Neo-Nazis Indicted for Civil Rights Violations in Utah
Posted: June 9, 2006
The leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance and two other members have been arrested on federal civil rights violations in connection to several incidents dating back to December 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Federal authorities arrested Shaun Walker, 38, chairman of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, in his West Virginia compound on June 8, 2006, after a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned a two-count indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and one count of interference with a federally protected activity.
Travis Massey and Eric Egbert were arrested in Utah on the same charges. Both are area members of the National Alliance and Massey was the head of its unit at the time of the alleged violations. All three face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Between December 2002 and March 2003, according to the indictment, Walker, Massey, and Egbert, among others, conspired to threaten, intimidate, provoke and fight with minorities in order to make them fear appearing in public, going to work and living in and around Salt Lake City.
The indictment also alleges that on December 31, 2002, the three suspects assaulted and injured a Mexican-American man in a Salt Lake City bar because of his national origin. Massey and an unidentified person also allegedly threatened and assaulted a Native-American on March 15, 2003, outside another Salt Lake City bar.
Once the largest neo-Nazi group in the U.S., the National Alliance began to self-destruct in mid-2005 due to widespread anger and disaffection among its white supremacist membership regarding the group's leaders, Erich Gliebe and Shaun Walker. However, it still actively spreads its racism and anti-Semitism and continues to operate one of the most popular hate music companies, Resistance Records.
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