law SKINHEADenforcement specialS I reportN AMERICA RACISTS ON THE RAMPAGE INCLUDES: Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary • Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments SKINHEADA Publication of the SouthernS IN PovertyAMERICA Law Center RACISTS ON THE RAMPAGE Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments a publication of the southern poverty law center KEVIN SCANLON SKINHEADS IN AMERICA Racist skinheads are one of the potentially most dangerous radical-right threats facing law enforcement today. The products of a frequently violent and criminal subculture, these men and women, typically imbued with neo-Nazi beliefs about Jews, blacks, ho- mosexuals and others, are also notoriously difficult to track. Organized into small, mo- bile “crews” or acting individually, skinheads tend to move around frequently and often without warning, even as they network and organize across regions. For law enforcement, this poses a particular problem — responding to crimes and even conspiracies crossing multiple jurisdictions. As these extremists extend their reach across the country, it is vital that law enforcement officers who deal with them become familiar with the activities of skinheads nationwide. What follows is a general essay on the history and nature of the skinhead movement, pre- pared with the needs of law enforcement officers in mind. After that, we reprint recent reports on the contemporary skinhead movement in America, including an overview of the latest developments, portraits of 10 particularly frightening leaders, and a gallery of insignias and tattoos commonly used by racist skinheads. This booklet was prepared by the staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks the American radical right and also publishes the investigative magazine Intelligence Report. Contributors included Susy Buchanan, Anthony Griggs, David Holthouse, Brentin Mock, Laurie Wood and Alexander Zaitchik. It was edited by Holthouse and Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok. INTELLIGENCE PROJECTTM SKINHEADS IN AMERICA 2 intelligence report special edition SKINHEADS IN AMERICA i. introduction The racist skinhead movement in the United States has entered its third decade. Since the first skinhead gangs surfaced in Texas and the Midwest in the early 1980s, this racist ing-class counterpoints to foppish and violent subculture has established itself mods, long-haired hippies, mohawked in dozens of states from coast to coast and punks and made-up goths. has authored some of the country’s most vi- The skinhead style first emerged as part of a non-racist and multira- cious hate crimes in memory, from arson cial scene. White skinheads took on a to assault to murder. The racist skinheads’ persona that reflected admiration for trademark style — shaved head, combat and kinship with a new generation of working-class West Indian immigrants boots, bomber jacket, neo-Nazi and white into the United Kingdom. Like the Ja- power tattoos — has become a fixture in maican immigrants of the time, the first American culture. skinheads were clean-cut, neat, and sharp-looking compared to the shag- The scowling skinhead has joined the America have darkened with steady gier youth styles of the period. (White hooded Klansman as an immediately post-World War II immigration from skinheads eventually lost their affinity recognizable icon of hate. Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, a for Jamaica as Rastafarian fashions Unlike the Klan, racist skinhead cul- nativist backlash has appeared in both became ascendant, with their overtones ture is not native to the United States. mainstream and extremist forms. The of black pride and pan-Africanism.) And unlike the Klan, it is a truly global skinhead movement is the most violent Many early white skinheads were phenomenon, with skinhead gangs and ideologically crude form of this vaguely nationalistic and “proud to be haunting major cities and towns in just backlash. Depending on the country, British,” but their deepest loyalties lay about every white-majority country on racist skinheads may have shadowy with their childhood chums and the earth. From Austria to Australia and ties to radical parties participating in local soccer team, not the “white race,” Argentina to America, working-class electoral politics. Skinhead groups in as professed by today’s racist skin- youths can be found dressed in some the U.S. lack such connections, but for heads. While known for their youthful local variation on the skinhead theme, those unlucky enough to encounter aggression, petty criminality, and soc- espousing a crude worldview that is them on a darkened street, this does cer stadium violence, this activity was viciously anti-foreigner, anti-black, anti- not make them any less fearsome. seen as borne out of economic hard- gay, and anti-Semitic. In recent years, the ship and a general spirit of bully-boy Internet and cheap international airfares ii. origins rebellion — not blind race hatred. In- have allowed skinhead groups across The first skinheads emerged in the late deed, the first skinhead music was reg- the planet to communicate and organize 1960s as just one of the many distinct gae and ska, both black musical forms; in ways that would have shocked the youth cultures that flowered in post- the earliest targets of white skinheads’ original skinheads of the 1960s and ’70s, war Britain. Taking elements of Eng- anger and homemade weapons were whose vision and turf was limited to the lish “mod” and Jamaican immigrant each other and rival soccer fans. East London neighborhoods in which fashion, these working-class London But a split between racist and non- they grew up and lived. youths crafted an identity in self-con- racist skinheads was apparent and The growth of the racist skinhead scious opposition to the middle-class began deepening soon after the style movement has mirrored the rise in “longhairs.” At various points in their was born. By the early ’70s, skinhead non-white immigration to the West. early development, English skinheads attacks on South Asian immigrants in KEVIN SCANLON As the skin hues of Europe and North positioned themselves as tough work- London — the infamous sport of “Paki intelligence report special edition 3 bashing” — had become an international iii. skinheads in the u.s. But Martell had merely proven he was news story. These violent skinheads had The neo-Nazi skinhead phenomenon ahead of his time, and his defeat was not yet acquired the trappings of neo- spread quickly to the United States. By local. When he first started recruiting Nazi costumes and ideology, but they the early 1980s, skinhead activity was for CASH, there were likely fewer than were already acting like Hitler’s goon reported in Texas and the Midwest, 200 racist skinheads in the United Sates. squads, the brown shirts. One skinhead among other places. But the movement By 1989, when he was convicted of home explained a typical “Paki bash” to a Time only started gaining national attention invasion, aggravated battery, and rob- magazine journalist in 1970: “You go up during the last third of the decade. It bery and sentenced to 11 years in prison, to them and bump into them, and then was then that skinhead gangs like the there were an estimated 3,000. you nut [forehead bash] them right, and Dallas Hammerskins made a splash A major force behind this national then you hit them, and as they go down with violent racist attacks on immi- growth spurt was Tom Metzger, a Fall- you give them a kicking, bash them with grants and blacks. brook, Calif.-based former Klansman an iron bar, and take their watches and The most important skinhead gang in and longtime leader of the neo-Nazi rings and things like that.” raising the American movement’s early group White Aryan Resistance (WAR). More than 50 such attacks were profile was Chicago’s CASH (Chicago Around 1986, Metzger formed WAR reported within a span of weeks in Area Skin Heads), which made national Youth and launched an organized 1970, triggering street protests by Brit- headlines with a brutal 1987 crime spree skinhead outreach campaign. Together ish South Asians. A definitive break that involved assaults on six Hispanic with his teenage son, John, Metzger between racist and non-racist skins women, swastikas painted on three sought to ground the dispersed move- had occurred. synagogues, and numerous incidents of ment in ideology and direct its wild During the early to mid-’70s, Eng- vandalism to Jewish-owned business. and chaotic youthful energy into build- land’s skinheads went into temporary The leader of CASH was an ex-con and ing smart, well-trained, and obedient decline. They experienced a revival former member of the American Nazi street cells around the country. In in 1976, when a new generation of skin- Party named Clark Martell. 1988, Tom Metzger organized the first heads started earning a fresh reputa- In the mid-1980s, Martell played the major hate rock festival in the U.S., tion for violence through attacks on role of a skinhead Johnny Appleseed, Aryan Fest, in Oklahoma. (The annual punks, homosexuals, and immigrants. performing around Chicago with his festival, now under the management of Fueling these attacks and cementing punk band Romantic Violence and pass- Volksfront, a skinhead group based in the new racist skinhead identity was ing out American Nazi Party newslet- Oregon, remains a main event on the increasing association with two neofas- ters and copies of National Socialist annual skinhead social calendar.) cist political parties, the National Front Skinhead magazine between his band’s It was also in 1988 that Metzger’s and the British Movement. The latter, sets. Martell’s neo-Nazi recruiting efforts bore their most bitter fruit. In founded by long-time neo-Nazi Colin drive caught the attention of Chicago’s November, WAR Youth representative Jordan in 1968, did the most to stamp numerous “traditional,” or non-rac- Dave Mazella visited Portland, Ore., a swastika on the racist sector of the ist, skinheads, including a number to train and guide members of a local skinhead movement.