A Former Neo-Nazi on What Hate Groups See in Guns

Arno Michaelis was 16 and furious at the world when he joined America’s white power movement in 1987. At the time, he was deeply involved in the punk scene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which included a strain of skinhead culture that celebrated racism and swastikas.

Michaelis became the lead singer of a hate-metal band called Centurion, a seminal group among neo-Nazi music fans that has sold tens of thousands of albums. His lyrics advocated for racial holy war, as did the local gang he started, the Northern Hammerskins. The gang later became part of Hammerskin Nation, an international hate organization with branches in France, the Netherlands, and Australia. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Hammerskin Nation is now considered “the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States.”
 
For years, Michaelis’s belief in racial holy war was total. The movement’s doctrines were spelled out in a canned narrative: Through attempts to integrate minorities into society, Jews were responsible for an ongoing effort to exterminate the white race. Minorities were seen as savages, and whites who did not take up arms were seen as “race traitors.” Waging a holy race war meant attacking anyone who was helping to perpetrate genocide against the white race, beating unwitting strangers or even killing them. In 1991, Hammerksins in Arlington, Texas murdered a 32-year-old black man in a drive-by shooting while he sat on the back of a pickup truck outside his home.

Michaelis, now 44, left the movement in the mid-1990s, after two of his close friends were shot and killed in gang fights. He went on to become a peace activist and is a director at Serve2Unite, an organization that teaches children about the importance of diversity.

A Former Neo-Nazi on What Hate Groups See in Guns

LEON | Indiegogo

This past December I highlighted a piece about Nicky Crane. For those of us in the US Nicky is a bit obscure, in the 80s Nicky was a far-right Neo-Nazi with a very dangerous secret. At the time of his death in 1993 from AIDS his "secret" was out.

In a July 27, 1992 Channel 4 documentary, Nicky Crane admitted to what had only been hinted at and ignored:

He told the interviewer how he'd known he was gay back in his early BM days. He described how his worship of Hitler had given way to unease about the far right's homophobia.

He had started to feel like a hypocrite because the Nazi movement was so anti-gay, he said. "So I just, like, couldn't stay in it." Crane said he was "ashamed" of his political past and insisted he had changed.

"The views I've got now is, I believe in individualism and I don't care if anyone's black, Jewish or anything," he added. "I either like or dislike a person as an individual, not what their colour is or anything."

The revelation attracted considerable press attention. The Sun ran a story with the headline "NAZI NICK IS A PANZI". Below it described the "Weird secret he kept from gay-bashers".

Crane reiterated that he had abandoned Nazi ideology. "It is all in the past," he told the paper. "I've made a dramatic change in my life."

So why I am returning to Nicky Crane's story?

It has come to my attention that there is a film in the works based largely on Crane's life and the culture or sub-culture he was involved in for most of his short life. It is an important story even for those of us living in the US as we have seen the re-emergence of Neo-Nazi like thought and in some cases calls-for-action masked behind cries of religious liberty.

LEON | Indiegogo

BBC News - Nicky Crane: The secret double life of a gay neo-Nazi

An interesting look at the Skinhead movement in the UK during the 80s and 90s focusing on some of its history and the rise of Nicky Crane and ending with decision to leave the movement. Crane eventually died from AIDS in 1993.

He was the British extreme right's most feared streetfighter. But almost right up to his death 20 years ago, Nicky Crane led a precarious dual existence - until it fell dramatically apart.

The skinhead gang marched in military formation down the High Street clutching iron bars, knives, staves, pickaxe handles and clubs.

There were at least 100 of them. They had spent two days planning their attack. The date was 28 March 1980.

Soon they reached their target - a queue of mostly black filmgoers outside the Odeon cinema in Woolwich, south-east London.

Then the skinheads charged.

Most of them belonged to an extreme far-right group called the British Movement (BM).

This particular "unit" had already acquired a reputation for brutal racist violence thanks to its charismatic young local organiser. Many victims had learned to fear the sight of his 6ft 2in frame, which was adorned with Nazi tattoos. His name was Nicky Crane.

But as he led the ambush, Crane was concealing a secret from his enemies and his fascist comrades alike. Crane knew he was gay, but hadn't acted on it. Not yet.
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Twelve years later, the same Nicky Crane sat in his Soho bedsit. His room looked out across London's gay village - the bars and nightclubs where he worked as a doorman, where he drank and danced.

Crane flicked through a scrapbook filled with photos and news clippings from his far-right past.

For years he had managed to keep the two worlds entirely separate. But now he wasn't going to pretend any more.

BBC News - Nicky Crane: The secret double life of a gay neo-Nazi

A skinhead's journey from racism to redemption

It is a world populated by hundreds of different groups, including several thousand skinheads in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization that tracks hate groups. The numbers are fluid: Skinhead gangs are notoriously short-lived, as members feud over leadership, create splinter groups, or join other gangs. Only a few -- such as the Hammerskins -- have managed to survive for a significant length of time.

The groups have no particular unifying code or coherent philosophy other than violence, says SPLC chief investigator Joseph Roy. There are racist skinheads with ties to outlaw motorcycle gangs. Some are explicitly revolutionary. Others belong to white supremacist groups with connections to the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups. Still others claim to be anti-racist.

"These groups are violent, and they are dangerous," says Roy. "And when people get involved it is rare and difficult for them to get out."
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People grabbed their children when Bryon Widner swaggered into a store, lowered their voices when he entered a restaurant, sidled away when he strode up to a bar.

He reveled in it -- the fear he inspired, the power. It made him feel like Superman.

He had symbols of racist violence carved into his face and the letters HATE stamped across the knuckles of his right hand -- the hand that knocked out countless victims, sometimes leaving their teeth embedded in his skin. "Blood & Honour" was tattooed across his neck, "Thug Reich" across his belly, swastikas adorned his shaved scalp. On his forehead, a thick, black, upward-pointing arrow symbolized his willingness to die for his race.

For 16 years, Widner was a glowering, strutting, menacing vessel of hate -- an "enforcer" for some of America's most notorious and violent racist skinhead groups.

Hellbent on destruction, he was living to die, though even during the bloodiest beat-downs he knew he was unlikely to lose his life as a warrior in the glorious race war promoted by the white power movement.

"It was more likely to be a bullet through the head," he says, grimly.

By the time he was 30, Widner had spent a total of four years in jail, accused of murder and other charges, though he was never convicted of a major crime. Victim intimidation, he says, took care of that.

And then he met Julie Larsen.

Like Widner, Larsen's arms and legs were covered with neo-Nazi symbols -- iron crosses, a Totenkopf skull, axes crossed into a swastika, the Nazi salute "sieg heil." She posted regularly on the Internet forum, Stormfront. Its motto: "White Pride, World Wide."

And she was active in The National Alliance, a once-powerful white supremacist organization founded by William Pierce, whose writings called for the extermination of Jews and the violent overthrow of the Federal government -- and had inspired the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that left 168 people dead.

But by her 30s, the single mother of four was questioning her racist beliefs. She grew tired of telling her children they couldn't watch certain Walt Disney movies because Hollywood was controlled by Jews, or listen to rap music, or eat Chinese or Mexican food. After struggling to put an abusive marriage to a skinhead behind her, she yearned for something simpler.

"I just wanted a normal family life," she said.

And to his great surprise, Widner discovered that was what he wanted, too.

But leaving a life of hate would not be easy when it was all that he had known. And when his past was tattooed all over his face.

PART 1::A skinhead's journey from racism to redemption

PART2::A skinhead's transformation: Part 2

See also:

Skinhead's Story of Redemption, With Help from SPLC, to be Told in MSNBC Documentary

When hate hits home (Pt 1)

The following is coming out of a Facebook conversation that started when a fellow group member shared a disconcerting incident involving a "kkk nazi skinhead at my house. His daughter and wife were here as well." [sic]

The ensuing discussion kicked off with reference to Alan Berg. A Colorado radio show host who was assassinated on June 18, 1984 by associates of the  white nationalist group, The Order (of the Silent Brotherhood) founded Robert Jay Mathews, in 1983. 

Whether Berg was killed because of his Jewish heritage or because of his outspoken views doesn't matter; Berg was contentious and liked to bait callers.  His specialty,  Berg liked to agitate right-wing extremist groups which put Berg on Mathews' hit-list.

A pivotal incident, according to witnesses, was Mr. Berg's telephone interview of two white supremacist preachers on his program on Feb. 13, 1984. The interview with Pete Peters, the pastor of the La Porte church, and Jack Mohr, a preacher and paramilitary instructor, ended in an angry outburst after Mr. Berg ridiculed his two guests and Mr. Mohr hung up.

What is interesting to note, and what makes these supremacist/neo-Nazi  type groups and militias so dangerous,  you never know when or where individuals may again rear their ugly heads. Remember this guy, Frasier Glenn Miller (and NC sheriff probing Kansas shooter’s ties to 1987 triple slaying following Raw Story reportNC sheriff probing Kansas shooter’s ties to 1987 triple slaying following Raw Story report?)  Miller is the maggot responsible for the April 13, 2014,  shootings near Kansas City which was fatal to three individuals. 

After officers arrested Frazier Glenn Cross — an Aurora, Mo., man better known as F. Glenn Miller — Sunday afternoon, authorities said he went on a rant inside the patrol car. Though Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass wouldn’t say what Cross hollered, a television crew captured him on video while he was handcuffed in the back of the car.

“Heil Hitler,” Miller yelled out, and then he bobbed his head up and down.

Miller was connected to The Order. It was his testimony in 1987 that put many members of The Order behind bars, "But Miller served only three years in prison, largely because he testified against 14 leading white supremacists in a 1988 Arkansas sedition trial. Among other things, Miller told the court that the late Order founder Robert Mathews had given him $200,000 in stolen money to finance the White Patriot Party."

(This is a work in progress,,,)

Free Speech Exercised, Tested At UK's Constitution Day | WUKY

So I was doing a bit of digging on Robert "With Jews We Lose" Ransdell and found this gem. Only issue, I'm not sure what aspect of this entire incident is the stupidest - Ransdell's racist rant or the "initial" response from UK Rural Journalism director Al Cross.

The right of free speech was tested however with the appearance of U-S Senate write-in candidate Robert Ransdell who used his allotted time to deliver a racist rant about the "Jewish-owned and controlled media," as well as to "stress the need for this nation's white majority to recognize that they have ethnic interests," before having his microphone cut off by the sound crew.

The horrified high school teachers then hustled their students to their respective buses, prompting this rejoinder from UK Rural Journalism director Al Cross.

"You've just witnessed in this hall a laboratory experiment about the extent and nature of free speech. I think most of you found the remarks of the write-in candidate deeply offensive, however in this country people do have the right to speak, even if their views are offensive. Now organizations can have their own rules about how much access they are going to give people like that but they do have a right to speak," Cross said.

And yes, there are First Amendment issues involved which I may address later on.


Free Speech Exercised, Tested At UK's Constitution Day | WUKY

A Neo-Nazi Is Running For The Kentucky Senate On The Slogan 'With Jews We Lose' - The New Civil Rights Movement

Ransdell isn’t only anti-Semitic, he’s a white supremacist. Ransdell laid out his campaign promises on the website Stormfront.org.

“The purpose of this campaign is for it to serve as a medium for pro-White/White Nationalist ideas and principles. The campaign will attempt to expose as many White people as possible to the facts regarding the Jewish role in America's decline as well as highlight the destructive effects that multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness have had on this country,” he wrote. “This campaign will not simply rest on informing people of the truth but will aim to inspire the people who are reached to work toward solutions to the problems Whites in America face today, solutions that the campaign will provide with much resolve and candor."

Ransdell’s platform is listed on The Renegade Tribune. It includes gems such as “eliminating all foreign aid to non-White third world nations,” solving the “Muslim terror threat” by ending all support to Israel and then deporting all Muslims back to the “Arab world,” and solving the immigration crisis by “adopting a shoot on sight policy.”

A Neo-Nazi Is Running For The Kentucky Senate On The Slogan 'With Jews We Lose' - The New Civil Rights Movement

Republicans Elect Skinhead In Pennsylvania; Let’s Recognize Who Supports Nazi Beliefs (VIDEO) | Addicting Info

Thhis is fricked up to no end,,, Republicans Elect Skinhead In Pennsylvania; Let’s Recognize Who Supports Nazi Beliefs (VIDEO) | Addicting Info