By Chris King • Published: 13 Nov 2020 • 1:39
FORMER Klu Klux Klan Leader Tom Metzger, has Died Aged 82, from Parkinson’s Disease.
Tom Metzger, died aged 82, on Wednesday, November 4th, in Hemet, resulting from illness associated with Parkinson’s Disease, as reported by Jose Arballo Jr, a spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health. Metzger carved his name into the history books as the infamous white separatist Klu Klux Clan leader, who came to prominence stoking racial hatred and promoting white separatism, and founding up the White Aryan Resistance movement, back in the 1980s.
His organisation’s role in the beating to death of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian college student, in Portland, Oregon, in 1988, brought about Metzger’s downfall, as he was pushed into financial ruin, after Seraw’s family brought a lawsuit against him, which they won, in court, in 1990, totalling $12.5 million, leaving him homeless and penniless. During the trial, the court was played a recording of Metzger lauding Seraw’s killers for carrying out their “civic duty” by killing him.
Tom Metzger eventually set up a website and telephone hotline promoting racism, which he often answered personally: Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the CEO of Anti-Defamation League speaking to the Associated Press, said of Metzger, “Tom Metzger spent decades working against core American values as one of the most visible hardcore white supremacists in the country. Throughout his life, he engaged in a wide range of hateful activities from spreading anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric to launching vigilante border patrols as a California Klansman, to recruiting skinheads to the white supremacist cause.”
Randy Blazak, a former sociology professor at Portland State University, who wrote many articles about race hate groups, commented that Seraw’s murder left racial wounds in Portland that continued to this day, “We became known as Skinhead City. We had racist skinheads and anti-racist skinheads doing battle in the streets, which is sort of a precursor of Antifa and the Proud Boys,” referencing those groups recently involved in street violence, that has gripped the city of Portland.
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Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com
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