The Blotter: October 2007

Read the Hatewatch Blog

April 19
Tipp City, Ohio, police arrested two members of the neo-Nazi American National Socialist Workers Party after they allegedly disrupted a speech by President Bush by unfurling a party flag and shouting anti-Mexican slogans at the president. Justin Boyer and Kenny Fields were charged with criminal trespassing.

May 7
Charges for allegedly severely beating a black man in Indianapolis that had been lodged against Eric Fairburn, a founder of the racist skinhead umbrella group Vinlanders Social Club, were upgraded during a court hearing. Prosecutors refiled misdemeanor citations against the notoriously violent Fairburn and two other Vinlanders, Josh Kern and Timothy Dumas, as felony assault charges.

May 14
Two members of Public Enemy Number One (PENI) — a neo-Nazi skinhead group targeted heavily by law enforcement since California authorities arrested 67 members and found a hit list naming police officers and a prosecutor last year — went on trial in Santa Ana for the murder of PENI co-founder Scott "Scottish" Miller. Jacob Rump and Michael Lamb are also accused of attempting to murder a police officer during a car chase three days after the 2002 killing of Miller.

May 19
Jason Kenneth Hamilton began a two-day rampage in Moscow, Idaho, that left his wife, a sheriff's deputy, a church sexton and himself dead, along with another three people injured. The [Spokane, Wash.] Spokesman-Review reported Hamilton was a longtime member of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations with a history of violence. He had been held involuntarily after a February suicide attempt but was quickly released.

May 20
Yavapai County, Ariz., Sheriff's Deputy Justin Dwyer was arrested on drug charges including possession, use of cocaine, possession of a firearm during a drug offense, and involving a minor in a drug crime (he allegedly used his 16-year-old son to buy cocaine for his personal use). Dwyer, 39, is the former Washington state leader of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, a fact that Yavapai County memos indicate former sheriff George "Buck" Buchanan knew when he hired Dwyer in 1999.

May 30
An anti-Semitic extremist charged with murdering the assistant director of the Jewish Federation of GreaterSeattle and the attempted murder of five other women there entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Naveed Afzal Haq, 31, a Pakistani-American who has a lengthy history of mental problems, told his victims just before he shot them on July 28, 2006, that he was "angry at Israel."

June 12
The last of 12 members of the white supremacist Nazi Low Riders named in a wide-ranging 2002 indictment pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in a Los Angeles federal court. Jeffrey Langenhorst and Joseph Hayes face sentencing in the fall. The indictment charged gang members with orchestrating crimes including murder, robbery, drug trafficking, extortion and retaliation against witnesses.

June 20
An Omaha, Neb., federal appeals court rejected Rudy "Butch" Stanko's appeal of a conviction and six-year sentence for being a felon in possession of firearms. Stanko, briefly chosen to lead the neo-Nazi Church of the Creator in 1990, served time in the 1980s for selling millions of pounds of tainted meat to public schools.

June 25
An arrest warrant was issued for "journalist" Christopher Bollyn, a long-time writer for anti-Semitic publications, after he failed to appear for sentencing on charges of misdemeanor aggravated assault and resisting arrest. Bollyn tangled with police officers — his lawyer claimed he was bothered by their "militaristic appearance" — at his Hoffman Estates, Ill., home. Bollyn wrote a June 29 letter calling his arrest "payback from the Zionists for what I have written about Israel and 9-11."

June 28
Nineteen members or associates of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) were indicted on racketeering charges by a federal grand jury that said they used murder, kidnapping and other violence to build up the white supremacist gang in New Mexico. Twelve of the defendants are accused of recruiting an unnamed undercover police officer to murder Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Billy Anders, who served a year in jail for the 2004 killing of an AB leader who had just murdered Anders' partner.