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Ryder murder was racially motivated

From the ABC:

Five jailed for racist Alice Springs killing

By Jano Gibson

Kwementyaye Ryder died in the dry Todd River
bed in Alice Springs. (Reproduced with
permission of Ryder family: NT Police, via ABC)

Five men who fatally attacked a man in Alice Springs last year did so in part because he was an Aboriginal person, the Northern Territory Supreme Court has found.

Anton Kloeden, Timothy Hird, Joshua Spears, Glen Swain and Scott Doody were today sentenced to jail terms of between four and six years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Kwementyaye Ryder.

The men, all in their 20s, received non-parole periods of between 12 months and four years.

In his judgement, Justice Brian Martin said the case had caused deep divisions in the Alice Springs community because of the belief that it was racially motivated.

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It was a belief Justice Martin agreed with.

“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the nature and rapidity of the reaction, and the actions of some offenders in kicking and striking the deceased while he was on the ground were influenced, at least to some degree, by the fact that the deceased was an Aboriginal person,” he said.

The five men had been partying throughout the night of July 24, 2009, with all but Kloeden heavily intoxicated.

In the early hours of July 25, he was behind the wheel of a four-wheel drive when he decided to travel along the dry Todd River bed, where many Aboriginal people camp.

Justice Martin said Kloeden had no initial intention of harassing the campers, but the journey soon turned volatile as he drove at speed to within a metre of an elderly man who could not run away in time.

Minutes later, he drove over the top of the swag of the elderly man, who had by then managed to get out of harm’s way.

“I have no doubt that if white people had been camped in the riverbed in tents, you would not have set out to harass them in the aggressive manner in which you set out to harass the Aboriginal people who were camped there,” Justice Martin said.

The men left the riverbed and picked up an imitation pistol with blank ammunition at one of their houses, before returning the area where Hird fired the gun to scare campers.

Seeing their vehicle heading his way, Ryder, who was also heavily intoxicated himself, threw a bottle at their car.

“This precipitated an angry reaction and, in the next few seconds, the tragedy unfolded,” Justice Martin said.

Kloeden drove directly at Mr Ryder, who tried to run away. But Hird, followed by three others, jumped out of the car and chased him.

As the Crown told the court: “The deceased fell to the ground where the offender Hird kicked him to the head one time, the offender Swain kicked him twice to the head … Spears struck the deceased with a bottle.”

One of the men said, “Don’t f— with us”, before they ran away, leaving Mr Ryder lying on the ground.

Despite the “cowardly and violent” assault, Justice Martin said it was impossible to know if Mr Ryder’s fatal brain haemorrhage was caused by him hitting his head when he fell, or by the blows inflicted.

Justice Martin said Mr Ryder had a pre-existing aneurism, which could have burst at any time.

He said Mr Ryder’s death devastated his family.

“In the words of the deceased’s mother, it felt like ‘the end of the world’.”

Justice Martin said every crime of manslaughter is serious, but the manslaughter of Mr Ryder was on the “lower end of the scale of seriousness” because none of the offenders were aware of the substantial risk of causing death.

He sentenced Doody to four years’ jail, suspended after 12 months.

Swan was sentenced to five years and six months in jail, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Kloeden, Hird and Spears were each sentenced to six years in jail, with a non-parole period of four years.

Mr Ryder’s mother, Theresa Ryder, walked out during the sentencing, saying loudly: “Always good on the outside, inside there’s racism straight out.”

But outside the court, Ms Ryder said she was satisfied, especially after the family of one of the men came to offer their condolences.

“They come up and said they were sorry and comforted me and I appreciate them for doing that to me and it sort of made me feel satisfied.

“I guess I’ve been waiting for that.

Mr Ryder’s sister-in-law, Karen Liddle, said the family is happy with the sentences but there are no winners.

“I feel sad for everybody: us for our loss and also those families too for how foolish those boys were,” she said.

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News brief · 23 April 2010

A trip inside the racist mindset

The last couple of weeks have seen FDB cropping up in all sorts of media. Print, tv, radio and numerous online outlets as well. Of all the stories to have involved us and our work, the following from David King and Paige Taylor in The weekend Australian has to be our favourite.

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For starters, it doesn’t just examine our uncompromising antifa attitude, it also looks at our softer side. To any wavering fash reading this piece, yes, we can help you find a way out of the dead-end street that is racist activism.

Extremely vulnerable
David King and Paige Taylor
December 24, 2005

DAMON Blaxall warned his mother, Marion, to stay away from his racial vilification trial because he knew it would upset her too much. In court, the 29-year-old unemployed Perth man ranted against “ragheads”, denied the Holocaust and described his race-hate activities as a “stab in the face” against ethnic community leaders.

Blaxall was a member of the ultra right-wing Australian Nationalist Movement when he sprayed slogans and swastikas on a synagogue in July last year. This week he was sentenced to one year in jail.

Marion Blaxall, a semi-retired businesswoman from Perth’s southern suburbs, still struggles to understand where her son’s extremist views came from: “He knows I don’t agree with any of that stuff,” she tells Inquirer.

“As parents, there is absolutely nothing you can do … they get that sense of belonging and that’s it, they’re gone,” she says.

Damon Blaxall is a classic example of a young man who was vulnerable to the lure of extremist politics. Although his involvement with the ANM damaged his life, leading him further away from his family and landing him in serious trouble with the law, he does not see it that way.

“Being in the ANM has been a turning point in my life,” he wrote from prison last year while on remand, charged with a racist graffiti spree.

“There has been a great feeling of comradeship, trust and respect and we are made to feel that we are not a minority but a serious group of like-minded people banded together to fight Australian oppression.”

The group’s leader, Jack van Tongeren, became his mentor. “I have grown closer to Jack in two years than I have in 14 years with my [biological] father,” Blaxall wrote.

Since the unrest in Sydney between whites and men of “Middle Eastern appearance” before, during and after the Cronulla riots of December 11, the police and media spotlight has turned on the shadowy figures of the extreme Right. The Australia First Party, the Patriotic Youth League and the skinhead group Blood and Honour were at the violent Cronulla demonstration handing out leaflets and flyers.

The groups’ leaders deny involvement in any violence but ASIO has targeted them in its investigation of the riots. The far Right has sought to capitalise on the Cronulla riots, producing propaganda videos titled Battle for Cronulla, credited to White Nationalist TV.

Anti-racism campaigner Mat Henderson-Hau, who leads a web-based group called Fightdemback, says people lured to the shady groups are often angry young men who are socially isolated and feel marginalised. His group tries to expose far-Right groups and provide counselling for those who want to leave such groups. He says they might have struggled with drugs, mental illness or a family break-up. Often good jobs, cars and success elude them.

“There’s the younger people who are socially disaffected, they might not have that many friends, and all of a sudden there’s a family of bigger brothers who are coming along who, at least on the surface, offer a sense of brotherhood and unity,” Henderson-Hau says. “Protection is the most important part for a scrawny kid who might be getting kicked.”

Henderson-Hau says older men can also become vulnerable to the groups when going through a “quarter-life” crisis. “They have been running on the spot for a number of years, never getting promotions, never getting a decent job, never getting a girlfriend or a car,” he says. “Suddenly they see that flyer or that internet site and all of a sudden there are all these easy answers.”

It’s not hard to see how white supremacist groups can provide people with an explanation for often marginalised lives. “If they can’t get a job, then an immigrant took it, if they can’t get a housing commission house, an Aborigine took it,” Henderson-Hau says.

But what’s most attractive is being told you’re part of the master race. Marion Blaxall tells Inquirer her son was a troubled youth, an adopted child who grew rebellious. He dropped out of school, became involved in drugs and was diagnosed with a mental illness.

Damon Blaxall began socialising with other allegedly racist young men who called themselves the White Devils. They had a website and had designs on becoming a force, but in fact gathered in a mate’s shed and drank beer, sometimes taking pictures of themselves wearing white hoods. Recalling why he was drawn to the scene, Blaxall wrote from prison: “My life had gone from bad to worse, feeling like a goldfish in a shark tank.”

The internet has become a fertile ground for white supremacists. Ultra-Right web forums such as Stormfront provide a focal point for those interested in dividing the community on racial lines. “The majority of this recruitment is now done on the internet,” Henderson-Hau says. “All it takes is a Google search, and they’ll find Stormfront.” He describes the chat room as “just a giant bitch session”.

But in the wake of Cronulla he fears it is becoming more sinister. “It’s being used for a bit more organising, a bit more incitement,” he says.

He explains that in the old days right-wing groups would have recruited members through sticker and leaflet drops after a race attack. “After any racial incident they would do a big drop of flyers and stickers and attempt to capitalise. I guess that’s what they tried to do with Cronulla and all those videos and radio programs.”

Many of the right-wing groups no longer publicly identify with neo-Nazi ideology. The Patriotic Youth League and Australia First deny all links.

Australia First insists it is a nationalist, rather than a racist, group. Henderson-Hau believes this is spin. “They tone it all down,” he says. “They trim their ideology to make it a bit more publicly acceptable.” Now they describe themselves as patriots and nationalists.

Henderson-Hau, a member of the Greens, says his aim is to get vulnerable people out of such groups. He says they have some counsellors who can talk to and reason with them. “A lot of the time if you just get in early, it’s not that ingrained. They are just very confused,” he says. “If a reasoned voice can come in and clear up that confusion, then a lot of harm down the track can be prevented.”

He says many of the young men are looking for attention and someone to talk to. It’s one option in a complex social problem.

Marion Blaxall and her husband, Dave, say they have had countless arguments with their son about his extreme views. She believes her son has finished with racist groups but is deeply saddened by his circumstances, particularly that he will spend Christmas in jail. “Despite everything he has done, I know Damon is a good person with a good heart,” she says.

Food for thought isn’t it?

We must of course stress that our softer side does not extend to the elder statesmen of the Aus and NZ racist scene. It is people like Jim Saleam, David Palmer, David Innes, Jack Van Tongeren, Sid Wilson, Kerry Bolton and Peter Campbell who indoctrinate and prey on vulnerable young people like Damon Blaxall and mess their lives up

We sincerely hope that Damon comes out the other side and gets his life together. Should he move along so far as to renounce his violent racist past, we will be among the first to congratulate him.

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Fight dem back · 24 December 2005 · Discussion

Blaxxy jailed - ANM info

A very nice little piece from Perth Indy. If the author could contact us, it would be much appreciated.

This is a good read for those wanting a bit of background on the Australian Nationalist Movement guys including Ben Weerheym.

Perth: White Supremecist jailed for restaurant attack
by Des Carters - Perth

Perth Independent Media Desk 6:

20 Dec 05 - Former professed member of the West Australian white supremacist group the ANM, has been given a backdated 12-month jail sentence for his role in the racial attacks on a Chinese restaurant and a Jewish food store. “Hitler was right” and “Jews out” were among the racist slogans. Blaxall had pleaded guilty to daubing graffiti on a synagogue in Perth. Magisrate Robert Black described Blaxall’s behaviour as “shameful and abhorrent in any decent, civilised society.”

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Meanwhile, Mr Blaxall’s criminal cohort, Ben Weerheym, who escaped a gaol term, reports that the “flawed, unwanted and alien ideology of multiculturalism has reared it’s ugly head” at the recent racist mob violence Cronulla…
TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER: The avowed member of a Perth-based white supremacist group has been jailed for 12 months for a racist graffiti attack on a synagogue in Perth. He was also found guilty of possessing racist material.

Damon Paul Blaxall, 29, was on trial for being part of a group - the “White Devils” - that defaced properties including a kosher food store and a Chinese restaurant with Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) stickers and racist graffiti last July.

Magistrate Robert Black, sentenced Mr Blaxall in Perth Magistrate’s Court this week, describing the action as abominable and shameful. “Behaviour of that sort in any decent, civilised society is abominable, At the time you were involved with a group which apparently held certain views and took part in a shameful act,” he said.

Blaxall’s belated guilty plea indicated a lack of remorse, the magistrate said - saying he also took into account Blaxall’s pre-existing psychiatric condition.

Blaxall’s defence claimed his condition led to low-self esteem and that he was in a vulnerable position when he was approached by the ANM.

Since he was charged, Blaxall said he had divorced himself from the group and its views and was now engaged with the Wilderness Society.

The prosecution said in light of recent incidents, including the recent race-fuelled mob violence at Sydney’s southern beaches, it was necessary for the courts to provide deterrents.

Blaxall’s sentence was backdated to August 12, when he was taken into custody, and he will be eligible for parole. Damon Paul Blaxall was a member of the Australian Nationalist Movement and the White Devils when he sprayed slogans and swastikas on the synagogue in July last year.

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Whats the ANM?
The Australian Nationalist Movement: The ANM are a notorious Australian White Pride group, who’s leader Jack van Tongeren expouses openly racist views. Mr van Tongeren was released from prison on 20 September 2002 after serving 12 years on more than 50 charges, including arson, stealing, conspiracy and assault.

Upon his release, Mr van Tongeren, know widely as an “extreme right-wing leader” showed no regret for his terrorist actions which included the incitement of a string of violent actions in the 1980s, which involved fire attacks on Chinese restaurants.

He served 12 years in prison for arson, after firebombing Asian-owned local businesses across Perth in Western Australia.

Mr Van Tongeren, currently in jail again, faces charges that in June and July last year he began plotting with associates to launch firebomb attacks against four Chinese restaurants around Perth. Van Tongeren and his co-accused - John van Blitterswyk and Matthew Billing have denied the charge of conspiring to firebomb Chinese restaurants in the Perth suburbs of Willeton, Karrawara and Ferndale between June 1 and July 16 last year.

The attention of WA Police was drawn to van Tongeren, when a series of racist graffiti appeared across Perth, with posters and stickers promoting the ANM. After five men were arrested over the attacks, it appeared the group had links with the organisation and van Tongeren.

The ANM leader denied the claim. Detectives involved in Operation Atlantic, the investigation into the graffiti, raided van Tongeren’s house in Gingin, north of Perth, on July 29, where, they allege, they uncovered a plot to harm WA’s Attorney General Jim McGinty and other high profile community leaders.

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EARLIER THIS YEAR:

Another associate of the ANM was jailed for six months for his part in race-hate graffiti attacks on a synagogue and other buildings around Perth. Shannon Mark Post, 24, pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal damage, in relation to the graffiti spree around the West Australian capital last July that made international headlines. Of the five charges Post admitted, Magistrate Robert Black said the most serious was the attack on the synagogue in Menora, which was daubed with slogans including “Hitler was right” and “Jews out”, as well as swastikas and ANM posters.

“This was calculated to cause distress and fear to many people, and cause offence to almost the whole of the community,” Mr Black said. “To behave in such a manner can well cause disharmony and has the potential to inflame passions. Racial and ethnic intolerance is clearly the genesis of these offences, and cannot be tolerated anywhere.”

Graffiti and ANM posters were also plastered on the Bayswater police station, the fence and front wall of two Bassendean homes and at a nearby street and bus sign.

The court was told Post became involved with the ANM movement after moving into the flat of long-time member Damon Blaxall, 28. Post will serve six months for the synagogue attack, and four months for the four other offences - time served concurrently.

________________________________________________

Other Recent Perth Anti-Multicultural News

Ben Weerheym: The “unwanted and alien ideology of multi-culturalism…”

Ben Weerheym, 27, a former recruit of the white supremacist Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) reported last week:

“The flawed ideology of multiculturalism has reared it’s ugly head.”

He says: “pushing the unwanted and alien ideology of multi-culturalism is like pushing a wheelbarrow of the proverbial up a hill. To add substance to this we can look toward thier upcoming plans as they are tryin to organize a some-what delusional feel good rally to “Unite against racism!” as they call it.”

He says “the associates of FDB like self described anarchists, communists, marxists, anti-white racists and promters of ‘elternative lifestyles will highjack the event and exploit the unwitting general public…”

Comparing the “The only thing different with how things have eventuated in Australia is that being Aussies, we eventually get to a point where we won’t take any more shit from people we have reached out to and let live here…”

To Ben Cronulla means: “You and I (Aussies) are in the firing line, the ongoing violence comitted by these people are the proof”

He writes, on the 13 December, “the British National Party is working with a recently established International Monitoring Group whose aim is to ensure that white communities around the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe which are on the front line of anti-white racism, violence and state sanctioned discrimination, get THEIR voices heard. The groups from New Zealand and Australia is already undertaking this role and will also offer it’s support.”

Come aboard,” he comments on his “anti-leftist “blog: See Here: http://www.aussiepatriot.i.am/

And in the National Alliance News 2005 - a news service that provides: “News for White People By White People”, Mr Weerheym writes: “We have struck back…”

“It has finally happened here, we have seen it happen all around the world - England, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the USA, the list goes on. The only thing different with how things have eventuated” (in Australia) is that “we won’t take any more from people we have reached out to and let live here. We have struck back”

[ http://www.natallnews.com/story.php?id=227 ]

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Who is Ben Weerheym?

White supremacist, Ben Weerheym was recently setting up a “hit list” website called Redwatch Downunder - “the site will feature names, photographs, home and work addresses, car registrations and family details of anti-racism campaigners, refugee advocates, gay rights activists and other progressives.”

A trans-Tasman campaign against racial hatred, xenophobia and fascism - [ http://fightdemback.org ] said it had discovered that Ben Weerheym, convicted over a spate of racist graffiti attacks in Perth last year, has been soliciting information to establish the website.

Local Perth Anti-racism Peace activists are now concerned that Ben - who appears to have infiltrated activist circles - will use the website to intimidate and harass them and, potentially, use as witnesses in the upcoming trial against his infamous mentor, Jack Van Tongeren.

In March last year he wrote: “The more the white youth of Australia stand up and show them their true feelings towards the invaders THE BETTER!! And about the ANM: “We are the most effective, organised, active and above all premier nationalist/pro-white organisation in Australia.”

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Mat Henderson-Hau, from Fight Dem Back, says he has evidence that dozens of emails had been sent to white supremacists around Australia and New Zealand seeking information. “They say they want information on â€˜anarchists, reds, homos and multiculturalistsâ€™, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and vehicle registrations,” Mr Henderson-Hau said.

“The purpose of this website is to threaten, intimidate and facilitate physical assaults against people who stand up against white supremacists in our community. As far as we are concerned, this is a terrorist threat.”

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The “White Devils” - formed in Perth in 2004. It achieved notoriety because of the part it played in the imprisonment of Jack van Tongeren. The White Devils formed inside the new ANM group launched by van Tongeren after his release from prison in 2002.” Ben Weerheym was a member of the White Devils.

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News brief · 22 December 2005

Jail for Blaxxy

From the Hun:

Racist jailed for restaurant attack
By Rebecca Keenan
20dec05

AN avowed member of the white supremacist Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) has been given a backdated 12-month jail sentence for his part in racial attacks on a Chinese restaurant and a Jewish food store.

Damon Paul Blaxall, 29, was on trial for being part of a group that defaced properties including a kosher food store and a Chinese restaurant with ANM stickers and racist graffiti last July.
Blaxall had pleaded guilty to daubing graffiti on a synagogue in Perth.

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News brief · 21 December 2005

Ryder murder was racially motivated

A trip inside the racist mindset

Blaxxy jailed - ANM info

Jail for Blaxxy

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