Expert: Ashford Attack was Case of 'Skinheads' Vs. 'Boneheads'
An expert who studies both groups involved in the Ashford House attack Saturday said the meeting was "advertised for months" on Neo-Nazi websites. The notion that diners weren't white supremacists is "absurd," he says.
Experts say there's nothing new about violent acts among radical leftists.
What differentiates members of the the Anti-Racist Action movement’s most recent attack, however, is where they chose to strike—a quaint locally-owned restaurant on a busy Tinley Park thoroughfare.
"The anti-racists have always been a violent group trying to find Neo-nazis and beat them up," said Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC. "There has been a long history of these incidents. The difference is we've never seen one in a family restaurant on the south side of Chicago. That's really quite something."
The chosen venue was among Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki's initial conundrums, too, he said on Monday.
"One of my first thoughts, to be honest with you, was 'Why Tinley Park?'" he said. "If these groups really wanted to do something like this, why didn't they go find an empty parking lot somewhere where no one is around and have fun beating the crap out of each other? Leave our quiet village out of it."
About 15 assailants in a May 19 attack at the Ashford House restaurant were "partially masked," prosecutors said earlier this week. They wore black scarves, hooded sweatshirts and other facial coverings as they attacked a group of diners whom sources say had made a reservation.
The ARA website posted a response Saturday to Patch’s coverage of the mob-style attack, crediting it to their group of “anti-fascists." Potok, who has watched the ARA for several years, said that’s not typically how its members operate.
The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hatred and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society, according to its mission statement. Potok doubles as the editor in chief of the center’s investigative magazine, The Intelligence Report.
"The (ARA) basically comes from the anti-racist skinhead movement of the 1980s," he said, noting that the movement was born in England. "The skinhead movement initially was neither racist, nor anti-racist. … It was kind of a working class movement of people who looked down on the middle class."
Those associated with the movement typically wore steel-toe boots and were exceptionally proud of their socioeconomic status, which was overwhelmingly comprised of laborers. They also shared similar interests, including their taste in music.
"The movement split, and very dramatically, evolved into two groups— anti-racist skinheads and racist skinheads," Potok continued. "In the very early 80s, the skinhead movement crossed the ocean and those separate groups came to the U.S. intact."
He said it's not uncommon for ARA 'skinheads' to accuse the racist skinheads of "hijacking” their movement.
"The Anti-racist Action members call the racist skinheads 'boneheads,'" Potok said.
The 'Skinheads'
The five defendants, three of whom are brothers, were charged each Monday with one count of felony mob action, aggravated battery and criminal damage to property.
Fundraising efforts to pay for their legal fees and the 10 percent or $97,500 required to spring them all from jail had reached $850 Thursday night—a value that hadn't budged since the day before.
Potok said Tuesday that in cases like this, anti-racists often consider themselves heroes.
"But the ARA, in my opinion, is not doing the world any good at all," he said. "This is not fighting racism in the least."
The 'Boneheads'
The “Tinley Park Five,” as they’ve been referred to in several forums, weren’t the only ones taken into custody that day.
Steven E. Speers, 33, of Grand Forks, N.D., was wanted on an active warrant out of Dallas County, Texas, for possession of child pornography. Francis John Gilroy Jr., 65, of West Palm Beach, Fla., was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon.
According to a post in the SPLC forum, Hatewatch, Gilroy has ties to several racist militias that emerged in the late 1990s. Longtime white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black, who began the white nationalist online forum, StormFront, leads a radio show that Gilroy has appeared on under the name, "Father Francis," the post alleges. He's also referred to as "Copperhead" in StormFront posts, experts say.
According to Hatewatch:
(Gilroy) was arrested in 1999 outside of West Palm Beach after refusing to cooperate with police when he was pulled over for failing to signal a turn. According to the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Gilroy wound up in jail because he wouldn’t provide a driver’s license. Broward County sheriff’s deputies then found several handguns, two assault rifles and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his van.
Speers, whose criminal background includes a felony battery conviction, is reportedly also active on StormFront, Potok said.
One of the victims, Brandon Spiller, denied to Patch that he is involved in any white supremacist movements. However, members of ARA allege that he is affiliated with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which describes cohabitation in terms of skin color.
"The claim that this gathering was not white supremacist is absurd," Potok said. "Those people are lying. Period. The reality of it is that this meeting was advertised for months and organized on two of the leading Neo-Nazi sites in the world."
Keep up with us by subscribing to Tinley Park Patch breaking news alerts and perusing our coverage so far on the Ashford House attack.
The Guru
7:08 am on Friday, May 25, 2012
Can I be the first that says, "I told ya so".
Shannon_Friend
9:21 am on Friday, May 25, 2012
How hilarious you would cite as an authority a leftwing smear group like SPLC (which has even tried to smear tea party people like Michelle Bachmann)! I would personally bet that the people in the restaurant WERE white nationalists or white supremacists, but calling them Neo-Nazis is probably way over the top, and designed to stir up sympathy for the thugs who attacked them (as well as designed to help SPLC raise money, since who is going to bother funding them once you realize that the KKK, nazis, etc are things of the past, and the serious active thuggery in the country is all coming from the Left?).
On bogus nature of SPLC see:
http://www.examiner.com/article/leftwing-extremist-southern-poverty-law-center-smears-conservatives-patriots
The Guru
10:53 am on Friday, May 25, 2012
Shannon, I dont know if you have figured this out by now or not, but the Tinley Park Patch is written by Libbys. If its not a poll on Gay Marriage, cartoon making fun of Mitt Romney or another article about the scumbags at the ashford house then its something else with a liberal overtone. The bad part is, I dont think they realize they are doing it, its just a part of life for them.
But, I will say, the SPLC is right, these guys are definately boneheads. But even boneheads have the right to sit down and eat without getting beat up (although they deserved it).
Patch gets paid for every time an add is presented on a page. So stiring the pot is profitable. Typical Media
Roseann
10:57 am on Friday, May 25, 2012
The Guru. How right you are. (We should all give a big shout out to Spooky Dude while we're at it ;)
Roseann
9:24 am on Friday, May 25, 2012
Gee, what a surprise. Go figure.
Whites Irish Heritage
3:41 pm on Friday, May 25, 2012
Identifying oneself in terms of skin color doesn't make one a supremacist.
There are many Black organizations. Skin color makes for an identity, not supremacism:
Black Women for Obama
Black Youth Creative Combating Oppression
Black Millionaires Mentoring Program
Black Male Community Empowerment Forum
Nationalist Black Leadership Coalition
In fact the greatest hate crime of the last century was by the Anti-Race USSR against various races, it was against the law in the USSR to have any race-identity. 62 million died in the Gulags as a result.
Anti-Race, and Anti-Racism, killed more people in the 29th century than Hitler did. By the way, Hitler didn't say White Race in his 25 point NSDAP manifesto. So I don't know what some of you are arguing about.
Dave W.
3:05 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
WIH, all you do is copy and paste the same three things onto every thread you can. This stuff is all about fascist and anti-fascist. Why is an Irishman so concerned with Russian history that does not have a direct link to these terrible events? (HOWEVER, since you insist on spouting these numbers everywhere go, why not try something called a 'fact'. Lots of them, even. http://www.gendercide.org/case_stalin.html
Your numbers are WAY too high. Like four or five times the real number. You are either factually wrong on purpose, or too lazy to do ANY research. You know what happens when you google anti-race and russians? NOTHING. GOOGLE cannot find anything that matches...do you know how rare that is nowadays?) No mention of these anti-race laws where one couldn't 'be' a race. (Why would YOU care, they were still ending up with more 'true' Russians, and they are all white, right? You must be so torn...
Why would Hitler need to say white anything? He was talking about Germans...not a lot of confusion which color the Germans were either.
Mongoose
4:51 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
Future boy from the 29th Centrury is right, people.
The NSDAP manifesto never mentions the White Race. It refers to the "German-race", whatever that is, since German isn't a race. Oh, and it also says that no Jew can be a citizen of Germany.
That might give you a clue as to what we are arguing about, future boy.
Whites Irish Heritage
10:21 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
DaveW.
Wanted to reduce Anti-Race USSR Marxist Genocide numbers. Dave, Google *USSR Constitution and racial discrimination*.
1918 the Communist Marxist USSR Racial Equality Constitution:
Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the RSFSR
Adopted by the Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets
10 July 1918
Part Two: General Provisions of the Constitution of the RSFSR
CHAPTER FIVE
Article 22. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, recognizing the equality of rights of all citizens, irrespective of their race or nationality, declares the establishment or toleration on this basis of any privileges or advantages, or any oppression of national minorities or restriction of their equality, to be contraventions of the fundamental laws of the Republic."
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/18cons01.html
That USSR and its "anti-race discrimination" Constitution, which was the world's first, went on to genocide approximately 60 million people.
"Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917"
R. J. Rummel
ISBN-10: 1560008873
www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE4.HTM
http://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Politics-Soviet-Genocide-Murder/dp/1560008873
Anti-Race USSR Marxism kills, has genocided 62 million people from 1917-1991.
Let People Be. Let them Congregate with their own kind. It is Natural. Organic. Healthy.
Dean Casper
6:03 pm on Friday, May 25, 2012
They need to wear uniforms, I can't tell the Skinheads from the Boneheads, all look like hillbillies
Dave W.
2:29 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
They should have assigned numbers...and a scorecard too. Violent liberal idiots, or violent conservative idiots...rock and a hardplace. Too bad any of them exist. Oh for a world of rational adults capable of making decisions without violence.
Marine Sniper
8:15 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
Marine Sniper
This sounds like something out of the days of prohibition. When Chicago's Mafia controlled and ruled the streets, restaurants, and everything else in town.
Headlines:
--- Fifteen to twenty thugs storm family restaurant. Minus Tommy Guns and any Thought Process ---.
This is almost laughable, or better yet, "damn right ridiculous"! These thugs, whom paralleled that of a dolt, showed what a group of undereducated, sub-cultural, inept, moronic imbeciles, are capable of achieving.
These are needed attributes when auditioning for a part in a Keystone Cop film.
This could have been part of a Mack Sennett Keystone Cops caper, of that same gangland era.
They should do some serious time, and not have the opportunity to do a sequel.
ThaThaThaThat's all folks! ......... Semper Fi.
USMC Semper Fi!
George
10:42 am on Sunday, May 27, 2012
Look at them do they look normal?
Weissrose
11:46 am on Sunday, May 27, 2012
They remind of of the hero's in Inglorious Basterds.
White Irish Heritages3
6:48 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Yes, a Jewish "Expert" from the "SPLC". Only problem is the Jew "Expert" got it all wrong and published wrong information.
The man arrested on the warrant for child pornography, Steven Speers was it turns out a Red Anarchist all along, in fact it has now been learned.
Inmate Release Information Detail
DC Number: Q07978
Name: SPEERS, STEVEN E
Race: WHITE
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: BROWN
Height: 5'09''
Weight: 192 lbs.
Birth Date: 09/02/1978
Release Facility: NWFRC ANNEX.
Custody: MEDIUM
Release Date: 04/14/2009
Scars, Marks, and Tattoos:
Type Location Description
TATTOO LEFT ARM A WITH CIRCLE
TATTOO NECK WHOS NEXT
TATTOO RIGHT CHEST ANARCHY
Current Prison Sentence History:
Offense Date Offense Sentence Date County Case No. Prison Sentence Length
10/17/2004 FELONY BATTERY 04/02/2007 BAY 0404272 2Y 6M 0D
07/24/2005 FELONY BATTERY 04/02/2007 BAY 0502554 2Y 6M 0D
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/576/snapshotgd.jpg/
His red-anarchy chest tattoo can be seen also in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIf4zyRwqwg&feature=youtu.be
Steven Speers, the one arrested on a warrant for child pornography was an Anarchist, with several Anarchist tattoos. He was one of the Reds, not one of the WN's.
The Speers arrested on a warrant for child pornography charges, was an Red Anarchist not a White Nationalist.
When will the "Expert Jews" at the "SPLC" ever tell the truth to law enforcement?
Megan James
8:50 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Personally, I wish the Patch would just quit reporting other people's opinions on this crime, and just wait to report on the facts that come out in trial. Seems like it's doing nothing other than bringing out a bunch of sterotyping, uneducated profiling posters, who do nothing more than post skewed opinions, instead of reilable facts, to justify racial profiling and intollerance.
And really tired of all the out-of towners who set up a Patch account for the sole purpose of continuing to post on this topic to promotte the cycle of spreading intollerance and hate. Its so obvious that SOME commentors are behind the scene supportors of one side or the other...and both abuse their right to freedom of speech by promoting racism.
Roseann
9:09 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Frankly Megan, it appears to me, that the only one that's intolerant around here is....you.
(as for that uneducated thing....it's one "l"in intolerance and one "t" in promote. Hey, it's happens.)
Megan James
11:14 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Frankly Roseann - As Rhett Butler would say...."I don't give a **** " about your thoughts anymore. You have something nasty to say about every comment I've made. Thanks for sharing...but don't really care about your opinion. Its obvious now that you're always going to be slated against my comments no matter what I say. So you've lost all credibility in my book. I could probably tell you that's a lovely picture of the American Flag in your profile and you'd still have issue with it since I'm the one posting it.
As for the typos....guess you never had a typo. Must be nice to live in your prefect world. Hope you have a wonderful day :-)
Roseann
11:24 am on Thursday, May 31, 2012
Nasty? Really now.
Ok. Right back at ya, darling.
Oh and as the saying goes...
Here's to you and here's to me and if by chance we disagree, the _____ ___ and here's to me! CHEERS!
BTW, your welcome to join me in my perfect world, just BYOB.
ttfn ;)
Katriina Rosendahl
4:34 am on Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Megan M James?
What about the other side? they attacked people just standing by? And you have a bigger problem with white nationalists who just sat there harassing no one?