Atlanta – Page 2 – Atlanta Antifascists

Statement on the Atlanta Spa Murders

Crime scene photograph of the Aromatherapy Spa — The site of one of the shootings in Buckhead

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

Martin Christopher Rojas: Professional Racist

Update: Martin Rojas’ steady stream of racist propaganda ended in June 2022, with Rojas’ sudden death in Atlanta.

“I have a vested interest in keeping blacks (and any other hostile people unlike myself) out of power, for myself and my posterity.”
Martin Rojas (as “Nathan Doyle”) explains his campaigning for Brian Kemp in Georgia, 2018

Introduction

The pseudointellectual white nationalists involved with the American Renaissance (AmRen) website often carefully hide their true identities. Even among this set, Martin Christopher Rojas stands out both for his wariness about being identified and his wordiness in support of the cause. Using seven different pen names over eight years, Rojas spread racist propaganda far and wide. Hiding under the pen name of “Chris Roberts”, Rojas has been employed by the influential “race realist” American Renaissance (AmRen) website from July 2016 to October 2017, and again from November 2019 to present. Of the four employees currently listed on the white nationalist site, “Roberts”/Rojas is the only one who has not yet been publicly identified, a situation which this report now remedies.

Rojas is responsible for over three hundred pieces on AmRen, mostly as “Chris Roberts” but also under other pseudonyms. His original writing has been featured on other far-Right, anti-immigrant, and white nationalist websites: Counter-Currents, Occidental Observer, VDare, and over a half dozen others. In total, he has published over five hundred pieces with his seven known pseudonyms. As “Linda Preston” writing for AmRen, Rojas advocated compartmentalizing personal information across different pen names to avoid being identified. Evidently, this strategy has failed. In a companion piece, “Martin Rojas’ Pen Names”, we discuss Rojas’ seven known pen names and how they trace back to him.

At the heart of Rojas’ writing is a commitment to “Identitarian” white nationalism. While Rojas may pose as a sort of intellectual while writing under his pseudonyms, his propaganda serves as a mission statement for violent action. The same narratives promoted by Rojas in his writing for AmRen and other sites have been linked to massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand and El Paso, Texas. The white nationalist movement requires ethnic cleansing to achieve its goals. The career propagandists who spread the movement’s lies are at least as dangerous as its organizers and foot soldiers.

This map tracks Martin Rojas’ networking on the far-Right. It also highlights how a densely connected network of suit-and-tie white nationalists take advantage of well-funded right-wing infrastructure. Connections represent employment, training, membership, speeches/publication, or business dealings.

Here, we discuss Rojas’ background in Minneapolis; the start of his writing; his time in Beltway conservative politics; his travels to Chile and networking with the far-Right there; and his activities in Georgia.

Martin Rojas’ Pen Names

This is a companion piece to “Martin Christopher Rojas: Professional Racist”.

We have identified seven pen names used by Martin Christopher Rojas while writing for various far-Right and racist websites since late 2012: “Gilbert Cavanaugh,” “Chris Roberts,” “Hubert Collins,” “Nathan Doyle”, “Albert Emory”, “Benjamin Villaroel” and “Linda Preston”.

Under these names, Rojas published over five hundred pieces, spread across a dozen white nationalist, anti-immigrant, and far-Right websites. Over 300 of these articles are on American Renaissance, which currently employs Rojas as “Chris Roberts”.

*Websites that have published Martin Rojas’ pseudonymous writing.*

Each of Rojas’ seven pen names can be independently linked to Rojas through biographical information, or they can be traced back to him through one pen name connecting to another. Each pen name is unmistakably part of a broader web of pseudonyms, all operated by the same person.

*2019 “How to Avoid Getting Doxxed” article by “Linda Preston”, one of Rojas’ pen names.*

Rojas has even written about “How Not to Get Doxxed”, or identified by anti-racist researchers, and advocated using different pen names to avoid detection. However, Rojas made arrogant mistakes which ensured that he would be identified.

Our main article gives an overview of Martin Rojas’ activities. Here, we discuss Rojas’ seven pen names in greater detail, and explain how we tied each of the names to him.

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.

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.

IBM Botches Investigation of White Nationalist Employee

In early April, our organization exposed metro Atlanta resident John Lee Clemmer as a member of the white nationalist organization Identity Evropa (IE) and an active racist propagandist operating under the alias “Why Tea”. Clemmer bankrolled an expensive banner action by the white power organization IE on Georgia Tech campus in late 2017. Clemmer also snuck far-Right messages into his science fiction novels and forcefully campaigned against a Black teaching assistant at the University of Georgia.

We identified “Why Tea” as John Lee Clemmer via leaked discussion logs from IE, which were published by the Unicorn Riot independent media collective. Identity Evropa has now rebranded as the “American Identity Movement” (AmIM). At the time, we did not know whether Clemmer had stuck with the white power organization after its name change, but new evidence establishes that Clemmer has remained in IE/AmIM.

With the publication of our article on Clemmer, we alerted Clemmer’s employers at International Business Machines (IBM), where he was working as a managing consultant for Cloud Identity Services. We also mailed flyers to Clemmer’s neighbors in Smyrna, Georgia, informing them of the racist propagandist in their midst. In response, Clemmer lied and insisted that he had been misidentified.

In May, we updated our article to state that “We have received multiple indications that John L. Clemmer is no longer working for IBM”. We pointedly did not write that Clemmer had been fired.

Now, Unicorn Riot has published a new set of leaked messages from AmIM, providing discussion from that group’s “Dox Support” channel. This channel was established so that members of the racist organization who had been publicly identified could discuss how best to respond. John Lee Clemmer appears in this channel as “Humanbiodiversity”: a scientific-sounding euphemism for racism. In one message, “Humanbiodiversity” discusses “when antifa sent flyers to all my neighbors” and the neighbors’ responses. Due to the timing and details of what occurred, this could only refer to the mailing of John Lee Clemmer’s neighborhood. Elsewhere, “Humanbiodiversity” clumsily switches from writing about his experience in the first person to referring to John Lee Clemmer in the third person. Since Clemmer shared his thoughts in a closed chat exclusively for AmIM members, it is clear that Clemmer stuck with the white nationalist organization IE after it rebranded as AmIM.

IDENTIFIED: Five More Members of Identity Evropa / American Identity Movement Racist Group in Georgia

Update 6/27/2019: Your Exterior Pros have removed Charles Robertson’s bio from their website. They are telling callers that Robertson is not employed there. If you have further info on Robertson or others mentioned in this piece, please get in touch.

Introduction

On March 8-10, 2019, the racist “Identitarian” organization Identity Evropa (IE) held its annual conference in Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park in Kentucky. Earlier that week, independent journalism collective Unicorn Riot leaked internal communications from IE, exposing their private conversations for public scrutiny. While IE attempts a clean-cut and respectable image, the organization helped make 2017’s violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville possible. The organization’s chat logs make their racist and antisemitic agenda unambiguously clear. On the Friday of IE’s 2019 conference, the organization’s third leader, Patrick Casey, announced that the group was now named the “American Identity Movement” (AmIM), rebranding in an attempt to lose some of the organization’s earlier stigma. On the Sunday, IE/AmIM demonstrated at the State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee: their first official action under the new name.

*American Identity Movement / Identity Evropa protests in Nashville, Tennessee, March 10, 2019*

Atlanta Antifascists have been following Identity Evropa in Georgia for years. We have consistently exposed members of this white nationalist group to their neighbors, coworkers, and classmates, both to warn the broader community and to bring some repercussions for building the racist movement. With this article, we are naming five more members of IE in our state. Most – perhaps all – are also part of the “American Identity Movement” rebranded version of the organization. Three live in or near Savannah, Georgia, while the other two are in metro Atlanta.