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Neo-nazi skinheads

From: http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/racist_rock.asp

The skinhead phenomenon originated in the early 1970s, when groups of menacing-looking, shaved-head, tattooed youths in combat boots appeared on the streets of England. For some, the racist and chauvinistic attitudes held by these gangs developed into a crude form of Nazism with a penchant for violence, exemplified by frequent, racially motivated attacks on Asian immigrants ("Paki-bashing") and homosexuals ("fag-bashing").

In the years that followed, the Skinhead movement spread from England to the Continent and beyond. Racist Skinheads are found today in almost every industrialized country whose majority population is of European stock, though not all Skinheads are racists. Skinheads are almost uniformly white youths in their teens and twenties, who respond to the movement's seductive sense of strength, group belonging and superiority over others.

Generally, neo-Nazi Skinheads' views have varied. Some believe in orthodox Nazi ideology, while others adhere to a mixture of racism, populism, ethnocentrism and ultranationalist chauvinism, along with a hodgepodge of Nazi-like attitudes.

Their numbers have grown substantially since Neo-Nazi Skinheads first appeared in the United States during the mid-1980s. Predictably, this growth has been matched by violence: since 1987, racist Skinheads have committed at least 43 murders in the United States as well as thousands of lesser crimes such as beatings, stabbings, shootings, thefts, and synagogue desecrations.

A major aspect of Skinhead life is devotion to bands that play "oi" white power music, a hard-driving brand of rock and roll whose lyrics pound home a message of bigotry and violence. Music is the Skinhead movement's main propaganda weapon and its chief means of attracting young recruits. Skinhead use of the Internet has almost exclusively focused on racist music. Bigotry-laced hard rock and the Internet have proved a natural match in being used by white supremacists trying to capture the minds of youngsters.

Before the World Wide Web became popular, neo-Nazi skinheads depended on USENET newsgroups such as alt.skinheads to communicate with each other and spread their propaganda. However, these extremists soon realized the Web's power. By 1996, a few skinhead sites were already online, including Skin Net, Skinheads, USA, and the site for Resistance Records.

Neo-nazi skinheads

In the mid-80's the Neo-Nazi skinheads appeared in the United States. They had about 1,000 to 1,500 members by 1988 and around 3,400 by 1993 in forty states. With this growth in membership they have committed more violent crimes and have gone from using boots, bats and knives to using firearms. Only German skinheads have been able to match the United States skinheads in their frequent and ferocious attacks. From 1987 to 1990 there were only six killings by skinheads but from 1990 to 1993 there were more than 22 murders.

Skinheads target minority groups like Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, homosexuals and homeless people. They will even attack another skinhead for clothes, money or just because they did not like how the other skinhead acted. The racist skinheads also have a special war cry, RAHOWA that stands for Racial Holy War. Since they do not keep close ties with any location they are free to move to a new location to avoid law enforcement officials. This also allows them to change their names and skinhead groups they hang out with.