White Nationalists March in Charlotsville Again
Update:
Only days after Unite the Right's 2d 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 customs heart. 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 background. The video was captioned, "Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family unit Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon." While executing a search warrant at Reardon'southward home, members of the FBI'due south Violent Crimes Job Forcefulness allegedly seized several weapons, a gas mask, trunk armor, and dozens of rounds of ammunition along with anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda. In a media interview at the Unite the Right rally, Reardon described himself as a white nationalist and 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 most 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 activeness. The first is the rampant dissemination of propaganda designed to promote their views and attract attention. The other, more than troubling track is a broader serial of vehement attacks in the two years since Unite the Right.
White supremacists have committed at to the lowest degree 73 murders since Charlottesville, 39 of which were clearly motivated by hateful, racist credo. 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 will not replace us! You will not replace us!"
While violence has surged since Charlottesville, information technology didn't begin at that place. The mortality we see today is part of a 4-year resurgence in white supremacist activity and activism, driven in large function by the ascent of the alt right. It's part of the emboldened white supremacist civilization that led rally organizers to believe Unite the Correct could happen in the commencement place.
The events of Baronial 11 and 12, 2017, are etched in the nation'south memory, and the violence and backwash of those days go on to shape the white supremacist groups and individuals who were on the ground, equally they struggle to reinvigorate and reimagine their movement. We look that the fallout from Charlottesville will continue to affect these extremists for the foreseeable future.
Who was at that place?
Unite the Correct drew far-right extremists from at least 39 states. The Center on Extremism has identified 330 of the estimated 600 who participated in the event. Most were from the Eastern half of the United States, but further-flung states similar Alaska, Arizona, California and Washington were besides represented. Some attendees traveled even further, coming from Canada, Sweden and Southward Africa.
Though the Unite the Right rally was organized by individuals associated with the alt correct, and about extremists who attended were white supremacists, participants represented approximately 50 unlike extreme-correct movements, groups and entities.
About every segment of the white supremacist movement was represented that day: Neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Motility (NSM), Vanguard America, and Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP); Klan members from the Rebel Brigade Knights, Global Crusader Knights, Amalgamated White Knights, and Knights Political party; racist skinheads from the Hammerskins, Crew 38, and the Blood & Honour Social Club; 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.
As well present were a variety of "media" entities, likewise as armed paramilitary groups continued to the anti-government militia movement. They have since claimed they attended the rally to face left-wing activists -- not in back up of the white supremacists.
Changing of the guard
In the two years since Unite the Correct, several white supremacist leaders have made dramatic departures from the movement, while others have stepped into new leadership roles.
Elliot Kline, also known as Eli Mosley, of Pennsylvania, was the first to pace downwardly. Kline, a primal organizer at Charlottesville, briefly led Identity Evropa (August 27- Nov 27, 2017) after Unite the Correct before teaming up with Richard Spencer to create a new white supremacist organization, Operation Homeland. In February 2018, Kline vanished from the scene afterwards a New York Times documentary revealed he had lied to his followers about being an Iraq war veteran.[i]
Neo-Nazis Jeff Schoep and Matthew Heimbach who led their groups (NSM and Traditionalist Worker Party, respectively) as part of a large column march into Charlottesville, also appear to have left the move. 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 father-in-law, Matthew Parrott, after they confronted Heimbach nigh his thing with Parrot's married woman.[two] Heimbach pleaded guilty in September 2018 to the assault on Parrot, and the Traditionalist Worker Political party, which he co-founded with Parrott, soon dissolved. A brief stint with the NSM lasted just long enough for Heimbach to take part in the group'southward November 2018 rally in Little Rock.
Schoep, who had allowable the NSM since 1994, came nether fire in March 2019 after James Hart Stern, a black civil rights activist, claimed Schoep, plain exhausted by ongoing Charlottesville-related lawsuits, gave Stern legal ownership of the NSM.[three] 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 Right participants have stepped into the leadership void. Many were bolstered by internal debates over the best way to promote the white supremacist cause and were seeking new ways to maintain momentum while avoiding the kind of fallout they experienced afterwards Charlottesville.
Thomas Ryan Rousseau benefitted from having evaded the spotlight in Charlottesville.
Rousseau, who now leads Patriot Front, a Texas-based alt correct group that now has members all over the land, led an assemblage of Vanguard America members at Unite the Correct. Later 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 conveying a shield bearing the group's fascist symbol. But Rousseau largely escaped the public attention and shaming, because the spotlight cruel on Dillion Hopper, VA's national leader, who ironically didn't even nourish UTR.
Later that August, Rousseau, who already controlled the grouping'south Discord servers and website, seized the moment, but rather than taking over the troubled Vanguard America, he created Patriot Front. The movement allowed those now associated with Patriot Front to distance themselves from Charlottesville, Vanguard America and whatever association with James Fields.
Others who attended Unite the Correct as rank-and-file members and at present atomic number 82 diverse groups include: Patrick Casey, who attended as a member of Identity Evropa now leads the American Identity Motion; John Kopko, who attended equally a Confederate Hammerskin now leads a racist skinhead coiffure dubbed "United Skinhead Nation"; and Colton Williams, who attended equally a member of the Traditionalist Worker Party now leads The Legion of St Ambrose.
Lingering repercussions
It'due south very easy to find images from Unite the Correct, which has proved problematic in numerous ways for participants who hoped to remain anonymous.
In the ii years that have 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 past friends and family.
As more information about the rally emerges, more participants are identified. Over the terminal few months, previously unidentified UTR rally-goers were exposed when rally images were paired with data obtained from Discord chat logs. Those logs were released in March 2019 past Unicorn Anarchism, an independent media organization.
One of the newly exposed individuals, active duty Marine lance corporal Logan K. Piercy, was spotted in images taken at Unite the Right. Piercy, whom the Marine Corps discharged in May 2019, reportedly used Discord to post his anti-Semitic and racist views. He besides 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 Military camp Lejeune, North Carolina, was demoted to Private and separated from the Corps for his declared connections to neo-Nazi groups such as the Traditionalist Worker Party and Atomwaffen Division.[ii] Pistolis denied attending Unite the Right merely was defenseless on camera participating in violence that day.[iii] Sergeant Michael Joseph Chesny of Havelock, North Carolina, received a general administrative discharge from the Marine Corps in April 2018 for his ties to the white supremacist movement. Chesny allegedly used the online pseudonym "Tyrone" to assistance with the organizing and planning of the "Unite the Right" rally.[4]
In addition to these armed services discharges, other Charlottesville participants accept lost jobs in everything from nutrient service to aerospace research.
Imprisonment
While some accept lost their jobs, more than a dozen Unite the Right attendees have been bedevilled 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]
Besides sentenced to substantial time in prison: 3 of iv men constitute guilty of "malicious wounding" for their roles in the parking deck assault of an African American man during Unite the Right. Daniel Patrick Borden of Ohio was sentenced to three years and 10 months, Jacob Scott Goodwin of Arkansas received an eight-year sentence, and Alex Michael Ramos of Georgia received six years. A quaternary man, Tyler Watkins Davis, is scheduled for sentencing afterwards this month (August 27).[vi]
Meanwhile, Klan leader Richard Wilson Preston of Maryland was sentenced to iv years in prison for discharging a firearm during the rally.[seven] Several other rally participants received bottom sentences for Unite the Right related charges such as conspiracy to anarchism and misdemeanor assault.[viii][ix][x]
Civil Suits
In improver to criminal cases, Unite the Right organizers take been indomitable by ceremonious lawsuits at both the state and federal levels, accusing them of conspiring to plan the rally and promote the violence that occurred in Charlottesville. As the lawsuits inch slowly forwards, the defendants take been forced to find lawyers willing to correspond them -- and cobble together funds to pay for their defense force. This is no easy chore, every bit crowdfunding sites and e-payment processors reacted to Unite the Correct by redoubling efforts to prevent extremists' admission to their services.
In some cases, the lawsuits have direct curbed white supremacists' public activeness. 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 Conference; "This lawsuit that I'yard facing is just totally detrimental to what I'one thousand doing. I don't want to go into some public event where I could exist blamed if something goes wrong." He went on to say, "If we can simply be sued if anyone on the other side gets hurt, nosotros tin can't practice anything publicly. This [lawsuit] needs to be answered. I'one thousand simply not ready to do something right now and if I do, it is going to be on my own terms."[eleven]
Michael Hill and his group, League of the South, are besides eager for the lawsuits to end. In a June 2019 vk.com post Hill wrote, "I want us to have a new League building in Alabama..." "...But because of pending lawsuits, we are not going to be moving forward officially with fundraising at this fourth dimension."
Crushing bans
Lawsuits are not the only irritant affecting white supremacists since Unite the Right. In the wake of the rally, some take been hit with a variety of travel bans, which has in plough suppressed international and domestic collaboration. Several months later Unite the Right (November 2017), Richard Spencer was reportedly banned from entering 26 countries in Europe.[xii] Two 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 afterward attending the rally in Charlottesville.[thirteen] And in July 2018, Spencer was refused entry into Europe while en route to Sweden to speak at an alt correct briefing organized by Dulny.[fourteen]
White supremacists have also been banned from domestic locations. Christopher Cantwell of New Hampshire, who pleaded guilty to 2 counts of misdemeanor assail and battery for using tear gas in Charlottesville, was banned from returning to the Commonwealth of Virginia for v 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] As part of a legal settlement to a lawsuit filed by Georgetown University Law Center, some of the participating groups have agreed not to return to Charlottesville as part of any future armed protests in the city.[xvii]
Not all white supremacists take been affected by the travel bans. Since attending Unite the Right, Southward African white supremacist Simon Roche has continued to build his relationship with his American counterparts. In Jan 2019, Tennessee-based League of the South member Richard Hamblen, who also attended Unite the Right, traveled to South Africa to encounter with Roche and other Suidlanders. And in June 2019, Roche returned to the U.Southward. 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 Activity Post-Charlottesville
In the 2 years since Unite the Right, a number of Charlottesville rally goers have committed crimes motivated by white supremacist ideology.
Taylor Michael Wilson of Missouri was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison house afterward pleading guilty to a terrorism charge for his armed takeover of an Amtrak train every bit it passed through rural Nebraska. This took identify just two months subsequently attending the Unite the Right rally. During their investigation the FBI searched Wilson's dwelling house and reportedly institute numerous firearms, Nazi propaganda, body armor, ammunition and pressure plates that can be used to make explosive devices.[eighteen]
In October 2017, Unite the Right attendees Tyler Eugene Tenbrink and Colton Cistron Fears, both of Texas, were arrested in Gainesville, Florida, on charges of attempted homicide, for their roles in an altercation with counter-protesters post-obit Richard Spencer's speech at the University of Florida. Tenbrink, who fired a handgun at counter-protesters during the altercation, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison after pleading no competition to charges of aggravated set on and possession of a firearm by a felon.[xix] Colton Fears, who served as Tenbrink's getaway driver, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact to attempted first degree murder.[twenty]
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-capacity mag and unlawful utilise of a controlled substance. According to the FBI and Clark's relatives, Jeffrey and his younger blood brother, Edward William Clark, who also attended Unite the Right, were active white supremacists who advocated for a race war betwixt whites and non-whites. Jeffrey, an online associate of alleged Tree of Life synagogue attacker Robert Bowers, came to the attention of authorities after family members contacted constabulary enforcement out of concern that Clark might become violent after his younger brother, Edward, killed himself the same mean solar day as the Tree of Life assail. Last 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 exist sentenced on September 13.[xxi]
Two individuals continued to Unite the Correct are facing hate 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 black human in Lynnwood, Washington. Another human, Brandon Troy Higgs of Maryland, was constitute guilty in January 2020 of attempted voluntary manslaughter, first-degree assail, hate crimes and weapon charges. Higgs' instance stemmed from a December 2018 altercation with two construction workers which started with racial slurs and concluded with 1 worker being shot.[xxii][xxiii] Higgs, using the screen proper noun "Americana-Physician," allegedly made hundreds of posts in a Discord chat room focused on planning Unite the Right.[xxiv]
Most attendees remain active today
The vast bulk of the white supremacist groups and individuals who attended Unite the Right remain active today. Our analysis indicates that while there does not appear to exist a desire to reprise the events in Charlottesville, almost of the attendees consider that weekend a pregnant and unifying moment for the motility.
The League of the South went and so far as to create an honorary patch for their members who attended Charlottesville. Brian T. Conley, a racist skinhead from N Carolina who rallied shirtless while sporting a big swastika emblazed on his chest, now has a commemorative tattoo that reads "CVILLE WRECKING Coiffure."
In contrast, alt right leaders Patrick Casey and Thomas Rousseau have distanced their rebranded groups from the violence of that twenty-four hours, focusing instead on propaganda and recruitment tactics designed to limit the hazard of private exposure, negative media coverage, arrests and public backfire. In 2019, these two groups are responsible for more than a dozen unannounced flash demonstrations and over ane,000 propaganda distributions in 45 states.
Patrick Little, 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's U.S. Senate seat, and following his crushing defeat, launched a nationwide "Name the Jew" bout, bringing anti-Semitic propaganda to cities across the country. In early on 2019, Picayune registered as a presidential candidate with the Republican Party just dropped out of the race in May claiming in a YouTube video: "At this point it's just about waking people upwards to who's really in charge and just 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 get a Whitman Canton (Washington) Republican Precinct Committee Officeholder. In January 2019, later learning of Allsup'south ties to the alt correct, the local GOP denounced Allsup and voted unanimously to strip him of the powers held past committee officers, although local law allows him to proceed 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 Right attendees take turned to podcasting as a relatively private mode 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 correspondent, hosts "The Krypto Report." Notably, Ray and Will Zachary Smith, a Daily Stormer accomplice, are both fugitives from justice in the republic of Virginia, stemming from their action in Charlottesville. Both men were indicted in June 2018 on felony charges for maliciously releasing gas on Baronial 11, 2017, the nighttime of the torch march.
Two years after hundreds of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, that weekend's terrible events continue to shape and influence participants – and to reverberate beyond a nation even so coming to terms with that shocking display of violence and detest.
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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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