The younger of the two racists has agreed to testify against the other.
Accused North Dakota 'white supremacist' makes plea bargain
By Carey Gillam
(Reuters) - A man charged with threatening residents of a small North Dakota town pleaded guilty on Friday to lesser offenses and agreed to testify against a white supremacist who had been working to establish an all-white enclave there, his attorney said.
Kynan Dutton, 29, pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanors and agreed to testify against co-defendant Craig Cobb in a deal with prosecutors that reduced his charges from seven terrorizing felonies, Dutton's attorney, Robert Quick, said.
Dutton had moved to Leith, North Dakota, a town of about 20 people, to help out Cobb, Quick said. His plea agreement allowed him to be released from jail on Friday.
Dutton and Cobb, 62, were accused of brandishing firearms and sticks and threatening residents of the town in November. They have been in jail since their arrests on November 16.
"There is no law against being a jerk," assistant state's attorney for Grant County, Todd Schwarz, said in an interview in November. "You have a constitutional right to be a jerk if you want to be. When you start bringing guns and threats into it, it's beyond the First Amendment or anybody's rational interpretation of it."
It is also fair to argue that the conduct of these two thuggish racists has no valid relationship to the 2nd Amendment either.
The Reuters article goes on to report:
As part of the deal with the county prosecutor, Dutton pleaded guilty to five counts of misdemeanor menacing and two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, Quick said. He agreed to two years of supervised probation and to provide information about Cobb to prosecutors, he said.
Quick said his client was not a white supremacist but was someone who happened to favor the National Socialist Movement. He is a father with no criminal history and a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, Quick said.
I find the idea that Dutton is not a white supremacist ludicrous, given the activities of Cobb and his followers during their time in Leith. Anyone with the proper anatomy can be a father, and it is sadly true that an estimated 1/2 of those in the various militia and white supremacist movements not only have served in the U.S. military, but were introduced to it in our armed forces.
As noted in a 2012 piece, also from Reuters:
U.S. Military Battling White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis In Its Own Ranks
By Daniel Trotta
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Aug 21 (Reuters) - They call it "rahowa" - short for racial holy war - and they are preparing for it by joining the ranks of the world's fiercest fighting machine, the U.S. military.
White supremacists, neo-Nazis and skinhead groups encourage followers to enlist in the Army and Marine Corps to acquire the skills to overthrow what some call the ZOG - the Zionist Occupation Government. Get in, get trained and get out to brace for the coming race war.
If this scenario seems like fantasy or bluster, civil rights organizations take it as deadly serious, especially given recent events. Former U.S. Army soldier Wade Page opened fire with a 9mm handgun at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, murdering six people and critically wounding three before killing himself during a shootout with police.
The U.S. Defense Department as well has stepped up efforts to purge violent racists from its ranks, earning praise from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has tracked and exposed hate groups since the 1970s.
Page, who was 40, was well known in the white supremacist music scene. In the early 2000s he told academic researcher Pete Simi that he became a neo-Nazi after joining the military in 1992. Fred Lucas, who served with him, said Page openly espoused his racist views until 1998, when he was demoted from sergeant to specialist, dis ch arged and barred from re-enlistment.
While at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, Page told Simi , he made the acquaintance of James Burmeister, a skinhead paratrooper who in 1995 killed a black Fayetteville couple in a racially motivated shooting. Burmeister was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2007.
It is not as if this is the only instance of a White Supremacist trying the strategy used by Craig Cobb, of buying up a small town. It was a problem in Nevada this past November:
The UFO capital of the U.S. gets new residents: White supremacists buying up Nevada land
The tiny town of Rachel, Nev., next to mysterious Area 51 site, is being bought up by church with white supremacist ties, locals say. Desert enclave is home to annual gathering of UFO hunters.
It was a film location for "The X-Files" and is home to a yearly convention of UFO seekers. But residents of Rachel, Nev., are not happy about the newest visitor to their outpost in the wilderness — church members with white supremacist beliefs.
At the Little A'Le'Inn, proprietor Connie West complained of a mystery man who came to town and started buying up parcels of land. "Who is this person and why are you keeping yourself so secret from this community, because he didn't actually show his face to anybody," she told KLAS-TV.
Richard Bunck, according to property records, bought the town gas station, a convenience store, and a mobile home park, then closed them and evicted the trailer residents.
Pastor Robert Kenniston of the local Baptist Church said his congregation has dwindled to nearly nothing as people left the desert spot next to Area 51, the famous secret military base near the Nevada Site.
Kenniston said Bunck recently visited him, "And he looked at me and said, 'There's a story going around town that I am a neo-Nazi and a white supremacist, and I believe you are the reason for that story.' And I said, 'I believe you are the reason for that story,' and that was the end of the conversation, he told Channel 8.
Residents also said FBI agents had visited and asked questions about what Bunck and his affiliated JHM Church planned to do in the area.
The church is part of the Christian Identity movement, which believes whites are the true descendants of God.
It's not like No Dak and Nevada have a monopoly on the racist militias; we have had our own problems here as well -- and the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified MN as having more than or fair share. From the AP via KARE 11, back in 2012:
MINNEAPOLIS - A federal affidavit says two Minnesota men with ties to white supremacist groups amassed several weapons as part of a plan to attack the government, minorities and others.
The FBI began investigating 31-year-old Samuel Johnson of Austin and 42-year-old Joseph Thomas of Mendota Heights in 2010.
Johnson is indicted on weapons charges, and Thomas faces drug charges.
According to an FBI affidavit unsealed this week, Johnson is a former member and Minnesota leader of the National Socialist Movement. He formed his own supremacist group and was planning to recruit others to attack the government and minorities.
The affidavit says Thomas told an undercover agent he also tried to get explosives and automatic weapons to attack "left-wing individuals."
Cross posted from MNPP
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