The Decline & Fall of the Inland Empire Skinheads

Posted on October 7, 2009 by @ndy

In April of this year, eight boneheads, members of the “Inland Empire Skinheads”, got arrest on Unkle Adolf’s birthday (April 20). The Inland Empire Boneheads are named after an area of California: “Made up of an area stretching from western Riverside County to the southwest corner of San Bernardino County, the Inland Empire used to be a sparsely populated, rural area of ranches, vineyards and farms, where whites were the clear and dominant majority. All that has changed…” (California Conflict, David Holthouse, Intelligence Report, Fall 2005). As for their arrests:

Racist Skinheads: California Skinheads Busted on Hitler’s Birthday
Intelligence Report
No.135, Fall 2009

Seven members of the Inland Empire Skinheads were arrested in a daylong sweep in southern California April 20, including two female gang members who were arrested in hospitals where they had induced labor to ensure their babies would be born on Adolf Hitler’s 120th birthday.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops said the arrests were the result of a nine-month investigation that was launched following an attempted murder in Hesperia, Calif., last year. Hoops said the gang has between 30 and 50 members residing in the Inland Empire, a region of southeastern California, and is closely affiliated with the Western Hammerskins, a regional division of the widespread skinhead gang Hammerskin Nation.

Hoops said his department had been tracking the Inland Empire Skinheads since 2002. In those seven years, members of the gang have been involved in murders, attempted murders, murder conspiracies, home invasion robberies, hate crime assaults, and narcotics trafficking, according to the sheriff…

In June 2009, the first of the eight boneheads — Mark Goslyn, 33; Raymond Williams, 33, who is on the National Terrorist Watch List, Jeremy Brower, 32; Carrie Goodwin, 24; brothers Thomas Mason, 23, and Joseph Mason, 20; Joshua Butler, 27; and Ronald Proffitt, 27 — were convicted and sentenced. Gosyln pleaded guilty in Victorville Superior Court to conspiracy to commit robbery, and was immediately sentenced to 25 years to life in prison (under California’s Three Strikes law). Prior to this:

In May, Butler and Goodwin both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit residential robbery and gang activity. Butler was sentenced to nine years in prison; Goodwin has not yet been sentenced. Joseph Mason pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit assault and gang activity and was sentenced to 8 years and 8 months in prison… Williams, a tattoo artist from Perris, was arrested at a hospital where his wife was giving birth. According to the County Sheriff’s Office, Williams’ wife and Carrie Goodwin were inducing labor so their children could be born on April 20, the 120th birthday of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

~ California Racist Skinhead Given Lengthy Sentence, ADL, June 25, 2009

Which leaves Jeremy Brower, Thomas Mason, Ronald Proffitt and Raymond Williams. Well, actually… Raymond Williams — a tattooist — has apparently committed suicide. At the time of his death, Williams was still facing charges “of conspiracy to commit a crime and carrying a loaded firearm”.

Alleged Skinhead Found Hanging in Jail Cell
G.T. Houts
RIMOFTHEWORLD.net
September 29, 2009

San Bernardino, CA – San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials have identified the inmate found hanging in his jail cell as Raymond Michael Williams, 35.

Williams, described by authorities as the leader of the Inland Empire Skinheads, reportedly hung himself while incarcerated at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

The former tattoo artist from Perris, in Riverside County, was arrested in April along with six other members of the Inland Empire Skinheads, and faced charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and carrying a loaded firearm, according to court documents obtained by RIMOFTHEWORLD.net.

A confidential source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, explained that the Inland Empire Skinheads utilized Internet sites like MySpace to recruit members from area high schools, possibly including the mountain communities…

Following the arrest of Williams and the other alleged gang members in April, Sheriff Rod Hoops reported the gang was first noticed in 2002 by area law enforcement agencies.

Hoops, who declined at that time to release specifics about the arrests because the investigation was ongoing, noted that the reported hate gang had more than 30 identified members but fewer than 100.

The Sheriff explained members of the group were from throughout the Inland Empire. Those arrested were from both Riverside and San Bernardino County.

Hoops and lead investigator Deputy Eric Ogaz, told media representatives at a special press conference that the group had been tied to the Hammerskins, a national white supremacist organization.

The two officers reported members of the gang had been involved in a number of murders, attempted murders, murder conspiracies, assaults, witness intimidation, drug trafficking and home invasion robberies. They did not elaborate during the press briefing…

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Death | Tagged | 1 Comment

Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre (MARC) attacked by neo-Nazis

Posted on October 6, 2009 by @ndy

Recently, the Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre (MARC) in Northcote was attacked by neo-Nazis. Based on what those responsible for the attack stated, it is understood to have been in response to an alleged, recent anti-fascist action which took place in Burwood, on or about Monday, September 14, 2009.

More statements may follow from the groups who use the space, but for the moment one of those present has written the following, brief description of what happened:

At 3pm Monday the 28th of September, several of us were sitting in the Barricade bookshop when four men entered through the front door. One of them, who was carrying a can of mace [pepper spray], yelled for us to sit down and that they had a message to deliver (he also asked who was in charge!). They proceeded to deliver a message that amounted to threatening that the MARC space would be the first point of call if there was any more antifa [anti-fascist] activity in Melbourne. They pushed over two bookshelves and swept some zines off the table as they left… Nobody was hurt, and there was no damage done to the space, just some disorganised books. We were all a bit shaken, but looked after each other.

The four males who attended the space were described as being white, as aged between their early 20s and mid-30s, well built, with shaved heads and tattoos.

Typical boneheads, in other words.

One bonehead was referred to as ‘Justin’, and he did most of the yelling. Justin has tattoos on his neck and hands. A second bonehead also spoke. He has reddish hair, tattoos on his neck, and was wearing a green bomber jacket. The third and fourth boneheads were younger; one was described as being ‘stocky’, while the other was wearing a ‘Crew 38’ (Hammerskins) patch on his jacket (and also as having odd-looking eyebrows).

Note that Control of Weapons Regulations 2000 defines “An article designed or adapted to discharge oleoresin capsicum spray” as a prohibited weapon.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Posted in Anti-fascism | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Man Arrested for Twittering Goes to Court, EFF Has the Documents

Posted on October 6, 2009 by @ndy

Man Arrested for Twittering Goes to Court, EFF Has the Documents
Kevin Bankston
EFF
October 5, 2009

Over the past day, [e]veryone has been reporting about the arrest last month of Elliot Madison for twittering about police movements to protesters during the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA.

The reason this is being reported on now is because on last Thursday, the FBI also raided Mr. Madison’s home in Queens, NY, followed on Friday by Mr. Madison’s filing of a motion in the Eastern District of New York federal court in Brooklyn for the return of his seized property.

In reviewing all the stories, we saw lots of quotes from Mr. Madison’s legal filings and from the Pennsylvania state criminal complaint against him, but no links to the legal papers themselves. As a resource to journalists and interested readers, we are posting Mr. Madison’s motion and his lawyer’s supporting declaration; attached to the declaration are copies of the search warrant, an inventory of the seized items, and the original criminal complaint.

Madison_motion_EDNY.pdf
Madison_Motion_EDNY_ordertoshowcause.pdf

See also : Queens ‘terror’ raid hits G-20 anarchist (October 3, 2009).

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Media | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Mr. Magic

Posted on October 6, 2009 by @ndy

“She said rap attack, man, not heart attack.”
“Oh you mean she’s alright then, right?”
“Of course man, you never heard of a Mr. Magic rap attack? Where’s this guy from?”

John Rivas : March 15, 1956–October 2, 2009. From One Peoples Project. For Briggs, Keith & Vents:

Unless they know their history, young heads are not going to know who this brother was, but other than the creators of hip hop themselves, Mr. Magic is the most important figure in the history of Hip Hop. In fact we will not be stretching it at all to say Mr. Magic was as big a loss in music this year as Michael Jackson or Les Paul was. Mr. Magic was a late night DJ on 107.5 WBLS-FM. He was the first and for a long time the only DJ to play hip hop on his radio show, and were it not for him, it was highly likely that rap music would have been nothing more than a passing fad in the early 80s club scene. His death from a heart attack was announced Friday morning, and tributes have been pouring in, which is nothing new for him, since rappers have been giving him props for over 20 years. As well they should. It was because of him that they exist.The VH1 Hip Hop Honors 2009 airs on Oct. 13. They will pay tribute.

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Oops…

Posted on October 6, 2009 by @ndy

LOL.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, four boneheads belonging to the National Socialist Movement were told to shoo by as many as several hundred protesters.

The boneheads had gathered in order to stage a little protest of their own, against the conduct of an anti-racist workshop at the local YWCA.

Funnily enough, when an academic conference on whiteness was held in Melbourne last year, there was lots of clucking and squawking on Stormfront Down Under (see Whites not all right! Anti-White Conference bad! Exclamation marks good!!!, December 5, 2008) about how necessary it was for White nationalists to protest against it — none did, so credit to the four neo-Nazis from the NSM.

LOL.

Speaking of the NSM, be sure to listen to the interview the NSM’s Carl D. Thompson (‘Derrick McThomas’) conducted with the leader of the Australia First Party Dr James Saleam.

In other news from The Bunker (Carl’s not Jim’s):

REDS ROUTED OUTSIDE SYDNEY FORUM
AUSTRALIA CALLING
(10/02/09)

A group of 16 sorry-looking reds were beaten down by white patriots, after the reds linked arms and tried to stop people getting into the venue of the annual Sydney Forum. Also, patriots now know everything there is [to] know about anarchist scumbag @ndy. Be afraid @ndy, be very afraid.

Oh noes!

Carl calls me a “scumbag anarchist dirt-sucking piece of filth”, which like, totally hurt my feelings. (And those of my “felching, sodomist Red mates”!)

Where is the love?

vents | briggs

Bonus!

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Media | 1 Comment

I call myself a libertarian social democrat

Posted on October 5, 2009 by @ndy

A dose of libertarianism would enhance our democracy
Tony Moore
The Australian
October 5, 2009

I CALL myself a libertarian social democrat, but many of my left-wing mates condemn such a position as a contradiction. They forget that the potency of the French Revolution lay in its marriage of liberty with equality and fraternity, and that Left libertarianism has a fine pedigree.

Moar on Moore later…

Venom P. Stinger, What’s Yours Is Mine, Aberrant Records, 1990… Alan Secher-Jensen / Dugald McKenzie / Jim White / Mick Turner / Nick Palmer…

Posted in Anarchism, State / Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Still Crazy After All These Years World of the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei

Posted on October 5, 2009 by @ndy

Or, to be precise, the “Conspiracy of Nuclei of Fire-Nihilists Sect” — to be confused with the Australian group “Conspiracy of Nuclei of Fred-Nihilists Sect”.

Athens anti-guerrilla case in ruins after new Nuclei of Fire attack
taxikipali
libcom.org
October 4, 2009

A new attack and communique by the Nuclei of Fire, targeting the Greek PM’s central rally in Athens, shatter any remaining credibility of the anti-guerrilla pre-election persecutions.

The already disputed credibility of the anti-guerrilla persecution of three 20 year old boys for their alleged involvement in the urban guerrilla group Nuceli of Fire Conspiracy (NFC), responsible for over 150 storm-attacks against state and capital targets as well as a recent bombing campaign (with no human injuries due to previous warning calls in all cases), has now all but collapsed after the NFC managed to surprise the Greek anti-terrorist office and the secret services by planting and igniting a bomb in the centre of the Prime Minister’s last and central pre-election rally, two days before national elections, in Athens. The bomb was pre-announced so the area was evacuated causing no human injuries but immense ridicule both for the security forces and the PM whose oration on the necessity to crush “youth violence” and restore order was punctuated by the explosion.

If that was not enough to dispute the arrests and the discovery of “the NFC safe-house”, the NFC promptly published an on-line communique that has received extended national coverage and brought shame on the outgoing government [“In a 10-page text that was posted on an internet site Saturday night, the “Conspiracy of Nuclei of Fire-Nihilists Sect” threatens more attacks on politicians, journalists, police and financial targets in the future.”]. In their communique the urban guerrillas denounce the arrests as nonsense and the arrested as “totally unrelated to [their] group”. According to the NFC any arrested of their guerrilla group is obliged to accept his or her participation in it. All 3 arrested have denied any involvement in the group, one even condemning the armed struggle as irrelevant to the revolution.

Moreover, in their long and politically thorny communique, the NFC underline that the only evidence at the hands of the authorities of any connection between their group and the arrested is the supposed existence of a “pressure cooker bomb” in the Chalandri house stormed by the police. The NFC argue that such bombs have been employed since the late 19th century by revolutionaries and cannot possibly be considered “the copyright or modus operandi” of their or any single organisation.

See also : Έβαλε ξανά “τη χύτρα στη φωτιά”!, Έλλη Ζώτου, H Ayth, October 5, 2009 | “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” claim last night’s bomb attack; police-fabricated charges collapse, After the Greek Riots, October 3, 2009 | The Crazy World of the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei (February 16, 2009).

    Oh yeah: ‘Who won’, they asked, ‘the election?’. I laughed, and said ‘PASOK’.

    “Results from 97.53% of votes counted showed Papandreou’s Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK, storming to victory with 43.95%, with Karamanlis’ New Democracy trailing with 33.58% – the party’s worst electoral showing ever. The result gives PASOK a solid majority of 160 seats in the 300-member parliament, bringing it back to power after five years of conservative governance. Papandreou’s victory, along with a recent election win by socialists in Portugal, bucks a European trend that has seen a conservative surge in the continent’s powerhouse economies, including most recently in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election last week” (Socialists celebrate Greek election, The Press Association, October 5, 2009). “The Communist party KKE occupied their customary third party position with over seven per cent of the vote. Far right Laos followed with over five per cent, leapfrogging over the Syriza coalition of the left which comes fifth at just over four per cent. The Greens garnered over two per cent of the vote which is unlikely to be enough to give them a seat in parliament” (Socialists win Greek election, RFI, October 5, 2009).

Posted in Anarchism, Broken Windows, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

sectarian notes

Posted on October 4, 2009 by @ndy

Who was Makhno and what did he stand for?
Vladimir Morozov
In Defense of Marxism
September 30, 2009

“To this day anarchists hold up Makhno as the true champion of the workers and peasants of Russia after the 1917 revolution. This myth ignores the real nature of the Makhnovite army and the social layers that it represented. Because Makhno did not base himself on the working class but on certain layers within the peasantry, he ended up with what amounted to a reactionary position.”

A fairly standard critique, prompted by Bakunin-knows-what, and unreferenced. The ‘International Marxist Tendency’ (IMT) is a Trotskyist mob, who for a brief period appears to have had some followers (follower) of late in Australia. See also : “Destroy the Makhno movement”: The Bolsheviks’ secret war against Nestor Makhno and his insurgents, Volodymyr Horak, The Day, June 2, 2009 | The Nestor Makhno Archive.

Marxism versus anarchism
Carlene Wilson
Permanent Revolution (No.3)
July 18, 2007

Established only a coupla years ago, PR is a split from Workers Power. Dunno if they’re still active in Australia. Carlene’s critique is, again, fairly standard.

Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s
Andrew Cornell
Perspectives 2009

“The international anarchist movement was reborn on new footings in the wake of the global insurrections of 1968, nearly all of which were decidedly libertarian in character. In the United States, the decade that followed was a time of experimentation and consolidation, as a surprising variety of groups sought to develop and adapt different aspects of the anarchist tradition to contemporary conditions. Sam Dolgoff and others worked to revitalize the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), alongside new syndicalist formations like the Chicago-based Resurgence group and Boston’s Root & Branch; Bookchin’s Anarchos collective deepened the theoretical links between ecological and anarchist thought; the Fifth Estate drew heavily on French ultra-leftist thinking and began pursuing a critique of technology by decade’s end. Meanwhile, the Social Revolutionary Anarchist Federation connected individuals and circles across the country through a mimeographed monthly discussion bulletin. Just as influential to the anarchist milieu that has taken shape in the decades which have followed, however, were the efforts of the Movement for a New Society, a national network of feminist radical pacifist collectives that existed from 1971 to 1988.”

One of the products of the Movement was New Society Publishers. A number of NSP titles are available for purchase through Anarres Books.

Bonus Metal!

[For Dean & Paul (the communists).]

Posted in Anarchism, History, Trot Guide | 1 Comment

Authors@Google: Christopher Hitchens

Posted on October 4, 2009 by @ndy

Free Inquiry | Skeptical Inquirer.


This event took place on August 16, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, United States.

See also : Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871) | Michel Onfray : Militant Atheist (December 18, 2006) | Anarchist U! (January 8, 2007).

Bakunin on religion:

With all due respect, then, to the metaphysicians and religious idealists, philosophers, politicians, or poets: The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, both in theory and practice. (II)

If God is, man is a slave; now, man can and must be free; then, God does not exist. I defy anyone whomsoever to avoid this circle; now, therefore, let all choose. (II)

This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other. They say in a single breath: “God and the liberty of man,” “God and the dignity, justice, equality, fraternity, prosperity of men” – regardless of the fatal logic by virtue of which, if God exists, all these things are condemned to non-existence. For, if God is, he is necessarily the eternal, supreme, absolute master, and, if such a master exists, man is a slave; now, if he is a slave, neither justice, nor equality, nor fraternity, nor prosperity are possible for him. In vain, flying in the face of good sense and all the teachings of history, do they represent their God as animated by the tenderest love of human liberty: a master, whoever he may be and however liberal he may desire to show himself, remains none the less always a master. His existence necessarily implies the slavery of all that is beneath him. Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty – by ceasing to exist.

A jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him. (II)

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Queens ‘terror’ raid hits G-20 anarchist

Posted on October 3, 2009 by @ndy

Queens ‘terror’ raid hits G-20 anarchist
Kati Cornell
New York Post
October 3, 2009

FBI anti-terrorism agents raided the Queens home of a self-described anarchist charged with tweeting protesters with instructions on how to evade police at the G-20 summit.

A dozen gas masks, liquid mercury, backpacks containing hammers and anarchist literature were among the dozens of items seized Thursday at the Jackson Heights home where Elliot Madison, 41, lives with his wife Elena, 39.

Madison is free on bail after Pittsburgh cops arrested him on Sept. 24 and charged him with hindering prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possessing criminal instruments.

Police tracked Madison and another man to a motel room at the Carefree Inn in Pittsburgh, where they discovered a makeshift communications center, according to a criminal complaint.

The two men were seated in front of personal computers and telecommunications equipment, wearing headphones and microphones and surrounded by maps, contact numbers and police and EMS scanners.

Cops claim they were using Twitter to direct the movements of protesters and update them on the location and actions of law enforcement.

The details of Madison’s recent arrest and Thursday’s search emerged yesterday as defense lawyer Martin Stolar asked a federal judge to stop authorities from reviewing confidential information contained in his client’s computers.

But Assistant US Attorney Andrew Goldsmith argued that some of the items raised alarm, including a pound of liquid mercury in the house, alongside “books about poisons” and a microscope.

The feds also found metal triangles that are used to puncture tires and two boxes of ammunition. Goldsmith said agents left a collection of machetes, samurai swords and daggers at the house, because they didn’t fall within the scope of the search warrants.

Stolar said Madison and his wife have a long history of working for the People’s Law Collective, a group he described as providing legal representation for protesters.*

In court papers, Stolar argued that the search is illegal and asked Brooklyn federal Judge Dora Irizarry to order the return of the property.

The judge issued a temporary order of protection stopping the feds from going through the material.

Neighbors said the house was swarming with agents during the 16-hour search, while helicopters flew overhead.

*“The New York People’s Law Collective is [was] a collective of activists who are also, organizers, law students, community and legal workers. We are not lawyers. We are people with knowledge of the legal system, its value and limits, and how it can be used for and against us. History and our own experiences demonstrate the need for legal resources offered from a radical perspective. Used in this way, the law is one tool among many for our movements.”

Posted in Anarchism, Broken Windows, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged , , | Leave a comment