Cinquantamila.it La storia raccontata da Giorgio Dell'Arti

Fonte: Guido Olimpio, Corriere della Sera 30/10/2012

Testo Frammento
IL BIMBO UCCIDE IL PAPA’ NAZISTA. PUO’ ESSERE GIUDICATO UN KILLER? — Joseph, 12 anni, è cresciuto non proprio in un nido. Fin da bimbo ha visto attorno a lui divise nere da SS, bandiere con la croce uncinata, fucili. Fin da piccolo invece che fiabe ha sentito risuonare il saluto «Sieg Heil», accompagnato dal braccio teso e da lunghe «tirate» del padre neonazista, Jeff Hall. Un uomo severo che volentieri gli riservava trattamenti duri e disciplina. Ma che comunque Joseph amava. Amava. Al passato. Sì, perché all’alba del Primo Maggio di un anno fa, il ragazzino ha fatto fuori il papà a colpi di 357 Magnum sottratta da un armadio. Gli ha sparato alla testa mentre dormiva su un divano. Senza alcuna esitazione.
Ora il caso giudiziario di Joseph è diventato materia giuridica. Per Michael Soccio, procuratore di Riverside, California, il bambino è «un assassino», sapeva quello che faceva, ha commesso un omicidio premeditato, privo di attenuanti. Non la pensa così l’avvocato d’ufficio, Matthew Hardy: Joseph — è la sua tesi difensiva — ha problemi psicologici e neurologici, inoltre ha subito abusi fisici e, soprattutto, è stato «condizionato» dall’ideologia neonazista. Insomma, non poteva distinguere tra giusto e sbagliato.
Su questo punto si è accesa la battaglia. L’ambiente nel quale è vissuto il bimbo insieme all’educazione razzista ha davvero favorito l’omicidio del padre? Gli indizi portano a rispondere di sì, anche se Soccio argomenta il contrario.
Nell’esporre la sua accusa, il procuratore ha sottolineato che Joseph voleva davvero bene al papà. Lo stava a sentire, anche se i metodi imposti tra le pareti di casa erano ferrei. Il bambino ha sparato a Jeff Hall — ha aggiunto — per due motivi: lo aveva sculacciato la sera prima e temeva che se ne andasse per sempre.
La fede neonazi del genitore dunque, secondo questa interpretazione, non c’entrerebbe proprio nulla. Poi per dimostrare una presunta predisposizione al crimine del minore ha sottolineato come Joseph abbia alle sue spalle episodi gravi. Dei precedenti. Tra questi l’aggressione nei confronti di un insegnante al quale ha attorcigliato un cordone al collo. Motivi per restare sotto controllo — in prigione — il più a lungo possibile.
La legge in California prevede che i minori di 14 anni non possano essere incriminati, a meno che non esista una prova chiara che fossero consapevoli di fare del male. E Joseph, nella visione del procuratore Soccio, ricade in questa categoria: sapeva, eccome. Un eventuale verdetto di colpevolezza potrebbe tenerlo in prigione, come minimo, per una dozzina di anni.
Non sarà facile però per il giudice emettere la sentenza. Impossibile non tener conto della storia personale di Joseph. Madre adottiva, quattro fratelli, denunce, scontri sull’affido, una lista infinita di visite da parte dei servizi sociali. Un inferno familiare. Dove l’unico punto di riferimento era un uomo — Jeff Hall — che tirava su i suoi figli spiegandogli come «difendere ovunque i diritti dei bianchi» e l’importanza della segregazione razziale. Ma non si accontentava di parlarne nel tinello. Spesso si portava dietro alle manifestazioni un pezzo della famiglia. La seconda moglie e qualche figlio. Uscite pubbliche dedicate alla propaganda dove il padre, in divisa da seguace hitleriano, enunciava il suo piano di battaglia.
Per contrastare chi minacciava la purezza ariana nel cuore d’America o per fermare, con pattuglie armate sul confine, l’invasione degli immigrati dal Messico. Ad una di queste era presente anche un giornalista del New York Times che ha raccontato ieri la storia. Jeff Hall era esploso in uno dei suoi attacchi di rabbia perché alcuni dei suoi figli avevano combinato un pasticcio.
Dalle testimonianze e dagli atti giudiziari è emerso che gli strilli del neonazi erano a volte accompagnati dalla mano pesante. O sarebbe meglio dire calci pesanti. Ma gli amici — probabilmente con il suo stesso credo — hanno giurato che non era nulla di «criminale». È sempre stato un «buon papà», ribattono a chi ricorda le violenze. Un «buon papà» che ha insegnato ai suoi figli a maneggiare le armi. Joseph purtroppo ha imparato a farlo bene. E lo ha dimostrato all’alba del Primo Maggio di un anno fa.
Guido Olimpio


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Neo-Nazi Father Is Killed; Son, 10, Steeped in Beliefs, Is Accused
Julie Platner for the New York Times

“I want a white society,” said Jeff Hall, at his home April 30, the day before he was shot to death.
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: May 10, 2011



RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The day before he allegedly shot his father, the sandy-haired 10-year-old boy showed off a prized possession to a visitor. It was a thin leather belt emblazoned with a silver insignia of the Nazi SS.
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The Lens Blog: A Family Tragedy in a Neo-Nazi Home
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Julie Platner for The New York Times

Mr. Hall, center, showed a fellow N.S.M. member how to pull a knife from his belt in Arizona, in preparation for a border patrol.
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Julie Platner for The New York Times

Party members shielded themselves when a demonstration near Los Angeles City Hall turned violent in April 2010.
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"This is not just about the followers’ insecurity but also about their susceptibility to powerful demagoguery. Just like the original Nazi party. Chilling. "

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“Look what my dad got me,” the boy said shyly, perched on the living room stairs, one of the few quiet spots in a house with five children.

A little more than 12 hours later, the police say, the boy stood near those stairs with a handgun and killed his father, Jeff Hall, as he lay on the living room couch. It was about 4 a.m. on May 1; paramedics declared Mr. Hall dead when they arrived.

The police say that the killing was intentional, but that the motives behind it are still not fully understood. But whatever the reason, it has cast fresh light on the fringe group to which Mr. Hall devoted his life: the National Socialist Movement, the nation’s largest neo-Nazi party, whose message stands in surreal juxtaposition to the suburban, workaday trappings of many of its members.

Mr. Hall, who led a chapter of the group in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, had predicted that his political activities — in a world rife with hatred, suspicion and violence — would lead to his demise.

“I want a white society,” Mr. Hall said. “I believe in secession. I believe in giving my life for secession.”

What he could never have expected was that his death might come at the hand of his son, whom he was steeping in his beliefs of white supremacy and its obsessions with weapons, racist speech and Nazi regalia.

Over the last two months, The New York Times attended and documented a series of events held by Mr. Hall and the National Socialist Movement, or N.S.M., including virulent, hate-filled rallies as well as barbecues and baby showers in the backyard of his Southern California home.

Mr. Hall was a rising force in the party, which has capitalized on a tide of anti-immigrant sentiment to attract members — young racist skinheads, aging Ku Klux Klan members, and extremists on the left and the right.

Based in Detroit, it is the largest supremacist group, with about 400 members in 32 states, though much of its prominence followed the decay of Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi groups, experts say. The movement is led by Jeff Schoep, a suit-wearing spokesman for what he calls a “white civil rights movement,” which he views as no different from other groups that defend minorities.

“If we’re a hate group,” said Mr. Schoep in an interview, “then Martin Luther King is a racist or a bigot also.”

Mr. Hall, 32, had embraced the movement and vice versa, earning a loyal following with his energy, unapologetic stands on race and frequent meetings and parties at his home. In recent years, he and other members had staged rallies that sparked street battles in several states, including a skirmish in Pemberton, N.J., during the group’s national conference in April, where rocks, tree branches, folding chairs and pepper spray were used as weapons.

After the fight, Mr. Hall — wearing a black Nazi military uniform — was hungry for more. “That’s why I joined N.S.M.,” Mr. Hall said, his eyes red from Mace. “What a night! I can’t wait for tomorrow!”

Mr. Hall, a garrulous plumber with a cross and a skull tattooed on the back of his shaved head, ran as a National Socialist for a seat on a local water district last fall and won a surprising 28 percent of the vote. He planned to run for office again.

Mr. Schoep has said the group wants to try its hand at more elections, and it has even tried to mimic the populist language used by some candidates during the 2010 campaign, railing against banks receiving “tax-funded federal bailouts” while Americans continue to struggle.

“The government tells us we’re in recovery,” Mr. Schoep told a crowd in New Jersey. “Well yeah, if you’re a fat cat on Wall Street, if you’re some greedy Jew running a bank that got a whole bunch of kickbacks, maybe it is better. But not for us.”

Illegal immigration has also emerged as a potent neo-Nazi talking point, and Mr. Hall relished heading to the desert on armed “border patrols.” He organized his members and spent his plumbing proceeds on night-vision goggles and ham radio licenses. Mr. Hall also bragged that he was teaching his son to use night vision equipment and shoot a gun.

And while many of those involved in the N.S.M. are alienated from their families, or struggle to explain their beliefs, Mr. Hall was open about his activities with his children. His two-story home in Riverside served as the movement’s headquarters in Southern California. Inside, photos of his five children lined the walls and a copy of “Cinderella” sat on the bookshelf.

At a recent meeting, Mr. Hall showed a video he had made of the national gathering in New Jersey and the brawl. As the end credits rolled, a version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” played, with modified lyrics.

“The white man marches on!” it said.

One of Mr. Hall’s young daughters was watching through a screen door and chimed in.

“I love that song, Daddy,” she said.

Raphael Ezekiel, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health who studied skinheads for his book “The Racist Mind,” said: “They’re people who feel very weak. So they’re a pushover if a person with a little bit of charisma comes along.”

And indeed, in March, Mr. Hall led a rally in Claremont, Calif., at which he preached discipline to his followers while grumbling about pat-downs from a large police contingent. About two dozen of the party followers traded insults with a larger group of counterprotesters. Mr. Hall took joy in the taunts of “Nazi Go Home!”

“I have some bad news for you,” he said. “We are home.”

A few hours later, at a St. Patrick’s Day party complete with green shot glasses and German beer, Mr. Hall gamely officiated at a sack race for his children, using the same bullhorn that he had used to lead chants of “White power!” just hours before.

In one corner of the yard, a blue-eyed blond woman wore a white supremacist T-shirt that said, “Because the beauty of white Aryan women must not perish from the earth.” Nearby, a vendor had set up a stand, selling a ragtag variety of racially tinged paraphernalia.

Fund-raising was a constant concern for Mr. Hall. He told the vendor to look into selling Che Guevara T-shirts. “He’s a murderous communist,” Mr. Hall said, “but you sell those shirts, and you fund the movement.”

At a meeting the day before he was shot, Mr. Hall hoisted a swastika banner, not far from his newborn’s bassinet. His 10-year-old son listened as Mr. Hall spoke of finding rotting bodies on the border and discussed fears of being attacked with “AIDS-infected blood” if the group was to rally in San Francisco.

After the meeting, members drifted outside to smoke and drink.

The boy sat nearby on the steps. Was he having a good time? a reporter asked. Yes, he said, though he was annoyed by his four younger sisters. But he was the eldest, he added, and a boy. “And boys are more important,” he said.

That night, Jeff Hall apparently went out with some of his members. He arrived home about midnight and, four hours later, the police received a call about shots fired.

The boy is expected to appear in court later this month; he has been charged as a juvenile with murder, and his public defender said he might plead insanity. The boy and a younger sister had been the subject of a bitter custody battle with Mr. Hall’s first wife, with a series of allegations of abuse on each side. But Mr. Hall had eventually been granted legal custody.

On Saturday, a group of Mr. Hall’s followers gathered in Southern California to mourn their leader. One, an N.S.M. official who asked not to be identified because of the attention Mr. Hall’s death had brought to the group, said that the rallies would continue, and that Mr. Hall’s ashes would be spread on the border during a patrol. The boy was not mentioned.

“Today was all about Jeff, how he would want us to carry on,” the official said. “Nobody was looking for answers.”

Ian Lovett and Julie Platner contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Malia Wollan from San Francisco.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 11, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Neo-Nazi Father Is Killed; Son, 10, Steeped in Beliefs, Is Accused.

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White supremacist leader ’shot dead at home by his young son’

By Daily Mail Reporter
UPDATED: 17:17 GMT, 2 May 2011

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The young son of a white supremacist leader has been detained after his father was found shot dead at their home.

Jeff Hall, 32, a regional director for the National Socialist Movement, was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning by a ’known assailant’ at his house in Riverside, California.

Police removed two handguns from the property and questioned one of his five children, believed to be a ten-year-old boy. They have not yet ruled out the possibility that the shooting was deliberate.
Shot dead: Jeff Hall, a regional director for the National Socialist Movement, was killed at his home in the early hours of Sunday morning

Shot dead: Jeff Hall, a regional director for the National Socialist Movement, was killed at his home in the early hours of Sunday morning

Mr Hall was a plumber and rising star in the neo-Nazi group based in Detroit, who ran for office at his local water board last November.

Neighbours said he flew a swastika from his home at a Halloween party last year and attendees wore Ku Klux Klan costumes.

A New York Times reporter attended a meeting of the local group at his home the night before he was killed, where Mr Hall called on members to join him for militia-style raids for illegal immigrants along the Mexico-Arizona border.

He said: ’This is a very active area right now. You guys get your Glocks cocked and get ready to rock. We’re going to the border. That’s how we do it.’
Neo-Nazi: Neighbours said Jeff Hall held a Halloween party at his house last year where attendees wore Ku Klux Klan outfits

Neo-Nazi: Neighbours said Jeff Hall held a Halloween party at his house last year where attendees wore Ku Klux Klan outfits

Police were called to his house at 4am on Sunday after a report of shots being fired, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

According to the coroner’s office Mr Hall died of a single gunshot wound from a ’known assailant’. His wife and five children were all at home at the time of the shooting.

Lieutenant Ed Blevins told the Press-Enterprise he was investigating whether the shooting was intentional or accidental.

The Times reported one of his sons, believed to be ten, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting. No other suspects were being sought.
Separatist movement: NSM commander Jeff Schoep, pictured here at a demonstration, wrote a tribute to Mr Hall on the organisation’s website

Separatist movement: NSM commander Jeff Schoep, pictured here at a demonstration, wrote a tribute to Mr Hall on the organisation’s website

Neighbours told the Press-Enterprise they had suffered months of intimidation by Mr Hall and other members of the National Socialist Movement who visited for meetings.


Juan Trejo, who lives opposite Mr Hall’s house, said: ’Honestly, I feel like it’s over. It was scary here. Hopefully we’ll never see any of them again.

He described Mr Hall’s children as all being younger than 12. He said: ’I never tried to even say hello because they are racist.’

A spokesman for the National Socialist Movement told the Times: ’All I can tell you right now is Jeff’s dead.’

In a tribute on the organisation’s website, its commander, Jeff Schoep, described Mr Hall as a ’loving father of five children, a family man and a dedicated American patriot.’

He wrote: ’He touched the lives of so many people, and was a tremendous inspiration to everyone around him. His energy and devotion to our Folk and Nation knew no bounds.’

Mr Hall ran for election as a member of the Riverside Water Board in November 2010, but lost to the incumbent.

The Phoenix New Times reported Mr Hall led a band of armed supremacists into the Arizona desert last year to search for Mexican immigrants.

His death comes just two months after David Lynch, one of America’s most powerful white supremacist leaders, was shot in his Sacramento home.

The skinhead was an influential figure in the underground neo-Nazi movement, and worked for the American Front, a national body of skinhead groups committed to ’preserving the white race’ in America.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382775/White-supremacist-leader-Jeff-Hall-shot-dead-home-young-son.html#ixzz2Ar9djc9F
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NOTORIOUS HATE GROUPS IN AMERICA

According to The Southern Poverty Law Centre, in 2010 there were 1,002 ’hate’ groups active in the U.S.

This is a staggering rise from the estimated 602 such groups in 2000.

The two most notorious groups are:

Ku Klux Klan

Klan groups in the U.S. increased significantly in 2008, from 155 chapters to 186. It is broken down into smaller sub units, with the Brotherhood of Klans Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (BOK) one of the fastest growing. 17 new chapters were added in 2008.

Neo-Nazis

Fanatics who broadly follow the example set by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party. There are around 300 different groups including the two largest groups - American National Socialist Workers Party and the National Socialist Movement.

Other white supremacist groups include the Hammerskin Nation Volksfront, Blood & Honour American Division, Atlantic City Skins and the American Front, as well as violent biker gangs. (sempre dal Daily Mail)

***
When neo-Nazi leader Jeff Hall was shot and killed by his 10-year-old son, attention immediately turned to the California father’s extremist views.

A "60 Minutes" report now shows the motives of the murder may have been more complicated -- and yet more commonplace.

Early on the morning of May 1, hours after the family hosted a neo-Nazi gathering in their Riverside, Calif., home, Joseph Hall retrieved a handgun from his father’s closet and shot his dad in the head, investigators allege.

At the time of his death, Hall, an unemployed plumber, had turned himself into a rising star in the National Socialist Movement, according to the CBS News program.

However, it was his parenting more than his controversial politics that played a role in his death, authorities believe.

Joseph Hall told investigators he pulled the trigger to end the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.

Megan Hall, the Neo-Nazi leader’s sister, said her brother wasn’t always violent, but in recent years had beaten both Joseph and his wife "on random occasions."

Joseph Hall told investigators that his father hit him, kicked him and pushed him. He allegedly admitted firing the shot to "end the son vs. father thing," a law enforcement source told the news magazine.

According to the boy’s grandmother, Joann Patterson, the child always had behavioral problems.

Joseph Hall had reportedly been kicked out of schools for violent behavior and once tried to strangle a teacher with a phone cord.

The boy’s struggles were so apparent that Patterson claims the killing didn’t even surprise her.

"I wasn’t surprised by it, I just somehow felt it could always happen -- but I thought it would be when he was older," said Patterson.

Joseph Hall’s arraignment had been scheduled for Sept. 12, but it was delayed until next month to give more time to specialists studying the child’s mental state, according to Southern California Public Radio.

Reports indicate that the public defender representing Joseph Hall, who is now 11, may pursue an insanity defense.

If convicted, Joseph Hall will be released from custody by the time he is 25 years old, at the oldest. www.huffingtonpost.com