Title : Black activist: I took control of U.S. neo-Nazi group to kill it
link : Black activist: I took control of U.S. neo-Nazi group to kill it
Black activist: I took control of U.S. neo-Nazi group to kill it
A black activist says he has taken the helm of one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. to put it out of business.
Corporate records show James Stern of Moreno Valley, Calif., is now president of the National Socialist Movement (NSM). He replaces previous leader Jeff Schoep.
The NSM is one of several extremist groups sued over bloodshed at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Stern says he took advantage of a years-long dialogue he established with Schoep. Stern said he convinced Schoep to transfer the organization to him when Schoep said he planned to disband it.
"The National Socialist Movement put a poison pill into the truth of history. I think we can put the antidote to make sure that we correct some of those wrongs," Stern said.
Stern said he prefers to control the group and neuter it rather than see it disband and reconstitute in the shadows.
"If he dissolved the group, all anyone would have to do is take it and re-incorporate it and carry on the same shenanigans as if it never stopped," Stern said.
Schoep did not return messages Saturday seeking comment, but a post under his name on a Russian social media site claims Stern tricked him.
Internal turmoil at NSM
Matthew Heimbach, a leading white nationalist figure who briefly served as the NSM's community outreach director last year, said Schoep and other group leaders have been at odds with rank-and-file members over its direction. Heimbach said some members "essentially want it to remain a politically impotent white supremacist gang" and resisted ideological changes advocated by Schoep.
Heimbach said Schoep's apparent departure and Stern's installation as its leader probably spell the end of the group in its current form. Schoep was 21 when he took control of the group in 1994 and renamed it the National Socialist Movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"I think it's kind of a sad obit for one of the longest-running white nationalist organizations," said Heimbach, who estimates it had about 40 active, dues-paying members last year.
The group has drawn much larger crowds at rallies.
NSM members used to attend rallies and protests in full Nazi uniforms, including at a march in Toledo, Ohio, that sparked a riot in 2005. More recently, Schoep tried to rebrand the group and appeal to a new generation of racists and anti-Semites by getting rid of such overt displays of Nazi symbols.
Stern also set sights on KKK
It appeared that Stern had been trying for at least two years to disrupt the group. A message posted on his website said he would be meeting with Schoep in February 2017 "to sign a proclamation acknowledging the NSM denouncing being a white supremacist group."
"I have personally targeted eradicating the [Ku Klux Klan] and the National Socialist Movement, which are two organizations here in this country which have all too long been given privileges they don't deserve," Stern said in a video posted on his site.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the plaintiffs suing white supremacist groups and movement leaders over the Charlottesville violence asked the court to sanction Schoep. They say he has ignored his obligations to turn over documents and give them access to his electronic devices and social media accounts. They also claim Schoep recently fired his attorney as a stalling tactic.
Watch: The rise of white supremacist, Neo-Nazi movements in the U.S
A federal magistrate judge in Charlottesville ruled last Friday that Stern cannot represent the NSM in the case because he does not appear to be a licensed attorney. That did not deter Stern from filing Thursday's request for summary judgment against his own group.
"It is the decision of the National Socialist Movement to plead liable to all causes of actions listed in the complaint against it," he wrote.
Stern served a prison sentence for mail fraud at the same facility as onetime KKK leader Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted in the "Mississippi Burning" killings of three civil rights workers. Killen died in January 2018.
In 2012, Stern claimed Killen signed over to him power of attorney and ownership of 40 acres of land while they were serving prison terms together. A lawyer for Killen asked a judge to throw out the land transfer and certify that Killen and his family owned the property.
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