With many regions across the South devastated by a pair of hurricanes, and communities struggling to pick up the pieces and rebuild, neo-Nazi groups have grasped an opportunity to recruit, reported the Wall Street Journal Friday.
These extremist groups are seeking to build off of lies being promoted by former President Donald Trump that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is absent from the crisis, or is even obstructing volunteer operations.
Prominent among the groups is Patriot Front, an infamous white supremacist organization which, according to the report, helped clear away storm damage in Horseshoe Beach, Florida — with an ulterior motive.
"Exploiting public confusion, grief and communication breakdowns, white supremacist groups are now showing up in vulnerable storm-ravaged communities in Florida and North Carolina," said the report.
Several other charity groups and churches are on the ground trying to offer aid, and the neo-Nazis are "blending in," offering their own aid but also "filming propaganda videos that both amplify falsehoods about the government response and help the groups remake their image as patriotic civic organizations for men."
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For instance, Patriot Front streamed members' efforts to their Telegram channel as a concealed figure said, “It is important for American men to gather and help fellow Americans in need, while the federal government is occupied ushering in foreigners and giving them homes and giving them food and giving them water.”
Horseshoe Beach Mayor Jeff Williams, who told reporters he didn't even realize the volunteers were neo-Nazis at first, said this is a lie, and there are in fact 100 government responders, including from FEMA, on the ground assessing damage and delivering relief.
“You’re seeing these hyper-localized militias, these antigovernment groups, who are able to use this massive distrust, the panic, the fear, the unrest, to recruit,” George Washington University Program on Extremism researcher Jon Lewis explained. “It’s not surprising to see these groups trying to use these disasters for promotional efforts.”
