White power recruiting increases

David Kihara

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

Two white supremacist groups have stepped up recruitment efforts in Nevada, starting chapters in the wake of the National Alliance's high-profile battle over an anti-immigration billboard last year.

Cynthia Luria, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the emergence of the pro-Nazi National Socialist Movement and a group called the Southern Nevada Skinheads is tied to the popularity of the National Alliance.

"That billboard has become an icon in the white power movement," said Luria, who added that the Las Vegas Valley's reputation as a "tolerant" area is inviting to white power groups.

Until recently, the only organized white separatist group in Southern Nevada was the National Alliance, according to Metro Police.

The Southern Nevada Skinheads, which formed last fall, has organized a few events in Las Vegas, including passing out fliers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to the group's Web site.

Many of the white separatist groups have been toning down their racist rhetoric when recruiting members to reach as many people as possible, Luria said.

"The membership is blue collar, and they are savvy on how to spin their message," she said.

The Southern Nevada Skinheads, for example, doesn't allow people under criminal indictment into the group and expects its members to behave in "an acceptable, legal and moral manner," according to its online application form.

The Web site says it does not tolerate "drunks, drug users or troublemakers" and wants people of "good moral character and of wholly European descent."

Metro Police Detective Pete Calos, one of the investigators who handle crimes related to white supremacy groups, declined to comment on the new groups.

It's unclear how many people make up either the Southern Nevada Skinheads or the National Socialist Movement's chapter.

Anti-immigration fliers purportedly from the National Socialist Movement were spread in Fallon, home to Fallon Naval Air Station, about 60 miles southeast of Reno.

The fliers decried Mexican immigrants and advocated rounding them up and sending them back to Mexico, according to news reports.

The National Socialist Movement has a post office box listed in Fallon, according to the group's Web site. There was no phone listed for the Nevada group, and a call to the group's national headquarters was not returned.

Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, said the National Socialist Movement is "certainly the fastest growing Nazi group" in the United States now.

The pro-Nazi group has essentially filled the void that was left when other hate groups, such as the Aryan Nations and the World Church of the Creator, lost membership after the groups were sued and members were jailed, he said.

Potok said he suspected that the transient nature of Southern Nevada residents would be appealing to some groups such as the skinheads, who generally move around a lot.

Last year the National Alliance was in the news with a billboard near the Las Vegas Strip that read, "Stop Immigration - Join the National Alliance."

The National Alliance won the right in District Court last summer to reinstall the billboard after Clear Channel Outdoor took it down. The court ruled that Clear Channel Outdoor had broken its contract with the National Alliance.

Since then, the local head of the white separatist group, Michael O'Sullivan, founded the White People's Party. It needs 7,914 signatures by August to become a recognized political party.