White Supremacist Arrested by FBI Tied to Student Group Leader
A white supremacist just arrested on federal firearms charges in the state of Washington had ties to a university student leader of a new chapter of Youth for Western Civilization (YWC). Jeremiah Daniel “JD” Hop, previously convicted of child rape in California, is accused in a federal indictment of being a felon illegally possessing a shotgun. Arrested by FBI agents on Wednesday, Hop also likely faces state charges for possessing stolen property taken in burglaries near his home in Pullman and the campus of Washington State University, authorities say.
The 29-year-old suspect is linked to recent Aryan and extremist picketing outside Mexican taco stands near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, authorities say. Using the name “WhitePhoenix,” Hop has boasted of that involvement on the racist Stormfront Web site, The Spokesman-Review reported Thursday. On his Facebook page, Hop’s list of “inspirational people” included the late William Pierce, who founded the National Alliance and author of The Turner Diaries. The fictional account of a race war has been the blueprint for action for some extremists, including neo-Nazi members of The Order in the 1980s and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 1995.
In a 2006 "guestbook" posting for imprisoned Order member David Lane, Hop, using a "fourteenwordlivin" e-mail address, said he was inspired by Lane's racist writings. "It would be nice if you were not in prison,'' Hop said to Lane, who died in prison in 2007.
"They failed and you are still getting your message across,'' Hop told Lane. "You have the power and determination. I'm 24 and have so much ahead. I wish I could talk to someone who could lead me on the right path to do the best for our race. My love and respect."
Although he isn’t currently a student at WSU in Pullman, Hop’s Facebook friends included Phil Tignino, the student leader of the Youth for Western Civilization chapter, an officially recognized student organization on the WSU campus. The group’s anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism message targets young adults and seems to flirt with the extremist, hate-filled fringe.
Youth for Western Civilization’s web site says the organization, formed in 2008 with an application for non-profit status, will hold its first national conference June 17-19 in Washington, D.C. New chapters of Youth for Western Civilization are popping up on university campuses across the United States – from Washington State University in eastern Washington to the University of Rhode Island. Other YWC chapters reportedly exist at Vanderbilt University, American University, Providence College, the University of North Carolina and the University of Connecticut and Boise State University.
Tignino, also involved with the “College Republicans” on the WSU campus, removed his Facebook “friendship” link with Hop on Thursday after Tignino was questioned about his association with the suspect by WSU student journalist Andrea Castillo. The goal of the student chapter “is to revive Western civilization and make it the dominant culture in the United States,” Tignino told Castillo, who wrote about the YWC chapter for the university’s Murrow News Service.
“I don’t think the U.S. should be known as the country that is home to every culture, language and belief system in the world,” Tignino said in a news story written by Castillo. When asked about Hop, Tignino attempted to distance himself from the self-proclaimed white supremacist and former employer. “I just did drywall for him,” said Tignino, a 22-year-old political science major from Los Angeles. “I haven't even talked to him (Hop) in a few months,’’ Tignino told Murrow News Service. “If those allegations are true it’s unfortunate that he did it, and should be tried to the full extent of the law. It’s unfortunate that such a situation had to happen.”
Tignino said his group, which includes two members from the University of Idaho in nearby Moscow, Idaho, works frequently with the WSU chapters of the College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty.
“However, YWC is an organization in favor of discussing the social issues, like radical multiculturalism or political correctness, that other conservatives are too afraid to talk about,’’ Tignino was quoted as saying in Murrow News article. The same article quoted Derek Spady, president of the College Republicans and YWC member at WSU, as saying Youth for Western Civilization “will soon be an international group because conservative groups in Europe and Canada have started to jump on board with the national chapter.”
Spady, a 21-year-old political science major, said he will likely lead the WSU chapter of YWC as coordinator next year. “The barrier between liberals and conservatives has always been there, and it’s never going to go away,’’ Castillo wrote in her article about the group.
Kevin DeAnna, the founder of Youth for Western Civilization, says the upcoming national conference will be YWC's “real birth as a national organization with a support structure to build and maintain chapters at campuses all around the country.” Featured speakers and the exact location of the conference aren’t given on the group’s web site.
“All the work that we've been doing over the last couple years will come together at this conference,’’ DeAnna says on the Web site. The national conference, he said, will “allow like-minded people to learn political technology ... and put together our plan for next year.” Last October, DeAnna spoke at a workshop sponsored by the white nationalist Social Contract Press.
