Posted on 04/03/2005 6:45:52 PM PDT by familyop
White supremacist groups don't target communities at random, says Norm Gissel, a Coeur d'Alene attorney who has battled neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups. They come to a particular community because they see something that indicates they might be welcomed there.
Gissel said he has no idea why Kevin McGuire, a National Alliance member, chose Bozeman. But he's convinced McGuire is not here by accident.
Joe Roy, who works for the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center and tracks hate-group activity, said such activity sometimes springs up just because someone already living in a community starts believing in the message of a group such as the National Alliance.
Roy's not sure either why McGuire chose to try to gain a footing in Bozeman, but he's seen chapters of the National Alliance and Neo-Nazi groups spring up all over the country.
"Sometimes an incident will bring them in," Roy said.
They watch the Internet for something that indicates they might find a welcome audience, such as a cross-burning or a factory closing, he said. A factory closing means out-of-work and possibly disgruntled people.
"As humans we normally look for someone else to blame our woes on," Roy said. Groups like the National Alliance offer a target: minorities.
Gissel has traveled around the United States to talk to communities about his experience fighting hate groups. He's seen some patterns in their methods.
"They start as service groups," Gissel said. They attempt to gain some level of legitimacy. The message tends to morph toward anti-government rhetoric and then to racist attacks.
"They become the racial gatekeepers of the community," Gissel said.
Roy wasn't surprised to learn McGuire had filed for School Board in Bozeman.
"That used to be looked at as the exercise of the day (for white supremacists)," he said. "They used to encourage their members to seek office where they might gain legitimacy."
Ping.
What crap. Norm hasn't "battled" anything except whether or not to raise his fees.
The neo's found a very nice home in CdA thanks to a bunch of limp-wristed, panty-waist, leftist do-nothings like Norm.
Good gawd, it must be ADL fundraising time again.
I thought I was the only one outside of MT who reads the Bozeman Chronicle.
The head turd, Fuxman, is here for a luncheon on the 20th.
Yet another in an infinite series of mutual masturbation affairs with the fbi and others - ADL gives the local SAIC a 'torch of liberty' award and a nice presentation and dinner, and the SAIC gives them a tour of the local Command Center and tells them what wonderful informants citizens they are. A real partnership, combatting extremism for a better America and a better tomorrow.
I never really understood the point of these groups anyway.
Go to Congress, look around. Mostly white men.
Go to corporate headquarters, look around. Mostly white men.
Heck, go to an Ivy League university, look around. Yep.
OK, you're supreme. Now go out and get a job.
MT needs to stop this now!
When the headline said "hate groups," I thought they were talking about MoveOn.org, Michael Moore's idiotic followers, and the gang or haters comprising Al Gore, Howard Dean, Maureen Dowd, etc. Those are the real hate groups.
So, the neo-Nazi nutballs target sites of factory closings, while the "Human Rights" nutballs target college campuses ("campi"). Both of them target head cases and mental deficients, who evidently enjoy a rapid rise to the top of their respective dung heaps. If I had to choose between them, though, I think the "Human Rights" extremists are much more of a real threat to our liberties than any group of unemployed skinheads playing soldier out in the woods.
Great post!
Heck, when you advertise the natives want to live and let live, you can expect a few whackos to take advantage of that. Not that the other states don't have whackos, too, but MT has so few people to begin with, the whackos stand out more.
ping..these guys have been trying to slime in here for years.
Okay. But what about the groups he is talking about?
They may already be here.
What is the "SAIC" you refer to? Is it the company, the Chicago school...?
Hate groups... Planned Parenthood? Ripping little people to bits unanesthetized is pretty hateful, more so than any of these neo-Nazi kooks.
Not to be confused with other Nazi groups like the GLSEN crowd which specifically targets children in order to teach hate.
Bozeman is one pretty strange locale (along with Missoula)
I'm not all that surprised.
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