On November 25th, 2022, Tennessee anti-fascists received advance warning from a local community member in Maryville, Tennessee that neo-Nazis were threatening to attack patrons at their charity LGBTQ+ event. This community member put out the request for aid. Many answered the call, both locals and neighbors, and armed community defense protected the event. The neo-Nazis failed definitively in their objective. We are hosting these photos as a service to Tennessee anti-fascists. We encourage other individuals and organizations to share and repost these images widely and freely to identify all neo-Nazis present. A text write-up of the event by an attending anti-fascist can be found at ItsGoingDown.org.
Sean Kauffmann of the white supremacist “Tennessee Active Club”Gallery of small number of neo-Nazis (local police also pictured in background) taken in Maryville, TN on 11/25/2o22
Around 5PM on Saturday June 25th, a group of almost twenty Proud Boys came into downtown Atlanta, looking to harass pro-choice protesters. We covered the excursion on a Twitter thread here, helping amplify many sources who were on the ground. Most of the Proud Boys wore plates and custom branded insignia, and their convoy consisted of three pickup trucks plus a repurposed armored truck. Despite their obvious intent to intimidate Atlantans with this show of force, the Proud Boy convoy met with immediate concerted resistance and was prevented from harassing protesters by local armed community defense.
The Proud Boys attempted to conceal their identities by wearing gaiter masks and obscuring their plates. This tactic has worked well for them in the past, since they typically have friendly relations with the police. However, it did not entirely succeed this time, and they received traffic citations for attempting to obscure their plates.
The neo-fascist Proud Boys have had little to no public presence in metro Atlanta for several years. Their organization statewide in Georgia focused on social events and quiet networking. Many recruits would pass through the Proud Boys only temporarily, with some members eventually moving toward more openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi politics. However, judging by the ridiculous insignia on their vanity truck, the Georgia chapter has been reconstituted as of 2021. We are working on further identification and will have more to publish soon. In the meantime, we are posting this gallery of media for the public to examine. If you have any tips, contact us. Email is the most secure method, and as always, we guard the confidentiality and anonymity of our sources.
Video of departing convoyPolice Scanner audio discussing traffic citationsEdited to add another submitted photoset
Summary: Christopher Mark Head of Locust Grove, Georgia, promotes and helps organize for local versions of the July 24 anti-vaxxer “Worldwide Rally for Freedom”. He also disseminates anti-vax propaganda under the “White Rose” name in Metro Atlanta. Online, Head networks with Nazis and helps radicalize anti-vaxxers into extreme forms of antisemitism and racism. Head travels around Metro Atlanta as a Turf Masters employee, leaving far-Right propaganda in the communities he visits. We assess the threat level of Head’s network to marginalized communities and conclude with a call for additional monitoring of the intersection between anti-vaccination, antisemitism, and white supremacy.
Picture shared to “White Rose North GA” telegram channel.
Introduction
When far-Right movements lack a strong figurehead and common target, they infight. The electoral defeat of Trump and the slow-motion implosion of the QAnon conspiracy theory have brought a period of infighting, but also of recomposition. New figures step into the disarray, attempting to bring order and to “unite the right”. One of these figures is Christopher Mark Head from Locust Grove, Georgia. Through his work with the “White Rose North GA” anti-mask/anti-vaccination group, Head builds alliances with everyone from explicit neo-Nazis to more mainstream anti-vaxxers.
Head’s political agenda goes far beyond anti-vaccination campaigns and COVID-19 conspiracies. His aim is to politically impose his version of Christian Fundamentalism, and to purge society of alleged “anti-Christ” influence—he is, in other words, a Christofascist. Although Chris Head occasionally criticizes Nazism, he also considers neo-Nazis as allies against his greater enemies.
This year, Head has been increasingly involved in on-the-ground activism and placing propaganda stickers across Metro Atlanta. In recent weeks, Head has also been planning and promoting anti-mask/anti-vaccination rallies in our state. These rallies are scheduled for Saturday, July 24. Head is one of the most active participants in the “Worldwide Georgia” channel on Telegram for the anti-vaxxer rallies. Through his efforts for the July 24 mobilization, Head hopes to meet allies and draw them closer to his far-Right politics. With the publication of this article, “Sir Christopher”/Chris Head will at least no longer have the cover of anonymity.
The Georgia III% Martyrs have recently allied themselves with Chester Doles, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi of long standing. Since last year, Doles has pretended to have left the white power movement, although his social media shows that Doles is still highly networked with Klansmen and neo-Nazis, and that he regularly promotes racist websites and themes. There was conflict between the two parties as recently as last year, when the Martyrs ejected Doles from the Marjorie Taylor Greene campaign event in Ringgold, but their differences have been set aside.
We are exposing known members of the Georgia III% Martyrs in order to warn their communities. The members of this militia are volatile and happy to ally with white nationalists.
LEADER
Names: Justin Bowen Thayer, Justin Thayer, Justin “Slayer” Thayer Born: 1987 Location: Bremen, Georgia Employment: Starr Services Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thayer7420 (removed) Known arrests: March 2019 domestic violence arrest (media link), November 2019, DUI (police record), April 2020, DUI: (court case)
Yesterday’s series of deadly shootings in metro Atlanta ended with eight dead and more injured. The killer targeted Asian spas, and six of the victims were Asian women. The mass shootings will have far-reaching effects and cause traumatic aftershocks on a national level.
Today, news is surfacing that the mass shooter may have been a customer at spas he targeted or similar businesses. The Sheriff for Cherokee County – where half of the people were murdered – echoed the murderer’s claim that racism did not motivate his murders of mostly Asian women. A Sheriff’s Office spokesman explained that the murderer was having a “really bad day” and referred to an alleged sexual addiction.
Our group is dedicated to tracking fascist, far-Right, and white supremacist hate. The murderer was not on our organization’s radar. While much remains unknown, there may be relevant distinctions to be made between yesterday’s slaughter and the violence of ideological white supremacists, for example by members of accelerationist neo-Nazi groups. As members of the metro Atlanta community, as feminists and as anti-racists, we wholly reject attempts to depoliticize yesterday’s murders. To act in meaningful solidarity, we must understand that these outrages took place at the meeting point of several structural oppressions.
The murders potentially involve at least four types of hatred. We discuss each in turn and then offer suggestions for countering each type.
Hatred against Asians: in this moment specifically against East and Southeast Asians, which has been whipped up during the last year by conservative and conspiracy theorists during the COVID-19 pandemic. This hatred has been transmitted from the highest political levels down through references to the “China Virus” but was already present in our society, building on more than a century of dehumanization of Asians during times of war. The murderer may or may not have consciously viewed himself as targeting Asian people as Asians, but there is little doubt that growing anti-Asian racism provided a backdrop for his actions. Ideological racists will seize on this moment to further target and heighten the suffering of Asian communities – as is already happening online.
Hatred against immigrants of color: again, whipped up by politicians and media figures. This builds together with anti-Asian racism, as all Asians are assumed to be immigrants. Racists often employ positive stereotypes of Asians to use them as a weapon against other groups, especially Black people. Yet when Asian communities are portrayed as part of an immigrant mass that is an alleged threat to white people, these communities are targeted for racial hatred and violence.
Hatred of women: the misogynist nature of mass shootings mostly targeting women should be clear. Misogyny is also a powerhouse of modern white supremacy. Not only do women-hating movements such as inceldom, “Men’s Rights Activism”, and GamerGate provide pathways for white supremacist radicalization, but mass murders targeting women are often celebrated within white-supremacist culture. Misogyny inflects racism at almost every point. The majority of anti-Asian attacks linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have targeted Asian women.
Hatred of sex workers: This is strongly connected to misogyny and is often shaped by racism. Sex workers are especially targeted because prejudice from the wider society makes them more vulnerable. Sex workers are often blamed for their own victimization and targeted by law enforcement as much as by predators. Whether or not all victims of the spa shootings were sex workers, they are likely to be perceived as such by the public.
Media coverage in the weeks to come will focus heavily on the murderer and his motivations. We would like to encourage people to instead focus on the victims and wider affected communities. Here are our suggestions:
Support grassroots Asian-American community organizations and anti-hate campaigns
Support immigrant organizations, initiatives against ICE, and anti-racist education
Support feminist activism and create interventions in the misogyny recruitment pipeline
Support sex worker peer organizations and fight the dehumanization and criminalization of sex workers.
We also ask our readers to actively fight disinformation, whether from racists, conspiracy theorists, far-Right organizers, or other sources. If you hear someone circulating conspiracy theories, speak out. Report or flag pages spreading disinformation or targeting metro Atlanta communities. If that is not enough, pressure social media companies to act.
We hope to boost fundraisers for the affected victims and their families if these become available. We will relay information on our social media. Keep in mind that some people may become victimized twice, once by the murderer and again by law enforcement. If any immigration cases rise during the investigation, the public needs to loudly demand immunity for the victims.
Here are several local and national organizations to support:
• Red Canary Song (a grassroots collective of Asian & migrant sex workers): redcanarysong.net • The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF): napawf.org • Asian-Americans Advancing Justice: advancingjustice-atlanta.org • The Center for Pan-Asian Community Services: cpacs.org
