Tom Metzger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom Metzger (born April 1938) is the founder of the White Aryan Resistance. He has six children and nine grand children. Metzger has been incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California and Toronto, Canada, and has been involved in several government inquiries and lawsuits.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 1980s 1.3 Later life 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Metzger grew up in Indiana, and in 1961 moved to Southern California to work in the electronics industry. For a short time, Metzger was a member of the John Birch Society. During the 1970s he joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which was led by David Duke. Metzger became the Grand Dragon for the State of California. Metzger was also a minister in the Christian Identity movement.

In summer 1979, Metzger organized a patrol to capture illegal Mexican immigrants south of Fallbrook, California. Metzger's Klan organization also had a security force which was involved in confrontations with anti-Klan protesters. Metzger's branch of the Klan split with Duke's organization in 1980 to form the "California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."

[edit] 1980s

In 1980, Metzger won the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives with over 40,000 votes in a San Diego-area district.[1] Metzger had changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat earlier in the year. The Democrats disavowed Metzger's candidacy, instead endorsing incumbent four-term Republican Clair Burgener. Metzger lost by over 200,000 votes in November to a several-term incumbent in a heavily Republican district.

Metzger left the Klan after the election and formed the "White American Political Association" in order to promote "pro-White" candidates for office. Metzger ran for the United States Senate in 1982, winning almost 76,000 votes (and 2.8% of the vote) in the Democratic Party Primary. In 1983, Metzger changed the name of his group to "White Aryan Resistance" (WAR). WAR worked to recruit members in prisons, and rejected Christianity as a form of Judaism.

The group was reportedly bankrupted as the result of a civil lawsuit centered on its involvement in the 1988 violent death of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college. In 1988, racist skinheads were convicted of killing Seraw and sent to prison. Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a civil suit against Metzger, arguing that WAR influenced Seraw's killers by encouraging their group East Side White Pride to commit violence.

At the trial, WAR national vice president Dave Mazzella testified how the Metzgers instructed WAR members to commit violence against minorities. Tom and John Metzger were found civilly liable under the doctrine of vicarious liability, in which one can be liable for a tort committed by a subordinate or other person taking instructions. The jury returned the largest civil verdict in Oregon history at the time—$12.5 million—against Metzger and WAR.^[1] The Metzgers' house was seized, and most of WAR's profits go to paying off the judgment. In November 1988, Metzger's son appeared on an episode of the Geraldo Rivera show in which a brawl broke out and Rivera's nose was broken after being punched by Metzger's bodyguard.^[2]

Years later witness Mazzella claimed that he had lied during much of his testimony.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Later life

In 1991, Metzger had to agree to stop selling T-shirts of Bart Simpson in a Nazi uniform with the words "Pure Nazi Dude." Metzger was convicted in 1991 of burning a cross in 1983, and sentenced to six months in prison and 300 hours community service working with minorities. Metzger was released from prison 46 days into his sentence to be with his critically ill wife, who died after Metzger's home was seized. In 1992, Metzger and his son violated a court order not to leave the country and entered Canada to speak to the Heritage Front. Soon afterwards, he was arrested for violating Canadian immigration laws by entering the country to "promote racial hatred".

He was summoned at US Treasury Department inquiries concerning racist messages on back side of fake dollar bills.

Metzger appeared on a 2003 documentary by British social commentator Louis Theroux, titled "Louis and the Nazis". In recent years, Metzger has advocated the "lone wolf" method of organization for white nationalist groups, which states that a person should not outwardly display his/her racist ideology, but must act covertly. Metzger hosts a weekly radio talk show called Insurgent Radio, on the Internet-based Turner Radio Network (not affiliated with the Turner Broadcasting System).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• White Aryan Resistance - WAR official site
• SPLC - Metzger on SPLC's "40 to watch"
• ADL- ADL profile on Metzger
• Louis and the Nazis - Documentary