DEMOCRACY GONE WILD

Freedom of Speech is cherished – I understand that. But…has the internet provided a forum for speech that shouldn’t be free? Is there a point where government must draw the line?
<a href=”http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/democracy_gone_wild/6057/”>TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE</a>

‘Democracy gone wild’
Hate speech infests online versions of local daily newspapers
06/12/2008

For the person behind the moniker “Viking Knight,” the Internet is a virtual playground for hate.
“Mexican’ts are a b…stard race and will come to nothing in the end. WHITE POWER FOREVER,” Viking Knight wrote in response to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy. “Somebody saved the LAPD the trouble of icing this ‘vato.’ … He is one less Mexie on the planet, not that it counts for much.”

On the beating of an Orthodox Jew by skinheads in North Hollywood: “We should offer a reward to the guy who off’d this Christ-killer. … Jew$ are a disease.”

On the death of an Armenian girl who was denied a liver transplant by her health insurance company: “God got rid of one the Turks missed. Too bad He doesn’t get rid of all of them.”

A person might expect to find these and other vile comments by Viking Knight — including slurs against gays and Asians — posted on a white supremacist or neo-Nazi Web site.

But the banner on the top of the page belongs to the Daily News of Los Angeles, and in other cases to its MediaNews Group sister paper, the Pasadena Star-News.

Like dozens of other people who post comments through these and other newspaper Web sites, Viking Knight can remain as anonymous as he or she wishes to be. And due to the anonymity and instant access to an audience that poorly monitored newspaper and social networking sites provide, Internet hate speech is a growing national phenomenon.

“It’s democracy gone wild,” said Deborah Lauter, director of the national civil rights division of the Anti-Defamation League. She’s hoping the Daily News and the Star-News will remove racist diatribes from the Web and be more vigilant about hate speech in the future. 

“Unfortunately, we believe now that many more papers are offering this kind of [comment] service we are going to see an increase in that kind of hate rhetoric. While it is protected speech, we believe it is incumbent on a newspaper or a social networking site to step up and be a responsible corporation, and be more active in moderating [its Web site] and taking down what is clearly hate speech,” said Lauter. “Once they decide to create that forum, then they have to act responsibly and monitor it.”

The Daily News and Star-News Web sites allow any reader to post his or her views through a service called Topix, which allows discussion forums to be built around news articles and other subjects.
“It is impossible for any paper our size to read all the comments every day, so this is an issue often discussed [among the 57 MediaNews Group daily newspapers, many of which use Topix],” said Ryan Garfat, online editor of the Daily News.

Garfat said the paper typically relies on Web users to flag hate speech and other abusive posts through Topix, which forwards those complaints to editors. He said Tuesday that he plans to remove hate speech identified by this newspaper, but is already dealing with dozens of reader complaints about other posts — some of which aren’t hate speech at all.

Garfat also said that there were no plans to change how the Web site is monitored.

“The unfortunate effects of having an open forum are that these things are going to happen, and we feel they reflect poorly on the identity of the newspaper. But if we take the alternate route of eliminating comments, then I think we are not fulfilling our goal of allowing legitimate discussion within our community and would be disserving our community by doing that.”

The Star-News has had far fewer problems with online hate speech than the Daily News — the source of the three comments quoted above — and removed posts that contained hate speech following conversations with the Pasadena Weekly.

“Our policy for the comments is that we do not moderate or edit the comments before they’re posted online. However, we will remove comments that are deemed to be offensive or inappropriate,” said San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group Senior Editor Frank Pine, who supervises the Star-News, Whittier Daily News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Pine said he was not aware of Viking Knight’s hateful posts until hearing from this newspaper, and that the only complaints about comments made over the Internet had been from sources in news stories who felt they were being characterized unfairly.

Although Topix terms of service prohibit content that is “hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable,” it also warns that users “may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.”

Topix is a Palo Alto-based limited liability corporation owned largely by publishing giants the Gannett Co., The McClatchy Co. and the Tribune Co., according to its Web site.  The Web site for the Los Angeles Times does not use Topix, and reader comments appear to be monitored to exclude hate speech.

At the Star-News site, Viking Knight makes it clear in one anti-affirmative action rant that he’s no fan of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, and in a separate post appears to advocate that Obama be assassinated.

“Robert Kennedy sold our courageous men in uniform out when he became a peacenik. He sold White people out when he started kissing up to the likes of Chavez, Dr. King, the mestizo farmworkers, etc. Sirhan may not be a prize, but he was just what America needed, just when we needed him,” wrote Viking Knight in response to a column by Star-News Public Editor Larry Wilson about Kennedy’s Pasadena-bred assassin. “As we approach the November elections, we could use a man like Sirhan again.”

“That post is clearly over the line,” Pine said Monday. On Tuesday it had been removed from the site, along with other posts disparaging Latino youth.

“As shocking as these kinds of things are, they are increasingly common on perfectly mainstream Web sites. Usually the paper will step in and scrub their sites of this kind of material, because if they didn’t they would become absolute nesting grounds for white supremacists. These guys are looking for a place to safely transmit their ideology and bring more people into the movement,” said Mark Potok, editor of Intelligence Report, a magazine that monitors hate groups and is produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Potok said that he’s been forced to keep a close eye on his magazine’s blog (www.splcenter.org/blog) to prevent hateful comments from being posted. People have even tried to post racially motivated threats to assassinate Obama, which he has reported to the Department of Homeland Security.
In the United States, constitutional free speech protections typically prevent legal action on hate speech unless someone is threatening or urging others to physically harm a person or racial group, said Potok, who recently testified before the Helsinki Commission (also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) about threats posed by Internet hate speech.

Potok was testifying not only as an expert, but also as a victim: A neo-Nazi group once identified him on a Web site as an enemy of their cause and posted his home address. But because the group did not specifically order its readers to do Potok harm, they didn’t break the law.

In Europe and most other Western nations, hate speech — in Germany, denying or trivializing the Holocaust — can be prosecuted as a crime. As a result, said Potok, the majority of foreign-language white supremacist Web sites are hosted through computer servers in the United States.

Viking Knight also took aim through the Star-News at the social services organization El Centro de Acción Social, which he or she wrote on May 31 “is nothing but a Reconquista terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of America.”

The next day, in response to another reader’s concern about the achievement levels of some students receiving scholarships from the organization, Viking Knight wrote: “They’re Mexican’ts, What did you expect? Their grades suck because in most high schools, you can’t major in Lowriding 101.”

El Centro Executive Director Randy Jurado Ertll said he thinks the Star-News should prevent racist comments like these — which were pulled from the site after Pine spoke with the Weekly — from reaching readers.

“Responsibility comes with freedom of expression,” said Ertll. “I was just disgusted by this. We need to be vigilant of people who use hate language. Just as we denounce hate crimes, we have to denounce hate language. Words impact people’s actions and influence others to promote more hate.”

But it doesn’t end there. One conversation chain from the Daily News involving Viking Knight and others was so rife with prejudice against a Latino teen shot to death at a party — “like all the rest of the scum too hell he went too face satan,” wrote catwomomen4u69 —  that someone claiming to be the victim’s ex-girlfriend was actually pleading with people to stop.

“Certainly we could do a better job of moderating comments,” said Garfat, who acknowledged that recent staffing cuts have affected the paper’s ability to monitor the Web site. “But, I still maintain the need to allow people to have conversations supersedes the vile comments that sometimes permeate our boards. We work with what we’ve got.”

In another conversation that devolved into slurs against “Mexicans and blacks,” someone wrote: “It’s time for a good old fashion clan meeting … come on my arean [sic] brothers … lets get out our rebel flags and let the lynching begin.”

Such vitriol targeting Latinos in general or people perceived to be illegal aliens is, sadly, “very much par for the course,” in terms of hate speech to be found on mainstream Web sites, said Potok.

“We’re in a whole new age,” said the ADL’s Lauter. “The anonymity of the Internet provides a forum so the people who wouldn’t have the proclivity to say it in public can hide behind screens. We used to say the Klan hid behind their white hoods; these [people] hide behind their screens.”

And in many ways, newspapers are behind the times in figuring out how to respond.

“There’s a larger issue in this story,” said Pine, “that is, to what degree should newspaper Web sites allow people to comment anonymously. It’s something that warrants further scrutiny. Certainly it’s a conversation we’ve been having in the newsroom and will continue to have.”

Pine and Garfat said they are reluctant to restrict comments until they are screened or increase registration requirements, as that would hinder access to the service. “We want to facilitate the free exchange of ideas and have people feeling comfortable speaking their minds, but on the other hand you don’t want people to hide behind anonymity and use it to promote hatred and say things that have no place in civilized public discourse,” he said.

That such vicious comments sat for more than a week on the Web sites of local daily newspapers angers Nat Nehdar, a friend of the Pasadena Human Relations Commission and its former chair, who dedicates much of his time to activities combating prejudice, hate and violence.

“I feel strongly that newspapers should more carefully monitor their Web sites and eliminate such trash, which in some ways can reflect on the newspaper itself. If you allow it you are not condemning it, so it seems like you are condoning this type of hate speech,” he said.

10:00 EASTERN – COLD SHOT TONIGHT

NOTICE: IF YOU MISSED THE 3-3-08 COLD SHOT YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT HERE

You might not want to miss tonight’s Cold Shots. Recent events have brought Bill White – the Roanoke Nazi – back into our crosshairs as well as a couple of others.

TONIGHT’S TOPICS:

• The fledgling Nazi – Bill White
• Is he is or is he ain’t a Nazi?
• God’s Gift to Ignorance – Alex Linder
• The Linder vs White Will War
• The Secret Agent Man – Hal Turner
• VNN Agents Mutiny Against Turner’s Orders?

TO THE SHOW – CLICK ON THE WINAMP BUTTON

EYE ON HATE RADIO TO DISCUSS LATEST RON PAUL-NAZI LINK

ARCHIVE NOW AVAILABLE – GO HERE AND CLICK ON DECEMBER 20TH ARCHIVE

Eye On Hate Radio Network
You will want to tune-in
Thursday night
December 20th at 9pm est.
as Eye On Hate Reports on the growing media attention to the connections between Ron Paul and Organizied Racism.Also we will comment on the recent announcement from Neo Nazi Bill White that he has lunch with Ron Paul and is ask to help with policy.

Shows Archived in mp3 Format, Shortly After Live Broadcast

Another Jena In The Making?

Is there another Jena, LA in the making here? While school officials try to downplay last weeks events the community seems to have a totally different point of view.

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/210550

Warwick: 12 students took part in harassment
Superintendent says district action to be taken and Internet sites being watched; freshman target in racial incident tells of experience

By PAUL FRANZ, Staff writer
Sunday News

Published: Oct 07, 2007 12:20 AM EST

LITITZ, Pa – Editor’s note: Some of the language in this report might be offensive to readers.
Warwick School District Superintendent John George said 12 high school students who were involved in Wednesday’s racial threats against minority students were identified by police.

“We have the names of the students involved,” he said Saturday night. “They are being monitored.”

The incident at Warwick High School involved at least 12 white students harassing minority students with racial epithets and throwing trash at them. Several students also told the Sunday News at week’s end that some white students had threatened to bring guns to school.

There has been no official confirmation of a gun threat.

However, the racial incident Wednesday was taken seriously and prompted teachers at the school to contact officials and borough police Thursday.

The next day, police greeted students at school. Personal belongings were searched and metal detectors were used.

A recommendation by the district board to take action against the 12 will be forthcoming at an undetermined date, George said.

“The police will be looking into pressing charges,” he said.

Police cited one male student with disorderly conduct last week.

Erik Cora, a black 14-year-old freshman, said he witnessed the event and was targeted by the 12 white students.

Cora said that the perpetrators, who often wear clothing with Confederate flags and hang out in front of the school, “never started anything violent until Wednesday.”

“All my friends told me [Warwick] is a white, racist school,” Cora said, of warnings he received before the incident from friends who do not attend the school.

The student said the incident began early in the morning, before school started after “Confederate gang members,” who are also students, began throwing paper and candy at him and two of his friends, who are also black.

“One of them threw a paper ball at my friend and called him a ‘nigger,’ ” Cora said. “We tried to move away, but they started throwing other things.

“The rednecks said they wanted to bring guns,” he said. “They stare at us and give us glares.”

By the end of Wednesday, he said the “Confederate gang members” wanted to fight minority students.

Another incident occurred in the school’s lunchroom, where a verbal altercation took place, George said. Students told the Sunday News that altercation took place Thursday.

An investigation into the incident by police and school officials is ongoing.

“We need to do some healing in our community,” George said.

Attempts to reach high school officials and school board members were unsuccessful Saturday. Lititz Borough police forwarded all press inquiries to the superintendent’s office.

Although a statement issued by the district says, “We are confident that the issue under investigation is limited in scope,” parents and students at the high school think otherwise.

One 14-year-old female freshman said that she was aware of students who said they are a part of the Ku Klux Klan.

Erasmo Cora Jr., Erik’s father, criticized the school district’s handling of the incident. If there have been previous racial threats, Cora wasn’t aware of any.

“Nobody says anything. [The district] tries to cover anything up,” said Cora. “That wasn’t fair of the district or the school [not to notify parents immediately].”

Several students, whom other Warwick students identified as having been among those involved in Wednesday’s incident, maintain MySpace pages on the Internet, where they boast about their trucks and talk of “redneck row,” the area in the student parking lot where they park and hang out.

On one 17-year-old student’s page, a friend commented Oct. 4, the day of the incident: “hey man that was bullshit this morning but it was kinda funny i think you scared the shit out of that cop.”

One 17-year-old Lititz youth, who on his MySpace page identifies himself as a Warwick student, has a history of posting to Stormfront.org, a white supremacist Web site owned by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black. There is no confirmation that the student was involved in Wednesday’s incident.

Tuesday, the student posted a message to the site: “all my friends have Rebel flags mounted on there [sic] truck beds now. It’s funny as hell seeing them pull in, and hearing the handful of black kids at my school yell at them. You just got to give it right back to them.”

The user also maintains a site on MySpace that has a picture of himself holding what appears to be a shotgun with the caption “border hoppers beware.”

“We have officials monitoring various Internet sites,” George said.

Parents apparently weren’t convinced that their kids were safe at school Friday, despite the fact that students were checked with metal detectors by police and searched.

“I will keep my stepdaughter out until something can be done, more than searching [the students],” said Charles Fatjo of Lititz.

The school sent out a message to parents that they could take their children out of school if they were “feeling uncomfortable.”

By Friday afternoon, scores of parents were taking their children out of school. By 1:30 p.m., about 500 students were signed out by their parents, according to district spokeswoman Lori Zimmerman.

Warwick has one of the lowest diversity rates of the county’s 16 public school districts. About 94 percent of the students are white, according to the Department of Education’s Web site for the 2006-07 school year.

Police said that no “items” were found in the searches of students Friday, and the district continues to describe the event Wednesday as a “nonviolent incident with racial overtones.”

A district statement said that all extracurricular and athletic activities will proceed on schedule, and that police will search students again on Tuesday when classes resume after the Columbus Day holiday.

It is unknown whether the extra security will continue past Tuesday.

The New Port Richie Affair

In one of the most horrendous cases I have ever reported on, this man, John Ditullio, was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Kristofer Guy King and a brutal assault on Patricia Wells in New Port Richey, Florida.

READ THE ACCOUNTS HERE

Although a trial date has not been set, the District Attorney announced today that he would seek the death penalty against Ditullio. As someone opposed to the death penalty I would urge the court to seriously consider keeping this animal in a cage for the rest of his natural life.

Patricia Wells lived in a trailer park in New Port Richey. Unfortunately, her neighbors were a crew of Skinheads who hated African-Americans and homosexuals. Those inhabiting Wells’ trailer epitomize the things these Skinheads hated the most. Patricia had an African-American boyfriend and her son was gay.

In March of last year, there was a “party” going on at the Skinhead place, affectionately dubbed by them as “The Clubhouse.” Their swastika and confederate flag banners were flying high over their denison. In the early hours of the morning, Ditullio put on a gas mask and burst into Patricia’s trailer where he allegedly assaulted her and then turned on who he believed to be her son, stabbing him to death. The young man was, in fact, a friend of her son’s who was simply sleeping over.

The scene was right out of “True Crime Magazine.” Yellow Crime Scene taped was put up, and the news cameras were rolling. Few of us will ever forget the footage of a dazed, confused, and badly injured Patricia Wells as she stood before the TV cameras and recounted the terror that had shaken her world.

Stories and alibis were checked in the search for the perpetrator while an entire community watched in disbelief. The police knew “The Club House” well, and the residents of the trailer park had had their share of run-ins with the Skinheads who several claimed “terrorized” the community.

Still, it took months for the authorities to work the case and the suspects to conclude that it was John Ditullio who would be charged in this heinous event.

This wasn’t the first encounter that the 44-year-old Wells had with the next-door-neighbors. As a matter of fact, Patricia who works as a housekeeper, had filed several complaints of vandalism and threats against the people residing and visiting there.

No one ever likes reporting on this kind of senseless violence, yet it seems that those covering organized hate groups and racist individuals are bound to have to do more than their share in that area. At the time of this investigation, I had no problem telling every single racist out there that if one of the Skinheads were found to be guilty, they should all share in that guilt. I feel the same way today as I did then. And, once again, I’ll make the same observation and statement that I did then…

“As long as the American public remains virtually oblivious to the disease that these rodents are spreading, that disease will continue to flourish and spread. The bright side of all of this is that those who are enlightened to what is happening out there are rapidly becoming avid anti-racists. Given the fact that these bilious hate mongers whine and cry about young ARA members and “antis” being so violent toward them, I have but what thing to say – show me how many of you have been killed, or maimed, by an anti. Show me how many communities have been terrorized by anti-racists.

Young Kristofer Guy King has been taken from us because he dared to befriend those who were considered “race traitors.” Patricia Wells has been brutally scarred because of a life-choice to date outside of her race. The Griffin Park Trailer Park community has been traumatized. The students at the local high school have been brought face to face with the ugliest form that hate takes. When do we say “enough is enough?” When do we step up to the plate and say, “Not in our town, not in our community, not in our country, not in our world.” I think the time is now.

MINOR OFFENSES

By Nicole Nichols

What a shame that children are exploited and abused for the pleasures of sick minds. What a travesty that little boys and girls are preyed upon by pedophiles and child pornographers. And what a sad state of affairs it is when the adults entrusted with caring for them and protecting them place them in harms way.

On October 2, 2007, Kevin Alfred Strom, mentored by Dr. William Luther Pierce, and founder of National Vanguard, began the first phase of a trial that is being watched closely by racists and anti-racists alike. After being granted a Motion to Sever, the charges being tried were those of witness intimidation and enticement of a minor into a sexual relationship.

The trial had a problem, however, and it is probable that both sides knew it was not winnable. Yet, it moved ahead only to have the charges dismissed by the judge at the end of the Prosecutions case. They were dismissed for lack of evidence. The second trial will be in January, 2008, when Strom faces five counts of child pornography.

While the initial trial was a bust, not all was lost. During the day and a half affair, the depravity of Kevin Alfred Strom was unveiled for the world to see.

Something else that was unveiled was the fact that not only was Strom stalking a nine-year-old friend of his step-daughter, but he was pleasuring himself to photo shopped pictures of the neo-Nazi singing twins that comprise Prussian Blue. In fact, Strom had pasted their heads on the bodies of younger girls to meet his sexual desires.

In the debates and controversies engaged in by those on the racist right, it was more than appalling to see that there are those who saw nothing wrong with what Kevin did, or those who continued to support him because of the work he had done on behalf of the “movement.”

Kevin’s estranged wife, Elisha, testified against him at the trial and found herself castigated for being a traitor by some while applauded by others. The revelation that the singing twins had been one of the objects of Strom’s affection generated a lot of discussion and a blasting from April Gaede, the twins’ mother.

Gaede, a long time cohort of Strom’s, had defended Strom from the time of the arrest. She insinuated over and over again that it was Elisha Strom who had “planted” the child porn on Kevin’s computer.

Now that the truth had surfaced and the evidence included confessions by Strom, as well as his sexual fetishes which included her girls, April was righteously indignant that the situation was being discussed in a public forum. Also, she held Elisha Strom accountable for remaining silent for so long, and claimed that Kevin and Elisha should have a stake driven through their hearts.

Such a reaction might have been understandable, given the circumstances, had it come from anyone other than April Gaede. Let’s look at both of these women.

While Kevin Alfred Strom’s sexual leanings had long been questioned by the racist community, so had Elisha’s. Considering her to be a “feminist” she was persona non gratis at many of their functions. It should be remembered that in the misogynistic world of white supremacy women should “know their place” and not become involved in the “man’s affairs” unless in a helping capacity.
As sure as Kevin’s website was “weird” and “creepy” to some – so was Elisha’s. She had been the focus of an almost brutal lambasting from those who remained in the National Alliance after Strom’s ousting.

In addition, Elisha had continued to live with Kevin Alfred Strom, along with her young daughter, even after she was certain that his proclivities toward children existed. Hence, in my opinion, sharing some of the blame in this abomination against the innocent.

However, April Gaede is just as much responsible. In a dialogue between the two women on the VNN message board, Elisha Strom absolutely pummeled April.

Objecting to a comment made by April asserting that her girls hardly knew Kevin, Elisha claimed that they had attended many of the same events, and that she had, in fact, protected the girls from Kevin on a couple of occasions. At one event, in particular, in New Orleans, she claimed she had started an argument with Kevin to divert his attention as he wanted to go to the pool to watch the twins in their bikinis.

April proffered that the reason her children’s names were mentioned was because of Elisha Strom’s testimony. Never mind that Elisha was under subpoena and had to answer the questions, and never mind that Kevin Alfred Strom had used her girls for his own sexual fantasies.

Elisha told April…

“Your daughters’ names are out there because of YOU. Your daughters’ names are out there in a criminal case because of KEVIN STROM.

You’ve put up pictures of your daughters in string bikinis, and outfits others have said were provocative, and, honestly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you doing so. But when you do that knowing your children are public figures, how dare you bitch if someone misuses those pictures?”

Taking issue with Elisha’s silence, April was questioning why she had never come forward and warned her about Kevin and his actions to which Elisha replied:

“I have that one, too. And I have the conversation I had with (I believe it was) your husband — immediately prior to my leaving that message — in which I told him that Kevin had named your daughters in a public document and I wanted to not only let you know about it but how I would be responding to it. I also have the entire conversation we had about the photograph Kevin had made putting your daughters heads onto the bodies of not adult females but on children significantly younger than them — to paraphrase Kevin, “shockingly young girls.”

“You have the nerve to say I didn’t warn anyone when this first happened but I also have the message your attorney, Edgar Steele, left for me after my two phone calls trying to warn you Kevin had publicized your daughter’s names in a court document. You attack me for not trying to warn you then you attack me when I do try to warn you.

“I have the PM exchanges where we discussed the upskirt pictures of your daughters that Kevin had taken himself, and I asked you why you let him stand there at an event (one I was excluded from) and take so many pictures. He has literally hundreds of pictures of your daughters, most of which you allowed him to take and some of which you sent him. The one he photoshopped came directly from you.

“So… you want to use a message I left for you against me? Be my guest. Force me to defend myself though, and you better believe I will.”

Throughout the entire soap-opera, however, I do believe that Elisha Strom delivered the crowning blow to April Gaede with this comment:

“And for the record: When asked, I had always stated that I did not for even a second believe you would purposely contribute to Kevin’s sick obsession with your children. The only time I questioned my judgment of that was when I saw your complete lack of response to David Lane in that interview when he told you your children were his fantasy girls. Quite frankly, even a retarded first grader would have known exactly what he meant by that. This would be the same interview in which you called your teenage daughter a “cunt” on national television.”

A lot of people did some judgment questioning after viewing the James Quinn video and seeing April interacting with her children in a manner quite telling about what it is like in the Gaede household.

April Gaede is no role model even for the white supremacists. She is a delusional and controlling individual who has attempted to live her life through her twin girls and is promising to do much the same with a younger child.

When you consider what the, now fifteen-year-old, twins have had to endure, you can’t help but wonder just how much damage has been done. Having been home-schooled for a good portion of their lives while being indoctrinated into the white supremacist mindset has to have taken its’ toll. As is evidenced in the Quinn documentary, they are starting to rebel.

April has promoted and exploited these girls for own gain, both personal and self-gratifying, since they were three. She has been criticized for the clothing they have been pictured in and the sultry poses, which some even on the racist right have considered way too provocative for little girls.

As most of us attempt to protect our children from certain influences and people, April has forced her children into a world of skinheads, racists, and pure hatred. They have been required to perform before audiences of drunken and seedy individuals by what can only be considered a mother intent on riding the gravy train.

In the Quinn documentary, who can forget April taking the girls into a local bar to perform? The girls sang folk tunes devoid of racist lyrics – but that wasn’t enough for April. She began passing out the girls’ CD’s with all of the white nationalist music that they had done. The upshot of this affair was that all three of them were kicked out of the bar to the girls’ utter embarrassment. They were 14 – and they were, obviously, sick of their mother and her ideology.

The relationship between David Lane and the girls, as Elisha referenced, was promoted and perpetuated by April Gaede. Most sane people would question holding Lane up as a hero to their children, much less naming him as “Godfather.” Yet, April had no reaction to Lane’s openly admitting his lust for her children.

April has placed her children in harms way for a good portion of their lives and now wants to be outraged that a perverted and twisted individual exploits them.

On the flip side, Elisha Strom is no candidate for canonization. A virulent racist and anti-Semitic person, she must shoulder some of the blame for allowing this to go on as long as it did. But, then again, we all know about the battered and abused wife who can’t let go. We have all heard about woman who falsely believe that “he will change.”

Which raises yet another question for me. Who else knew? Who else in the movement knew Kevin and knew his penchant for babies? Why is it that I get the feeling that there is much more going on here than we know about? I will never forget Don Black’s reaction to the news when he said, “We were afraid of this.”

Kevin Alfred Strom went to New Orleans a couple of years ago to speak at a confab of white supremacists that was organized by David Duke. Shortly after that, he attempted a coup on the National Alliance – something that I believe was devised by Duke, Jamie Kelso, and Kevin Strom at that meeting.

For quite some time, Vincent Breeding was David Duke’s right hand man. He and Duke were very close until it was revealed that he was in the porn business on the side. Of course, after that revelation, Duke had to distance himself. Yet, rumor has it that Breeding is still in the picture – simply low-key.

There have been questions and jokes arise from the claim that Jamie Kelso shares Duke’s home and that the two of them bought a car together in both of their names.

Duke, whose popularity has been waning here in the U.S. among racists, since the New Orleans Protocol affair has spent an inordinate amount of time out of the country since his release from prison. He had a lot to gain if the coup on the National Alliance had been successful.

Of course, all of this is speculation – but the thought that the tip of the iceberg is all that has been scraped is a nagging one. Undoubtedly, the trial in January will provide us with even more information in this repugnant episode in yet another travesty from the racist right. I think it would behoove the authorities to look further – to look deeper – because my intuition tells me that Strom isn’t the only one in this cesspool.

As I See It…A Word, Maybe Three, About The Strom Case

The charges against Kevin Strom were dismissed in court today. However, this is just the first leg of the trial as he still faces 5 counts of child pornography which will come to trial in January, 2008.

The 51 year old Strom has been a white supremacist since his teen years and has always been under scrutiny by one member of the rank and file or another questioning his sexuality. I remember the first time I visited his web site sevearl years ago. It was an amalgamation of white supremacist ideology, Renaissance Art, scantily clothed teens, and obviously posed pictures of Kevin.

Any respect that Kevin had among those on the racist right generally came to him because of his intellectual acumen yet, there was always something about him that caused others to object to him. For some it was his voice which is distinct. For others it was his demeanor. For those who came to know him well, accepting his anti-Semetic and racist views was one thing, but they weren’t about to have him over for dinner.

All of that aside, however, he did have somewhat of a following. Strom was arrested last January for child pornography and witness intimidation. The stalking and enticement charges came later. After reading all of the court documents leading up to the trial and the reports from the courtroom, I am not surprised at today’s disposition. But, I do have a few thoughts running around in this brain of mine that trouble me greatly.

The first thought is about Elisha, Kevin’s wife. She has portrayed herself as the “She Wolf of National Socialism.” By all accounts she has always been a force to reckon with and was very much disliked by others in the movement. In most white power circles she was just too much of a feminist for the crowd who generally believes that a woman should know her place.

Yesterday and today she reportedly took the stand and testified in a “quavering” voice. I supposed this new demeanor could be explained away by the torment that she has been going through and all of the abuse she has taken before and after the arrest. But…I don’t much think so. It is important to remember in all of this that Elisha is smart and she doesn’t use the email address manipulator@elishastrom.com for nothing.

Elisha claims that at some point in time she arrived home unexpectedly to find her husband at his computer, nude, and in a state of sexual arousement.  According to her, Strom was masturbating to pictures of Prussian Blue, the neo-Nazi singing twins. Apparently, from what was presented in court, Strom had cut the heads off of a picture of the twins and pasted them onto other bodies.  It should be noted here that Strom was a heavy promoter of the twins and new them and their mother very well.

Later, it is not clear when, Elisha placed cameras around the house to spy on Kevin and recorded him doing the same thing with other girls pictures. During this time, Elisha has done nothing even though she has a young daughter from a previous marriage at home.

At some point, her young daughter introduces she and Kevin to a nine-year-old friend who Kevin becomes obsessed with. On an outing, at which it began to rain, Kevin opens an umbrella, places his arm around this little friend and walks off leaving his family behind to get wet.

Are we starting to wonder about Elisha yet?

Kevin and Elisha get into an argument, she has caught him again. She tells him she is going to call the authorities. He grabs her shoves her into the wall and tells her he will kill her. She hits him in the head with the phone sending him to the hospital.

Then….she writes out a “contract” in which Kevin agrees to seek counseling for “pedophilia” until he is “cured.” Kevin signs the contract and they have it notarized. On top of that, Elisha taped one of the counseling sessions where Strom confesses his guilt.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but if I had found my husband sexually stimulating himself to the pictures of little girls – there wouldn’t have been any if’s. There wouldn’t have been any maybe’s…I would have gotted my child out of there. And…if I had seen what Elisha saw, I would not be on an outing with the neighbor’s nine year old daughter and my husband.

The nine-year old in question is the daughter of the parents who brought this all to light – Kevin Alfred Strom stalked her and has admitted to it.  While I am not surprised the witness intimidation charge was dropped, I DO believe that what he did was “enticement of a minor.” According to an anonymous poster at “The Hook”:

“Certain people in Ruckersville have known about this case for more than a year and half. Did you know Kevin Strom was a “volunteer photograher” over at United Christian Academy? He came in and took hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs of the children last year and the year before. The school doesn’t want anyone to know this information. Even when parents expressed concerns about Kevin Strom they let him continue coming around. The parents of the child victim in this case are not the only ones who pulled their kids out of that school over this.”

The same poster claims that Kevin would wait outside the school for the girl everyday and that local police and authorities knew. Additionally, the poster claims that Kevin’s mother has “known about he son’s problems for years.”

Why did Elisha Strom wait so long before coming forward? Some claim she set him up while others claim that she was part of his sick and perverted lifestyle.

And then there is April Gaede – the mother of the singing twins. I have written a lot about April. I have always seen her as a manipulative stage mother who is trying to live her life through her children. Actually, I see her now as more of a “pimp.” Before the girls were even teens, April was trying to “fix them up” with a nice Aryan guy.

The most recent documentary about the girls depicts April as precisely that. At one point in the film, April sits and smiles as the girls talk on the phone with David Lane who was in prison seving a 190 year sentence for murder and his exploits with the Order.  When David Lane referred to the 14 year old girls as “all grown up” and his “fantasy sweethearts” most of us gagged while April got all warm and happy.

So…should she be surprised that Kevin Alfred Strom was acting out his own sick fantasies to pictures of her own daughters? From the initial arrest right up until today, April Gaede claimed that Strom was innocent. Today she is singing a somewhat different tune…
” And, for the record, I do think Kevin probably is guilty and I would like to see him executed. But he is not the only guilty one in all this. Elisha is guilty for trying to create the idea that more happened than a cut and paste job, and the gossips are guilty of using this as a sensationalist thing to have something to talk about. Talk about Inside Edition.

“Whether my kids had a band or not makes no difference in this. That is a red herring aruguement. They are only 15 years old. They are minors and you can have the decency to edit out thier names, since it was only their pictures that were used anyway and we had nothing to do with it.

“Her motives in this are questionable to me at the same time that I think that Kevin is guilty. Maybe they should share a cell or a stake.”

One thing for certain in all of this is that there is a lot of dirty laundry that is going to be aired. None of them…April, Elisha, or Kevin are without culpability. Racist ideology aside, pedophilia, child pornography, and child abuse are not acceptable in any society. Whether or not Kevin Alfred Strom possesses actual child pornography on his computer is moot at this point and will only serve to determine his sentencing. Regardless, because of his admissions in court and in court documents, he is a sick and depraved individual and will never be accepted except by other sick and depraved individuals.

The Month In Review – September

Kevin Alfred Strom’s Trial Starts 10-02-07

On October 2, 2007, this man will go on trial. Kevin Alfred Strom took the place of Dr. William Luther Pierce’s American Dissident Voices when Pierce died a few years ago. He, along with several other acadmicians were thrown out of the National Alliance a little over a year ago.

Strom has been incarcerated for awhile as he awaits a trial on child pornograhpy charges. That trial starts tomorrow. Within a couple of weeks of his arrest another one of his members of National Vanguard, a group formed by Strom, was arrested for foricing a 14 year old girl to perform oral sex on him. Needless to say, we are anxiously awaiting this trial. For this reason, I thought I would unearth some of the background information for our readers.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Kevin Strom – One Very Sick Individual

What has this man done? His name is Kevin Alfred Strom and he is a White Nationalist. Long considered one of the more erudite members of the white supremacist movement, Strom carried his message of racism and anti-Semitism to the air waves and to the internet. But, that isn’t why he is in trouble.

A few months ago he was arrested on charges of child pornography and witness tampering and intimidation. Today – we finally heard about some of the evidence. In spite of all of the speculation that it was his estranged wife, Elisha Strom, who was setting him up, the truth is that Elisha was the recipient of his intimidation – and perhaps, even more recently, an attempt on her life.

Based on the evidence presented to the Grand Jury, it appeared to some that the child pornography charges were possibly the result of just internet surfing and unwittingly stumbling into an unwanted site. Those who were stalwart supporters of Strom would have liked to believe that. Then there were those who said, “I told you so.”

What many didn’t realize was that the evidence presented to a Grand Jury is generally minimal – just what law enforcement believes it needs to get an indictment. Strom is scheduled for trial on June 20th and a preliminary hearing was held today.

According to the prosecution, Kevin Alfred Strom was reported to authorities by the parents of young girl who Strom is accused of stalking for well over a year. Additionally, it is claimed that hundreds of pictures of that child and hundreds of pictures of child porn were found on his computer. I think you will agree that this is one very sick individual. In it’s coverage the Daily Progress enumerates the prosecutions’ case:

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Supremacist harassed child, prosecutors say
By Liesel Nowak
lnowak@dailyprogress.com | 978-7274
Friday, May 25, 2007

A self-proclaimed white supremacist facing child pornography charges previously harassed a local 9-year-old girl, according to a revealing pre-trial motion filed Thursday by federal prosecutors.

The filing comes a month before Kevin Alfred Strom, 50, is set to go to trial in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville on charges that he possessed child porn, enticed the girl for sex and tampered with a witness.

Between Septem-ber 2005 and December 2006, Strom got to know, contacted and eventually harassed the girl, according to the court filing.

Strom went to the child’s school, prosecutors said, and on one occasion hid behind a tree so the girl’s parents would not see him.

The student transferred to another school because of the repeated attempts Strom made to contact her, but the defendant researched and discovered the girl’s new class schedule, prosecutors allege.

Using a pseudonym, the document states, Strom sent the girl gifts, including a CD, a DVD, an angora sweater and a bouquet of roses.

Mark Potok, the director of the Intelligence Project, an arm of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center that researches and tracks hate groups, said Strom has been involved with the neo-Nazi movement for 30 years.

In 2005, Strom split with the National Alliance – formerly the largest white supremacist group in the country – to form the National Vanguard, which he ran from his Greene County home, Potok said.

According to the prosecution’s recent motion, a search of Strom’s personal computer revealed poems, “to be sung to the tune of ‘Here We Come a-Wassailing,’” written by the defendant, including the phrases “my love for [the girl] is not a sin.”

In addition to the prose, hundreds of pictures of the girl and hundreds of images of other children, some unclothed and in sexually suggestive positions, were stored on Strom’s computer, according to the court papers.

An unidentified witness in the case, prosecutors said, caught Strom naked at his computer looking at pictures of young girls. Paperwork filed by the defendant indicates that the witness is the defendant’s wife, Elisha Strom.

As a result of the his wife’s discovery, the couple signed a one-page notarized contract, prosecutors allege, in which Strom agreed to see a counselor until he is “free from being sexually drawn to children.” Prosecutors attached a copy of the document to their motion.

At one point, however, Strom labored under the mistaken impression that his wife had gone to authorities with her allegations against him, according to the prosecution’s motion. Consequently, Strom “accelerated a campaign to intimidate and discredit her,” which included physical assaults and verbal threats, prosecutors claim.

According to defense filings, Strom’s contact with the girl had nothing to do with the pornography charges against him and that it would be prejudicial to try the pornography counts with the enticement charge.

Defense attorneys say that there is “no evidence to suggest that Strom actually touched [the girl] or that she ever touched him.”

“He is essentially charged with attempting to make an attempt to commit sexual battery,” a defense motion states.

A judge will hear arguments on whether the charges against Strom should be divided into separate trials on Tuesday.

Daily Progress staff writer Rob Seal contributed to this story.