In May 2019, the white supremacist and fascist organization Patriot Front placed propaganda around Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta. Patriot Front splintered and rebranded from another racist organization, Vanguard America, in the aftermath of the disastrous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, August 2017. We have now seen a few cycles of Patriot Front activity in Georgia. In late 2017 and early 2018, Patriot Front militants targeted several neighborhoods with propaganda, before our organization exposed their main organizer, coincidentally also in Lawrenceville. Patriot Front activity near Atlanta dropped off sharply after our 2018 exposé, so it was a surprise to see Patriot Front stickers appearing in Lawrenceville again the following year. [1]
While another Patriot Front member may have been involved, we have determined that Christopher Skylar Brooks helped place the white supremacist organization’s materials around Lawrenceville last May. Interestingly, while he assisted the white supremacist Patriot Front, Brooks was also involved with the Proud Boys, a “Western Chauvinist” far-Right group which claims to reject white supremacy and involves some reactionary people of color.
Brooks’ online bragging allowed us to identify him as helping with the Patriot Front propaganda in Lawrenceville. After Patriot Front hit Lawrenceville with stickers, anti-racists removed them and left some antifascist materials in their place. Not long after, a new Twitter account with the name “Nash Shunulitz” replied to the Atlanta Antifascists profile, posting images of an antifascist sticker being torn down in Lawrenceville, and a Patriot Front sticker being posted yet again. Patriot Front provides stickers only to those who have signed up with the organization, and so “Nash Shunulitz” must have joined the white supremacist group, or at least have been gifted a few stickers by a member. Since “Nash Shunulitz” was following up on a larger Patriot Front propaganda run, it is likely he participated in the initial activity too.
A simple internet search shows only one other social media profile under the name “Nash Shunulitz” – a Facebook account established in August by Christopher Skylar Brooks, who is visible in photos on the Facebook profile. The “Nash Shunulitz” Facebook has shared content that also appeared on Chris Brook’s personal account under his own name.
Before his recent move overseas, a listed address for Brooks was in Lawrenceville. Brooks’ family home is also in Grayson, Georgia, just ten minutes away. The photos provided by “Nash Shunulitz” on Twitter cinch the identification. One photo shows a pair of tan pants of the sort favored by Brooks. While “Nash Shunulitz” attempted to obscure this, another Twitter photo shows a metal ring on the right index finger, exactly as worn by Chris Brooks.
From picture posted by “Nash Shunulitz” 
Chris Brooks with ring on right index finger.
The Facebook profile maintained by Chris Brooks under his own name predates his alternative Facebook account as “Nash Shunulitz”. Brooks’ profile shows that in May 2019, he was posting Alt-Right propaganda, including an image which used the triple parentheses symbol to suggest a Jewish conspiracy. This online activity fits the profile of someone ripe for Patriot Front recruitment.
Although Brooks distributed Patriot Front propaganda in Lawrenceville, he may not have stuck with the organization for long. The “Nash Shunulitz” Twitter profile included the words: “Life. Liberty. Survival.” which misstates the Patriot Front slogan of “Life, Liberty, Victory!” This error suggests that Brooks was still learning the ropes in the organization. A lack of further Patriot Front propaganda around Lawrenceville last year also suggests that Brooks may not have lasted long, since Patriot Front members are under constant pressure to spread propaganda.
Brooks has stayed longer within the Proud Boys. He is found in our records from the “Proud Boys Atlanta” Facebook group, dating to March 2017. Brooks was photographed with other Proud Boy members as late as December last year, and his social media is a who’s who of the organization in our state and beyond. Notably, Brooks is friends on social media with Gregory Glenn Joiner of Warner Robins. Joiner is another Proud Boy in Georgia who signed up with a white nationalist organization. In Gregory Joiner’s case, his name appears in leaked logs from the racist group Identity Evropa (now rebranded as the “American Identity Movement”).
In recent months, Chris Brooks moved to Shanghai, China. One image posted by Brooks as “Nash Shunulitz” shows a figure dressed a Pepe costume, moving between the mob scene from the “Unite the Right” torchlit march, to what appears to be a Shanghai cityscape. Superimposed on the Charlottesville mob is the logo of Identity Evropa, though it is unclear whether Brooks was a formal member of that organization. On LinkedIn, Brooks now lists himself as the Chief Operating Officer for “Shanghai Beverly Business Consulting, Ltd”, a company that “facilitates relationships with suppliers”. On Facebook, Brooks stated that he had been “keeping myself in misery” in Georgia with attempts to “change or save the world”, and that he was happier in Shanghai. An accompanying video shows Brooks tutoring a child, suggesting another job.
Despite Brooks’ change of environment and attitude, there is no sign that he has fully abandoned far-Right politics. Brooks remains in contact with most of the main figures of the Proud Boys in Georgia via Facebook. Brooks also stays connected with “Paxton Rangerstein”, an antisemitic and explicitly fascist account. Brooks displays casual anti-Asian racism, casting himself as an expatriate lord whose whiteness grants him a privileged status over the Asian population.
We are drawing attention to Brooks for a couple of reasons. First, when racists target communities with white supremacist propaganda, we will always do our best to expose them. Second, Chris Brooks is another example of a Proud Boy who further radicalized himself while in the organization. Brooks’ white power affiliations were seemingly not an issue for the Proud Boys, despite that organization’s pose to have nothing to do with white supremacy. While the Proud Boys are nominally “Western Chauvinist” instead of white supremacist, their organization is adjacent to organized white nationalism, facilitates racist radicalization, and welcomes clear white supremacists within its ranks. We believe it is important to document the porous boundaries between “Alt-lite” groups such as the Proud Boys, and explicitly white nationalist and fascist groups.
If you have further information on Patriot Front or other far-Right activity in our state, please get in contact.
Note
[1] Patriot Front was also active in Columbus, Georgia, last year, where they eventually targeted synagogues. This year, there have been new rounds of Patriot Front propaganda in Atlanta and other parts of Georgia. Please get in contact if you have information on this other Patriot Front activity.