Atlanta Antifascists – Page 7 – Tracking and Countering the Far Right since 2016

New Year, New You: Time to Leave the White Nationalist Movement

The intended reader of this blog post entry is any fascist, white nationalist, or anyone on the edges of these movements:

2021 is here and we at Atlanta Antifascists want to give you some advice: if you want this year to be a better year than 2020 was, then you need to make a permanent break with the fascist movement. The fascist movement is not one you want to be associated with, and the consequences are often life-ruining. Even if you make it to the top of a far-Right group, you are not protected from job loss and your career being destroyed. Your organization can also fall apart leaving you alone to face the consequences.

There are, however, options to leave the white power movement. Contrary to the established mythology around “red-pilling”, people leave all the time, both publicly and privately. There are groups that can help you exit the movement, like the Free Radicals Project. Our group is not associated with the Free Radicals Project, but we see and appreciate their important work. Be aware that merely saying you are no longer a racist or fascist while still organizing and associating with your fascist pals is not acceptable. We will know if you are insincere.

Atlanta Antifascists will not go after you for your past. If it’s clear that you’ve left white nationalism behind, we’ll leave you alone. Just send us an email with an account of your time in the movement as a token of good faith/sincerity (what you’ve done, with what organizations, etc.), be ready to answer some follow-up questions, and make clear in your actions going forward that you’ve left white nationalism behind. That’s all. We can’t speak for anyone else you may have harmed, but we don’t get in the way of people trying to do better by themselves and others.

Let 2021 be a year of turning your life around. Reach out for help leaving the fascist movement if you think you need it. If you’re in our region, send us a message to let us know about your choice. We look forward to hearing from you.

Tell Brannen Law Firm: Stop Enabling Far-Right Threats, Bigotry, and Violence

Update: due to indications that Hill has been fired, we are removing workplace contact information from this post.

Since March 2015, the Brannen Law Firm in Morrow, Georgia has employed far-Right militia leader Christopher Hill as a paralegal. During this time, Hill’s III% Security Force militia led anti-Muslim campaigns, organized alongside white supremacists despite claims of being non-racist, and was linked to a bomb plot in Kansas. A III% Security Force ally committed a brutal attack during 2017’s “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most recently, Hill’s “Georgia Security Force” – our state’s wing of III% SF – assaulted unarmed anti-racist and anti-fascist counter-protesters in Atlanta, with Hill boasting about the gang attack afterward.

December 12, 2020: Chris Hill celebrates gang attack in Atlanta by his followers.

Since Hill is a highly visible public face of the militia movement and frequently makes inflammatory statements to the media, Joseph Chad Brannen’s firm must be aware of his employee’s activities. Chad Brannen nevertheless enables Hill’s far-Right organizing by keeping the militia leader employed. After half a decade of harm to communities, it is time for the Brannen Law Firm to fire Hill.

Contact the Brannen Law Firm and express your concern about how it enables violent far-Right militia organizing. We provide a sample script for calls below. Remember that if concerned about privacy, you can use *67 when calling. After the script, we provide notes on some of the violence and campaigns of intimidation linked to Hill, while he worked at the Brannen Law Firm.

Contact:

Brannen Law Firm
[removed]

Documentation: Far-Right Militias Mobilize at Georgia State Capitol, 12/12/2020 (Gallery 1 of 2)

Gallery 2 of 2 here.

On Saturday, December 12, 2020, far-Right militias rallied in Atlanta, Georgia in response to a call to “defend your homeland” issued by the Southern Patriot Council AKA veteran Eric M. Braden of Texas. Braden had previously tried to organize a “Stone Mountain Redux” event in Georgia in late September, but that event collapsed at the last minute.

The December 12 militia mobilization joined with the “Stop the Steal” rally against election results at the Georgia Capitol.

The largest and most visible bloc of militia members on December 12 were from Christopher Sheldon Hill’s III% Security Force / Georgia Security Force militia. After the rally, Hill discovered that one of his truck tires had been cut by an unknown person. Hill’s militia went searching for anti-racist/anti-fascist counter-protesters who remained downtown, in order to enact revenge on “antifa”. Hill’s men attacked an unarmed group they found. Hill later bragged about the gang assault online.

If you have further information on any of the militia members in these galleries, please get in touch. Bear in mind that journalists, onlookers, and so on may also be pictured: use common sense when evaluating.

Documentation: Far-Right Militias Mobilize at Georgia State Capitol, 12/12/2020 (Gallery 2 of 2)

Gallery 1 of 2 here.

Jerome Milburn Trent AKA “BigDog” of III% Security Force on left with camo Trump cap and black mask. David Michael Wendlandt (“BiggKuntry”) of III%SF near Trent wearing cap and US flag mask.

Update: American Patriots USA “Chaplain” Robert Timothy Dickenson and Militant White Supremacy

Update: in a statement on December 21, American Patriots USA leader Chester Doles claimed that he expelled Dickenson from the organization.

Robert Timothy Dickenson is the chaplain of north Georgia’s American Patriots USA (APUSA), an organization founded by white supremacists in 2019. Led by Chester Doles, APUSA has tried to build broader alliances on the far-Right. Dickenson attended APUSA’s founding meeting on December 14, 2019 and has remained a key participant at least up to its last major event, a “Back the Blue” fundraiser this September in Dahlonega.

*Tim Dickenson (3^rd from left) in Dahlonega, Georgia, September 12, 2020. Also pictured (L-R): Chester Doles, Michael Boggus, Jim Higginbotham* (of “Justice Mulisha”).

In an earlier article, we highlighted that Dickenson was a member of the Original Knight Riders, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan circa 2015. We noted that last year Dickenson accompanied an American Patriots USA float in Dahlonega’s Gold Rush Days parade while wearing a sweatshirt for a different Klan group, the International Keystone Knights of the KKK.

Here, we provide further documentation on APUSA’s chaplain. We have documented that APUSA’s overall leader, Chester Doles, participated in 2017’s violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia with a contingent of Hammerskin Nation gang members. Robert Tim Dickenson also took part in the bloody Virginia rally, marching alongside and later posing for photos with the League of the South, a white supremacist and Southern secessionist organization. Earlier in 2017, Dickenson was photographed at a rally by the Nationalist Front – a now-defunct coalition of white power groups – in Pikeville, Kentucky. Dickenson attended the April 2017 Kentucky event as a member of the Original Knight Riders, showing that his membership in that Klan group continued beyond 2015.

*Dickenson with League of the South members after “Unite the Right”, 2017, posing with anti-racist banner that was grabbed during clash.* Dickenson is on right holding rifle.

Our original article also discussed a racist church which we provisionally linked to Dickenson. A 2018 business filing in South Carolina confirms this earlier analysis.

“Stop the Steal” Atlanta Rallies Mobilize White Nationalists & Far-Right Fringes; Anti-Racists Protest

Originally published on ItsGoingDown.org.

Starting Wednesday 11/18/2020, the #StopTheSteal coalition of Trumpist, far-Right, and white nationalist groups began to rally at the Georgia Capitol in a last-ditch effort to stave off certification of the election results in which Trump narrowly lost Georgia. Because of heavy promotion and the presence of InfoWars, the preeminent far-Right conspiratorial outlet led by Alex Jones, the events attracted right-wingers throughout Georgia and beyond. The #StopTheSteal movement in Georgia culminated in a large event on Saturday in which there were so many right-wingers that several city blocks were shut down and cordoned off by police.

Antisemitic flyers strewn around Capitol.

Documentation: Rally Against Election Results at Georgia Capitol Features Far-Right Leaders, 11/18/2020 (Gallery 1 of 2)

For Gallery 2, see here.

On November 18, Trumpworld operative Ali Alexander held a rally at the Georgia Capitol – the first of a series of events in Atlanta against the election results and for Trump. The rally prominently featured far-Right propagandist Alex Jones and white nationalist leader Nicholas Fuentes. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio also attended.

Documentation: Rally Against Election Results at Georgia Capitol Features Far-Right Leaders, 11/18/2020 (Gallery 2 of 2)

For Gallery 1, see here.

Nephew of Tennessee Candidate for US Senate is “Patriot Front” Racist Militant in Georgia

Update, November 2020: Bill Hagerty won the Tennessee election for US Senate.

Summary: Twenty-year-old Michael Patrick Hagerty, II is a member of two racist organizations, Patriot Front and Revolt Through Tradition. This year, he placed stickers for those organizations throughout Atlanta. Hagerty even wears clothes designating himself as a “National Socialist” – in other words, a neo-Nazi. His uncle, Bill Hagerty, is a Trump loyalist campaigning as the Republican candidate in Tennessee’s US Senate race, which he will likely win. Bill Hagerty vilifies Black Lives Matter and anti-fascists. Meanwhile, his nephew works with white supremacists to build a climate of intimidation against people of color, Jewish people, Muslims, leftists and LGBTQ communities.

Introduction

Michael Patrick Hagerty, II is a twenty-year-old white nationalist who belongs to two different fascist organizations, Patriot Front (PF) and Revolt Through Tradition (RTT). Over the last year, he has covered Atlanta with stickers for these organizations, trying to give the impression that they have a strong presence in our city. Hagerty has also traveled to meet with other PF and RTT members and posed in photos as they trained together for fighting. Hagerty even wears a t-shirt identifying himself as a “National Socialist”: in other words, a neo-Nazi. One of Hagerty’s associates in Patriot Front is “John GA” (alias), who targeted synagogues in Columbus, Georgia, last year with another PF member, Chris Brooks.

Hagerty’s uncle, William F. Hagerty, is currently campaigning in Tennessee as the Republican candidate in that state’s election for the US Senate, which he will likely win. As a candidate, Bill Hagerty has repeatedly attacked Black Lives Matter and anti-fascists. He characterized Black Lives Matter as aiming to “overthrow the government and usher in Marxism” and echoed Donald Trump’s characterization of anti-fascists as “domestic terrorists”, stating that they “must be stopped”. Through his aggressive public stance against anti-racist movements, Bill Hagerty shelters and emboldens white nationalists like his nephew while they prepare for violence.

Four Years of Atlanta Antifascists

On October 1st, 2016, Atlanta Antifascists held its first group activity, exposing an ally of Aryan Nations Worldwide in his community. The Aryan Nations faction was involved in promoting a major white supremacist gathering, Hammerfest 2016, which took place at a Georgia Klan bar the same day.

“Atlanta Antifascists” had been used as a label of convenience for a few weeks earlier, but it was the success of the October 1st group action that formed us into an ongoing collective project. A blog named “Atlanta Antifascist Notes” also predated our group by slightly under a year. That blog was transformed into a platform for Atlanta Antifascists.

It’s been an eventful few years! The video we’re releasing for this occasion does not capture everything we’ve done, but it gives some sense of the struggles we’ve engaged in and the backdrop of militant protests in our city. For more details on our beliefs and efforts, please browse this site.

We’re proud of our track record of disrupting fascist and white supremacist organizing over the last four years. There is plenty more misery ahead for white nationalist organizers, so to any of them reading this: get out while you can.

As always, we welcome information on racist and far-Right organizing in our state. Reach out if you can help.