Meet Tyler Goggins, Also Known as Patriot Front Member “Andrew AL” of Bessemer, Alabama

Christian Tyler Goggins (born 1993) of Bessemer, Alabama is a member of Patriot Front (PF), a white supremacist and fascist organization whose members just keep getting exposed. Goggins goes by the alias “Andrew AL” within the racist group. A trove of PF internal communications that was leaked online in January 2022 clearly identifies Goggins as “Andrew AL”. Goggins participated in PF’s masked national rally in Washington, DC on December 4, 2021 alongside other Alabama members. He also joined PF members in placing propaganda for the organization in Birmingham, Alabama the weekend before that demonstration. Goggins’ online trails connect him to other white supremacist circles such as the neo-Nazi bonehead music scene.

Christian Tyler Goggins
Continue reading “Meet Tyler Goggins, Also Known as Patriot Front Member “Andrew AL” of Bessemer, Alabama”

Help Identify these White Supremacists: Patriot Front Training Camp, October 2021 (AL, FL, GA & TN Members)

The Unicorn Riot media collective recently released a giant trove of documentation from Patriot Front, a white supremacist and fascist organization operating throughout the US. For more background on Patriot Front, see Torch Network’s earlier overview and check the “Patriot Front” tag on our website.

Among the recently leaked Patriot Front footage, the Unicorn Riot materials includes video from a regional PF training camp held at Williams Landing Park in Tallahassee, Florida, on October 15-17, 2021. Twelve members from four states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee – attended the training. The white supremacist group briefly moved to Lafayette Park in Tallahassee for physical fitness evaluations, shown in some images below.

The training camp aimed to drill and prepare for Patriot Front’s national demonstration on December 4, held in Washington, DC. During that demonstration, Alabama Patriot Front member Ian Michael Elliott (“Norman AL”) served as the personal bodyguard for Patriot Front’s leader, Thomas Rousseau. Elliott facilitated the grappling sessions during the October training camp in Tallahassee.

We have extracted stills from Unicorn Riot’s leaked Patriot Front footage to compile this image gallery. Please share it widely, so we can identify our regional Patriot Front members. We have organized this image gallery by state, with galleries for individual Alabama, Florida, and Georgia members, as well as the sole attending Tennessee member. A collection of group images follows the stills of individual Patriot Front members.

For a broader rogues’ gallery of yet-to-be-identified Patriot Front members from across the country, see Rose City Antifa’s gallery here.

Please contact us if you can help identify any of the unnamed Patriot Front members in this collection.

Continue reading “Help Identify these White Supremacists: Patriot Front Training Camp, October 2021 (AL, FL, GA & TN Members)”

Ian Michael Elliott: Alabama “Patriot Front” Member, Neo-Nazi, and Combat Instructor

Updates December 6, 2021:

  • After publication of this article, Triad Martial Arts removed Ian Elliott and stripped him of any rank from the school. The school states that it firmly stands against bigotry.
  • Concealed Tactical has not made any public statement but quietly removed Elliott’s profile from its instructors page. We will update our story if Concealed Tactical clarifies its stance.
  • On Saturday, December 4, Patriot Front rallied in Washington, DC. Video footage from the event shows Ian Elliott sticking close by Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau, seemingly serving as his personal security.

Ian Michael Elliott of Harvest, Alabama is a member of the racist and fascist organization Patriot Front, going by the alias of “Norman AL” within the group. Elliott is also highly active in martial arts: he trains at Triad Martial Arts in Huntsville, Alabama and teaches at Concealed Tactical, a Krav Maga school in Madison, Alabama. In the neo-Nazi “Church of Aryanity” Telegram channel, Elliott – using the alias “Varangian” – states that he spends most of his time “traveling, and training, with White Nationalists”. By sharing his martial arts skills with racist associates, Elliott helps white supremacists prepare for violence against their enemies.

Ian Michael Elliott
Comment as “Varangian” in the “Church of Aryanity” Telegram channel
Continue reading “Ian Michael Elliott: Alabama “Patriot Front” Member, Neo-Nazi, and Combat Instructor”

Caleb Petersen, 2017-2018 President of Auburn University’s “White Student Union”

Caleb Petersen, circa 2017

Caleb Petersen, at the time a Mechanical Engineering graduate student at Auburn University in Alabama, was the president of the unofficial “White Student Union” on campus from 2017-2018. The white nationalist/Alt-Right “Union” spread antisemitic propaganda on Auburn’s campus in the lead-up to racist leader Richard Spencer’s speaking event there. The group continued until 2018, when Petersen was exposed as its leader.

Twitter and Caleb Peterson don’t want you to see this old Tweet. The website mentioned in the text is archived here.

On December 1, 2021, Twitter used its new “private media” policy to lock the account of our organization, until we deleted a 2018 Tweet about Petersen. Petersen seemingly does not want people talking about his leadership of an antisemitic, white power group. Too bad. Twitter working to protect white nationalists from exposure and public scrutiny is reprehensible.

2017 Channel 4 documentary featuring Caleb Petersen talking about Auburn’s “White Student Union”.

Petersen was featured in a 2017 documentary on Richard Spencer and the Alt-Right, produced by Channel 4 in the UK. Although he did not provide a name and his face was blurred, the “White Student Union” leader talking about “the death of our [white] race” is clearly Petersen, who will be recognizable by voice to anyone who has met him.

Petersen may be currently pretending to be respectable and not a white supremacist. He has made no amends for his racist and antisemitic agitation, but seems interested in burying the truth about it.

We are not going to forget. Please reach out if you have further information on Caleb Petersen or any of his political associates.

Notorious White Power Website Led Georgia Neo-Nazis to their Targets

In mid-January, three men in Georgia – Luke Austin Lane, Jacob Kaderli, and Michael Helterbrand – were arrested as part of a broader national sweep against “The Base”, a neo-Nazi group attempting to spark a race war. The Georgia trio were arrested on charges of participating in a criminal gang as well as conspiracy to commit murder. According to an affidavit supporting the Georgia arrests, the three were preparing to murder a couple who they believed to be members of Atlanta Antifascists, and murder any children they may have had. The couple were also selected for assassination out of convenience, since they did not live far from one of The Base members. 

The Base members training at Silver Creek, Georgia property, 2019.

The couple targeted for murder by The Base are not members of our organization. However, one family member targeted by the murder conspiracy had been listed in a series purporting to expose “Georgia Antifa[scists]”, published late 2018 on the white power Occidental Dissent website (OD). The header for the five-part series on OD was an image of Atlanta Antifascists’ Twitter account, suggesting that those being profiled were part of our organization. Instead, the site mostly listed unaffiliated third parties, attendees of leftist meetings or anti-racist rallies, and people who had interacted with our social media or who were involved in anti-racist cultural efforts. Unlike anti-fascists, who expose white supremacists in order to stop their violence against marginalized groups, white supremacists have no concern for accuracy when they publish enemy lists or kill lists – precisely because their goal is to terrorize entire communities.  

Occidental Dissent website

The webmaster of OD, Bradley Dean Griffin of Eufaula, Alabama (AKA “Hunter Wallace”), has an extensive history of harassment campaigns against perceived enemies. In late October 2018 – while the “Georgia” series was being published on OD – white supremacist Robert Bowers killed eleven people and wounded six in an attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Bowers had earlier offered Griffin an address for an anti-racist blogger targeted by Griffin. Brad Griffin also worked with white nationalist Daniel McMahon (AKA “Jack Corbin” and “Pale Horse”) against opponents. McMahon spent years harassing anti-racists – especially women – but was finally arrested last year for cyberstalking, threats, and interference against a Black candidate for office. In addition to his associates Bowers and McMahon, Griffin is active in the white supremacist/Southern secessionist League of the South and was a major promoter of 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (which he attended). Court documents and journalist sources both indicate that The Base member Brian Mark Lemley had earlier been a member of Griffin’s organization, The League of the South.

Brad Griffin (outside Auburn University Richard Spencer event, 2017)

Occidental Dissent is hosted by Bluehost with its domain name registered through GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY). Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) also provides “reverse CDN” services for the site. Bluehost is now owned by the Endurance International Group (NASDAQ:EIGI). After the Tree of Life massacre by Griffin’s associate Bowers, both Bluehost and GoDaddy were warned about OD. The companies completely ignored concerns about their assistance for a major white power propaganda site. In their efforts to keep OD and its lists online, these companies almost contributed to the brutal murder of a couple.

Continue reading “Notorious White Power Website Led Georgia Neo-Nazis to their Targets”

Richard Spencer Gets a Not-so-Warm Welcome at Auburn University, Alabama, April 18, 2017

Introduction

On Tuesday, April 18, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer (of the National Policy Institute and Altright) gave a speech at Auburn University in Alabama, which is less than two hours away from Atlanta. Anti-racists mobilized against this event and, shortly after the end of Richard Spencer’s talk, students angrily escorted Spencer’s white power followers off campus and chased some of them through the streets of Auburn.

In the run-up to the Tuesday event, Spencer’s forces blatantly organized for violence on campus, using scarcely veiled language of assembling “safety” squads, and urging racists and far-Right anti-communists to travel from far and wide to invade the campus. On the actual day, the far-Right ended up having a hard time, with their attempts at aggression met with compelling responses from students and other anti-racists. While white nationalists predictably declared a victory, this verdict was informed by delusional claims about the day. For example, racist claimed that their members were not really chased off campus so much as followed, and that their forces “drastically outnumbered” anti-racists. Such messaging from white nationalists, combined their focus on waging war on anti-fascists in the aftermath of Tuesday, suggests that they are in fact unhappy about how the day went.

the chase for story

Spencer’s Visit Approaches

Richard Spencer used a Youtube video to announce that he would be speaking at Auburn just under a week before he was scheduled to appear on campus. Before Spencer’s announcement, an Alt-Right “White Student Union” for Auburn had launched a website and begun circulating antisemitic flyers on campus, attempting to cultivate a climate of intimidation on campus. Anti-racists including our organization began circulating news of Spencer’s visit to Auburn soon following his announcement – since events at Auburn were part of regional coordination by Alt-Right white nationalists, we believed that anti-racists should likewise treat this event as a regional concern since a victory at Auburn would affect all of us as people living in the South. While the state-friendly anti-extremists of the Southern Poverty Law Center urged students to avoid and not confront the racist mobilization, several Auburn students shared our view that fascist organizing prospers when left unopposed. A Twitter account was established by Auburn students opposed to racist organizing, and a call for loud, vocal opposition to Spencer’s visit was released. Atlanta Antifascists solicited endorsements from other anti-racist and leftist organizations for the call to action. At this point, the situation began shifting rapidly.

The first change came on Friday when Auburn University canceled Spencer’s booking, citing concerns over student safety. While we were happy that white power organizing had hit a roadblock, it was also clear that actions of the sort taken by the University, could just as easily be used against leftists and anti-racists in the future. For this reason, appeals to cops, courts, or other authorities have never been at the center of our work as anti-racists.

Richard Spencer issued a furious response to the University, claiming that Auburn would “rue the day” they made this decision, and stating that he would fly in key white nationalists for the Auburn event as well as organize squads equipped with “safety gear.” (Shortly before Spencer announced his Auburn visit, he had discussed the formation of a “white bloc” to take on anti-racist opponents.)

Denied a room on campus, Spencer stated that he would hold a rally of some sort anyway, the constant subtext of his statements being that organizing far-Right forces to go after enemies on campus would be a fine alternative to a speaking engagement. Amongst those Spencer flew in for his event was Mike Peinovich AKA “Mike Enoch,” operator of TheRightStuff website as well as “The Daily Shoah” podcast. In the days to come, other far-Right formations mobilized to descend on Auburn: Identity Evropa, Brad Griffin’s “Alt-South” network, Anti-Communist Action, the Traditionalist Worker Party, and the League of the South (who took on a security role.)

The other major escalation took place on the other side of the country, where on Saturday the 15th far-Right forces (including open white supremacists) clashed with anti-fascist protesters in Berkeley, California. This event, portrayed by the far-Right as a victory, emboldened more far-Right and white nationalist forces (including some of the groups listed earlier) to pledge to be at Auburn with the hope of routing their enemies in a brawl. Just as in Berkeley where organized far-Right forces used “free speech” as a pretext to organize violence and attempt to control territory, in the days as Spencer’s Auburn visit drew near, his coalition was increasingly brazen about wanting to control the turf with violence.

(A war of posters and counter-flyers also broke out on campus, with anti-racist flyers against Spencer’s visit being countered with fake “Antifa” flyers as well as White Student Union materials portraying militant anti-racists as troublemakers willing to attack random bystanders.)

While Spencer’s forces organized for a physical fight, Richard Spencer also pushed through legal channels for his event to go ahead. On Tuesday afternoon, mere hours before the event began, Spencer announced that he had obtained a court order compelling Auburn University to allow his speaking event to proceed as initially scheduled. Spencer’s case had been argued by Atlanta white nationalist attorney Sam Dickson – a fixture on the racist scene nationally — on behalf of Cameron Padgett, a student who had made the booking for Spencer’s visit using a Georgia State University (Atlanta) email address.

Foy booking exhibit from lawsuit
Foy Hall booking, exhibit in Sam Dickson’s lawsuit

Tuesday Afternoon and Evening

The court order changed the scene. Had Spencer held an outdoor rally in defiance of his cancelled booking, our expectation was that this mobilization would be combined with bands of white power/“Alt-Right” militants ready to street fight and to target those they saw as enemies (for example, people of color, Jewish students, or leftists.) Alabama “Alt-South” organizer Brad Griffin later wrote that Spencer’s court victory was in some sense also disappointing for him, because with the changed situation “I wouldn’t get a chance to fight and win a bit of glory for myself […] in […] an epic throw down.” Griffin’s claim clarifies what the far-Right forces mobilizing for Spencer had in mind shortly before the court made its ruling. With the court ruling, however, they’d have to queue to go inside a room, being scanned with a metal-detecting wand beforehand.

Students came out in large numbers in response to Spencer’s speaking event, with some protesting outside, some attending Spencer’s talk to press him, some by contrast taking a “no platform” approach, and others merely checking out the scene. Into this situation, leftists and anti-racists from several parts of the South also arrived. The fascists who from mid-afternoon onward were spotted in bands around campus, took position at the venue for Spencer’s speech, separated from protesters by police and barriers.

It was a solid week of organizing by anti-racists — students of various political persuasions as well as “outsiders” to Auburn like our organization — which enabled a powerful response to Spencer’s assembled forces. From our perspective, some things went far better than others. At Auburn, the black bloc – a tactic originating from radical Left and anarchist movements in Europe during the second half of the 20th Century – was generally a shit-show, although the fact that networks activated and anti-fascists traveled to attend was itself a positive. Auburn Police were extremely aggressive in targeting anti-racists who were wearing masks or bandanas (to guard against later harassment by the far-Right.) By contrast, white supremacists obscuring their faces were occasionally told to remove masks but overall, were not aggressively targeted. It is to be expected that the police, whose unions overwhelmingly endorsed Donald Trump’s right-wing populist presidential campaign and who generally protect a racist status quo, will typically side with organized racists over anti-racists.

Anti-racists — from Auburn and from elsewhere — maintained a lively presence outside Foy Hall during the time people entered for Spencer’s speech, as well as during the event itself. This anti-racist presence played some role in stopping people from drifting away before Spencer’s speech was over and racists filed out. Chants of “Fuck Richard Spencer!” were popular. However, there was also friction between some anti-racists who had travelled to Auburn, and other parts of the student body. For example, some “outsiders” were at first annoyed by Auburn pride chants, since they seemed to be an attempt to replace more pointed chants against the white supremacists gathering on campus. In retrospect, the situation was complicated than we initially understood; the Auburn spirit chants may have also communicated collective confidence in the face of adversary: “We’re proud to be Auburn, we’re going to stick together and see each other through this situation.”

The only arrests of the day occurred while Spencer’s speech was happening. Ryan Matthew King — who has subsequently been identified as a Montgomery, Alabama tattoo artist and “compatriot” of the racist/secessionist League of the South — was stationed outside and tried to attack an anti-racist in the crowd. King’s assault did not go as planned, with King promptly landing on the ground after misdelivering a blow, and receiving a stern physical rebuke from the crowd. King and two anti-racists were arrested as the police rushed in.

Ryan King story photo
League of the South “compatriot” Ryan Matthew King at Auburn University before starting fight

Tension grew in the crowd as it got later and darker outside, with the tide of opinion moving even further against Richard Spencer after he made the mistake of attacking college football and Black athletes. As white nationalists filed out, they received an angry escort from campus by the assembled crowd. Matthew Heimbach’s troopers of the Traditionalist Worker Party and other white supremacists attempted a poorly-conceived charge on students and other protesters, but soon realized their mistake. Some of the departing white nationalists were chased by students and protesters. A few racists ended up worse for wear.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Spencer’s event at Auburn showed that wherever ideological racists try to organize on campus, they should expect determined opposition, even at campuses such as Auburn with a reputation as conservative. The events at Auburn demonstrate how closely Far-Right organizing for violence accompanies the “free speech” activity of white power leaders like Spencer. On the 18th, white power activists were restrained in their violence compared to what they had threatened in days beforehand. Combined students and Southern anti-racists gave every racist-instigated act of violence an unmistakable response. Further, despite some concerns from Auburn students about militant anti-racists arriving on campus from elsewhere, Auburn students themselves chased and confronted “Alt-Right” racists at the end of the evening.

Since white nationalists can be slow learners, we expect that the “White Student Union” at Auburn may drag on for some time. For information on opposition to this White Student Union and other racist activity in and around Auburn, check out twitter.com/no_nazi_auburn

Photo galleries of Alt-Right, racist and far-Right activists at Auburn University on April 18 are available here, here, and here.

Documentation: Richard Spencer at Auburn University, April 18, 2017 (Gallery 3/3)

c1 Continue reading “Documentation: Richard Spencer at Auburn University, April 18, 2017 (Gallery 3/3)”