Robert Boman, the last defendant in the neo-nazi Rise Above Movement (RAM) riot case from 2017, has been found guilty in a jury trial. Sentencing won't be till August.
https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/jury-convicts-man-for-racist-rally
#RiseAboveMovement #RAM #Rundo #ActiveClub #NeoNazis #fascism #fcknzs
A self-proclaimed “tribe” of racist heathens is building a compound on a 122-acre property in Tellico Plains, eastern Tennessee. This group overlaps with Patriot Front (PF), a fascist organization with members nationwide, and the “Church of Aryanity,” a racist cult that refers to Adolf Hitler as “the Great One.” The leader of the Tennessee “tribe” is Brian Culpepper, who spent a decade in the white supremacist National Socialist Movement (NSM) and was its PR Director for several years.
In 2022, Patriot Front used the large property—mostly woodland but with cleared areas—to train its members for street demonstrations. Last year, PF members traveled to work construction on the property, including a large building intended as a combined martial arts dojo, heathen temple, and home for PF member, Ian Michael Elliott. As construction on the land progresses, the property will host increasingly large racist gatherings. At least equally dangerous, the “tribal land” will bring together far-right martial artists, aspiring street brawlers from fascist “Active Clubs,” and some of the most violent fringes of the neo-Nazi scene. It already provides a home for committed PF members. By documenting this compound and revealing its location, we hope to warn eastern Tennessee residents about the white supremacist threat in their midst.
#PatriotFront #NeoNazis #fascism #fcknzs #BrianCulpepper #ActiveClub #ThomasRousseau #TellicoPlains #Tennessee #ChurchOfAryanity #NSM #IanElliott #Odinism #WolvesOfVinland #SeanKaufmann #Rundo #KieranMorris
Soooo... "Active Club" front man Rob Rundo's plea deal says that he's on supervised release for two years, and he can't consort with his old RAM crew during that time (see points 4 and 5 below), but it says nothing about staying away from Active Clubs, Patriot Front, Hammerskins, or Nazi MMA stuff in general.
This is what we mean when we say "We protect us."
====
Upon release from imprisonment, the defendant shall be placed on supervised release for a term of two (2) years under the following terms and conditions:
1. The defendant shall comply with the rules and regulations of the United States Probation & Pretrial Services Office and Second Amended General Order 20-04.
2. During the period of community supervision, the defendant shall pay the special assessment in accordance with this judgment's orders pertaining to such payment.
3. The defendant shall cooperate in the collection of a DNA sample from the defendant.
4. The defendant shall not associate with anyone known to the defendant to be a member of the RAM organization and others known to the defendant to be participants in the RAM organization's criminal activities.
5. As directed by the Probation Officer, the defendant shall not be physically present in any area known to the defendant to be a location where members of the RAM organization meet or assemble.
6. The defendant shall possess and use only those digital devices, screen usernames, email accounts, social media accounts, messaging applications, and cloud storage accounts, as well as any passwords or passcodes for all such digital devices and accounts that have been disclosed to the Probation Officer upon commencement of supervision. Any new devices, accounts, applications, passwords, or passcodes are to be disclosed to the Probation Officer prior to the first use. A digital device is any electronic system or device that can access, view, obtain, store, or transmit digital data related to email accounts, financial accounts, and social media accounts.
7. All computers, computer-related devices, and their peripheral equipment, used by the defendant shall be subject to search, seizure and computer monitoring. This shall not apply to items used at the employment site and/or educational institution that are maintained and monitored by the employer and/or the educational institution.
8. The defendant shall comply with the rules and regulations of the Computer Monitoring Program. The defendant shall pay the cost of the Computer Monitoring Program unless defendant demonstrates an inability to pay, as determined by the Probation Officer.
9. The defendant shall submit the defendant's person, property, house, residence, vehicle, papers, computers, cell phones, other electronic communications or data storage devices or media, email accounts, social media accounts, cloud storage accounts, or other areas under the defendant’s control, to a search conducted by a United States Probation Officer or law enforcement officer. Failure to submit to a search may be grounds for revocation. The defendant shall warn any other occupants that the premises may be subject to searches pursuant to this condition. Any search pursuant to this condition will be conducted at a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner upon reasonable suspicion that the defendant has violated a condition of his supervision and that the areas to be searched contain evidence of this violation.
Case 2:18-cr-00759-JLS Document 458 Filed 12/13/24 Page 2 of 5 Page ID#:48
#Rundo #RAM #ActiveClub #MMA #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #Hammerskins #HSN
A good look at why incarcerating right-wing maniacs is, at best, an ambiguous solution.
===
From the article:
Now the architects of this subculture are heading to prison for their first, second, or third stints in custody for violent offenses. And alongside them, there are hundreds of January 6 participants on their way to or in the Bureau of Prisons system: As of August 2024, the Justice Department has charged more than 1,400 people with criminal offenses stemming from the insurrection and more than 900 defendants have pleaded guilty.
The sentencing patterns to date of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy do not inspire confidence: All have been sent to medium-security facilities, including federal prisons like Cumberland, Manchester, Coleman, and Talladega. The “Patriot Wing”—the name alleged insurrectionists in the Washington, DC, jail gave to their housing unit—is known to have fostered solidarity among January 6 defendants. So the role of correctional systems in tracking and responsibly housing extreme-right inmates is crucial.
Yet there currently is no deradicalization or intervention curriculum for federal prisoners with domestic terrorism convictions, either inside prisons or upon their release back into society. By contrast, Germany’s state governments and its domestic intelligence agency spend millions of euros annually on anti-extremism education and deradicalization efforts. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not return requests for comment.
...
“Back in the 1990s, the prison gangs didn’t really operate much outside the prison, except to support the guys inside,” says Mike German, a former FBI agent and Brennan Center fellow who infiltrated Tom Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance and other Southern California neo-Nazi gangs in the 1990s. According to German, “The prison gangs have become more political as the cops started letting them get away with clobbering anti-fascists.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/american-neo-nazi-prisons
#PIC #prison #NeoNazis #fascism #fcknzs #Rundo #AtomwaffenDivision #AWD #Atomwaffen #accelerationism #ProudBoys #OathKeepers #Jan6
Copied from @awinston at the dead bird site:
There you have it: Rob Rundo has signed a plea agreement & will admit to conspiring to violate the Anti-Riot Act w/other members of the Rise Above Movement during a spate of violence at several 2017 protests in CA
Next court appearance TBD
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25091825-rundo-plea-agreement-9-4-2024
#Rundo #ActiveClubs #NeoNazis #fcknzs #fascism #RAM #RiseAboveMovement #RightWingDeathSquad
Copied from @awinston at the dead bird site:
Bit of news in American Neo-Fascist circles: Rob Rundo, the co-founder of the Rise Above Movement & its 'Active Club' doppelgangers, is in negotiations with SoCal federal prosecutors for a possible plea deal to his 2018 anti-riot act conspiracy charges, per a 8/29 docket item
This is a solid analysis of the ways that two of the most prominent neo-fascist groups in the US organize, namely Patriot Front and the Active Club network. Specifically, it looks at the ways they have adapted to the post-Unite the Right environment and their resilience in the face of threats from law enforcement and antifascists.
If you're not familiar with how these groups organize, this would be a very good primer. And if you're already up to speed, I still think this is a good analysis of how they have weathered certain challenges and what organizing problems they still face, in light of the fact that they take very different approaches to organizing.
(I should mention that I'm not crazy about ISD's orientation toward crafting analyses that might be useful for law enforcement. Still, this is good research that's freely available online, and there's nothing to stop the rest of us from utilizing their work for our own nefarious purposes.)
From the article:
Key Findings
Failures resulting from the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which included the doxxing of protestors, substantial financial penalties, and increased scrutiny on the white nationalist movement, forced leaders and groups to shift their tactics and organizational structures.
Specific organizational models, like those used by Patriot Front and Active Clubs, have been instrumental in making groups more resilient to disruption from law enforcement and perceived enemies.
Recent arrests of key white nationalist leaders do not appear to have had a significant impact on groups’ operations, which have continued unabated and may indicate that changes at the organizational level are generating some results.
#PatriotFront #ActiveClubs #fascism #WhiteNationalism #NeoNazis #fcknzs #LeaderlessResistance #Rundo #ThomasRousseau
It's worth noting the court's reasoning here. In overturning the prior dismissal of the case, they challenged Judge Carney's comparison of the neo-nazi defendants with antifascist arrestees on three grounds:
1. The nazis were serial perpetrators who went to multiple rallies and assaulted people, whereas the antifascists who had been arrested at a rally weren't and didn't.
2. The nazis "behaved like leaders of an organized crime group" insofar as they "coordinated combat training sessions; created materials to recruit others; and planned cross-country travel to commit their acts."
3. Prosecutors simply had a much stronger case against the nazis, given their prior assault convictions and the fact that they bragged about it online, handing prosecutors useful evidence.
I'd like to think that the second point might establish a precedent applicable to basically the entire Active Club network and possibly others, but the reality is that it's at least as likely to be applied to groups like JBGC or any activists who do actual self-defense classes together.
The third one really should be an object lesson to all of us. As the lawyers say: Shut The Fuck Up. Don't talk about what you did or didn't do and sure as hell don't brag about it. It's just not worth it.
Anyways, an interesting turn. And Judge Carney has just recently (semi-?)retired, so maybe Rundo will finally go to trial. (From what I hear, Boman has left that whole scene and expressed regret about it all. I have no insight into whether or not this is true or, if so, whether or not he's sincere. In either case, regret isn't, unto itself, a literal or metaphorical Get Out of Jail Free card. Still, an ex-nazi is better than an active nazi, and I'd rather he make a sincere effort and get the support he needs in getting out of that scene. We'll see...)
===
From the article:
For the second time, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reinstated an indictment against a pair of Southern California white supremacists, overruling a federal judge who said the men were singled out for selective prosecution.
The appellate panel rejected the conclusion of Senior U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, who said federal prosecutors went after the two members of the white-supremacist Rise Above Movement while ignoring similar violence by members of far-left groups. The pair was accused of chasing down and violently attacking counter protesters at Make America Great Again rallies.
By looking broadly at the collective conduct of groups like antifa and weighing it against the individual conduct of the two defendants, Robert Rundo and Robert Boman, Carney was comparing apples to oranges, the Ninth Circuit panel said.
#Rundo #RiseAboveMovement #NeoNazis #Antifa #NinthCircuit #ActiveClub
US District Judge Cormac Carney has approved bail for neo-nazi fight club impresario Rob Rundo on the ground that fascists can't get a fair shake in the legal system, whereas antifascists don't get the same harsh treatment.
This is the same Judge Carney who tossed the charges against Rundo back in February for the same reason.
For background, Rundo is a co-founder of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which is the prototype on which today's "Active Clubs" are based. Active clubs are a decentralized network of neo-nazi fight clubs conceived and promoted by Rundo.
The thing is, he mostly got the active club project off the ground while he was a fugitive in (mostly) Eastern Europe. He was indicted in 2018 for conspiracy to riot due to RAM's engagement in altercations with antifascists at a Trump rally in California in 2017. Rundo bolted and was finally arrested in Romania last year with a couple of fake passports in his possession and extradited to the US last summer. Also noteworthy: that was the second time he fled the country to escape an indictment.
Does any of this sound like someone who is "not a flight risk"?
At any rate, Carney is clearly out to right the wrong of excessive prosecution of violent Nazis. In his opinion granting bail, he laid into both prosecutors and antifa. He writes:
“An objective review of the evidence reveals that though Mr. Rundo espouses a hateful ideology, he and his co-defendants were not the true threat to democracy at rallies. Contrary to the government’s accusations, it was Antifa, a far-left extremist group, that posed the insidious threat to democracy.”
Carney explicitly recognizes Rundo's history of fleeing, writing:
“In fairness to Mr. Rundo, during many of these periods he was technically free to travel. Still Mr. Rundo’s use of fake documents and other deceptive tactics while attempting to travel internationally demonstrate that, in practical terms, he was trying to evade prosecution and is willing to leave the country to maintain his freedom.”
He also doesn't see any much likelihood that Rundo poses any danger to the community. He writes:
"Because there are reasonable conditions that can reasonably assure the safety of the community and Mr. Rundo’s appearance as required, Mr. Rundo is entitled to bail."
and
“Because the allegations of Mr. Rundo’s violence are limited to a particular context, release conditions, such as prohibiting Mr. Rundo from attending any political rally or associating with any member of any white nationalist organization, are well suited to addressing any potential danger to the community.”
Anyways, it's a good thing there are brave judges out there willing to make sure that Nazis get treated fairly. Democracy would be totally screwed if they couldn't just run around beating people.
Article on Active Club Scotland
From the article:
A core component of the Active Club worldview is a narrative of white victimhood and attack from political opponents. These stories help motivate recruits, direct anger and empower members by making them feel like they are taking action. It also justifies violence in return. Messages by ACS make it clear that the capacity for violence is a central element of its organising. In June 2023, Scott Conner challenged members of Proud Boys Scotland on Telegram to a fight and said they would “learn the difference between an active club and a drinking club”.
Members of ACS have a history of making violent threats as well as practising martial arts, as have many others in the Active Club network internationally. The Rise Above Movement described itself as the “premier MMA club of the Alt-Right” and the Active Club network has internationally organised MMA tournaments. However, their violence is not limited to the ring. Rundo was convicted for assaulting a police officer at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, an event at which the anti-fascist protester Heather Heyer was murdered. Rundo also has a conviction for travelling to political rallies to incite violence in 2018.
#ActiveClubs #Rundo #Scotland #HopeNotHate #MMA #fcknzs #PatrioticAlternative #RAM
A close look at a Canadian neo-Nazi, highlighting the international network he's a connected to.
From the article:
Vriend made a name for himself within Diagolon creating memes, viral fake headlines, and eventually hosting an after-show to Diagolon concept creator Jeremy MacKenzie. When moving across the country, Vriend chose to sell most of his personal belongings and drive, during which he met and connected with various local pockets of the community.
Holocaust denial, racist statements about Arab and Muslim people, an inevitable violent uprising, and conspiracy theories around Jewish plots of global control have been typical within Diagolon for years. The more recent shift towards outright white supremacy has seen Vriend making appearances as a guest on other programs linked to international neo-Nazi organizations.
#AlexVriend #PatriotFront #ActiveClubs #Rundo #NeoNazis #fcknzs #Canada
https://www.antihate.ca/diagolon_live_streamer_making_inroads_with_international_neo_nazis
Oof... Sorry for linking to the dead bird, but it's the only place I know of where this stuff has been published: Nazi cockwad Rob Rundo apparently had a forged Croatian ID on him when he was arrested in Romania last year, and the Bulgarian government says he also had a forged US passport. Sorry, buddy, but that's a pretty serious felony charge right there.
The only catch is that it's unclear whether or not the feds actually have the physical passport (I suspect not) and if photographic evidence provided by the Bulgarian government is sufficient to make a case out of that.
https://twitter.com/awinston/status/1765479545241571720?
Here's the federal statute, as far as I can tell, on the production and use of fake US passports:
CPAC attendees this year included Greg Conte and Ryan Sanchez. Who are these people? Well...
Greg Conte used to be Richard Spencer's right-hand man and, if I remember correctly, was maybe even his personal security organizer for a minute. The two had a falling out in 2018 as Spencer's arc was going into a sharp decline (something something rats something sinking ship). But Conte was very much at the heart of Spencer's circuit in 2017, when they both attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA.
Two years later, Conte became a founding member of the overtly neo-nazi "National Justice Party". Conte flamed out of that as well about a year ago, burning every bridge behind him. But not because he's turned over a new leaf. No, it was just some interpersonal and/or money drama, which is the way things go with nazis an awful lot of the time. I honestly don't even remember the specifics, just that it seemed so cookie-cutter at the time. Still, that seems to have been something of a tipping point for NJP, as they had a whole series of high-end defections over the course of last year and by now they have ceased to exist. So maybe Greggy unintentionally did something good for once in his life.
Anyways, according to the article, Conte went to a Young Republicans mixer at CPAC as part of a self-identified crew of neo-nazis who "mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed so-called 'race science' and antisemitic conspiracy theories."
Sanchez was apparently part of his cohort. He's a former member of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which is Rob Rundo's old crew and effectively a kind of precursor to today's Active Clubs and "white nationalism 3.0" framework. Sanchez doesn't seem to have attended United the Right with his RAM colleagues (he quit the group for unknown reasons about a month later), but he hasn't stopped being a giant shithead and has apparently been in Groyper circuits for several years.
At any rate, CPAC has been an increasingly friendly place for these kinds of people for years, but the pretense seems to have largely gone away at this point. Sanchez was a credentialed attendee (it's unclear from the article whether Conte was, though I suspect that he wasn't, as they didn't comment on it). These people are known entities, and both organizers and attendees of any conference are responsible for keeping nazis out. CPAC is well past the point where they can claim this kind of thing is just "a few bad apples". It's part of their deal, and it's been part of their deal for a while.
#Rundo is back in custody 🥳
Looks like Rob Rundo had about 24 hours on the loose before he was taken back into custody.
From the article:
Robert Rundo, the alleged leader of the white supremacist 'Rise Above Movement,' was released from prison in Orange County Wednesday, before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued their temporary stay. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California confirmed Thursday night that Rundo had been taken into custody.
#Rundo #RAM #fcknzs
"In his decision, [judge] Carney granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, agreeing that #Rundo and Boman were being selectively prosecuted, while “far-left extremist groups, such as Antifa” were not."
Wait, WHAT???
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-21/judge-again-dismisses-charges-against-members-of-california-white-nationalist-group
#RobRundo
@antifaticker
Detailed rundown of a leading Canadian and international neo-Nazi organizer and his far flung network
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Nippak is a 25-year-old Ontario man who, for years now, has dedicated his life to spreading hatred; he was a founding member of the Canadian offshoot of Atomwaffen, a group that has been connected to five murders and is designated a terrorist organization in Canada. What's more, Nippak isn't just a key player in building the Active Club scene in Canada—he’s helped the group spread overseas as well.
VICE News was able to identify Nippak as a key leader in the Active Club scene and a founding member of Canada’s Atomwaffen cell through interviews with sources in the neo-Nazi community, law enforcement, and researchers, and online posts sources say Nippak wrote. One person familiar with Nippak’s white-supremacist organizing told VICE News he’s obsessed with spreading neo-Nazism.
“This is his life,” this person, who was granted anonymity because of fear of safety, says.”It’s all he does.”
#fcknzs #canada #ActiveClub #estonia #AtomWaffen #Rundo #TheBase #Hammerskins #BloodAndHonour
Today, the German government banned the Hammerskins nationwide, along with support group Crew 38.
The homes of 28 alleged leaders were searched in raids today, resulting in the seizure of Hammerskins property. The group has been active in Germany for decades, though this article says they mostly organize concerts and sell CDs there (quite different from the Hammerskins in the US). They also started the annual "Kampf der Nibelungen" MMA competitions, which were officially banned in 2019, but have continued under different names since then. Among other international participants, members of the California-based Nazi fight club Rise Above Movement (RAM) have participated in Kampf der Nibelungen events.
https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/ndr-wdr/hammerskins-100.html
#hammerskins #germany #fcknzs #kampfdernibelungen #ram #rundo #riseabovemovement #crew38
From what I’m told, almost all of those “Active Clubs” that have just been “spontaneously” cropping up around the US are essentially fronts for either the Hammerskins or Patriot Front, which use them for recruiting purposes. This image (posted by @FashFreeNW on the ex-birdsite) isn’t, by itself, slam-dunk proof of that, but it does at least show a connection between the Southern California AC and the Hammerskins – and, I’m told, it annoys the shit out of them when people point it out.
I think the important point here isn't that Nazi fight club assholes are 'roided up (no surprise) or that they believe that sacred testosterone makes a person more of a man, and therefore better, no matter how it is acquired (describing men they don't like as "low T" has been a way of feminizing them and, therefore, reducing their worth for years).
The real takeaway, in my opinion, is that one of this asshole's fellow Nazis gave him a box of merch to carry across state lines, and didn't tell him that it contained "a Schedule III controlled substance in Idaho, meaning that bringing the drugs across state lines can result in five years in prison." Yeah, his Aryan brother just used him as a mule without telling him and risked fucking up his entire life in the process. That's gotta sting a little, no?
This kind of thing is why reactionaries are so often defined by their shocking lack of empathy. Buying into narratives of power and domination effectively requires that they give up whatever sense of compassion they might have had for other people. They can kid themselves that their "race consciousness" binds them together, but that often doesn't work out so well when things get rough.
Which explains something else about these people: no one hates a Nazi like other Nazis. The eternal quest for power does not make for a strong sense of solidarity. It is, arguably, our greatest advantage over them.
#nazis #fcknzs #drugs #steroids #activeclub #rundo #crime #evergreen #idaho
