Emboldened white nationalists? Look no further than this liberal Oregon college town

[Bradley K. Sperman]

Looking back, things did seem a bit out of balance with
successful marijuana entrepreneur Bethany Sherman.

She shared an open contempt for Eugene and its renowned left-
wing politics. She gloated about the election of Donald Trump.
She made sure to note that she’d given her baby a German name.

But few who knew Sherman expected to read an antifascist expose´
accusing her of neo-Nazi sympathies. They were even less
prepared for Sherman’s immediate and enthusiastic declaration of
white pride, though she disavowed any connection to neo-Nazis.

Within a day of the allegations, Sherman found her carefully
cultivated image as a well-connected and savvy businesswoman in
tatters. She closed the marijuana testing lab that she had
worked for years to establish. The industry condemned her and
customers left in droves.

The extraordinary episode has fed community anxieties about a
new boldness among a relatively small but steady number of white
nationalists, members of an old movement galvanized by Trump’s
ascendancy to the presidency.

The upheaval also has trained a spotlight on Eugene, an
overwhelmingly white city with its own deeply racist past and
where hate crimes are on the rise.

Sherman was quickly embraced by two Lane County men viewed by
national groups tracking extremists as fixtures of the region’s
white nationalist movement.

Jacob Laskey, who spent more than a decade in prison for
desecrating Eugene’s largest synagogue, took to YouTube to
praise her. “Bethany Sherman is a hero because she doesn’t have
white guilt,” he said.

Jimmy Marr, infamous for driving a truck around the state with
racist and anti-Semitic messages emblazoned on the sides, wept
as he discussed the negative reaction Sherman encountered.

white_nationalism_in_lane_county85441.jpg
Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jimmy Marr, a notorious racist who thinks white people
are under attack, lives in a modest ranch-style home in
Springfield, where earlier this year a few men gathered in front
of signs declaring the Holocaust a hoax.

At the same time, Sherman’s stunning fall from grace has
underscored the muscular role of the anonymous activists known
as antifa in not only tracking and outing far-right partisans
but pushing back on their efforts to intimidate people.

"Eugene is a still a heavily contested place,” said Alexander
Reid Ross, a lecturer at Portland State University and author of
the book “Against the Fascist Creep.”

“You have these far-right elements among the hippies and the new-
agers. Then sometimes they fuse together and we suddenly have
this Nazi weed situation."

white_nationalism_in_lane_county85442.jpg
Beth Nakamura| The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Antifa activists claim that Jimmy Marr, pictured here,
and Jacob Laskey, who lives in Creswell, south of Eugene, have
hundreds of followers and supporters nationwide. The men, they
said, serve as "public icons" of the white nationalist movement
and "their unchallenged existence" inspires others.

Kitty Piercy, a former Eugene mayor, was one of the few people
who would talk on the record about the turmoil.

Many others who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said they were
afraid of drawing attention to themselves in a climate they
described as hostile toward ethnic minorities, people of color
or anyone who might challenge the virulent element.

“My biggest fear right now,” said Piercy, “is that people who
hate and do this kind of thing are beginning to feel empowered.”



EUGENE LEADS IN HATE CRIMES REPORTED


That a woman enmeshed in Oregon's cannabis industry, in a city
celebrated as a liberal bastion, stands accused of associating
with white nationalists — including baking cookies in the shape
of swastikas to honor Adolf Hitler’s birthday — seems at odds
with Eugene’s socially conscious self-image.

The home of the University of Oregon has drawn generations of
left-leaning college students and counterculture icons like
author Ken Kesey, the namesake of a public plaza downtown.
Oregon’s second-largest city became a West Coast center for
1960s Vietnam War protest and gave birth to “Green Anarchy,” a
magazine that touted primitivism and radical environmentalism.

white_nationalism_in_lane_county85443.jpg
Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jacob Laskey, of Creswell, is heavily tattooed. Among his
tattoos: a swastika and the words "white power" along his jaw.
Laskey said he no longer associates with white supremacists.



But the city, like the state itself, has a dark past marked by
troubling displays of white power.

In the 1920s, Eugene boasted an energized chapter of the Ku Klux
Klan, which drew its members from local leaders, the middle
class and a leading UO classics scholar, Frederick Dunn. The
group burned crosses on prominent Skinner Butte and targeted
local Catholics, according to a report commissioned in 2016 by
the university after students and faculty pressed for the
renaming of a building named for Dunn and another for Matthew
Deady, who supported slavery in the 1850s.

As a result of the report, the university stripped Dunn's name
from a campus dorm but opted to keep Deady Hall. Lane County
itself is named for the first governor of Oregon Territory,
Joseph Lane, who according to the Oregon Encyclopedia was a
vigorous defender of slavery.

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jimmy Marr, of Springfield, said someone recently tossed
this brick at his car, which was parked at his home. Marr, an
avowed racist who wants Jewish people to be exterminated, is a
frequent target of antifa activists.

That stubborn legacy of bigotry persists in Eugene, where city
officials this year have recorded nearly 60 hate crimes, up from
44 last year. Officials said vandalism and graffiti made up 20
percent of the hate crimes reported between January and October.

Statewide, hate crimes were up 60 percent in 2016 from the
previous year, representing one of the largest increases of any
state, according to an analysis of federal data by the Center
for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State
University, San Bernardino.

In 2016, Eugene had more hate crimes than any other place in
Oregon, said Brian Levin, director of the center. (The
Oregonian/OregonLive has partnered with ProPublica and newsrooms
nationwide to track hate crimes and bias incidents. You can use
this form to tell us about a suspected hate crime incident.)

Eugene officials attribute the city’s disturbing lead position
to a unique and longstanding system that encourages residents to
report hate crimes. Starting this year, Eugene police officers
have been strongly encouraged to record instances of hate-
related graffiti they encounter during their work.

Levin added that better reporting systems as well as an active
regional group or “serial offenders” “can all drive local hate
crime reporting way up.”

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jacob Laskey told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he’s no
longer involved in the white power movement or affiliated with
any white supremacist groups. He added that he does not renounce
his past.

This year has seen a flurry of racist and anti-Semitic activity
across the city. Vandals have struck cars, storefronts and
public property with painted swastikas. Repugnant messages and
symbols have defaced schools, churches and the federal
courthouse.

One employee of a local business told authorities that he came
into work to find two nooses and a slur scrawled on his locker.

The vandalism and other hostility represent "an attack on the
entire community, regardless of people's race or religion," said
Margot Helphand, chairwoman of the Jewish Community Relations
Council of the Jewish Federation of Lane County.

"We are definitely affected by it," she said. "If it hits our
community, it hits everyone."

The city's Whiteaker neighborhood, a vibrant arts and
entertainment district, attracted a rash of Nazi-inspired
graffiti in February. Residents and business owners also awoke
during that time to find the area leafleted with recruitment
fliers that proclaimed, "Diversity is a code word for white
genocide."

Emily Nyman, an owner of Old Nick's Pub in the neighborhood,
said her bar became one of the vandalism targets because she had
previously banned a group of patrons who espoused white
supremacist views. She has also been outspoken in support of the
antifa movement and its activism.

A swastika was painted on the outside of her bar along with the
message, "We're watching you."

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jacob Laskey spent 11 years in prison after he threw
swastika-etched bricks through Temple Beth Israel in Eugene and
now helps operate his family's business in Creswell.

In recent months, Nyman said she has been further harassed and
intimidated online by white nationalists, prompting her to hire
a lawyer and speak with both the Eugene Police Department and
the FBI.

Nyman said she now brings her dog, a timberwolf hybrid, with her
to work for protection. She added that many in the Eugene area,
especially ethnic minorities and people of color, have been
silenced by the uptick in outward racism. "As a white
businesswoman who has less to fear I feel like I owe it to the
people in my community who can't speak out," she said.

DIFFICULT TO GET FIX ON SCOPE OF MOVEMENT

It's hard to say how extensive the white power movement is in
the Eugene area or in Oregon in general.

The collection of unnamed antifa activists who released the
detailed information about Sherman on the Eugene Antifa website
said they reviewed online chats among 30 people who organized
white nationalist activities in the Pacific Northwest. The
activists said they found communications from Matthew Combs in
that review. Sherman and Combs live together and are expecting
their second child.

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Antifa activists have released personal information about
Jacob Laskey and his family members, drawing his ire. He
routinely rants about antifa in Youtube videos and has made
sweatshirts with anti-antifa logos.

In general, experts said, the past two decades have seen the
movement drift from organized formal groups, like the Klan and
Volksfront, a now-defunct white supremacist organization founded
in Portland, toward the idea of “leaderless resistance.”

Laskey, according to the Anti-Defamation League, was a member of
Volksfront when he carried out the attack on the Eugene
synagogue in 2002.

Extremists today coalesce around social media and racist message
boards, helping them not only to elude law enforcement but to
recruit, said Randy Blazak, chairman of the Oregon Coalition
Against Hate Crime.

Their public message, too, has shifted in recent years from
declarations of white supremacy to white pride, said Ryan Lenz,
a senior investigative writer for Southern Poverty Law Center.

“They will just say ‘I am just proud to be white. Being proud of
being white is not hateful.’ The understanding of the movement
and the feeling is, well, it’s time we stand up for white people
when everyone else is standing up for their own ethnic groups,”
Lenz said.

“What they don’t understand,” he said, “is that the rise of
relevance and prominence and acceptance of different types of
people does not mean they are forfeiting or giving up a level of
any social status or any cultural relevance.”

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Jimmy Marr recently discussed his white nationalist views
in the living room of his Springfield home, which he shares with
his wife, Judy, and their dogs, Dieter (pictured) and Greta.

TWO MEN ARE MOST PROMINENT

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism has closely
tracked the statements and activities of Jacob Laskey and Jimmy
Marr.

“Those guys have been hanging around the movement for years,”
said Carla Hill, an investigative researcher with the center.

She’s seen no evidence that either have gained followers, she
said, but they’re taking advantage of the historical moment as
white supremacy emerges from the shadows.

“They see this as this is their time,” Hill said. “This is their
opportunity to make these changes they dream of.”

Marr, known by some of his supporters as “Genocide Jimmy” for
his support of a conspiracy theory that the government is
actively working to get rid of white people, has gained
notoriety for driving the Interstate 5 corridor in his sign-
festooned pickup.

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: Eugene is known for its liberal politics and
counterculture vibe, but Oregon's second-largest city, like the
state itself, has a racist past.

On a recent weekend, Marr, wearing a Santa hat, joined three
other people at an Interstate 5 overpass in nearby Springfield,
where they dropped a banner declaring, "It's OK to be white."

During Holocaust Remembrance Day in April, a small group of
people in Nazi regalia gathered outside of Marr's home in
Springfield, which sits across the street from a children's
playground and is a block away from an elementary school, with
swastika flags and a sign that read, "The Holocaust is Hokum."

"Frankly, and I'll tell you this right now. I'm interested in
the counter-extermination of the Jews," Marr told The
Oregonian/OregonLive, seated in his living room reclining chair
with his dog Dieter in his lap.

Marr and another man staged a public demonstration at the
University of Oregon on Hitler’s birthday, according to the
Daily Emerald, the university’s student-run newspaper.

Laskey, who spent 11 years in prison after he threw swastika-
etched bricks through Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, has not
shied away from building a public profile since his release in
late 2015.

Books he penned behind bars, including one that claims the
Holocaust was a hoax and another that serves as a primer for
members of the American Front, a white power group, became
available on Amazon in recent months.

Laskey also has become a prolific YouTube video blogger, where
he has delivered lengthy diatribes against antifa activists and
talked about his doubts that the Earth is round and whether the
International Space Station is a Hollywood movie set.

He told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he’s no longer involved in
the white power movement or affiliated with any white
supremacist groups. He added that he doesn't renounce his past.

Eugene Antifa
Above: During Holocaust Remembrance Day in April, a small group
of people in Nazi regalia gathered outside of Marr’s home in
Springfield, which sits across the street from a children’s
playground and is a block away from an elementary school, with
swastika flags.

“Yes, I’m proud of my race. Yes, I’m proud of my heritage,”
Laskey said during an interview at Wolfclan Armory, a military
surplus shop he runs with his family in Creswell, just south of
Eugene. “I’m not a fascist. I’m an American. Why can’t we put
America first?”

ANTIFA ACTS AS COUNTERPOINT

Antifa activists claim that Laskey and Marr have hundreds of
followers and supporters nationwide.

Antifa groups, of which there are now dozens in the U.S.,
routinely publicize personal information of those they deem
threats to people in their communities, a practice called
doxing. They also watch individuals, on and offline, and
organize demonstrations against people they believe have ties to
hate groups or publicly espouse bigoted views.

Both Marr and Laskey are frequent targets of antifa activists.
On social media, Eugene Antifa called Laskey, whose tattoos
include the words “white power” along his jaw, a "walking hate
crime." It also told followers that Laskey planned to attend an
event at a local high school, for example. It published Marr’s
home address and identified his adult children.

The antifa members refused to meet with reporters from The
Oregonian/OregonLive, citing potential retribution from white
supremacists but answered a series of written questions via
email.

Using leaked chats and other unidentified sources, they’ve
disclosed the dynamics of white nationalists in the region and
ties among Laskey, Marr, Sherman and Combs. The four socialized
this year, according to antifa activists. Sherman and Combs,
antifa said, attended Laskey’s wedding.

Eugene Antifa published detailed dossiers on Sherman and Combs
on its website. The post relies on online chats, social media
posts and direct messages on Twitter to show what the couple was
involved in and with whom they were associating.

The antifa account shows Combs using slurs to describe African-
Americans and gay people. It includes a photograph of a masked
Combs giving a Nazi salute. In another image that antifa claims
to be Combs, he’s holding a container of pesticide, noting that
anyone who approaches will be sprayed before “confinement and
transportation to the camps!”

In a screenshot of a tweet, Combs refers to what antifa said is
Sherman’s twitter handle, @14th_word, saying she baked swastika-
shaped cookies for a Hitler birthday celebration earlier this
year.

The account is a reference to “14 words,” a white supremacist
slogan meaning, "We must secure the existence of our people and
a future for white children." The attached bio notes the account
holder is a “nationalist mommy” and that “our children deserve
to be raised in a wholesome environment free of oppression
against whites.”

The account has since been deleted but not before antifa
archived the feed, which includes an image of white men giving a
Nazi salute and another quoting the president of the American
Nazi Party.

Beth Nakamura|The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: In this 2014 Oregonian file photo, Bethany Sherman picks
up cannabis-infused products purchased by the news organization
for analysis. The Oregonian/OregonLive hired her company to test
the products for potency.

Activists said they knew the addition of Sherman and Combs would
shock many who know them, making careful documentation of their
white nationalist ties essential.

“What is most stunning to the public is that this couple has
been able to successfully conceal their extreme racist views and
white ethnostate organizing from almost everyone,” the group
said in an email. “In a sense, they have been playing Jekyll and
Hyde.”

They said explosive public reaction centered less on Combs, who
while an owner of the cannabis lab wasn't actively involved in
its operations, and more on the secret views of “an outwardly
normal looking” woman like Sherman.

FALLOUT WAS SWIFT

Sherman had established herself as an articulate expert on the
complexities of marijuana testing. She brought an air of
professionalism to an industry transforming itself from an
illegal market to a legitimate one.

She organized regular get-togethers for cannabis enthusiasts at
a Eugene pub. She had the ear of state regulators as a member of
a subcommittee on testing.

She is the CEO of her company, OG Analytical, according to state
records. Sherman this year had privately expressed a desire to
sell the business to spend more time with her family.

The lab was reputable and did business with growers and
processors from Eugene and beyond. In 2015, The
Oregonian/OregonLive hired the lab to test hash oils for an
investigative series on pesticide-tainted cannabis.


Beth Nakamura|The Oregonian/OregonLive
Above: In this 2014 Oregonian file photo, Matthew Combs packs
cannabis-infused products purchased by The Oregonian/OregonLive
for analysis at OG Analytical.

Sherman’s views on race, which associates and acquaintances said
she never shared, left many speechless.

“Heartbroken is what I am hearing from a lot of people,” said
Josh Taylor, a syndicated cannabis columnist whose work appears
in the Portland Mercury and owner of Oregon Cannabis Concierge,
an event-production company. “It’s a small community. Most of us
knew Bethany and had done work through OG Analytical and for a
lot of people they were, I think, the industry standard for
testing.”

Few who know the couple agreed to speak on the record, worried
about being linked in any way to Sherman and her company.

They described Sherman and Combs as loving parents who were
often seen walking to a local market for coffee or beer with
their young daughter in a stroller. One acquaintance said it
wasn’t uncommon for Combs to carry a baseball bat; it was for
protection, Combs claimed.

People recalled visiting the couple at their westside Eugene
home, where nothing seemed amiss.

It’s clear, according to those who knew Combs and Sherman, that
Combs panicked once the information became public. He reached
out to people to ask if they’d read the antifa post and at first
declared it all a lie, though acquaintances and associates said
the photographs taken of the demonstration at Marr’s house are
of Combs.

One of his acquaintances then scoured the anonymous Twitter
account that antifa said was Combs’ and found a post from last
year announcing Sherman’s and Combs’ newborn daughter,
identified by name and captioned: “Who knew fighting
#whitegenocide would be so beautiful.”

Combs has declined multiple requests to comment but during the
past week has changed his profile on Twitter and has resumed
tweeting from the account. The account bio now shows Combs and
his young daughter with the words, "Love yourself. Love your
family. Love your nation." He describes himself as a "Cascadian
nationalist."

On Dec. 21, Combs tweeted that antifa's disclosures have brought
an end to his formerly underground "life lived in fear,
frustration, and compromise."

In response to the disclosures, Sherman issued a series of
statements in which she embraced white pride and strongly
objected to being described as a neo-Nazi.

The “world is tapestry of beautiful colors, each one full of a
wealth of cultural heritage, and that each culture has a right
to be proud of their heritage, and an obligation to protect and
preserve that culture,” she wrote.

With her beliefs in the open, she said, she can “pursue the life
I’ve been longing for” and no longer must hide her views to
protect her company.

Sherman declined to answer a series of follow-up questions from
The Oregonian/OregonLive, though she did reply to one question
asking if she shares Marr’s view that Jewish people should be
“exterminated.”

“No,” she wrote in an email, “I do not support the extermination
of any people. I'm not interested in answering any of your other
questions because they're not newsworthy.” In a text, she
indicated her company is for sale.

Like Combs, Sherman also changed her Twitter bio after the
antifa allegations surfaced. She now says she is proud of who
she is. "Cherish who you are and where you came from. It's okay."

Sherman and Combs were frequent customers of the David Minor
Theater in Eugene. Owner Josh Goldfarb was stunned by recent
characterizations of the couple.

"We thought they were liberal progressives," Goldfarb said. "We
really did."

On a recent visit to the couple’s home, the interior was
illuminated with Christmas tree lights. A Santa decoration hung
on the door. No one was home.

-- Noelle Crombie

ncro...@oregonian.com

503-276-7184

@noellecrombie

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skava...@oregonian.com

503.294.7632

@shanedkavanaugh

https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-
news/index.ssf/2017/12/post_292.html

[Byker]

"Bradley K. Sperman" wrote in message
news:57881533ba61988d...@dizum.com...

>
> The upheaval also has trained a spotlight on Eugene, an overwhelmingly
> white city with its own deeply racist past and where hate crimes are on
> the rise.

In 1999 I watched a PBS documentary entitled "Extreme Tolerance," which
documented the influence of the Far-Right in the Pacific Northwest. This
exasperated SPLC lawyer said, "People have got to get rid of this
third-grade notion that racists are a bunch of rednecks living in trailers."
Morris Dees and company still have a long way to go, because the
demographics of the Bruder Schweigen ("The Order") exploded that stereotype
back in the early 80s: https://tinyurl.com/kb7tw84

[Heinz Heinrich]

Bradley K. Sperman wrote

> Looking back, things did seem a bit out of balance with
> successful marijuana entrepreneur Bethany Sherman.

It's time to exterminate all white nationalists, KKK members and Neo-Nazis.

Hitler was a leftist and so are they.

Their leftist ideology is no longer to be tolerated and they forfeited their
right to exist. It's time for a mass cull.

[Baxter]

Heinz Heinrich <Heinzh...@hoo.com> wrote in
news:XnsA95E9B37A1...@178.63.61.175:

We've heard the bullshit about Nazi's being "leftists". I'm all for
"getting rid" of white nationalists, KKK members and Neo-Nazis. But their
ideology and rhetoric is right-wing not left. And your attempt to pin this
shit on the left is right out of right-wing, white nationalist playbook.

[Heinz Heinrich]

Bradley K. Sperman wrote

> Looking back, things did seem a bit out of balance with
> successful marijuana entrepreneur Bethany Sherman.

[Heinz Heinrich]

Bradley K. Sperman wrote

> Looking back, things did seem a bit out of balance with
> successful marijuana entrepreneur Bethany Sherman.