Tagged with Justin O’Brien

Bradley Trappitt, Combat 18 & The Weerheym Manoeuvre

I beg Odin to watch over you with his loving eye / If my life must end for you and my race then I will … give it / Your smile melts the most Iron heart, your holy body wrapped in the red, white and black of the Swastika flag…

~ ‘Aryan Princess’, Bradley Trappitt, May 22, 2005

Bradley Neil Trappitt and three friends, allegedly members of the local franchise of neo-Nazi network Combat 18, were apparently drunk on February 4, 2010, and so decided it would be both ace and grouse to fire three shots at the dome roof of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Queens Park in Perth. Trappitt was fined more than $9000 for his involvement in the shooting (co-accused, Jacob Marshall Holt, 24, previously pleaded guilty on similar charges and was given a seven-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months).

Trappitt was charged with wilfully damaging property, possessing an unlicensed firearm and unlawfully discharging a firearm from across the road.

In the Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, the 25-year-old was fined $5000 for criminal damage, $3750 for his part in the reparation costs for the mosque, $1000 for the two firearm offences and $62.60 in court costs.

Magistrate Steven Heath said the fine needed to be a “substantial one to reflect the seriousness” of the crime.

He said Trappitt’s involvement could be distinguished from his co-accused as a “lesser role” and accepted that he co-operated when he was questioned.

But he said it was still a “foolish decision” to participate in the crime.

Trappitt’s lawyer Curt Hofmann said his client drove the car to the mosque but never got out of the vehicle.

He said Trappitt was trying to show “bravado” among his friends and was acting out of “stupidity”.

~ Mosque shooter fined more than $9000, The Age (AAP), August 23, 2010

Bradley is innocent until proven now considered guilty, obviously; curiously, he’s also friends with Welf Herfurth, the (former) ‘leader’ of the dwindling ranks of ‘national anarchists’ in Australia. (Herfurth now appears to prefer to spend his time organising grown-ups in the local franchise of the neo-Nazi Volksfront network in Sydney.) Along with Herfurth and a range of other fascist creeps, Trappitt is BFF with the Sydney-based Creatard Chris Smith.

Despite this, “Trappitt’s lawyer Curt Hofmann had earlier told the court the shooting wasn’t racially motivated but just a stupid stunt by four friends who wanted to show off after they had been drinking.”

LOL.

‘Combat 18’ originated in the UK in the late 1980s as a militant, anti-anti-fascist network dedicated to causing terror among neo-Nazism’s political opponents — “left-wing bookshops, gay pubs and anti-apartheid activists” — and to defending the organising activity of its parent networks ‘Blood & Honour’ and the BNP. Those involved also referred to Combat 18 as ‘Terror Machine’, and took great delight in the fear and loathing its activity was intended to generate. Like many other stories on the fringes of the far right, however, it ended in tears: former leader Paul ‘Charlie’ Sargent one of two Aryan Supermen convicted of murdering kameraden Christopher Castle (by sticking a knife 20cm into his back) in 1997.

Since then, C18 — which, while also gathering a reputation as a state-sponsored honeypot, cultivated links with Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland/The Six Counties — grew and expanded overseas. Currently, C18 appears to eke out a sporadically violent existence nestled among broader fascist networks in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, while also remaining closely tied to one of two splinters in the neo-Nazi network ‘Blood & Honour’. In Australia and New Zealand, B&H is aligned with non-C18 elements, and in particular the local franchises of the US-based Hammerskins network. Their principal bonehead rival is another local franchise of yet another US-based group called Volksfront. In the US (and elsewhere) the rivalry between the two groups can be quite intense, even bloody, but locally it’s all sunshine and lollipops, and the two, otherwise antagonistic groups have learned to play nicely with one another.

Or at least, nobody has stabbed anyone in the back.

Yet.

Like seemingly ever other Jew-hatin’ Australian, Trappitt (‘Aussie_Knight’) posted on the White supremacist website Stormfront (joining in November 2004), contributing some very moving poetry [stormfront.org/forum/t206672/] while also taking the opportunity to riff on some neglected aspects of modern German history: “You want to know who started the War… THE JEWS[!]” [stormfront.org/forum/t162628-6/#post1470826].

The Boys from Brazil Australia maintained a website — terrormachine.net — taken over from the Norwegian C18. It’s closed now, and the archive wiped, but it used to advertise neo-Nazi merch and contain occasional announcements regarding the group’s infrequent activities. If I was a defence lawyer, I might characterise it as not racially motivated but just a stupid site by four friends who wanted to show off after they’d been drinking. In any case, the site was registered to a bloke called Jake. From Perth. Several years ago he, along with Stormfront moderator Paul Innes (‘Steelcap Boot’), helped spread David Lane’s ashes around town: David Lane being, of course, the dead neo-Nazi terrorist from the US who coined the ’14 words’.

As for The Weerheym Manoeuvre…

Six years ago, another small group of neo-Nazis found themselves on trial in Perth for similarly foolish and stupid behaviour / boys will be boys / ‘nigger’ and ‘sand-nigger terrorist’ are simply everyday discourse / Nine sisters twelve cousins and I’m fucking the lot / yadda yadda yadda.

Before he was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence this week, Weerheym’s lawyer, Michael Tudori, told the Perth Magistrates Court Weerheym was not interested in the ANM and had not wanted to take part in the graffiti…

Weerheym was not jailed because he was deemed to have played a much lesser role as the driver.

~ Paige Taylor, ‘Graffiti driver a secret white supremacist’, The Australian, August 7, 2004

History repeats.

The next two major fascist assemblies are the Sydney Forum over the weekend of September 18/19 (at which the Canadian neo-Nazi and Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm is expected to speak) and the following weekend in Melbourne, when Justin O’Brien of Blood & Honour Australia (and Hold Fast Body Art) will be helping to organise the 17th (?) annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig.

But moaron that later.

Speaking of tattoos…

See also : Combat 18 / terrormachine clunks into Perth court (June 4, 2010) | C18 “terror machine” breaks down in Perth (May 25, 2010).

A wambulance for Call the Paramedics

LOL.

From the Department of But-Some-of-My-Best-Friends-are-Black-Jewish-Lesbians-with-Disabilities:

The fella with the white power unicorn tattoo on his arse is called Mike Beer. Mike plays in a band called Call the Paramedics, who like to play with boneheads in Atlantic City. Sadly for Mike, his band, and their boneheaded fans, not everybody appreciates either their sense of humour or their choice of friends, and so their latest tour has been cut rather short.

Controversial concert canceled after threats, Blair Ames, The Frederick News-Post, July 21, 2010.

One People’s Project writes:

Memo to Call the Paramedics: when you hang out with Nazis, the last thing you want to do is thank us for the publicity. Because we have a funny way of saying “You’re welcome”! The band was supposed to play the North Star Bar tonight, but the club just put this announcement on their site that the show isn’t happening. That means the band has lost a total of five shows, with only a gig in Virginia Beach and another late August again in Philly. The club is citing a request from law enforcement for the shutdown, and that is REAL curious to us. Add the fact that newspaper articles are being written about those Nazi connections, and we have ourselves a band officially being called out by more than just some local antifa – and that is a bad thing for them! Again, you’re welcome. Let us know if you want more publicity! We will keep you posted on further developments.

Hey there poser
You look pretty stupid to me
Hey there poser
All dressed like a wanna-be
Hey there poser
Creeping towards the door
Hey there poser
I wish you were a beer!

Locally, neo-Nazi impresario Gareth Sansom appears to have packed up shop with ‘White Noise Productions’, or at least ended the pretence of being a non-fascist promoter, declaring that WNP is “a strictly not-for-profit initiative aimed only at promoting the cause of White Australian Nationalism” (neo-Nazism). The bands WNP now ‘promotes’ are the openly neo-Nazi Death’s Head, Fortress, Ravenous and Spear Of Longinus, and the moar closeted Adamus Exul, Gospel of the Horns, Lustration, Sanguinary Misanthropia, Shackles [see below], Shrapnel, Urgrund and Vomitor. Sansom was interviewed in December last year by fellow neo-Nazi Taigen Gould — whose own political loyalties are evident in his email address: [email protected]

[NB. Matty of the band Shackles has stated (June 2012) that his band split in 2009, prior to WNP becoming openly neo-Nazi. That is, while Shackles was promoted by WNP, at the time the band had no knowledge of WNP’s political base or subsequent evolution into an unashamedly neo-Nazi propaganda unit.]

Currently, Sansom/WNP is promoting the 2010 Ian Stuart Donaldson gig (September 25), neo-Nazi distro ‘9 Percent Productions’, the ‘Eureka Youth League’ (Australia First’s attempt to reconstruct a ‘yoof’ wing under the guidance of the positively non-youthful Brendan Gidley), and of course Blood & Honour and the Southern Cross Hammerskins.

antifa notes (july 18, 2010) : elections, forums and muzak

August

A handful of white nationalists, namely Tony Pettitt in Greenway and Mick Saunders in Lindsay, will be losing at the upcoming Federal election, yesterday announced as taking place on Saturday, August 21. Both Pettitt and Saunders are members of veteran fascist militant Dr James Saleam‘s ‘Australia First Party’. According to AF, the pair will be bravely battling the combined forces of “big money, Chinese imperialism, Zionism and so on”, but as the final list of candidates is yet to be confirmed, I’m unable to confirm if these rather unusual names will also be on the ballot. Otherwise, AF’s arch-rivals in the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ earlier made some noises about standing a candidate — a rather cranky racist named Nicholas Hunter Folkes — for the seat of Sydney, but this is also yet to be confirmed. Finally, the botched abortion that is (or rather was) Pauline Hanson‘s ‘One Nation Party’ will presumably be wheeling out a few dozen more losing candidates in various seats across the country — moaron ON later. Given major party commitment to Fortress Australia, the already-existing political marginality of the far right is unlikely to be remedied at the ballot box; on the other hand, xenophobic elements within the micro-parties, and among the population in general, can only find encouragement in the race to demonstrate who’s toughest on asylum seekers / ‘illegal non-citizens’.

But that’s another story.

September

In September, there are two major scheduled events on the fascist calendar: the Sydney Forum in Sydney on the weekend of September 18/19 and the Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig in Melbourne on September 25. The Forum is being organised by AF and a small number of allies (including local neo-Nazis Nicole Hanley and Welf Herfurth), while the gig is being organised by ‘Blood & Honour Australia’ and the ‘Southern Cross Hammerskins’. This year’s special guest at the Sydney Forum is Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm; last year, the US white supremacist Andrew Yeoman spoke, while local neo-Nazi skinheads have promised two foreign bands will be appearing at this year’s memorial. As for location, last year’s Forum was held at the Petersham RSL; the memorial gig was held at an undisclosed venue.

This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2 Available Now!

The second installment in the Scott Hull (PIG DESTROYER, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED) curated series of compilations, ‘This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2’ collects the very best from today’s sprawling underground grindcore, hardcore and punk scenes. ‘This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2’ features new and exclusive material from legends like DESPISE YOU, LACK OF INTEREST, CROM, and APARTMENT 213 as well as material from NOISEEAR, OWEN HEART, EXTORTION, and more that must be heard to be believed. ‘This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2’ is an indispensable look at the worldwide underground, and fast becoming the crucial compilation series of this generations grind scene.

Note that the most recent fascist entry into the local metal scene was conducted by way of Gareth Sansom’s ‘White Noise Productions’ [www.myspace.com/whitenoiseaustralia]. Despite the *nudge nudge / wink wink* name, normally, budding entrepreneurs of this kind have the noûs not to parade their views too openly, but Sansom made the mistake of promoting local neo-Nazi network ‘Blood & Honour’ on his MySpace page.

D’oh!

The fact that the Victorian organiser of ‘Blood & Honour’, Justin O’Brien, is the man behind the counter at Hold Fast Body Art in Burwood, or that he’s promised to violently put an end to my blogging activities, does not appear to have resulted in any significant downturn in trade, however, so maybe Sansom should have simply stuck to his guns… or is there really no Lebensraum for fascists in heavy metal these days?

See also : This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2 on Facebook | Metalheads Against Racism | This Comp Kills Fascists | “What Will The Nazis Think?” (I don’t care!) (April 28, 2010) | N – – – – r lovers and faggots // Bullets in your head! (December 29, 2009).

Click Here to View The Video Titled: THIS COMP. KILLS FASCIST 2

C18 “terror machine” breaks down in Perth

OK, so I said I was taking a break, and I am, but before I do…

Three men have been arrested in Perth, two charged with “shooting at a Perth mosque” on February 4 of this year.

The angry Aryans are allegedly members of the Australian branch of ‘C18’ or ‘Combat 18’, a neo-Nazi organisation. C18 (18 = AH = Adolf Hitler) has its roots in the late 1980s, and the UK branch of ‘Blood & Honour’, another neo-Nazi network: one specialising in the production and distribution of neo-Nazi agitprop, especially muzak. (B&H takes its name from a Nazi-era slogan usually associated with the Hitler Yoof.) C18 itself was formed partly as a response to attacks by militant anti-fascists upon B&H activities in the UK, and in particular its organisation of gigs: one, perhaps final turning-point for B&H being the disruption of a major event in London in 1992 (see : Ian Stuart : Zero of the White Race, Skrewdriver, and “The Battle of Waterloo”, September 25, 2006). Effectively booted out of London, B&H has gone on to bigger and better things elsewhere, including in Australia, which can boast of being the first country outside of the UK to have a local franchise of the group.

The organisation — a network of like-minded individuals with a tiny membership, but global reach — has had many ups and downs over the ensuing decades, with various forms of mayhem, including murder, generally accompanying its sporadic activity. Currently, C18 is probably at its strongest in northern and eastern Europe. In Australia, in 2006, Peter Campbell (of the now-defunct ‘White Pride Coalition of Australia’) was responsible for distributing neo-Nazi agitprop sourced from a C18 magazine called The Stormer. (In 1997, English neo-Nazi Rob Gray was imprisoned for producing the magazine on behalf of West London C18: Der Stürmer (literally, “The Stormer”; or more accurately, “The Attacker”) was a weekly Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to 1945.) In the interim, C18 has apparently organised a few gigs (and other events), distributed neo-Nazi merch, and presumably engaged in all the other activities boneheads are known for.

Or at least, that’s what its website — http://www.terrormachine.net/ — claims (a site previously utilised by Swedish neo-Nazis; note that ‘terror machine’ is one of the nicknames given C18 by its supporters). The site was most recently registered to a Perth bloke named ‘Jake’. ‘Jake’, oddly enough, was also responsible for ensuring that ashes belonging to US nutzi criminal David Lane were scattered in Perth: see nutzis are W E I R D : David Lane’s Ashes (February 13, 2009). Local bands featured on the site are ‘Indigenous Hate’, ‘Southern Storm’ (sample lyric: “Niggers Jews and Communists / Look out scum you’re on our list!”) and, most recently, the site boasted of “our latest band the High Wycombe Hooligans”. Curiously, one of those arrested is reported to have been from the Perth suburb of High Wycombe.

(In Australia, B&H regularly organises gigs, the most recent being on the Gold Coast last month, the next being scheduled for Melbourne in September. The Victorian organiser for B&H is Justin O’Brien, who owns Hold Fast Body Art tattoo studio in Burwood.)

Given the publicity surrounding these arrests, and given also the rather more prolonged campaign engaged in by the neo-Nazis belonging to Jack Van Tongeren‘s ‘Australian Nationalists Movement’ or ‘ANM’ in the 1980s, it’s likely that the terrormachine site may be pulled.

Or maybe not: in these crazy, topsy-turvy times, who’s to say what’s right or wrong? In any event, the same merch — including the classic Freezer Full of Nigger Heads CD by Grinded Nig — is available for purchase from B&H by way of 9percent productions.

Probably the best published source on the origins of C18 is White Noise: inside the international nazi skinhead scene, edited by Nick Lowles and Steve Silver (Searchlight, 1998). A few tidbits:

    Following the “debacle” at Waterloo, in 1991 Combat-18 was formed: “Its leader was Paul Sargent, Charlie to his mates, a man with a long history in the right wing and an even longer criminal record. Sargent had become active in the late 1970s, where he mixed football violence and drug dealing with a skinhead adolescence. A close friend for much of this period was Chris “Chubby” Henderson, lead singer of the right-wing band Combat 84 and a prominent figure in the notorious football gang, the Chelsea Headhunters. An even closer friend was Gary Hitchcock, formerly manager of the skinhead band 4-skins, and another Chelsea “face”.”

    Steve “Jonesy” Jones, the lead singer of English Rose (now the lead singer of Tattooed Mother Fuckers) also gets a guernsey; the band were one of a number to eventually turn against C18, partly by aligning themselves with the British franchise of the Hammerskins. On C18, Jonesy wrote “There’s no room within our ranks for such pathetic fools, nor for the people who believe their lies and support their actions against racial brothers”.

    In October 1996, Wilf “The Beast” Browning went to Sweden. Three months later, his Swedish comrade Thomas Nakaba posted letter bombs to an English TV personality, AFA and the third to the guitarist for Squadron. “The bombs never reached their targets. The police had infiltrated C18 to its very highest level, with its leader, Charlie Sargent, and possibly also his brother, Steve, tipping off police about the bombing campaign.”

100 Per Cent White — A Diverse Production for Channel 4. Filmed, produced and directed by Leo Regan — is an excellent (Geraldine Doogue:) “fascinating” documentary film, examining the lives of several boneheads (including Neil Parish) 10 years after the filmmaker first encountered them, at a time when they were each actively involved in C18 and allied groups.

See also : Blood and Honour vs. Blood and Honour (April 12, 2009) | Blood & Honour / C18 in Australia (February 26, 2008).

Bonus!