Veteran Skinhead Forms New Racist Club, Peddles T-shirts on Internet
Some skinhead organizers, well, it seems, just can’t stop organizing the next generation of racist clubs, claiming they’ve now found the real-deal, supported with T-shirts sales on the Internet. Take the case of Brien James, a tattoo shop owner from Indiana.
Almost a household-name in some racist circles, James has been organizing or attempting to organize neo-Nazi skinhead gangs since his teens. About a decade ago, he was a corner stake in the sometimes violent Vinlanders Social Club, a neo-Nazi gang with a reputation for drinking, fist-fighting and following a racist, pagan religion known as Odinism once practiced by Vikings.
Maybe that’s how James came up with the name for his new group, American Vikings. He has started a new Web site, complete with a racist forum, for his newest group. The hammer of Thor will be the group’s logo, James proudly says.
And does he have a deal for new-comers: A “free” American Vikings patch for everyone who buys a T-shirt -- once he personally checks out the authenticity of the applicant.
“This is a new movement,” James proclaims on his web site. “We intend to offend racists and anti-racists alike. Liberals and conservatives. We have nothing to lose and nothing to fear.”
James says the American Vikings Web site will be “dedicated to creating entertaining and meaningful discussion about issues affecting patriotic, constitutional libertarian leaning, working class Americans.”
Without mentioning his role as a founder of the Vinlanders Social Club in 2003, or previous ties with the Outlaw Hammerskins and Hoosier State Skinheads, James says his new “project was created by long-time former members of the American White Nationalist movement in the hopes that we can create a realistic and constructive dialog amongst several different types of patriots.”
“We will give respect where it is due, and treat all people and topics they way they deserve to be treated,’’ says the man who previously has assaulted those with whom he has disagreed. “If you are reading this from a right or left perspective and you cannot handle that simply go somewhere else,’’ he says.
To stir interest in his new “patch-wearing organization,” James says he has a special deal for newcomers – men and women – who buy a T-shirt to support his new cause. “You do not have to belong to this organization to help with the American Vikings Project,’’ James says. “For the first 30 days of this project (until June 10th), anyone who buys a members shirt will receive their AVP patch with it for free.”
Wow! But James says before he mails out American Viking patches to founding members, “I must know who you are.” He asks people buying AVP T-shirts to include their full name, e-mail address, screen name on the group’s forum and a phone number. Without that information, the man, who once boasted about the size of his file kept by a Joint Terrorism Task Force, promises a refund.
Stay tuned.
