Racist, Violent, Unpunished: A White Hate Group's Campaign of Menace
Source: ProPublica
ProPublica spent weeks examining one distinctive group at the center of the violence in Charlottesville: an organization called the Rise Above Movement, one of whose members was the white man dispensing beatings near Emancipation Park Aug. 12.
The group, based in Southern California, claims more than 50 members and a singular purpose: physically attacking its ideological foes. RAMs members spend weekends training in boxing and other martial arts, and they have boasted publicly of their violence during protests in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley. Many of the altercations have been captured on video, and its members are not hard to spot.
Indeed, ProPublica has identified the groups core members and interviewed one of its leaders at length. The man in the Charlottesville attacks filmed by a documentary crew working with ProPublica is 24-year-old Ben Daley, who runs a Southern California tree-trimming business.
Many of the organizations core members, including Daley, have serious criminal histories, according to interviews and a review of court records. Before joining RAM, several members spent time in jail or state prison on serious felony charges including assault, robbery, and gun and knife offenses. Daley did seven days in jail for carrying a concealed snub-nosed revolver. Another RAM member served a prison term for stabbing a Latino man five times in a 2009 gang assault.
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Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement