Supporter Tom Metzger Dead

[Rev.Cambeul]

'A dark chapter of hate closes': Notorious racist leader Tom Metzger dead at 82

By Kristina Davis | San Diego Union-Tribune | 10 November 2020

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-11-10/racist-leader-tom-metzger-dies

Excerpt: Tom Metzger, a racist ideologue who became one of the most influential figures in the nation's white supremacist movement and mentored a violent generation of neo-Nazis from his home in Fallbrook, Calif., has died.

Metzger, 82, died Nov. 4 in Hemet, according to a notice posted to his website and a paid obituary in the San Diego Union-Tribune. A cause of death was not given.

Even though Metzger had largely faded from the spotlight in recent years, he continued until a few months ago to spread his messaging online, through social media and radio shows on his website.

Metzger identified as a white separatist, arguing that white people should live apart from all other races, and said in an email interview with the Union-Tribune in 2019 that he didn't see himself fitting in with the current white supremacist movement, which he described as "being controlled by right-wing conservative elements."

Still, he is widely viewed as a key influence to the glossier, media-savvy version of white supremacism on display today.

"It's hard to talk about the modern white supremacist movement without putting it in a historical context, and when you do that it's hard not to mention Metzger's name," said Jim McElroy, a San Diego civil rights attorney who clashed with Metzger regularly as part of a long-running court case.

Metzger, born in Indiana, ended up in Southern California after serving in the Army. He settled in Fallbrook and worked as a television repairman while exploring his own beliefs on politics, religion and race.

He joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the mid-1970s and was ultimately promoted to grand dragon, or head, of the group's California contingent.

In 1980, Metzger set off on his own path.

Metzger ran for a North County congressional seat and won the Democratic primary. He lost badly in the general election, and he formed a new group, White Aryan Resistance. He saw promise in a relatively new racist movement spreading across the United States at the time, characterized by a certain style of dress and hate music.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League sued Metzger and WAR. A jury awarded $12.5 million.

An attorney helped sell Metzger's Fallbrook house to a Latino family — "poetic justice," the attorney said — and took half of all the money that was pouring in to Metzger from supporters around the world.

Broke, Metzger moved back to his hometown in Indiana.

Metzger relocated back to Southern California recently to be near family and because he was "bored" in Indiana and found the state had "too much religion," he said last year.

He looked down on the current white supremacist movement, saying, "As it is constituted at present, it would be better if it totally collapsed to be replaced by something much more radical."

"The movement will not be stopped in the puny town of Portland. We're too deep. We're embedded now. Don't you understand?" Metzger said. "We're in your colleges. We're in your armies. We're in your police forces. We're in your technical areas. Where do you think a lot of the skinheads disappeared to? They grew their hair out, went to college....

"I just did my little bit along the way, like your great salmon. I got up there and laid the eggs and now, if I die, no problem."

[Rev.FrankSmith]

Noted