Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group's Campaign of Menace

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Who are the white supremacists assaulting people at rallies in Berkeley, Charlottesville and Huntington Beach? We found some of them:

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Retweeted by ProPublica: https://twitter.com/ProPublica

A bit of a #longread, but well worth your time. A white hate group is training to fight and posting beatings online.

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DOCUMENTING HATE

Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group’s Campaign of Menace

They train to fight. They post their beatings online. And so far, they have little reason to fear the authorities.

by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica, Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham for ProPublica Oct. 19, 2:01 p.m. EDT



RAM member Ben Daley (center) attacks an unidentified woman at the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Jason Andrew for Splinter)

....
{F}or many Americans, conservatives as well as liberals, there was shock and confusion at the sight of bands of white men bearing torches, chanting racist slogans and embracing the heroes of the Confederacy: Who were they? What are their numbers and aims?

There is, of course, no single answer. Some who were there that weekend in Charlottesville are hardened racists involved with long-running organizations like the League of the South. Many are fresh converts to white supremacist organizing, young people attracted to nativist and anti-Muslim ideas circulated on social media by leaders of the so-called alt-right, the newest branch of the white power movement. Some are paranoid characters thrilled to traffic in the symbols and coded language of vast global conspiracy theories. Others are sophisticated provocateurs who see the current political moment as a chance to push a “white agenda,” with angry positions on immigration, diversity and economic isolationism.

ProPublica spent weeks examining one distinctive group at the center of the violence in Charlottesville: an organization called the Rise Above Movement, one of whose members was the white man dispensing beatings near Emancipation Park Aug. 12.

The group, based in Southern California, claims more than 50 members and a singular purpose: physically attacking its ideological foes. RAM’s members spend weekends training in boxing and other martial arts, and they have boasted publicly of their violence during protests in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley. Many of the altercations have been captured on video, and its members are not hard to spot. ... Indeed, ProPublica has identified the group’s core members and interviewed one of its leaders at length. The man in the Charlottesville attacks — filmed by a documentary crew working with ProPublica — is 24-year-old Ben Daley, who runs a Southern California tree-trimming business.
....

Ali Winston is a reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and covers criminal justice and surveillance. Follow him on Twitter at @awinston.

Darwin BondGraham is an investigative reporter for the East Bay Express in Oakland, California. Follow him on Twitter at @darwinbondgraham.

A.C. Thompson
A.C. Thompson covers criminal justice issues for ProPublica. He has been a reporter for 12 years, mostly in the San Francisco Bay area.

[email protected]

@acinvestigates

510-990-6317

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "Fine People"

Ben Daley is a criminal, as are most if not all of those bastards.