Justin Peek: Metro Atlanta Racist is National “Director of Activism” for Identity Evropa

Introduction / Overview

Justin Wayne Peek is the current Georgia coordinator for Identity Evropa (IE), a nationwide racist organization. Peek also serves as IE’s Director of Activism and organizes their protests across the United States, often personally traveling to participate in them.

Justin Wayne Peek speaking at Identity Evropa’s 2018 conference

Justin Peek became involved in the “Alt-Right” and white nationalism in early 2017. After the violence of the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA and the Alt-Right’s subsequent reversal of fortune, IE saw a need to alter its activist strategy. Peek was named as IE’s “activism coordinator” in late 2017 during the leadership of Elliot Kline AKA “Eli Mosley,” but his role only began in earnest under IE’s third and current leader, Patrick Casey. IE now deploys flash protests with just their own members, so that the organization can carefully stage-manage these events and maintain the correct “optics.” By orchestrating IE’s protests of 2018, Peek has played a key role in the organization’s efforts to attract new members and rebrand.

Identity Evropa “die in” at South African embassy, Washington DC, April 2018, organized by Peek.

On his old Twitter account, Peek claimed that “Jew [sic] and arabs are disease to this planet” and that “black lives don’t matter.” Peek also circulated pro-Hitler propaganda. IE remains a white power organization, even if it now uses carefully-crafted language of wanting a “European-American super-majority” instead of publicly demanding a whites-only homeland.

Justin Peek: 2012 Fulton County arrest

Since “Unite the Right,” Identity Evropa has tried to portray itself as having high moral standards for its members, in contrast to other racist groups. Peek’s personal history gives reason to doubt this. In 2012 Justin Peek was arrested in Fulton County for sexual battery. The initial accusation charged Peek with “intentionally […] touching the genital area” of a woman without her consent. Peek eventually accepted a plea deal for the lower charge of simple battery, which involves intentional “physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature.” Court documents from this case are included as an appendix to our article.

Peek currently lives with his fiancée Amber Michele Wojcik in the Edgewater at Sandy Springs apartment complex. The couple are due to marry this September, with a ceremony scheduled at the River Dream Lodge in Blue Ridge, Georgia. To coincide with the publication of this article, we mailed flyers to residents at Peek’s apartment complex, warning them of the racist organizer in their midst. Continue reading “Justin Peek: Metro Atlanta Racist is National “Director of Activism” for Identity Evropa”

Exposing Joshua Bates (AKA “Brandon Hitt”), Georgia Participant in “The Base”

Update 12/10/2018: Since the publication of this article, Joshua Bates has made a series of public statements renouncing the white supremacist movement and his past. We hope Bates’ statements are sincere. Only time will tell.

A network of anti-fascist activists from coast to coast have obtained the chat logs of a neo-Nazi organization calling itself “The Base.” Anti-fascists infiltrated the Base in order to investigate and identify its members and disseminate this information to the public.

In an ongoing series of articles, the coordinating anti-fascist network will publish revealing information about this group and profile its members. You can follow all these articles by following the hashtag #DeBasedDoxx.

Anti-fascism is fundamentally a localized movement of working-class peoples. We are not paid for our work and we take great risks every day: not for fame or money, but to protect our communities.

Email the network at [email protected] with your tips or inquiries. 

As part of an ongoing anti-fascist research series on a neo-Nazi paramilitary group called “The Base”, we are exposing The Base member “Brandon Hitt” as Joshua Brandon Bates of Grovetown, Columbia County, Georgia. Joshua Bates’ involvement in The Base is notable because Bates is a well-connected participant in the Alt-Right, especially through his work as a web developer and his writing under the alias “Jossur Surtrson”. Bates was active in The Base’s online chats from late September until his sudden disappearance from the server in mid-November.

Joshua Bates

About The Base

The Base is a white supremacist networking platform which aims to prepare for and accelerate the balkanization of the United States, and to carve out whites-only states under such a scenario. The Base’s platform offers members several manuals about weapons and planning terrorist attacks. As discussed in an earlier article in this series, members of The Base “operate in regional cells of 3-7 people which include current and former military personnel, eco-fascists, preppers, and youth under the age of 18 who have been drawn into the online communities of Nazism.” While it is not clear whether the reference is deliberate, it should be pointed out that “Al Qaeda” translates to “The Base” in English.  Continue reading “Exposing Joshua Bates (AKA “Brandon Hitt”), Georgia Participant in “The Base””

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”.

Here is an earlier call to action around Cooper and AJMLS, including a sample script for phone calls.

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.

Leak of “Elite” Alt-Right Chats Shine Further Light on Casey Jordan Cooper, White Power Leader at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School

Summary: Newly leaked chat logs from an “elite” Alt-Right discussion server reveal additional information on racist leader and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School student Casey Jordan Cooper. Cooper states that he led the “ATL-Right” group operating in metro Atlanta. Cooper cites white nationalist leader Sam Dickson as an invaluable connection for his future law career and suggests that Dickson may have already helped Cooper get work from smaller law firms. Cooper also celebrates violence at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville 2017 and spins a grotesque legal fantasy of suing on behalf of white supremacist murderer James Alex Fields, Jr., then using the proceeds to drive Black residents from an Atlanta neighborhood. Although Cooper has been exposed as the author of unequivocal lynching threats, his published comments make it clear he is confident about his future and expects his law career to go unopposed.

This August, the independent journalism collective Unicorn Riot published online chats from the “Vibrant Diversity” Discord server. Discord is a discussion app used by gaming communities but also by white power organizers; Unicorn Riot has published numerous “Alt-Right” Discord chat logs as part of its ongoing “Discord leaks.” The “Vibrant Diversity” chat server was described by one participant as “the most elite discord server in the Alt Right.” Unsurprisingly, racist leader and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School student Casey Jordan Cooper participated in discussion there, under the moniker “Phoenix – GA”.

Casey Jordan Cooper at Identity Evropa white power rally in Nashville, Tennessee, March 2018

Atlanta Antifascists have already exposed Casey Cooper and his history of racist agitation, including clear lynching threats made against a Black activist in Atlanta. Most recently, we also revealed that during much of 2017 and early 2018 Cooper lived at a Peachtree Hills white nationalist organizing hub owned by racist leader Sam Dickson. Continue reading “Leak of “Elite” Alt-Right Chats Shine Further Light on Casey Jordan Cooper, White Power Leader at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School”

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.

RW front
121 Ridgeland Way NE. (Can you see a subtle algiz rune on the exterior too, or are we trippin’?)

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”

“Hitler Did Nothing Wrong”: Spalding County Deputy Sheriffs Express Far-Right Allegiance

Update, afternoon of 8/6/2018: Well that was quick… Costner and James have been fired.

Introduction 
howard costner
Howard Reece Costner

 

jesse a jones deputy
Jesse Aaron Jones
We are not surprised at the presence of a hardened ideological racist in Georgia law enforcement, or about another Deputy proclaiming that “Hitler did nothing wrong.” There are likely others with the same commitments as Costner and Jones, although some may be better at covering their tracks. With our release of this documentation on Deputies Costner and Jones, the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office must decide if it will continue to employ open ideological racists.

Continue reading ““Hitler Did Nothing Wrong”: Spalding County Deputy Sheriffs Express Far-Right Allegiance”

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”

Atlanta, November 4: Far-Right Counters “Antifa” Uprising of its Own Imagination

On November 4, the Leftist anti-Trump organization Refuse Fascism held protests in several major US cities, including Atlanta. Refuse Fascism is a national mobilization spearheaded by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a Maoist group that dates to the 1970s. Through building on widespread disgust towards the Trump regime, Refuse Fascism has engaged some numbers beyond the RCP’s cadre of organizers. Peaceful mass rallies on November 4 were supposed to usher in a wave of protest to “drive out the Trump/Pence regime,” although the details of getting from A to B were hazy.
 
In the end, the November 4 call to action captured the imagination of the far-Right just as much — if not more — than it did working class people fed up with Trump’s rule (or even other Leftist organizers.) On widely-circulated social media posts, YouTube videos and stories on Right-wing websites, the November 4th protests were portrayed as an “antifa” plot to usher in civil war, with likely mass violence that day. As nonsensical as November 4 conspiracy theories were, many on the far-Right paid attention and believed them. Just as the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory led to a true believer firing shots in a restaurant, some observers began to worry that “antifa” “civil war” hype could lead to real violence from people determined to play hero against an imaginary threat.
 
While “Refuse Fascism” and “antifascists” include variants on the same term, “antifa” groups such as our organization were generally not involved in November 4 planning or promotion — a point that seems to have been missed by portions of media, even though a quick glance at our social media could have cleared up any confusion. 
 
In Atlanta on the evening of the 4th, Refuse Fascism rallied in Little Five Points, attracting several dozen to their protest. Large amounts of police staged nearby. A group of counter-protesters waved an American flag catty-corner from the Refuse Fascism event. Other Right-wing individuals moved within in or infiltrated the Refuse Fascism crowd. Heavy rains brought the entire spectacle to an early end. There were no clashes. 
 
The remainder of this article sets out which far-Right forces did and did not show up for the anticlimactic “civil war” in Atlanta. 
 

zesto
Far-Right counter-protesters plus cops aplenty, catty-corner from Little Five Points “Refuse Fascism” protest

Continue reading “Atlanta, November 4: Far-Right Counters “Antifa” Uprising of its Own Imagination”

Dossier: White Power Organizer and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School Student Casey Jordan Cooper

From Casey Cooper Information:

In March 2017, Atlanta Antifascists exposed Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School student Casey Jordan Cooper (AKA “Phoenix Reich”) as one of the most active white power organizers in the Metro Atlanta area. We documented that Cooper made a death threat against a Black activist in our city and that he published racist comments about others at his law school. In May 2017, yet more information about Cooper came to light, revealing that Cooper is affiliated with the white nationalist organization Identity Evropa and that he organized other racists to paste propaganda such as “Why White Women Shouldn’t Date Black Men” around Georgia campuses. Since Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School seems unconcerned by their student’s behavior, we are releasing this dossier with over 500 pages of documentation on Casey Cooper and his white power agitation. Download the dossier here.

cooper dossier cover

Cooper Charlottesville for blog

Casey Jordan Cooper at white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, May 2017

White Nationalist Joshua Hitson Resigns from Whitewater High School (Fayetteville, GA)

The Fayette County Board of Education has confirmed that Joshua David Hitson resigned as a teacher at Whitewater High School on Friday, August 18. Hitson had been under investigation after anti-fascists released an extensive dossier on Hitson’s white power agitation and his pro-Nazi statements. Whitewater High School had known of this issue since at least May. Even after begrudgingly launching an investigation, Fayette County Board of Education denied that they had seen “legitimate evidence.” The school and the Board of Education should now apologize. Someone who promotes white nationalism and antisemitism cannot be put in charge of the education of our youth. In the end, it appears public pressure caused Hitson to leave Whitewater. The school and the Board of Education had plenty of time to ensure students were kept safe and treated fairly. Yet they allowed Hitson to leave on his own terms. They have not yet directly addressed that they employed a white nationalist for years.

hitson resigns whitewater