It was amply demonstrated long before August’s outbreak of violence in Charlottesville, Virginia that white supremacists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis are among the worst people in the world. What happened in August only underlined it. After all, we now know that they were actively spoiling for violence that day. They also saw fit to trash an innocent woman whom one of their own murdered, planned to crash her funeral, and bombarded her mother with death threats.
ProPublica recently took a deep dive into a gang of 50 racist thugs from Southern California that may very well be among the worst of the worst. They have a lofty name–the Rise Above Movement, or “RAM” for short.
Watch this chilling video showing what makes RAM tick.
RAM brands itself as a “defense force” for white Western civilization, which they claim is being threatened by Jews, Muslims, and Hispanic immigrants. To that end, they spend their weekends honing their fighting skills. Recently, they’ve shown up at events clad in skull masks and goggles and physically attacked anyone seen as an opponent of Donald Trump or the alt-right.
For instance, at a March “Make America Great Again” rally in Huntington Beach, RAM members fanned out and attacked several protesters on hand for the rally. In one of the more chilling scenes, a RAM member threw a protester into the sand and pummeled him several times with his fist and elbow. That scene has become one of the alt-right’s favorite memes.
A crew from OC Weekly, a longstanding alternative newspaper in Orange County, was not spared. When reporter Frank John Tristan tried to defend his two photographers from being attacked by two Trump supporters, a RAM member rushed in and started punching him in the face.
A similar scene played out at a Trump rally in Berkeley in April. A pack of RAM members chased protesters down and started viciously beating them. The man filming the violence, right-wing video blogger Vincent Foxx, acted like he was close to joining in himself. When he saw RAM members swarm in on a protester, he yelled, “Get that f**king cuck!” In June, RAM traveled to an Islamophobic rally in San Bernardino and beat up a number of counter-protesters. In Charlottesville, RAM member Ben Daley was seen launching unprovoked attacks on counter-protesters.
RAM has a number of members with criminal histories. For instance, Robert Rundo, one of the worst offenders in Berkeley, was arrested in 2009 for stabbing a Latino man several times. Others have served time for assault, robbery, and weapons-related crimes. Despite this, they openly revel in violence, and are hailed as heroes by many alt-right and white supremacist outlets.
Incredibly, RAM has attracted almost no attention from law enforcement. ProPublica counted at least four incidents of violence in its investigation of RAM, but only one perpetrator was arrested. Robert Rondo was arrested soon after the Berkeley rally for assaulting an officer. However, Alameda County prosecutors didn’t bring charges. Despite numerous attempts by OC Weekly to get police to investigate the attack on its crew, no charges have been filed.
That befuddles former FBI agent Michael German, who infiltrated a number of far-right outfits during his career. German believes law enforcement should stop seeing these protests as merely a skirmish between two groups and instead look on them as “organized criminal activity.” He believes that police should take a long, hard look at RAM and sister organizations, given how they openly revel in violence.
These guys may see themselves as a defense force. But they’re nothing more than a street gang. And they should get the same treatment.
(featured image courtesy Northern California Anti-Racist Action)
