The Nothing that is Done: Swastikas come to IVC!

How they handle it in Granada, Spain.

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill

Loyal readers of IVC's scintillating Crime Blotter will have noticed twin entries last week:

​October 15, 1345 hours: Campus police responded to the B200 building men's restroom in reference to a report of graffiti in the bathroom (two swastika's drawn on the stall door). Investigation is ongoing.

October 17, 1330 hours: Maintenance worker made a late report of graffiti found in men's restroom in the A200 building. Graffiti described as two swastika's written on bathroom stall wall. Investigation is ongoing.

The appearance of the Nazi party symbols should not surprise people who have been paying attention of a series of acts of aggression on campus though it is difficult to pay attention when the college lacks any reliable conduit of communication beyond the cheerful avalanche of emails that await us all. Though, for be fair, news of the swastikas or vandalized fliers or (add your outrage here) would be a challenge to incorporate into a cheerful email.

Nor should the appearance of the swastikas shock those who have been following the resurgence of white supremacists and neo-Nazis across the country and, yes, right here in Orange County.

In August, PBS' Frontline along with ProPublica released Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, an investigation into the 2017 Unite the Right rally.  It doesn't take long to the film to move from Virginia to Orange County, to recent events in Anaheim and Huntington Beach - then to to Irvine.  Click the link above at 22:53 minute mark and you'll see footage that looks awfully familiar.

In these excerpts, reporter A.C. Thompson talks with Chapman university professor Peter Simi as they visit training areas, both of them quite close to IVC and Saddleback:

A.C. THOMPSON:

Using clues from RAM’s [Rise Above Movement] propaganda videos, I manage to locate one of their training spots. Just off the 405 outside of Irvine, we find RAM’s graffiti tags hidden inside drainage tunnels....Sociologist Pete Simi has studied white supremacists for decades. His field research takes him inside dozens of racist groups across the country...what do you make of this?

PETE SIMI: You’ve got the Celtic cross. It’s one of the most widely utilized tattoos among white supremacists. And then it’s interesting because you get then this phrase here – “kill your local drug dealer” – which taps into what’s right above the, the straight edge, the three X, triple Xs, this notion of living a clean life and being very kind of puritanical almost.

A.C. THOMPSON: Right.

PETE SIMI: They felt like they were doing like a vigilante-type work. They were cleaning up the streets.

A.C. THOMPSON: Like the white supremacists who came before them, Simi says that RAM members present themselves as defenders of traditional white culture. We visit Marblehead Park in San Clemente where they film training videos that celebrate personal fitness, the warrior spirit and political street fighting.

PETE SIMI: What they're trying to sell is this idea that we need to go back to a, a more traditional time, you know, traditional masculinity. When they blend in these fight scenes, that's also this idea of being not only just fit and living a pure life, but also being a warrior of sorts. And so you could imagine a, you know, 16-, 17-year-old white male watching these videos and being somewhat moved by them or attracted to them in some case.

A.C. THOMPSON: It looks like it's a small group, it's a fringe group. Why are they important? And, and what do you think?

PETE SIMI: Well, first you, know, the first thing is we just want to strictly talk about violence. Small groups can do as much if not more destruction than large groups. You have, for instance, the Oklahoma City bombing. Relatively small group there that, you know, ultimately pulled off, at the time, the largest act of domestic terrorism prior to 9/11. So, so you know, an, an act of violence can certainly be committed by a small fringe group.

A.C. THOMPSON:  By a small group.

PETE SIMI: And then I think, yeah, they might be kind of a small fringe group but the best, most sophisticated white supremacist is the, the one who appears the least visible. They're not out there wearing uniforms that are going to be really visible. They're not getting tattoos all over their face. You know, they're, they're blending in in a lot of different ways, including the issues they're concerned about. The issue of immigration, which has been a real hot-button issue – white supremacists can seize on that issue and say look, there's an invasion and America’s under siege. Then they have the potential to recruit among a much broader swath of the population than we often are willing to admit or recognize.

So yeah. They're here. "Emboldened" is the word people are using. The neo-Nazis and white supremacists among us are emboldened.  They are emboldened by a president in the White House who proudly calls himself a nationalist.



And they are emboldened by his supporters who cheer.

And they are emboldened by silence in the face of swastikas. 

An official silence that runs deep.

Shame.

Nazis in our bonnet: the far right at the SOCCCD

• Our tenuous "connection" to the (alleged) National Holocaust Museum shooter (DtB, 6-11-09)
• HANGIN' WITH BIGWIG REPUBLICANS WHILE NAZIS HIDE IN BUSHES by Chunk (From Dissent 9, 9-28-98)
• A MOTLEY CREW OF NAZIS VS. JDL THUGS: OH, WHAT A NIGHT! by Chunk Wheeler (Dissent, 6-21-98)
• FROGUE'S "SCHOLAR" HINTS AT VIOLENCE (From Dissent 4, 3-27-98)
• NIGHT OF THE NAZI by Chunk Wheeler (1-20-98)
• TO CONCERNED UNIONISTS: FROGUE DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST THE CHARGE THAT HE IS A HOLOCAUST DENIER (Frogue defends himself against charges, 10-6-96)
• IS TRUSTEE STEVEN FROGUE A HOLOCAUST DENIER? (Dissent, 3-23-95)