Update 2/7/2019: Removed photo with erroneous identification (and accompanying text.) We apologize for this error.
Summary:
Traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson Airport? Meet Delta Airline’s White Supremacist Agent
Tag: Atlanta
New Video: Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, it’s Time to Stand Against Lynching Threats and White Power Organizing
We have produced a new video about Casey Jordan Cooper, a white power leader who is studying to become a lawyer at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School (AJMLS). Cooper made explicit lynching threats against a Black activist in Atlanta and is active in the Identity Evropa racist organization. AJMLS has known about this situation for over a year and a half. Despite outcry and extensive documentation, the school refuses to take the matter seriously.
New video: tell Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School to stand against racist intimidation
In March 2017, we published an article first bringing Cooper’s racist agitation and lynching threats to the attention of AJMLS. In August of that year, we published a 500+ page dossier on Cooper’s white power efforts. We continued documenting Casey Cooper’s central involvement in the metro Atlanta white nationalist scene into 2018 and will continue for as long as he remains active. Our latest article reveals that Cooper led the “ATL-Right” umbrella grouping for white nationalists in our area and discusses the support which Cooper has received from Sam Dickson, a notorious white nationalist leader in Atlanta.
We also revealed that Cooper praised violence at the “Unite the Right” racist torchlit march in August 2017, claiming that the attacks on students, anti-racists and community members “struck fear into the hearts of our opposition”.
Please contact Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School today to express your concern.
AJMLS main number: (678) 916-2600
Dean Malcolm L. Morris: (678) 916-2603, [email protected]
Finally, click here for an email sent by Dean Malcolm Morris to AJMLS students, staff, faculty, and alumni in 2017, sent shortly after the bloody “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA. Morris reminds AJMLS students that they have taken an oath “to serve without prejudice.” He also states that “Speech and actions that harass or threaten the well-being of others will not be countenanced” and promises that any allegation of “a violation of these policies will be investigated thoroughly, and if proven true, appropriate action will be taken.”
Examine our articles and the documentation supplied above. Ask yourself whether Dean Morris’ words are consistent with a year and a half of inaction, brushing off community concerns about white power organizing and explicit death threats, even as AJMLS markets itself as welcoming ethnic diversity. The time for AJMLS to act is overdue.
Share the video on social media and within your organization. If you have more information about Casey Cooper’s white power organizing or the attitude of his for-profit law school, please get in touch.
The Racists on Ridgeland Way: Ground Zero for “Alt-Right” Organizing in Atlanta
Introduction
The house, located on a quiet, affluent street in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood of Buckhead, Atlanta, does not stand out. The comings and goings at 121 Ridgeland Way NE may not attract much neighborhood attention. However, this house is a hub for racist organizing not just for Atlanta, but for the South and arguably the country. It is owned by Sam Glasgow Dickson, a key player in the white nationalist movement. From this building, Dickson and his associates try to build the white power movement, especially its middle-class face. They also make moves in the Atlanta property market, both enriching themselves and building resources for their cause.
Our prior coverage of long-time white nationalist leader Sam Dickson includes a detailed article from last year on “Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs.” Apart from some background information and setting out Dickson’s importance within the broader white nationalist movement, we will not duplicate that earlier material here. This article has two purposes. First, we are updating our earlier coverage of Dickson and his white power associates. Second, by setting out five names associated with the Ridgeland Way property in Buckhead, we aim to provide a more complete picture of what goes on at the space, and how this activity fits within the white nationalist movement regionally and nationally. Continue reading “The Racists on Ridgeland Way: Ground Zero for “Alt-Right” Organizing in Atlanta”
Right-wing Self-help Guru Jordan Peterson in Atlanta on June 12: Our Response / Some Further Thoughts on Peterson’s “Enforced Monogamy”
Recently, we placed posters around The Tabernacle, a venue in downtown Atlanta. Our posters criticize that venue’s decision to host Jordan Peterson on Tuesday, June 12. Peterson is an academic turned self-help author and internet pundit. Peterson popularizes far-Right theories, cashing in on opposition to so-called “social justice warrior” culture. You can read and download our poster below.
With this poster, we have mostly had our say about Peterson and his followers, except for one issue.
Peterson devotees might raise angry objections when they read our poster. “How unfair!” they could say, “You didn’t even mention that Peterson wrote a clarification about his ‘enforced monogamy’ comment.”
Our view is that Peterson’s initial words were clear enough. Peterson’s clarification – he claims to simply offer “plain, bare, common-sense facts” that have been gleefully misinterpreted by his “motivated critics” – is a deflection of responsibility. The most reasonable interpretation of Peterson’s statement and his “clarification” is that women should be bullied. Continue reading “Right-wing Self-help Guru Jordan Peterson in Atlanta on June 12: Our Response / Some Further Thoughts on Peterson’s “Enforced Monogamy””
Meet Aaron Krueger of Lawrenceville, Georgia: Neo-Nazi Spreading “Patriot Front” Propaganda throughout Metro Atlanta
Summary: Since the end of 2017, the fascist/white supremacist organization Patriot Front has distributed thousands of flyers throughout Metro Atlanta and placed a significant number of stickers and posters throughout the region. Patriot Front’s mission is to rebrand neo-Nazi and white supremacist belief as American patriotism. Patriot Front formed as a splinter group from Vanguard America, after someone linked to Vanguard America murdered a protester at last year’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – a bloody event which led to a reversal of fortune for organized white nationalists in the US. Although Patriot Front’s existence has been short, the organization has been growing. Political violence is at the center of Patriot Front’s apocalyptic vision of national rebirth from the ashes of “failed” democracy. In Georgia, the heart of Patriot Front is someone who goes by the name of “Chris GA” in online Patriot Front discussion. Through conducting additional research on “Chris GA” we have identified him as Lawrenceville, Georgia resident Aaron Christopher Krueger. This identification was further verified through surveillance on Krueger’s Lawrenceville address.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Cameron Padgett: The Secret Life of the Atlanta-area Racist Who Books Richard Spencer’s Campus Visits
Update 5/1/2018: Padgett’s lawsuit against Penn State has been thrown out. Padgett has also dropped his lawsuit against University of Cincinnati.
Summary: Cameron Padgett, who books speaking events for white nationalist leader Richard Spencer on US campuses, has cultivated a media persona as a clean-cut, law-abiding student who cares deeply about free speech and advocacy for white people. In reality, the campus events organized by Padgett for Spencer show military-style coordination with white nationalist groups and predictably lead to racist violence. Contrary to his friendly media face, Padgett is an active participant in the white supremacist movement. Padgett took part in a racist torchlit rally in Charlottesville, Virginia during October – eight weeks after the “Unite the Right” rampage there – and soon after livestreamed himself harassing a working class Latinx community in Atlanta. Padgett frequently rails against the “degeneracy” of the modern age, while being careful to conceal his own history of forgery and drug charges in Chatham County, Georgia. When Padgett received a ticket while driving to the October white power rally in Charlottesville, Padgett gave the address of Safety Net Recovery, a sober living program. Drug use and addiction do not deserve contempt. We condemn Padgett’s racism, his scapegoat politics, and his hypocrisy. Continue reading “Lies, Damned Lies, and Cameron Padgett: The Secret Life of the Atlanta-area Racist Who Books Richard Spencer’s Campus Visits”
Georgia Neo-Nazi Organizer is Senior at Whitewater High School (Fayetteville, GA)
Anti-racists have discovered that Donovan Stai – currently a senior at Whitewater High School in Fayetteville, Georgia – worked throughout 2017 as state leader for Vanguard America, a self-proclaimed “fascist” organization whose website rants about “bloodthirsty negroes” and “Jewish puppet masters.” As a state leader for Vanguard America, Stai propagandized via the “Vanguard Georgia” Twitter account, he assisted with the group’s internal organization, and he participated in campaigns of coordinated harassment. Stai has signaled support for violence and even murder on behalf of his neo-Nazi cause. Given the number of murders committed by neo-Nazis and white supremacists over the last year, we believe that Stai’s embrace of racist violence should concern the community.
Vanguard America
Donovan Stai’s organization, Vanguard America, is notorious as the organization that James Alex Fields, Jr. stood with at the bloody “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. The afternoon of “Unite the Right,” Fields drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protesters, murdering Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. Vanguard America denies that Fields was a member of their organization, even though Fields stood in formation with Vanguard America members at Charlottesville that day and held a shield featuring a Vanguard America logo. Donovan Stai did not attend the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, although at least one Vanguard America member from Georgia was there. Typing from afar, Stai celebrated the white power violence in Charlottesville, encouraging attendees to “Beat their [anti-racists] shit in” and later posting an image glorifying James Field, Jr.’s murderous attack.
Vanguard America is a white nationalist and self-declared “fascist” organization formed in 2015. The organization promotes a “blood and soil” nationalism similar to the German Nazi worldview. Over the last year, Vanguard America has been increasingly explicit in its neo-Nazism, for example posting Hitler quotes and pictures of its members with Nazi flags to social media. In the aftermath of “Unite the Right,” another organization, Patriot Front, splintered from Vanguard America and pursued more “patriotic” branding.
Vanguard America operates as part of the “Nationalist Front” white power alliance, including other racist groups such as the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Worker Party, and the League of the South.
Donovan Stai’s Neo-Nazi Profiles
Donovan Stai used several different accounts for white power organizing. The first account is Stai’s personal Twitter account @hldisL which was created in March 2015. This account lasted until mid-December 2017, when Twitter removed many Vanguard America accounts. @hldisL used various names on this account, such as “Goebbels Jr” (a reference to the Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels), “See Kyle” (which sounds like “Sieg Heil” when said aloud), “Sceneablist”, and earlier in the account’s life “Donovan Hawks” and “Donovan Stai”. In the beginning @hldisL promoted anti-feminist and libertarian themes, but it became increasingly radical and racist as time passed. A backup account, @JosephRedRay / “Col. Raymond” was established in January 2017 – by that time the content was explicitly racist, antisemitic, and Alt-Right (that backup account was also suspended in 2017.)
The Twitter account for Vanguard America in Georgia — @gavanguard / “Vanguard Georgia” – was established in March 2017. (An earlier Twitter account for Vanguard Georgia was established in January 2017 — giving its location as Columbus, Georgia — but that account did not last long.) It was clear from its early days that @hldisL was responsible for the Vanguard Georgia organizational account that began in March 2017. First, a masthead image of the Vanguard America logo superimposed on a Confederate battle flag was used by both @hldisL and @gavanguard at various times. Second, @hldisL / “Goebbels Jr.” was one of the first accounts followed by @gavanguard. Finally, in March 2017 @hldisL continually retweeted the @gavanguard account, trying to increase the following for the new Vanguard Georgia account.
For a .pdf archive from Donovan Stai’s @hldisL, @JosephRedRay, and @GaVanguard accounts on Twitter, click here (or follow the link at the end of this article).
In November 2017, the Unicorn Riot journalism collective leaked logs from the “Southern Front” Discord server. Discord is a messaging system used by video gamers, which has also been adopted by more tech-savvy portions of the extreme-Right. The “Southern Front” server facilitated communication between Vanguard America members located in the US South. A user named “The Don GA” is identified in the leaked Vanguard America chats as a “SL,” which in context appears to stand for “state leader.” (In addition to being part of Vanguard America, “The Don GA” also showed up in leaked chats from the far-Right group Anti-Communist Action.) On six different occasions “The Don GA” posted URLs for posts by the @gavanguard Twitter account within the “Southern Front” Discord server. The leaked Southern Front chats cut off shortly after “Unite the Right,” at the time Patriot Front splintered off from Vanguard America.
While “The Don GA” Discord user was clearly connected to the @gavanguard Twitter account, the @gavanguard Twitter account was linked to the @hldisL personal one, and @hldisL initially used the real name “Donovan Stai,” some readers may still question that Donovan Stai was behind all these accounts. For these skeptical readers, we will point out that “The Don GA” posted an image of dogs to the “Southern Front” server, which includes a Stai family pet. “The Don GA” also commented about starting a Wisconsin chapter for Vanguard America, which corresponds with Donovan Stai having lived in Wisconsin earlier in life. (Both Donovan Stai and the @hldisL Twitter account are also Green Bay Packers fans.) Atlanta Antifascists possess a screenshot from the @hldisL Twitter account providing a birthday of February 3; this is also Donovan Stai’s birthday. A photo posted to the @hldisL account in August 2016 has its face almost entirely covered but is consistent with Stai’s appearance.
Although both Stai’s personal @hldisL twitter as well the Vanguard Georgia account were removed by Twitter in December 2017, there is no sign that Stai has distanced himself from Vanguard America or the white power movement since that time. We now examine some of Donovan Stai’s activity more closely.
Glorifying Intimidation and Murder
Chatting with his Vanguard America peers in the “Southern Front” Discord server, Donovan Stai made a series of posts laughing about and endorsing racial intimidation and murder. In a May 17, 2017, post, “The Don GA” / Stai shared an image celebrating Dylan M. Mahone, who had been arrested the month prior for vandalizing a Jewish Community Center and nearby church in Fairfax County, Virginia with graffiti including a swastika. (Mahone also placed antisemitic flyers for the “Aryan Underground” at a Northern Virginia Community College campus in March 2017.) Following on from his image celebrating Dylan Mahone’s actions, Donovan Stai wrote: “As apart [sic] of our new vetting process [for Vanguard America] we shall make everyone burn down a synagogue.”
Earlier on May 17, Donovan Stai proposed an image of Dylann Roof – the white supremacist murderer behind the Charleston Emanuel AME Church massacre – as the insignia for the “South District” of Vanguard America.
While the arson proposal and the Dylann Roof insignia comment from Stai may not have been meant literally, they nevertheless communicated a clear message to his peers: attacks on synagogues and the murder of Black churchgoers are all funny, and these acts may be something to emulate. When diehard racists rile each other up with these sorts of comments, the result is that further acts of violence become more likely.
On the same server, Donovan Stai celebrated white supremacist violence at the “Unite the Right” rally. While Stai did not attend the rally, his comments on the Discord server that day are gleeful. In a post time-stamped the next day, Stai shared an image to the Discord server celebrating James Alex Fields, Jr.’s vehicular murder of Heather Heyer.
Active Harassment
At times, Donovan Stai moved from celebrating racist intimidation and violence, to actively participating in harassment. For example, the Vanguard Georgia Twitter account circulated the personal information of (or “doxxed”) Georgetown University Professor Dr. C. Christine Fair on May 22, 2017. The post linking to Fair’s personal information was also retweeted by Stai’s @hldisL account. At the time, Christine Fair was being harassed by white nationalists due to her confronting racist “Alt-Right” leader Richard Spencer at her Alexandria, Virginia gym, which then ended Spencer’s membership .
A couple of months earlier, Donovan Stai targeted journalist Kurt Eichenwald, arguably attempting an assault against him. As a journalist, Kurt Eichenwald angered some Trump supporters with his critical reporting on Trump’s business interests. For bigots on the Alt-Right, Eichenwald’s Jewish heritage was a further reason to attack him. Eichenwald has written about his epilepsy diagnosis on several occasions. In December 2016, he was sent a strobe-light animated graphic on Twitter, containing the words “You deserve a seizure for your posts.” According to Eichenwald, the flashing image did indeed cause a seizure. In March 2017, a veteran who sent the image to Eichenwald was arrested (He currently faces assault charges and a hate crime enhancement). Since the initial attempted assault, dozens of other people sent flashing images to Eichenwald, presumably with the aim of inducing another seizure. Donovan Stai, using his @hldisL account, was one of them. Stai sent Eichenwald a strobe-light image on March 17, 2017. Stai then added “I hope he [Eichenwald] wore his helmet.” (While the archived version of the post from Stai / @hldisL does not flash, archived comments as well as discussion from the 4Chan message board, all make clear that the original file was a strobe-light animation.)
Due to his neo-Nazi ideology, his comments glorifying intimidation and even murder, and his history of harassment, we believe that community members should be warned about Donovan Stai. After graduation, Donovan Stai hopes to become an emergency medical technician or a firefighter. We believe that Stai should not be allowed to infiltrate these professions. People of Color or Jewish people should not be forced to trust their lives to a member of a neo-Nazi group.
Was Donovan Stai Influenced by White Power Teacher at Whitewater High School?
Finally, some readers may recognize Whitewater High School in Fayetteville – which Donovan Stai attends — as the school where Hitler-admiring racist Joshua David Hitson taught English until August 2017, when Hitson resigned after being exposed to the community as a white power agitator. (The ex-Principal for Whitewater High School, Roy Rabold, took an aggressive stance in defense of Joshua Hitson despite all the available evidence.)
Since Joshua Hitson’s time as a white nationalist teacher at Whitewater High School overlaps with Donovan Stai’s time there as a student, this suggests several interesting questions. Did Joshua David Hitson play a role in Donovan Stai’s radicalization, or politically mentor Stai in any way? Did Joshua Hitson and Donovan Stai organize together on white nationalist projects?
At present, we do not have enough information to draw definite conclusions. We do know that Joshua Hitson’s “Contrarian Gent” Twitter was one of the first accounts followed by Stai’s “Vanguard Georgia”. Donovan Stai also used his personal Twitter accounts (@hldisL and @JosephRedRay) to retweet “Contrarian Gent” / Hitson. These close online associations suggest that Hitson and Stai may have coordinated politically offline also. If you have more information about Donovan Stai’s racist organizing, including any further links to Joshua David Hitson, we would like to hear from you.
Twitter Archive
Click here for an archive of materials from the @gavanguard, @hldisL and @JosephRedRay Twitter accounts.
Atlanta, November 4: Far-Right Counters “Antifa” Uprising of its Own Imagination
Update: Evan Thomas Anderson, Atlanta Property, and May 13 Charlottesville White Power Rally
“Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”: White Nationalists and Atlanta Property Development
Update 10/11/2017 here.
Introduction
Since the early 2000s, Atlanta white nationalist attorney Sam Dickson has been accumulating property in Atlanta, making a profit from gentrification and rising property values in our city. Dickson has built a “multi-million dollar business” from purchasing unpaid tax debts, then using them as leverage to obtain properties at bargain prices. Dickson has focused on property in South Atlanta, often in neighborhoods that are historically Black and working class. Dickson has been accused of “bullying” tactics to gain title.
Dickson’s moneymaking from the Atlanta property market was highlighted in a 2006 article published by the state-friendly, anti-extremist Southern Poverty Law Center. Other white nationalist and far-Right figures — currently or recently involved in the Atlanta property market — have received less attention. This article discusses some of these figures, showing how organized white nationalists gain both politically and economically from gentrification in our city.
Sam Dickson
Georgia attorney Samuel Glasgow Dickson has been a major figure on the racist far-Right since the 1970s. In 1978, Dickson campaigned for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia on a segregationist platform, receiving 11% of the vote. A lawyer since 1972, Dickson was known for representing Klansmen. Dickson participated in organizations such as the World Anti-Communist League (which included war criminals and far-Right terrorists) as well as the Council of Conservative Citizens (which traces back to the segregationist White Citizens’ Councils.) Dickson was active in Holocaust-denial circles – he published “Revisionist” materials and hosted events in Atlanta. Holocaust-denier David Irving spent time at Dickson’s property in Key West, Florida while facing criminal charges in Europe.
In 1994, Dickson gave a talk at the first American Renaissance conference, a suit-and-tie-style white nationalist gathering. Dickson has presented at every American Renaissance conference since then. He is also a regular speaker at the “Alt-Right” gatherings of the National Policy Institute. Predictably, Dickson was a speaker at the “Atlanta Forum” gathering in Marietta, Georgia this January, which brought together racist Southern nationalists and “Alt-Right” white nationalists. When Auburn University in Alabama tried to cancel an appearance by white power leader Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute, Dickson filed a lawsuit so the event could go ahead. Dickson gave a talk when white nationalists assembled in mass in Charlottesville, Virginia on May 13, 2017 – the white nationalists’ evening event was reminiscent of Klan ceremonies. Sam Dickson was again in Charlottesville for the bloody “Unite the Right” far-Right rally on August 12, 2017, where white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. murdered anti-racist Heather Heyer and wounded over a dozen more in a car attack.
While staying active on the white power scene, Dickson has spent over a decade and a half buying up land around Atlanta, frequently using tax liens he has purchased to encourage property owners to sell low. When areas are redeveloped, Dickson stands to profit. Predictably, other white nationalists and far-Right figures now have their names on Fulton County property records, operating at various degrees of proximity or separation from Dickson himself. Continue reading ““Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”: White Nationalists and Atlanta Property Development”