March 8–15, 2001

city beat

Compound Interest

On the watch: Floyd Cochran’s Education and Vigilance Network tracks racist groups in Pennsylvania.

Kicked out of their Idaho enclave, neo-Nazis have moved to Pennsylvania. A former member is coming to town to warn Philadelphians.

by Walidah Imarisha

A swastika hangs behind August Kreis as he stares into a TV camera, discussing his stockpile of guns, and his aims to recruit youth into his white supremacist organization. And all of this in our own backyard.

Kreis, Pennsylvania Aryan Nation leader, announced on Harrisburg’s ABC affiliate Feb. 27 that the Aryan Nation would live forever in Pennsylvania’s Potters County in the form of "the Last Outpost," a compound based on the infamous Idaho Aryan Nation compound.

Operating out of a small 10-acre plot of land where he has hosted neo-Nazi skinhead concerts and housed "leaders" of the racist white supremacist/militia movements, Kreis is trying to fill a power vacuum left by the Idaho Aryan Nation compound’s demise, says Floyd Cochran, Director of the Education and Vigilance Network (EVN), which tracks hate groups.

On Feb. 13, a court awarded the Idaho compound as part of a $6.3 million settlement to a woman whose car backfired in front of the compound in 1999, and Aryan Nation security guards shot out her tires, dragged her out and beat her up. The settlement financially devastated that compound but not the spirit of the racist organization, Cochran says.

"While it broke up the compound, it didn’t change anyone’s mind," he explains, just their location. Cochran says the racists are more centrally located to eliminate targets they see as potential threats. Now, says Cochran, "Kreis could drive six hours and be in Buffalo or New York City."

And the Aryan Nation already has a history here in Pennsylvania. One group was founded in Allentown in the 1990s by Mark Thomas, and ended in blood and criminal activity. In 1995, some skinheads associated with the group killed their parents and younger brother, and in 1996 members attacked a synagogue in York. Finally, in 1998 Thomas was convicted of bank robberies done in the name of the "Aryan Republican Army."

Now this group wants to resurrect again, and Cochran and his organization are working to stop it, through education and distribution of information. "I show a video when I do a presentation, because I think it’s important for people to hear what is coming out of these people’s mouths. When you hear a 14-year-old girl say she wants to ‘do what God tells me, I want to kill Jews,’ that’s powerful."

And Cochran should know… he once spouted the same hate speech, as Director of Propaganda and youth recruiter for the Aryan Nation. His mind began to change in the spring of 1992 when he was told, at an annual Hitler youth festival, that his son would have to be euthanized because he was genetically defective: he was born with a cleft palette. This made Cochran begin to doubt his belief that just because someone was different meant they were inferior.

Eventually he began to work at EVN, where he has been for seven and a half years, doing about 150 presentations on racist extremist groups a year, many to high school students.

Cochran says that it’s very important for people to deal with this white supremacist threat seriously and to do it now, while the organization is still relatively small.

According to EVN, Pennsylvania is fourth in the nation in terms of organized white supremacy, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission reports that in 1988 there were six hate groups in the state. Today there are 31.

The Human Relations Commission also found that organized hate group activity was reported in 65 communities located in 49 percent of all Pennsylvania counties, including Philadelphia County.

And ultimately, Cochran says, it’s the mentality of everyday people that allows these groups to operate. " August Kreis and Mark Thomas didn’t just move to Pennsylvania because they liked the blue skies, but because they like the racism of everyday folks in those mostly rural areas.

"My belief is that once we start talking about racism and these blatant physical forms of it, we can also begin to address institutionalized forms of racism and the racism of everyday people, " he says.

Cochran will be speaking March 8 at Temple University’s Center City campus at the National Conference for Community and Justice, as well as March 12 at the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel Synagogue in Elkins Park. Both events are for middle and high schoolers.

The EVN website is www.evnetwork.org.