If you are White and Against Illegal Immigration, stand with us on April 21st in Columbia, South Carolina. www.nsm88.com
From the front page of the State Newspaper:
http://www.thestate.com/136/story/35261.html
Posted on Fri, Apr. 13, 2007
Neo-Nazi group to rally against illegal immigration at State House
By LEE HIGGINS - lhiggins@thestate.com
The National Socialist Movement — the largest neo-Nazi group in the country — has scheduled a rally against illegal immigration April 21 in front of the S.C. State House.
Two hundred people are expected to participate, said John Taylor Bowles of Laurens, who heads the organization’s state operations.
The event occurs the same weekend as the group’s three-day national meeting, which begins April 20 in Laurens.
The group plans to gather at 12:30 p.m. at Assembly and Lady streets, then march to the State House, when a three-hour demonstration will begin at 1 p.m.
Bowles applied to the Columbia Police Department for a parade permit.
The department is still working out details with the NSM and has not made a decision whether to approve or deny it, according to Sgt. Florence McCants.
“Our concern is just being able to maintain security for everyone involved,” McCants said.
The NSM has already been granted approval to rally on the north grounds of the State House from 1-4 p.m., according to documents from the State Budget and Control Board.
Some NSM stormtroopers are expected to attend in uniform, wearing brown shirts with swastikas on the left arm band, black pants and army boots, Bowles said.
NSM members plan to carry 10 flags, five of which have swastikas on them and a banner advertising the movement, Bowles said. They are expected to be joined by members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups as they give speeches opposing illegal immigration and the Iraq war, organizers said.
Jeff Schoep, 33, of Minneapolis, the group’s commander, claims many illegal immigrants contribute to crime and have made little effort to assimilate to the American culture.
“A lot of them don’t speak English,” Schoep said. “They’re not trying to speak English. They’re coming to conquer our country, not to become a part of it.”
The NSM is expecting some protesters, but hopes things go smoothly, Schoep said.
“If it gets physical, we will defend ourselves,” he said.
The group’s demonstrations have caused friction before.
On Oct. 15, 2005, about two dozen NSM members gathered at a park in Toledo, OH to march against black gangs they said were harassing white residents, according to Associated Press reports.
Prior to the march, people protesting the NSM started a riot, some throwing baseball-sized rocks at police, vandalizing vehicles and stores.
In all, 114 arrests were made on charges including assault, vandalism, failure to obey police, failure to disperse and overnight curfew violations, the AP reported.
Twelve police officers were injured, including one who suffered a concussion when a brick came through a side window of her cruiser and hit her on the head.
Bowles said millions of immigrants have illegally entered the country and politicians and the Mexican government have done little to stop it.
The NSM wants U.S. troops removed from Iraq and deployed along U.S. borders, particularly the Mexican border, Bowles said. “We just can’t keep open borders,” Bowles said. “The military’s job should always be to protect the United States and its citizens and the border should be the number one priority right now.”
The Ku Klux Klan and NSM have recently been exploiting hot button issues, including illegal immigration, to draw members, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“That issue seems to resonate with people who otherwise would have nothing to do with these organizations,” said Bill Nigut, ADL’s Southeast Regional Director. “It’s conceivable that they see that it resonates and therefore they hammer away at it even more.” NSM leaders would not say how many members are in their organization.
According to the ADL, there were between 100 and 200 members in 2004.
The NSM has two chapters in South Carolina, Nigut said.
The aim of the NSM is to root out “Jews, illegal immigrants and African-Americans” who they believe are “polluting the white race,” Nigut said.
“They want a pure Aryan race controlling America and they have no willingness to accept the diversity that America is,” Nigut said. Allen Kohlhepp, an ADL researcher, suspects that the rally could draw several dozen NSM members. But he said the group is usually outnumbered by 10 times as many counterdemonstrators.
One People’s Project, a Philadelphia anti-racist watchdog group, expects to have members at the rally observing and taking notes, according to spokesman Daryle Lamont Jenkins.
Jenkins is encouraging people to protest the group.
But the battle against racism must be carried out in one’s everyday life in educational institutions, courtrooms, churches and places of employment, he said.
“You’re gonna have to make a difference in your everyday life against them,” Jenkins said. “If you know somebody involved in an organization like this and you know they have a position of influence you’ve gotta call them out on it.”
Reach Higgins at (803) 771-8570.
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