Nazi from p 23 distorted and low-tuned guitars. In 2018, the record label released Beware of Jews! from the band Gaskammer, the Dutch word for gas chamber. The band hails from Bulgaria, once an ally of Nazi Germany, but it relocated to Phoenix to produce music for the Aryan Nations- controlled record company. “Do not trust any Jew and be aware of them,” lead singer Georgi Georgiev, who goes by the stage name Okupator, sings on the track. “Everything they have done is to destroy our lives. History will prove that they have no place in our times. … Worthless human scum.” Counterfeit COVID Cards As the desperate search for new members puts a strain on the once-powerful organization’s consolidated operation near Glendale Avenue, attention has shifted to churning out counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine cards. The Aryan Nations website, touting that its “World Headquarters” is in Phoenix, makes accessible a fraudulent proof of a vaccine printout and asks members to “copy and share this with everybody you know.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides bona fide clinics across the country with legitimate COVID-19 vaccine cards stamped with the federal emblem to give to patients who receive the vaccine. The CDC logo appears on the counterfeit printout, constituting a federal felony offense for any Aryan Nations member who takes the bait. A conviction for federal forgery warrants five to 10 years in prison and fines ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. Last June, Aryan Nations peppered neighborhoods in Glendale and Litchfield Park with anti-Semitic and racist flyers. The flyers, depicting Jewish people as rats and calling them “THE REAL PLAGUE,” littered predominantly white neighborhoods in the West Valley. Three months later, Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers censured “hateful and threatening speech that has been, or ever will be, distributed in and throughout our city,” although the origin of the propaganda campaign wasn’t fully known to city leaders at the time. The Aryan Nations is defiant. Miner told New Times the group plans to renew leafleting in Phoenix during Passover, which starts April 15. The practice of leafleting, a recruitment method that tests the appetite for extremism in a neighborhood, didn’t have a large impact on the Aryan Nations’ self- reported membership of just 30 people. As recently as late February, the organization pleaded to users of the alt-tech social networking service Gab, known for its alt-right user base, to join the Klan. “Adolf Hitler is a true hero to our people,” Miner posted on Gab in early March. One of Aryan Nations’ racist flyers that was distributed on the west side. A Tradition of Hate Modern extremists are replacing swastikas, Klan robes, and stiff-armed salutes with the star-spangled letter Q, experts agree. But the conspiratorial predecessor to QAnon shares some of its scare tactics. “In today’s fragmented world, extremists are intertwining not only different conspiracy theories but also the brand names of that past,” said Levin, the extremism expert at California State University-San Bernardino. Levin verified that the Aryan Nations recruitment website is real. “In the 1980s, it was the Nazification of the Klan,” he said. “In 2022, it’s the Klanification of the Nazis.” Aryan Nations leans heavily on the conspiracy theory that the white race is “endangered” and that, without resorting to violence, Aryans will be killed off by Jewish people who are also pedophiles. Aryan Nations Knights claim that the Sieg Heil salute and swastika have biblical origins and bolster their conspiracy theories with fabricated biblical passages in which God says the white race is superior. It’s all peddled in the Phoenix-based Church of Jesus Christ Christian, a tax-exempt, registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Because of its status, tax documents detailing the group’s finances and leadership are not public. But according to its new Phoenix-area recruitment website, “Aryan Nations has always been, and always will be, the reason Jews walk down the street in fear.” That slogan is pasted on the website’s homepage. Coming to Phoenix Twenty years ago, the Grand Canyon State was far removed from the minds of today’s Aryan Nations leaders. Gulett’s face was illuminated by the light of three fiery wooden crosses at his ordainment on a Georgia hillside in 2001. He was becoming the leader of what he today calls “the most feared and revered White Supremacist organization the world has ever known.” >> p 26 25 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES APRIL 7TH– APRIL 13TH, 2022
