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Southern Poverty Law Center Had Monitored Museum Shooting Suspect

Posted Jun 11, 2009 5:35 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The 88-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum first attracted the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center about three decades ago.

Most recently, James W. von Brunn was on the group’s radar for his website holywesternempire.org, identified as a hate site by the group in 2008. (The site was shut down yesterday.) But Heidi Beirich, the center's director of research, told WHNT19News the group has long known of his views.

“In fact, in 1981 he tried to take the entire Federal Reserve Board hostage,” she told WHNT19. “He was found out in front of their offices in D.C. with a sawed-off shotgun inside of a jacket. He's a really pretty scary character."

"He hated Jews. He raged and raged about Jews,” she told the Huntsville, Ala., television station. “He was equally racist. I wouldn't even repeat in a public place the things he said about African-Americans. He had crazy ideas that there was no Holocaust. He mixed some of the worst ideologies you can imagine into one stew."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, originally formed as a civil rights law firm, later became known for its legal victories against white supremacists and its monitoring of hate groups.

Von Brunn's court-appointed lawyer in the Federal Reserve incident, John Hogrogian, told CNN that von Brunn received an 11-year sentence for the crime, but served only six years before his release. In trial testimony, von Brunn said his plan had been to raise awareness about what he believed to be "treacherous and unconstitutional" acts of the Federal Reserve.

On the SPLC’s Hatewatch blog, Beirich says von Brunn was at one time employed by Noontide Press, a part of the Holocaust-denying Institute of Historical Review.

The Washington Post reports that von Brunn had told an acquaintance his Social Security had recently been cut, and he thought it was because someone in Washington, D.C., was looking at his website. He was growing increasingly despondent before he shot and killed the guard, Stephen Johns.

Von Brunn was shot and critically wounded after museum guards returned his fire.

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Jun 11, 2009 8:59 AM CST

Possibly there should be more attention paid to these people who are openly advocating armed violence in furtherance of their extremist views.  Von Brunn’s possession of a rifle (and apparently, at some point, explosives), and Scott Roeder’s tax issues and chronic vandalism of abortion clinics could have been the basis of timely enforcement actions.  Federal and state officials need to stop giving these crazies a pass.  Prompt investigation and enforcement could save many lives.

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2.

J.D.
Jun 11, 2009 9:35 AM CST

Why doesn’t the SPLC monitor black converts to Islam? After all, just last week a black muslim shot and killed a white guard outside a military recruitment center. Actually, he shot TWO people so it could be considered even more tragic than this incident.

But the ABA journal decided against mentioning it. The SPLC doesn’t seem to care. The Obama Administration was AWOL, and the media pretty much avoided reporting the killing altogether.

So why is the SPLC not addressing radical muslim converts? Or, should I ask, who’s monitoring the SPLC, a group that the American Institute of Philanthropy called “one of the worst” as far as charity ratings goes, noting that SPLC spent as much money on fundraising as it did legal action. As of December 2008, its Charity Ratings Guide still gave the SPLC an “F” rating for “excessive” reserves.

This isn’t new. Since at least 1994 various newspapers have exposed this group’s multi-multi-multi million dollar “non-profit” status.

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3.

tim
Jun 11, 2009 11:27 AM CST

JD….No muslim every commits a crime.  Islam is 100% peace so there is no need to monitor black converts to islam.  Everyone who commits a crime is not a true muslim so therefore no need to monitor the muslims.

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4.

B. McLeod
Jun 11, 2009 12:16 PM CST

Maybe Carlos Bledsoe did not have his own internet hate site, or post extremist messages all over other sites.  Maybe there was, therefore, nothing in particular to “monitor.”

As far as the government’s media response to the recruiting center shooting, it occurs to me that the Army may deem it unwise to advertise that it could not protect its own recruiting center.

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5.

DR
Jun 11, 2009 12:55 PM CST

Well, J.D., it’s a lot easier to monitor or address small groups of individuals or one individual - especially a guy who has his own blog, started his own Holocaust denial organization and has written numerous pamplets with known ties to the neo-nazi movement over the years. 

But monitor black converts to Islam?  That’s not a person or a specific group with a uniform philosophy…that’s a demographic, one that would be impossible to monitor unless our eyes were in every black household and we were nettling in the personal affairs of every black citizen in the U.S.  But maybe you’re onto something, maybe we should keep lists of everyone’s religious affiliation and the time and place of their conversion to another religion, if any, especially African Americans.

Now, if the young individual who killed the recruitment center guard (and this story was everywhere by the way, even in USA Today) had blogs and started an anti-US, anti-military organization, then yes, let’s check that out.

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6.

DR
Jun 11, 2009 12:56 PM CST

Whoops, didn’t mean to partially duplicate McLeod’s post.

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7.

J.D.
Jun 11, 2009 2:22 PM CST

Anyone could argue that both the recruitment center shooter and the museum shooter were “lone wolves.” Of course, one could argue that both were part of two larger movements: Islamic fundamentalism, and Antisemitism. So that analysis doesn’t fly.

As for not going after a “demographic,” well, I don’t think the Obama Admin would agree with you. Their recent report on “rightwing extremism” is all about going after certain “demographics.”

It’s nice, DR, that you’d like to “check out” what stuff the Arkansas shooter was up to, but unfortunately no one in the media is investigating it. I suspect we’ll get a lot more information about the recent gunman however. It will go on for the next two weeks.

No agenda in the news, though.

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8.

J.D.
Jun 11, 2009 3:36 PM CST

Also, the Obama Admin and SPLC should investigate black clergy members, starting with Obama’s “spiritual adviser” and “family friend” who apparently wholeheartedly agrees with von Brunn, saying:

“Them Jews ain’t gonna let [Obama] talk to me!”

Today Wright clarified what he meant with this:

“Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke. Let me just say: Zionists.

“They can jump on that one phrase if they want to, but they can’t, they can’t undo history. They can’t undo the facts of Jewish historians and Jewish theologians who write about what’s going on, who write about the enormous influence that AIPAC has on our government and on United States policy and the United Nations.”

Hmmmm…. I think Obama’s spiritual adviser has much in common with von Brunn. Does that make Rev. Wright a “right-wing extremist” according to AP and MSNBC?

I’ll wait for the SPLC to weigh in on this one….

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9.

DR
Jun 11, 2009 9:26 PM CST

Hmm…J.D…you missed my point again.  If you had read my post more closely, you would have discovered that I propose a very conservative view:  much less meddling in people’s personal lives.  But, you get so excited about proving your position that you fail to see the intricacies of my argument.  C’est la vie.

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