Livers and Laughing Stocks: American Neo-Nazis in August

August was a cruel month for America’s neo-Nazis.

We begin with the arm-banded anti-Semites of the National Socialist Movement. If you aren’t familiar with the NSM, think of the uniformed Nazis of the Skokie scene in The Blues Brothers. Like George Lincoln Rockwell’s old American Nazi Party, the NSM loves to dress up and go on parade. Known within the global movement as America’s “Hollywood Nazis,” their campy obsession with costumes and titles is part Degrassi Junior High drama class, part adolescent fantasy inspired by too many viewings of Nazi sexploitation flicks like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS.

The group made headlines last month for holding their national meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina. Greensboro is about as loaded a place as you can find in the history of neo-Nazism in America. In 1979, the city ran with blood during a confrontation between protesters and an alliance of American Nazi Party/KKK members that resulted in the death of five anti-fascist labor organizers. (Ten others were wounded). This time around, the only violence inflicted was on the cars of two NSM activists. The first incident occurred downtown, when a small NSM caravan cruised past 200 protesters. Writes a local correspondent for Infoshop News:

Halfway through the rally a three-car caravan of Nazis thought it would be fun to drive by the rally and greet us with a Nazi salute. A 50-person chase ensued, resulting in [a] back window being kicked out and glass bottles being thrown at both the car and its passengers, creating a very unpleasant situation for Nazis dumb enough to show up on the streets of Greensboro. Two out of three vehicles made it through the traffic light leaving their friends behind to suffer the consequences. The Nazis, frightened and insecure, called on the police. The rally continued and a large group of antifascists stayed downtown into the night, successfully keeping Greensboro safe and quiet.

The weekend ended with a Mack truck decorated with NSM decals being vandalized in the parking lot of La Quinta Inn. All windows were smashed out. Success all around in keeping the streets Nazi-free, containing the NSM in a small space hiding behind the police, and witnessing Greensboro rally together against fascism in all its forms.

The humiliation in Greensboro continued after NSM activists slithered back to their computer rooms. Days after Greensboro, someone sent 600 private NSM emails to Wiki Leaks. Two years worth of dirty khakis, flapping in the breeze for the world to see. The internal emails consisted mainly of childish internecine food-fights and parental reprimands from party leadership. Typical was this exasperated plea from NSM “Commander” Jeff Schoep: “When Col. Bishop and I have to play babysitter, and talk to people about drama, it makes us, all of you, and our Party look foolish.”

Indeed it does. But not as foolish as this little scandal from 2006.

If August was a bad month for the costume-and-pomp end of the neo-Nazi spectrum, it was worse for the much grittier world of white-power prison gangs. A district court judge in Los Angeles announced in late August that area medical centers have declined a transplant request by the leader of the prison-based Aryan Warriors gang. Ronald “Joey” Sellers, imprisoned on racketeering and murder charges, suffers from late-stage liver failure caused by hepatitis. Sellers is a major figure within the Aryan Warriors hierarchy, which hands down orders for racially motivated attacks on other prisoners often resulting in serious injury and death.

Combining elements of both the above stories is the ongoing drama of the former NSM leader Bill White, current chairman of the American National Socialist Workers’ Party.

White is the most notorious tool in the Internet-based neo-Nazi subculture. For years he has been posting the home addresses of anyone who crosses him, or who makes a juicy target for the unhinged readers of his old website, the once heavily trafficked Overthrow.com.

Last year, this practice finally caught up with White. Chicago police threw him in prison on charges of encouraging violence by posting the name, address and telephone number of a Chicago jury member that helped convict a fellow white supremacist. In August, a judge dropped the charges, citing White’s “free speech.” But he didn’t walk. He was transferred to Virginia, where he stands accused of threatening a human rights lawyer, a newspaper columnist, a New Jersey mayor and several others by email, telephone or online. A bond hearing is scheduled for September 10. Whether released before trial or not, White’s lawyers plan to make the same free speech defense that worked in Chicago.

For me, White’s case is personal. I’ve been on the receiving end of his “free speech,” and I hope he gets enough hard time to write his own Mein Kampf.

Back in 2006 I worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s quarterly magazine, Intelligence Report. While there I covered White’s role in the near-implosion of the National Socialist Movement. I also wrote about his long history of causing trouble for far-right groups and inability to handle authority. White responded with an Overthrow.com article entitled, “Jew Journalist Publishes Lengthy Attack On NSM And ANSWP.” The article included my photo, name, and address. But that’s not all. He also posted the names and addresses of my parents and younger sister.

Bill White himself poses no threat. He is a sniveling little Internet geek, the neo-Nazi equivalent to a fantasy game dragon-master. At 32, he is most likely a virgin. He is flabby and a coward, on his own incapable of hurting a small, domesticated mammal. But when he posts information about his “enemies,” White is daring his readers–those bigger, bolder and stupider than he–to do something. He’s been implicitly inciting violence for years. When he gets out of prison, he’ll keep doing it. Eventually, it is going to get someone killed. The Roanoke judge who hears Bill White’s case should do the country a favor and keep him in a cage. There he can live out his fantasy and be an Aryan Princess to a heavily tattooed 250-pound Aryan Warrior.

But given White’s long history of lashing out at authority when placed in a subordinate role, the gang would be wise to knock out his teeth before they take turns fucking his face.