Church of the Creator: Creed of Hate
On July 15, 1993, federal and local police agents in
Los Angeles, California, arrested eight
individuals, some of whom had ties to COTC. These
individuals were accused of plotting to instigate
a race war by bombing the First African Methodist Episcopal
Church -- a major Black religious
institution in South Central Los Angeles -- and by
assassinating Rodney King, the victim of a
notorious videotaped beating by white police officers.
According to court documents, the King
murder was to have taken place on August 4, the sentencing
date for two policemen convicted of
federal civil rights violations in connection with the
beating.
The arrests, which culminated an 18-month investigation
of right-wing extremist groups in
Southern California, were made three weeks prior to the
assassination date because at the time, one of
the key suspects was allegedly preparing a letter bomb to be
sent to an Orange County rabbi.
Additionally. police stated that the alleged conspirators
had planned to target leaders of the NAACP
and the National Urban League;
Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan; the Rev. Al Sharpton, rap
music stars Eazy-E and members of the group Public Enemy; as
well as unspecified "Jewish leaders."
During the arrests, police seized pipe bombs and
machine guns, as well as racist paraphernalia
including Confederate and Nazi flags, and a framed portrait
of Adolf Hitler. Of the eight people
arrested, only one, Christopher David Fisher, was
specifically charged with conspiracy to destroy the
First A.M.E. church. Five other adults were charged with
weapons offenses: Geremy Rineman, 22; Jill
Scarborough, 22; Josh Lee, 23; Chris Nadal, 35; and Doris
Nadal, 42. Two unidentified juveniles were
also arrested on unspecified charges_according to Time
magazine, however, one of the minors had
been charged with a pipe-bomb attack against a "half Asian
and half Mexican" member of the "Spur
Posse," a gang of Lakewood, California. teenagers who
awarded points among themselves for sexual
conquests
Fisher, the son of a grade-school teacher and a
computer-science instructor, was the leader of an
obscure Skinhead gang, the Fourth Reich Skins. Rineman, an
associate of Metzger's White Aryan
Resistance, had been featured in WAR, the Metzger monthly
tabloid, after he was paralyzed in a brawl
with Black and Latino youths Scarborough, Rineman's
girlfriend, had written to another Metzger
publication, White Sisters, distributed by the Aryan Women`s
League, in 1991. The couple also wrote
COTC's Racial Loyalty together in May 1992, stating, "After
searching through many organizations..
we are now proud to say that we are new members of a program
and creed that will bring about the
salvation and redemption of the White Race. As Creators we
now know that we can give our all to a
real movement that will stop at nothing until we have a
Whiter and Brighter World. We are now
working hard to start a strong chapter out here in Southern
California. We have started recruiting
many of our friends...."
Ironically, among these newly recruited friends,
Rineman and Scarborough were responsible for
bringing into the COTC the FBI informant who foiled their
alleged terroristic plot. A man who_
according to press accounts_presented himself in extremist
circles as "Rev. Joe Allen" wrote in the
May 1992 issue of Racial Loyalty, "I would like to express
my thanks to Jill and Geremy VonRineman
[sic], our wounded warrior, for showing me to the light of
Creativity.... As a newly ordained minister
of the COTC. I will dedicate myself to the cause and
encourage others to join our movement. I am
moving my base of operations to Southern California to work
with Jill and Geremy and others that
they have recruited, but I am willing to give assistance
wherever it can be used."
After the arrests of Rineman, Scarborough, and their
associates, Metzger wrote in WAR that he
had suspected Allen's connection to the FBI over three years
ago. Perhaps the WAR leader shared his
concerns with Rineman, for he and Allen began publicly
feuding, though Allen continued to use
COTC as the base for his activities. In an issue of Racial
Loyalty published only days before the
arrests, Allen wrote, "I am continuing to spread the
C.O.T.C. philosophy of purifying mind and body
for a whiter and brighter California by training and
educating young Skinheads at our training center.
Unfortunately, a former C O.T.C. associate, who has never
accomplished anything for the white race
except getting himself shot and paralyzed by a mud, has made
himself an obstacle to our success by
spreading vicious lies about me in the local area for his
own childish motives.... I would like to urge
any white patriot who has not contacted me because of
something that spoiled brat said about me, to
meet with me and let me show them documents I have acquired
which prove that these lies are not
true."
Current COTC leader Rick McCarty entered into the fray
by writing, "Rev. Joe Allen has been
a tremendous help to this organization.... In fact, he has
never turned down a request from this office.
Rev. Joe Allen has always been there for us and he will be
there for you...call him...enough said."
When questioned about Allen's FBI work in the July 21 issue
of The Toronto Sun, McCarty said, "He
sent up $500 [U.S.] to help bail out our group in
Toronto.... For an FBI agent he's been a big help. I
wish we had 100 more like him."
Nonetheless, McCarty took pains to distance himself
from the plot in which his group had
become entangled. Denying that he had advocated violence
against the African-Americans targeted
for assassination. the COTC leader told the NW Florida Daily
News, "We support Rodney King
because the police that beat him will beat us.... And we
support Louis Farrakhan because he's a black
separatist." (Ben Klassen had been less enthusiastic in his
assessment of the Nation of Islam leader;
the July 1989 Racial Loyalty excerpted a wire service
article on Farrakhan under the headline, "Do We
Really Want to Negotiate With This Nigger?")
Significance of the Skinhead Connection
Members of the Fourth Reich Skins not arrested in
connection with the alleged conspiracy also
tried to disentangle themselves from the widening gyre of
terrorism. In an interview printed in the
August 1 Las Vegas Review-Journal, a Skinhead girl
explained, "We may have prejudices..but I don't
want to start a war." Denials notwithstanding, however, the
charges against the eight could signify a disturbing
tendency among neo-Nazi Skinheads[1] to act upon more
ambitious and organized violent schemes either by working
with or by taking inspiration from older, more established
hate groups
such as WAR and the COTC.
Thus far, only two defendants, Christian and Doris
Nadal, have been brought to trial in
connection with these charges. On October 1, 1993, Christian
Nadal was convicted on 16 counts of
selling and transferring illegal weapons, for which he could
receive a maximum sentence of 145 years
in prison. Doris Nadal, acquitted of three charges, was
found guilty on a single conspiracy count, for
which she could receive a five year sentence. A ninth
defendant, charged after the July 15 arrests,
Christopher Berwick, 49, pleaded guilty in late September to
conspiring to manufacture and sell
approximately 16 Sten machine gun receiver tubes for gun
kits provided by Christian Nadal; Berwick
faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
As of October 1993, the other six defendants remain in jail
awaiting trial.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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The Los Angeles Plot