Tag Archives: graffiti

A number of swastikas, appearing either alone or with the letters “NLR” have been observed in Grand Rapids’ Belknap Lookout neighborhood. The “NLR” letters stand for “Nazi Low Riders” and are a reference to a prison and street gang that has its origins in California’s youth penal system. While it is impossible to say if the graffiti indicates the presence of an actual group affiliated with the Nazi Low Riders, it is the second time in the past several months that a wave of Nazi graffiti has been documented in Grand Rapids. In October of 2006, graffiti associated with the white supremacist White Aryan Resistance movement was documented in downtown’s Heartside neighborhood.

As is the case with all neo-Nazi and white supremacist activity, the graffiti should be taken seriously, especially in light of the Nazi Low Riders historical involvement in violent attacks against people of color. In March of 1999, two members of the Nazi Low Riders in Lancaster, California murdered an African-American Wal-Mart employee with a screwdriver. In 1996, another Nazi Low Riders member beat an African-American teenager as part of a “mission” to “rid the streets of Lancaster of African Americans.” A similar attack took place in 1996, when five members of the gang attacked a 12-year old Hispanic male in a video arcade. Multiple attacks took place in 1995, with members attacking two African-American teenagers with machetes, bludgeoning an African-American homeless man to death, and firing a gun at car occupied by African-Americans.

The group was formed in the late 1970s by white supremacist John Stinson, himself affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, at the California Youth Authority at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione and at the Youth Training School in Chino, California. Until the 1990s, the Nazi Low Riders functioned as middlemen for the Aryan Brotherhood and engaged in criminal operations affiliated with that gang, but took a more prominent role in prison violence and the drug trade following aggressive law enforcement targeting of the Aryan Brotherhood. In addition to violent attacks towards people of color within prison, members of the Nazi Low Riders have been active in the drug trade and have been especially active in the production and distribution of methamphetamine. The group has spread eastward throughout the United States as members have been paroled, although its stronghold remains in California. Estimates of membership exceeded 1,500 before a crackdown on several of its leaders in 2003. It has also formed alliances the Public Enemy Number 1 white supremacist gang and other racist gangs.

Despite occasional violent attacks, the Nazi Low Riders are not an overtly political gang according to research done by various law enforcement agencies, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League. These entities have found that while white supremacy is a component of the Nazi Low Riders’ activities, they are more of a criminal enterprise than an ideological one. NLR members rarely have ties to the political racist movement, exemplified by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups such as the National Socialist Movement, nor do they have ties to the more political skinhead gangs such as the Hammerskin Nation. However, members are required to demonstrate “loyalty” to the white race, occasionally through violence against people of color. Interestingly, the group has allowed Latinos to affiliate and has made alliances with Latino gangs, although Latino members allegedly must be “half Caucasian.” The white supremacist movement has also been skeptical of the Nazi Low Riders and has frequently rejected them for being reckless and lacking a coherent ideology, while others have said that there is “nothing Nazi about them” and bemoaning the fact that Nazi Low Riders simply “hate black people” rather than articulating a developed ideological framework.

In addition to previous incidents of Nazi graffiti in Grand Rapids, it is important to place the Nazi Low Riders graffiti within the overall context of activity by the racist right in West Michigan. In recent years, local groups affiliated with the National Socialist Movement, the National Alliance, and the Council of Conservative Citizens have distributed racist literature and organized demonstrations.

A recent wave of Nazi graffiti in downtown Grand Rapids is tied to the organized white supremacist movement according to research conducted by Media Mouse. The graffiti, primarily consisting of swastikas and the letters “WAR,” is connected to the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) movement as well as a new group that appears to have formed in the Heartside area, the Heartside Boot Boyz. The Heartside Boot Boyz graffiti is accompanied by either a swastika or the logo for the World War II era Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS). The graffiti is part of an increase in neo-Nazi and white supremacist activity in the state of Michigan over the past two years. In April, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) held their national in convention in Grand Rapids and a national rally in Lansing. The NSM has been active across the state, including in Grand Rapids, conducting a variety of leafleting and recruiting actions. The National Alliance has also been active in Michigan, as has the Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist group that has organized against immigrants and in support of the anti-affirmative action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI).

However, unlike these membership organizations, less is known about the activities of White Aryan Resistance and the Heartside Boot Boyz. White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi and white supremacist organization that formed in the 1983 by former Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon and influential racist Tom Metzger. In addition to being involved with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)—work that placed him in prison for 45 days in 1982 for burning a cross—Metzger has been involved with the John Birch Society and was ordained as a minister by the New Christian Crusade Church, a church involved in the white supremacist Christian Identity movement. White Aryan Resistance, while less influential than it once was, has long been a major force in the racist right. Metzger was one of the first white supremacists to organize racist skinheads in the 1980s, has been involved in the international skinhead movement, has organized extensively within the United States’ prison population, operates The Insurgent self-described as the “most racist newspaper on earth,” has made extensive use of new forms of media (computer bulletin board systems in the 1980s, public access television in the early 1990s, and the Internet in the mid-1990s), and has articulated a form of fascism known as “Third Position” that is neither rightist or leftist, rejecting both capitalism and communism. This “Third Position” ideology seeks to overthrow the United States government and replace it with a nation built around a white supremacist ideology, while also distorting leftwing politics, with White Aryan Resistance describing itself as revolutionary and supporting “white working class” militancy including opposition to United States military actions abroad, supporting union activity, women’s rights (to a certain degree), and advocating for environmentalist policies. Of course, the racism is obvious in Metzger’s Third Position fascism, with the Nazi imagery, racist cartoons and “jokes,” and declarations that “WAR is strictly racist” and that race is the primary issue. However, despite its obvious racism, Third Position ideology is a serious threat as its adherents often attempt to organize working-class youth directly while many left or “progressive” movements ignore such populations, while white supremacists ideologies appear to provide a potential outlet for their anger.

The strategy of White Aryan Resistance and Tom Metzger is one that has both the potential for and a history of violence. Beginning with his work in the Klan in the 1970s, Metzger led his followers towards violence by organizing armed Klan patrols to capture undocumented immigrants along the United States-Mexico border. Metzger organized an armed “security” force that operated for the Klan and clashed with police and anti-Klan demonstrators. The Anti-Defamation League asserts that Metzger also trained Klan members in guerilla warfare and paramilitary activities. The rhetoric of Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance movement, whose The Insurgent newspaper bears the slogan “the most racist newspaper on earth,” has occasionally incited adherents to violence. Perhaps the most famous case was in 1988 when a skinhead gang in Portland, Oregon, murdered an Ethiopian student after being trained by a White Aryan Resistance recruiter. Metzger praised the incident, claiming that the skinheads were doing their “civic duty” (source). Metzger was eventually found responsible for this killing and a jury awarded $12.5 million in damages to the family of the murdered student, a fine that Metzger continues to pay. Metzger has also praised actions such as racially motivated killings by individuals.

While the Portland case reduced White Aryan Resistance’s influence, Metzger has continued to develop it into a loose network for white supremacists and still advocates a violent white supremacy. However, instead of continuing to function as a membership organization, Metzger and White Aryan Resistance now advocate “lone wolf” attacks by racists against the system as part of a “leaderless resistance.” This activity, which cannot be traced as easily by law enforcement officials, has become prominent in some areas of the white supremacist movement, with white supremacists adopting the idea of individual or small group activity in order to avoid state repression. White Aryan Resistance also urges white supremacist activists acting under the White Aryan Resistance banner to never talk to the police and posts tips for dealing with the police and avoiding state harassment on their website.