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[Saints News] White Supremacist Gangs


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White Supremacist Gangs

Politically Motivated, or Just Organized Crime?

 

Ryan D Price

 

White supremacist prison gangs aren’t news. Neither are, especially when you take into consideration the current gangland climate here in Los Santos, white supremacist gangs outside of prison.

 

But what constitutes a white supremacist gang? Are all of them neo-Nazis? Are these gangs even motivated by racial and political hatred? One side of the debate would say yes. That their constant “We’re not even Nazis!” claims are bogus and meant to mislead the public. Others would say it doesn’t matter - they hate minorities and other groups, and they’re violent. That’s that. Others - including some folks involved in these gangs themselves - would say that Naziism and even white supremacy has little to do with their goals and activities.

 

In an earlier piece, Sakana Sushi owner Akari told Saints News that, “I haven't personally seen them do anything outwardly racially motivated. I can't really speak for other people, but they never said anything to me or any of my staff. I think they're just using it as an excuse to be aggressive and antisocial towards everyone.”

 

There are plenty of gangs with no pretence of political or racist ideology backing up their activities. So what gives with white supremacist gangs? To figure this out, a bit of a history lesson is needed.

 

Who are they?

 

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Brotherhood - perhaps the most prevalent white supremacist/neo-Nazi gang both in and outside of prisons around the country - “...participates in drug trafficking, male prostitution rings, gambling, and extortion inside prison walls. On the streets, the AB is involved in practically every kind of criminal enterprise, including murder-for-hire, armed robbery, gun running, methamphetamine manufacturing, heroin sales, counterfeiting and identity theft.”

 

In a National Geographic piece exploring the gang in 2007, a former AB member said, “It’s a criminal organization. We need to be clear on that. Is there racism? You bet there’s racism. Is it dominant? No.”

 

Meanwhile, another former high-ranking member stated in 2012;

 

“If blacks attack whites, we send a message. We go pick one of their shot callers. We catch them walking across the [prison] yard under guard escort in handcuffs. It don’t matter. We’re going to butcher him in front of God and everybody at high noon in the middle of the yard. And it’s not just going to be a few clean stab marks. It’s going to be a vicious, brutal killing.”

 

So the divide seems to be both metaphorical and literal between prison walls. Inside, the AB is focused on “protecting” white inmates from other minority prison gangs. The white supremacist ideology binds the gang and further’s their most basic purpose. Like all criminal organizations - on the streets or in prison - over time this goal becomes warped as other criminal opportunities present themselves.

 

We’re not trying to examine, at least not in too in-depth of a manner, the prison gang aspect of the Aryan Brotherhood, or really trying to just focus on the AB exclusively. The issue here, in Los Santos, is the prevalence of white supremacist street gangs outside of prison.

 

White Supremacist Gangs and Their Violence in Los Santos

 

A source spoke recently to Saints News of a group of white supremacist gang members working out of Vespucci that seem to have fallen off the map. Their run-ins with them never degraded into actual violence, but threats were made both directly and indirectly.

 

“I haven't seen them in months. I've got a solid reason to believe that they, at one point, were hunting for me. I just didn't want them to know I knew, so I kept quiet about it until I got it sorted. Never did get it sorted. They just vanished.”

 

This matches with the incident Akari discussed regarding the “new” group of white supremacist criminals - allegedly a Motorcycle Club that calls themselves the “Hellhounds”.

 

Saints News spoke to other people in the community to see if they’d experienced similar treatment.

 

Another source told Saints News that when their boss at a popular nightlife location asked a group of gang members with “eighty-eight” tattoos to leave, things got tense inside the club. The group accused the owner and security staff of being racist against white people. Upon exiting the venue, the group stayed posted up outside - across the road. Though it’s unknown what triggered the incident, shots were fired outside the venue and LSPD was called to respond.

 

As mentioned in a previous piece, this same group became violent when asked to leave Sakana Sushi. Ramming the business’ owner Akari down a flight of stairs and throwing one of her waitresses down the same flight - cracking her head and breaking her ankle.

 

Finally is the account of our final source. This incident took place a while back and was perpetrated by, allegedly, the Vespucci group referenced earlier. The source was working security outside of a nightclub and, under instruction from the venue’s owner, barred a group of individuals with white supremacist tattoos from entry. The group became agitated quickly but left. Just a short time later, however, one of the group’s members drove back to the club and shot the security officer. The guard was sent to the hospital and has luckily made a full recovery.

 

I also spoke to a professional criminologist about white supremacist gangs as part of the research leading up to this piece. On the topic of whether or not these groups are racially and politically motivated, he said they are not - rather that they use far-right and racist rhetoric to pull in disaffected young people, providing a sense of unity and belonging. He went on to say that truly racially and politically motivated neo-Nazi groups are almost always reactionary, pointing out how many young white men have drifted toward “alt-right” and even neo-Nazi sensibilities as the United States and the West at large becomes more diverse and socially progressive. These politically motivated folks though, do not make up the rank and file of white supremacist street gangs, who are more - like other street gangs - motivated by power and money than any social agenda. 

 

Conclusion

 

Sadly, attempts to seek out and speak to a member of one of these gangs - anonymously or not - proved fruitless. With the only evidence to go off of being the accounts of those who’ve fallen victim to their violence and the expertise of someone who’s studied the subject professionally, it’s hard to say what goals these groups - past and present - have beyond those of other street gangs, if any. There aren’t any well-publicized incidents of racially motivated violence coming from any of these groups in Los Santos. However, there are plenty of examples of violence nonetheless. Racially motivated or not, these white-supremacist gangs are both an eyesore for the community and another fraction of the large list of reasons Los Santos can be so dangerous.

 

 

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Edited by HaveADream
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Username: TheRealCharlieTrill

Comment: These people are not nazis! The real nazis all fled to Cuba.

 

These people are just some worthless, edgy bullies... That's right... BULLIES!! One of them even took my lunch money the other day.

 

Edited by PaganFears
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