Let's Talk About the Radicalization of Young White Males Online
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C L O N E*0690//////
easy to spot these goof.lames just off their mugs ha*
wsj.com
German Government Moves Against Fringe Far-Right Group
Bojan Pancevski
4 minutes
BERLIN—Germany on Thursday carried out nationwide raids on alleged members of a secretive group who reject the authority of the state, adhere to racist ideologies and hoard weapons.
Authorities said they had banned the targeted group, called United German Peoples and Tribes, and uncovered stashes of guns, racist propaganda and drugs in the course of the searches.
The organization is affiliated with the so-called Citizens of the Reich, or Reichsbürger, a loose-knit movement whose adherents reject Germany’s government as illegitimate and have been involved in clashes with police and other state officials in recent years.
While not organized and including a patchwork of like-minded groups, the Reichsbürger generally see the second German empire—and in some cases the third Reich—as the last legitimate government of the country.
For years, authorities dismissed the Reichsbürger as radical libertarians—a fringe yet unthreatening subculture whose members often printed their own identity documents, refused to pay tax or targeted the government with groundless lawsuits.
But in recent years, as the movement began turning more violent and racist, the state began to crack down on members.
Authorities’ declining tolerance of the Reichsbürger also comes as Germany is experiencing a wave of far-right violence that has included terrorist attacks and political assassinations.
Horst Seehofer, the interior minister, said Thursday that the coronavirus epidemic wouldn’t distract authorities in their fight against politically motivated criminality.
“We are relentlessly pushing forward with our fight against right-wing extremism also in times of crisis,” Mr. Seehofer said in a statement. “There is not an inch of space allowed for racism and anti-Semitism in our society.”
Last year, there were 19,000 known members of the Reichsbürger movement, according to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Among these, the agency estimates some 1,000 qualified as far-right extremists and 530 owned gun licenses.
Members are active on social media and have in the past petitioned for the release of neo-Nazi convicts such as the lawyer Horst Mahler, a Holocaust denier imprisoned for sedition who is considered a key ideologue of the movement.
Two prominent members of the Reichsbürger movement were convicted of murder and attempted murder in recent years.
In 2019, Adrian Ursache, a former winner of the beauty pageant Mr. Germany, was sentenced by a court in the eastern town of Halle to seven years in jail for attempting to kill a police officer. Mr. Ursache shot a member of a SWAT team that came to his house to evict him due to unpaid debt.
In 2017, Wolfgang Plan, another Reichsbürger, was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a police officer and wounding two others during a raid on his house. In the course of the investigation, one senior police officer was suspended because he had ties to Mr. Plan prior to the raid.
Several other members of the police and the army have been investigated for links to the radical movement.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
German Government Moves Against Fringe Far-Right Group
Bojan Pancevski
4 minutes
BERLIN—Germany on Thursday carried out nationwide raids on alleged members of a secretive group who reject the authority of the state, adhere to racist ideologies and hoard weapons.
Authorities said they had banned the targeted group, called United German Peoples and Tribes, and uncovered stashes of guns, racist propaganda and drugs in the course of the searches.
The organization is affiliated with the so-called Citizens of the Reich, or Reichsbürger, a loose-knit movement whose adherents reject Germany’s government as illegitimate and have been involved in clashes with police and other state officials in recent years.
While not organized and including a patchwork of like-minded groups, the Reichsbürger generally see the second German empire—and in some cases the third Reich—as the last legitimate government of the country.
For years, authorities dismissed the Reichsbürger as radical libertarians—a fringe yet unthreatening subculture whose members often printed their own identity documents, refused to pay tax or targeted the government with groundless lawsuits.
But in recent years, as the movement began turning more violent and racist, the state began to crack down on members.
Authorities’ declining tolerance of the Reichsbürger also comes as Germany is experiencing a wave of far-right violence that has included terrorist attacks and political assassinations.
Horst Seehofer, the interior minister, said Thursday that the coronavirus epidemic wouldn’t distract authorities in their fight against politically motivated criminality.
“We are relentlessly pushing forward with our fight against right-wing extremism also in times of crisis,” Mr. Seehofer said in a statement. “There is not an inch of space allowed for racism and anti-Semitism in our society.”
Last year, there were 19,000 known members of the Reichsbürger movement, according to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Among these, the agency estimates some 1,000 qualified as far-right extremists and 530 owned gun licenses.
Members are active on social media and have in the past petitioned for the release of neo-Nazi convicts such as the lawyer Horst Mahler, a Holocaust denier imprisoned for sedition who is considered a key ideologue of the movement.
Two prominent members of the Reichsbürger movement were convicted of murder and attempted murder in recent years.
In 2019, Adrian Ursache, a former winner of the beauty pageant Mr. Germany, was sentenced by a court in the eastern town of Halle to seven years in jail for attempting to kill a police officer. Mr. Ursache shot a member of a SWAT team that came to his house to evict him due to unpaid debt.
In 2017, Wolfgang Plan, another Reichsbürger, was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a police officer and wounding two others during a raid on his house. In the course of the investigation, one senior police officer was suspended because he had ties to Mr. Plan prior to the raid.
Several other members of the police and the army have been investigated for links to the radical movement.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Vandelay
Life is absurd. Lean into it.
I worry about these groups at times like this.
They have been prepping for stuff like this unlike other people.
They have been prepping for stuff like this unlike other people.
Man Suspected of Planning Attack on Missouri Hospital Is Killed, Officials Say
By Adam Goldman
Updated 8:16 p.m. ET
According to officials, the man had expressed racist and anti-government sentiments.
A man suspected of planning to attack a Missouri hospital was killed during a shootout with F.B.I. agents, the authorities said on Wednesday.
The deadly encounter took place on Tuesday afternoon in suburban Belton, Mo., after agents on a tactical team tried to arrest the man as part of a domestic terrorism investigation.
It was not clear whether the man was killed by F.B.I. agents or died by suicide. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officials identified the man as Timothy R. Wilson, 36.
According to officials, Mr. Wilson had expressed racist and anti-government sentiments. He had been under F.B.I. scrutiny since September, and the authorities said that at one point he had considered attacking multiple targets, including a school with a large number of black students, as well as a mosque and a synagogue.
“Wilson considered various targets and ultimately settled on an area hospital in an attempt to harm many people, targeting a facility that is providing critical medical care in today’s environment,” the F.B.I. said in a statement.
Last week, Belton’s mayor issued a stay-at-home order for its residents. Authorities said Mr. Wilson said he felt compelled to act because of the mayor’s order and intended to use a car bomb to cause mass casualties at the hospital.
The F.B.I. is reviewing the shooting, as is standard anytime agents are involved in shootings.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were eight known cases of the coronavirus in suburban areas of Cass County, Mo., which includes Belton. The Belton police have also had to issue a statement about false information on social media.
Adam Goldman reports on the F.B.I. from Washington and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. @adamgoldmanNYT
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