Concerns raised over growing white supremacy groups

David Kihara

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 8:43 a.m.

The leader of the Anti-Defamation League in Las Vegas on Tuesday provided a stark portrait of several white supremacy groups currently operating in Las Vegas, including the National Alliance, which posted an anti-immigration billboard on Sahara Avenue, and the Creativity Movement, the organization whose leader, Matthew Hale, was convicted of plotting to kill a Chicago judge last year.

The white supremacy groups operating in Las Vegas are involved in leaflet campaigns and other recruitment tactics and are gaining in numbers in part because they are disseminating a more mainstream message, said Cynthia Luria, Nevada regional director for the ADL.

She spoke to about 40 students and community members at UNLV on Tuesday during an information session that grew contentious when an audience member asked pointed questions regarding the issues of white pride and immigration.

"We have seen a huge increase" in the number of "hate groups" operating in Las Vegas, Luria said.

These groups are diverse and many, from the West Virginia-based National Alliance, to local skinhead groups, to individuals such as Ryan Edward Lewis, an 18-year-old Las Vegas resident who shot a black man, Ignatius Griffin, with an assault rifle on Eastern Avenue in 2003.

Lewis was allegedly overheard yelling "white power" after the shooting.

Most recently, the National Alliance has been involved in massive leafleting campaigns on UNLV's campus.

Two weeks ago unidentified individuals posted hundreds of stickers and leaflets across the university's campus with white-pride messages. One leaflet stated: "If you are concerned about the future of the snail darter or the spotted owl, or about saving the whales, say 'hello' to Earth's most endangered species: The White Race!"

The group also prevailed in its court battle over its billboard on Sahara Avenue that states: "Stop Immigration. Join the National Alliance." The organization won the right to re-install the billboard after Clear Channel Outdoor, the company that leased the billboard space, took it down amid protests.

The District Court judge determined that the company did not abide by its contract with the National Alliance when it removed the billboard. The billboard has been back up since early February.

"We believe in the right of the First Amendment, and they have the rights under the current laws to put the billboard up," Luria said. However, the public also has the right to know who is behind the billboard, she said.

A member of the National Alliance said the organization is not a white supremacy organization. Rather, it is a group that believes in white pride and the separation of the races.

"We are not a white supremacist organization -- we are a white separatist organization," said Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the National Alliance. "We don't want to oppress anyone or hurt anyone. We don't want anything to do with anyone who isn't white."

Arguing that it should get the same consideration that the Anti-Defamation League got, the National Alliance will ask UNLV to hold a meeting on campus to provide information about its organization, O'Sullivan said.

The National Alliance Web site and its affiliates, Resistance Records and the National Vanguard, post advertisements for several Nazi-influenced records, such as "Songs for the SS." The SS refers to the Schutzstaffell, the Third Reich police force controlled by Nazi Heinrich Himmler.

The Web site also posts advertisements for a video game called "Ethnic Cleansing." The advertisement says, "No, you can't shoot those pesky sub-humans in real life -- but you can in Ethnic Cleansing: The Game. Enter the virtual race war!"

The National Alliance, however, is just one of the groups operating in Las Vegas, she said. Another, the Creativity Movement -- formerly known as the world Church of the Creator -- also has members in Las Vegas but at a much smaller level than the National Alliance, which is one the of the largest white supremacy organization in the United States.

The Creativity Movement's leader, Hale, was convicted last year of conspiring to kill a federal judge, Joan Lefkow of Chicago. Last week Lefkow's husband and mother were found shot to death in the couple's home.

"Las Vegas is seen as an up and coming city," Luria said.

While most audience members asked Luria non-confrontational questions, one individual, who declined to be identified, attempted to engage Luria in pointed questions such as the perceived wrongs associated with white pride.

The Anti-Defamation League, she said, is not against white pride, as all races and cultural groups deserve to express pride in their heritage. However, the league draws the line at groups that espouse pride in their culture at the exclusion of all other races.

Most attendees, even those who disagreed with Luria, found the meeting to be interesting.

"I found it informative to both parties," Robert Bridgewater said. "The fact that some people feel differently is important."

He said that he does not agree with everything that groups like the National Alliance preach, but agrees with some of the organization's ideas. For example, Bridgewater said, he believed colleges should establish college funds specifically for white, non-Hispanic U.S. citizens.

Others in the meeting, such as Fernando Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, used Tuesday's gathering to gain support for opposition to the National Alliance's anti-immigration billboard.

He said he is working to set up a meeting of Hispanic community leaders to discuss the billboard and propose ways to combat it, such as purchasing a billboard nearby with an opposing message.

Another audience member, attorney Adrian Mendoza, said he would organize a protest of the billboard on Friday or Saturday in an effort to counter what he believes is an offensive message that scapegoats immigrants.

Mendoza, director of the Straight, Lesbian, Gay Alliance at the Community College of Southern Nevada and a member of the Mexican American Movement for the Advancement of Aztlan, already held a protest on Monday at the Sahara Avenue site to protest the billboard. The protest attracted about 40 people, he said.

"The sign is there, and we want people to know what we stand for," he said.

archive