Making Babies for the F眉hrer
Here鈥檚 a new one, even by Hatewatch鈥檚 jaded standards: According to newspaper and television news of this week鈥檚 Southern California law enforcement dragnet of the Inland Empire Skinheads, two female gang members were placed under arrest in hospital maternity wards. They were having labor induced to ensure their babies were born on April 20 鈥� the 120th birthday of Adolf Hitler.
Nice parenting. Right from the get go.
Less shocking is the news of yet another major bust of a violent racist skinhead gang in the Inland Empire region, which the Intelligence Report first identified as a hotbed of white-power gangs activity in fall of 2005. As we then:
The Inland Empire used to be a sparsely populated, rural area of ranches, vineyards and farms, where whites were the clear and dominant majority.
All that has changed.
Driven from Los Angeles and San Diego by soaring housing prices, middle- and working-class black, Hispanic and Asian families have migrated to the Inland Empire in massive numbers, drawn by a surplus of comparatively affordable, big homes in sprawling, suburban-style developments. 鈥� Whites are now a minority in the Inland Empire.
These seismic changes in the region鈥檚 racial make-up have corresponded with a steady rise in hate crimes, including a particularly vicious spike in racially motivated violence and harassment鈥�
According to law enforcement authorities, the Inland Empire Skinheads are responsible for murders, drug trafficking, witness intimidation, home invasion robberies and random, racially motivated assaults committed by prospective members. First documented by Riverside, Calif., police in 2002, investigators now estimate the gang has 30 members and roughly 70 associates, including many high school students.
鈥淭he most disheartening and alarming thing is that their only purpose is racial violence,鈥� San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops said at a press conference.
Authorities said that the gang, whose leader was among those arrested Monday, maintains close ties with the Hammerskin Nation, a powerful nationwide coalition of skinhead groups. Seven members of the skinhead gang were taken into custody, including Raymond Williams, 34, a tattoo artist. More arrests are expected. Williams, who's reportedly on the National Terrorist Watch List, was arrested at the hospital where his wife was giving birth.
Gang paraphernalia seized during simultaneous raids in two counties included brass knuckles, shotguns, swastika banners, copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and T-shirts displaying the gang鈥檚 emblem: two crossed battle axes and the number "95," which stands for Inland Empire (鈥淚鈥� being the ninth letter of the alphabet, 鈥淓鈥� the fifth).
The two mothers were taken into custody after giving birth and booked into Central Detention Center in San Bernardino along with their fellow gang members.
The fate of their newborns was not made public.
