discharged at least ii other active duty Marines connected to Unite the Right. In July 2018, Lance Corporal Vasillios George Pistolis, who had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, Due north Carolina, was demoted to Individual and separated from the Corps for his declared connections to neo-Nazi groups such every bit the Traditionalist Worker Party and Atomwaffen Partition.[2] Pistolis denied attending Unite the Right merely was caught on camera participating in violence that mean solar day.[3] Sergeant Michael Joseph Chesny of Havelock, North Carolina, received a general administrative belch from the Marine Corps in April 2018 for his ties to the white supremacist movement. Chesny allegedly used the online pseudonym "Tyrone" to assist with the organizing and planning of the "Unite the Right" rally.[iv]
In addition to these military discharges, other Charlottesville participants have lost jobs in everything from food service to aerospace research.
Imprisonment
While some have lost their jobs, more than than a dozen Unite the Right attendees have been convicted and sentenced for crimes related to violence committed during the rally. James Alex Fields, Jr. of Ohio received the most significant sentence: two life sentences plus 419 years, for deliberately driving his car into a oversupply of protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens more.[v]
As well sentenced to substantial time in prison: three of four men constitute guilty of "malicious wounding" for their roles in the parking deck assail of an African American homo during Unite the Right. Daniel Patrick Borden of Ohio was sentenced to 3 years and ten months, Jacob Scott Goodwin of Arkansas received an viii-yr sentence, and Alex Michael Ramos of Georgia received half dozen years. A 4th man, Tyler Watkins Davis, is scheduled for sentencing later this month (August 27).[half-dozen]
Meanwhile, Klan leader Richard Wilson Preston of Maryland was sentenced to four years in prison for discharging a firearm during the rally.[vii] Several other rally participants received lesser sentences for Unite the Right related charges such as conspiracy to riot and misdemeanor assault.[viii][ix][x]
Civil Suits
In add-on to criminal cases, Unite the Correct organizers have been dogged by civil lawsuits at both the state and federal levels, accusing them of conspiring to programme the rally and promote the violence that occurred in Charlottesville. As the lawsuits inch slowly frontwards, the defendants accept been forced to find lawyers willing to correspond them -- and cobble together funds to pay for their defense force. This is no easy job, equally crowdfunding sites and e-payment processors reacted to Unite the Right by redoubling efforts to forestall extremists' access to their services.
In some cases, the lawsuits have directly curbed white supremacists' public activity. During a May 28, 2019, podcast hosted by Jean-François Gariépy, a French-Canadian alt correct YouTuber, Richard Spencer explained why he would not exist speaking at the June 2019 Nationalist Solutions Briefing; "This lawsuit that I'm facing is just totally detrimental to what I'thou doing. I don't desire to go into some public event where I could exist blamed if something goes wrong." He went on to say, "If we tin merely be sued if anyone on the other side gets hurt, we can't do anything publicly. This [lawsuit] needs to be answered. I'm just non ready to practice something right now and if I do, it is going to be on my own terms."[xi]
Michael Hill and his group, League of the Southward, are too eager for the lawsuits to end. In a June 2019 vk.com mail Colina wrote, "I want us to take a new League edifice in Alabama..." "...But considering of pending lawsuits, we are not going to be moving forward officially with fundraising at this time."
Burdensome bans
Lawsuits are not the but irritant affecting white supremacists since Unite the Right. In the wake of the rally, some have been hit with a multifariousness of travel bans, which has in plow suppressed international and domestic collaboration. Several months after Unite the Correct (November 2017), Richard Spencer was reportedly banned from entering 26 countries in Europe.[xii] 2 of his AltRight.com associates, Christoffer Dulny, editor and chief of Nordic Alt-Right, and Artkos Media CEO Daniel Friberg, both Swedish white nationalists, were banned from returning to the United States later attending the rally in Charlottesville.[xiii] And in July 2018, Spencer was refused entry into Europe while en route to Sweden to speak at an alt right conference organized by Dulny.[fourteen]
White supremacists have as well been banned from domestic locations. Christopher Cantwell of New Hampshire, who pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor attack and battery for using tear gas in Charlottesville, was banned from returning to the Republic of Virginia for five years.[15] Ten torch march participants, including Spencer, a University of Virginia alumnus, were banned from the University of Virginia campus for four years.[xvi] Equally part of a legal settlement to a lawsuit filed by Georgetown Academy Law Center, some of the participating groups have agreed not to return to Charlottesville equally function of any future armed protests in the city.[xvii]
Not all white supremacists have been affected past the travel bans. Since attending Unite the Right, South African white supremacist Simon Roche has continued to build his relationship with his American counterparts. In January 2019, Tennessee-based League of the South member Richard Hamblen, who also attended Unite the Right, traveled to South Africa to meet with Roche and other Suidlanders. And in June 2019, Roche returned to the U.Due south. to speak at the "Nationalist Solutions Symposium," a white supremacist conference co-hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens and the American Freedom Party, a political party that promotes white nationalism.
Criminal Activeness Postal service-Charlottesville
In the ii years since Unite the Right, a number of Charlottesville rally goers have committed crimes motivated by white supremacist credo.
Taylor Michael Wilson of Missouri was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a terrorism charge for his armed takeover of an Amtrak train as it passed through rural Nebraska. This took place just two months after attending the Unite the Right rally. During their investigation the FBI searched Wilson'southward home and reportedly found numerous firearms, Nazi propaganda, body armor, armament and force per unit area plates that can be used to make explosive devices.[xviii]
In Oct 2017, Unite the Correct attendees Tyler Eugene Tenbrink and Colton Gene Fears, both of Texas, were arrested in Gainesville, Florida, on charges of attempted homicide, for their roles in an altercation with counter-protesters following Richard Spencer's spoken language at the University of Florida. Tenbrink, who fired a handgun at counter-protesters during the altercation, was sentenced to xv years in prison after pleading no contest to charges of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm past a felon.[xix] Colton Fears, who served as Tenbrink'due south getaway commuter, was sentenced to v years in prison after pleading guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact to attempted get-go degree murder.[xx]
In November 2018, another notable Unite the Right alumnus, Washington D.C. resident Jeffrey Raphiel Clark Jr., was charged with illegal transportation of a firearm across state lines, possession of an illegal high-chapters mag and unlawful utilize of a controlled substance. Co-ordinate to the FBI and Clark'due south relatives, Jeffrey and his younger blood brother, Edward William Clark, who likewise attended Unite the Right, were active white supremacists who advocated for a race state of war betwixt whites and non-whites. Jeffrey, an online acquaintance of alleged Tree of Life synagogue attacker Robert Bowers, came to the attention of authorities after family members contacted law enforcement out of business concern that Clark might become violent after his younger brother, Edward, killed himself the aforementioned 24-hour interval as the Tree of Life attack. Final month (July 23, 2019), Clark pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of firearms by a person who is an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Clark is scheduled to be sentenced on September 13.[xxi]
Two individuals connected to Unite the Right are facing detest crime charges. In December 2018, Travis David Condor of Pennsylvania, who attended the Charlottesville rally, was 1 of eight individuals arrested for allegedly assaulting and shouting racial slurs at a blackness man in Lynnwood, Washington. Some other man, Brandon Troy Higgs of Maryland, was establish guilty in January 2020 of attempted voluntary manslaughter, starting time-degree assault, hate crimes and weapon charges. Higgs' instance stemmed from a Dec 2018 altercation with two construction workers which started with racial slurs and ended with one worker being shot.[xxii][xxiii] Higgs, using the screen proper name "Americana-Doctor," allegedly made hundreds of posts in a Discord chat room focused on planning Unite the Correct.[xxiv]
Well-nigh attendees remain active today
The vast majority of the white supremacist groups and individuals who attended Unite the Right remain active today. Our analysis indicates that while there does not announced to be a desire to reprise the events in Charlottesville, most of the attendees consider that weekend a pregnant and unifying moment for the move.
The League of the South went so far as to create an honorary patch for their members who attended Charlottesville. Brian T. Conley, a racist skinhead from North Carolina who rallied shirtless while sporting a large swastika emblazed on his breast, now has a commemorative tattoo that reads "CVILLE WRECKING Coiffure."
In contrast, alt right leaders Patrick Casey and Thomas Rousseau take distanced their rebranded groups from the violence of that solar day, focusing instead on propaganda and recruitment tactics designed to limit the risk of individual exposure, negative media coverage, arrests and public backlash. In 2019, these 2 groups are responsible for more than than a dozen unannounced flash demonstrations and over i,000 propaganda distributions in 45 states.
Patrick Niggling, who traveled from California to participate in Unite the Right, has been much less concerned with optics. In 2018, he made an anti-Semitic campaign run for Dianne Feinstein'south U.Southward. Senate seat, and following his crushing defeat, launched a nationwide "Proper noun the Jew" bout, bringing anti-Semitic propaganda to cities across the land. In early on 2019, Petty registered as a presidential candidate with the Republican Political party only dropped out of the race in May claiming in a YouTube video: "At this point information technology's just about waking people up to who'due south really in accuse and simply letting them know that the Jews run stuff. It doesn't matter who nosotros put into office."[i]
Some other political hopeful, James Orien Allsup went unchallenged in his quietly successful 2018 campaign to become a Whitman County (Washington) Republican Precinct Committee Officer. In Jan 2019, after learning of Allsup's ties to the alt right, the local GOP denounced Allsup and voted unanimously to strip him of the powers held by commission officers, although local law allows him to go on his title.[ii] Since Charlottesville, Allsup has spoken at several white supremacist conferences, including the May 2019 American Renaissance conference. He is also a YouTube personality and a frequent podcaster.
A number of other Unite the Correct attendees take turned to podcasting every bit a relatively private way to amplify their message. Some examples include: Mike "Enoch" Peinovich, Jesse Dunstan (aka Sven/7th Son), and Alex McNabb, all of whom who host TRS (TheRightStuff). Sometime TWP members Tony Hovator and Matthew Parrott host "The Foundry" and Robert Warren Ray (aka Azzmador), a Texas-based Daily Stormer contributor, hosts "The Krypto Study." Notably, Ray and Will Zachary Smith, a Daily Stormer cohort, are both fugitives from justice in the commonwealth of Virginia, stemming from their action in Charlottesville. Both men were indicted in June 2018 on felony charges for maliciously releasing gas on August 11, 2017, the night of the torch march.
Two years after hundreds of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, that weekend'southward terrible events keep to shape and influence participants – and to reverberate across a nation still coming to terms with that shocking display of violence and hate.
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Source: https://www.adl.org/blog/two-years-ago-they-marched-in-charlottesville-where-are-they-now
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