Morning Briefing: White Supremist Groups Spread Propaganda and Stage Protest From Connecticut to Ohio to Minnesota
Morning Briefing: White Supremist Groups Spread Propaganda and Stage Protest From Connecticut to Ohio to Minnesota
White Supremacist groups including the Aryan Freedom Network, the National Socialist Club, and White Lives Matter spread propaganda and stage protest form Connecticut to Ohio to Minnesota.
Morning Briefing: White Supremacist groups including the Aryan Freedom Network, the National Socialist Club, and White Lives Matter spread propaganda and stage protest form Connecticut to Ohio to Minnesota.
In Vernon, Connecticut, flyers claiming that they Connecticut state police are “anti-White” were reportedly found in the Dart Hill Road and Merline Road neighborhoods, and the propaganda was distributed by National Socialist Club (NSC-131), the Neo-Nazi White Supremist group based in New England.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, five communities were reportedly “peppered with fliers supporting hateful neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies,” and the propaganda was disseminated by members of the Aryan Freedom Network, the Texas-based neo-Nazi White Supremacist group.
In Tipp City, Ohio, there were reportedly “white supremacist propaganda flyers found in several neighborhoods across the city,” however, local law enforcement did not disclose any details about the propaganda.
In Wayzata, Minnesota, a group of White Supremist gathered on a pedestrian bridge over Highway 12 “displaying banners and signs with white supremacist rhetoric.” The banners included the symbols and rhetoric associated with White Lives Matter, a White Nationalist group based in Texas.
Hardy Carroll Lloyd, the self proclaimed leader of the White Supremist group Church of Ben Klassen, plead guilty to “making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.”
Updates Coming Soon: To understand how the individuals who participated in the Capitol Riot are connected to far right extremist groups and Trump Administration officials, explore the Capitol Riot Map.
Must Reads
Tess Owen and Mack Lamoureux report that Vice News “created a database of demonstrations involving members of hardline neo-Nazi groups and identified nearly two dozen such events in 2023 so far—already outpacing the number of events we logged from all of last year. Even more striking, we logged a fraction of public demonstrations by hardore Nazi groups in 2021 and 2020 compared to those in 2022. The resurgence in neo-Nazi street-level activity comes as FBI Director Chris Wray reaffirmed in congressional testimony this summer that ‘Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists’ continues to pose one of the biggest threats to national security. Wray testified that the number of domestic terror investigations—which includes individuals ascribing to neo-Nazi ideology—had hit 2,700 by the end of last year, more than double compared to the number of open cases in that category in spring 2020. This year so far, neo-Nazi appearances have been spread across 15 different states and generally involved members from relatively new groups that initially formed as loose online communities, and then metastasized into formal organizations, such as NSC-131, Aryan Freedom Network, Blood Tribe, Goyim Defense League and a national network of Active Clubs.” [Vice News]
Will Carless reports that in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), members of Congress “expressed concern that extremism has seeped into vital security agencies, notably Customs and Border Protection. They cited a recent internal DHS report questioning the department’s ability to identify extremists working inside its own walls, and they noted recent reports of Border Patrol agents allegedly cooperating with vigilante and militia groups. The letter demanded answers to more than 20 questions. They gave Mayorkas a deadline of July 31 to respond. Six weeks after that deadline, the members of Congress still haven’t received a response from DHS, USA TODAY can confirm. A DHS spokesperson declined to discuss the lack of response, or answer any questions about the department’s approach to stamping out extremism. That silence mirrors the stance of DHS’s larger, older federal sibling: the Department of Defense. Just like DHS, the military of 2021 pledged to get serious about tackling extremism shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Just like DHS, the military of 2023 won’t answer most questions about what steps it has actually taken.” [USA Today]
Chrissy Stroop writes that “since the illegitimately stacked, right-wing Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade just over a year ago, older state laws placing unfair restrictions on abortion clinics have become less meaningful. After all, ‘red’ states dominated by the radicalised Republican Party can now simply pass draconian bans outright (although smarter Republicans understand that focus on the issue harms their electoral prospects at both state and national levels). But although no longer as relevant, some of these restrictions – including allowing only doctors to administer medical (aka medication) abortions, even though physician assistants and nurse practitioners are more than qualified – are now being used as a blueprint for new legislative efforts to eliminate gender-affirming healthcare for as many transgender adults as possible. Yes, you read that correctly: adults. Ever since right-wing states began banning age-appropriate gender-affirming healthcare for minors in 2021, trans people and LGBTIQ advocates have warned that they were not motivated by any kind of sincere concern for ‘the children’ and would not stop at restrictions on minors if allowed to go further. The right paved the way for these once-unthinkable bans by first pursuing goals that were more palatable to the public, using bathroom bills and school sports bans to normalise hateful anti-trans rhetoric in the American public sphere. This tactic has been effective.” [openDemocracy]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
