Jeff Hall stands with his back straight in front of a group of about 40 people on 12th Avenue and Adams Street in Phoenix. It’s early afternoon on a Saturday and most of the uniformed people in front of him are holding flags, readying for a march to the Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse.
Hall paces, inspecting the group. He’s not the only one. The few cars that drive by while the group stands assembled on the corner stay an extra second or two at the stop sign, staring. A passenger in a gold Nissan rolls down his window and screams “F--- yeah, white people!” as the flags, some American, some with swastikas and the letters “NSM,” ripple and sway in the soft breeze.
Hall is 31 years old, married, with a couple of kids. By trade, he’s a plumber. He’s a lieutenant and southwest regional director for the National Socialist Movement, the self-proclaimed largest neo-Nazi party in the United States.
“We’re not kept on a special planet and released from time to time to march. We’re normal human beings,” he says. “A lot of us are married with children. We go to zoos … the beach. We have normal, productive lives.”
According to the NSM website, the group believes in “defending the rights of white people, preservation of our European culture and heritage, strengthening family values, economic self-sufficiency and reform of immigration policies, immediate withdrawal of our national military from an illegal Middle Eastern occupation and promotion of white separation.” In order to be a member, one must be a non-Semitic heterosexual of European descent.
Saturday, Nov. 13, the group rallied in Phoenix to show their support of Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law.
“SB 1070 was written simply to enforce federal immigration laws, and I would actually have far stricter immigration laws myself, but I believe it’s a good step,” Hall says. “We support it because that’s the law.”
Before leaving for their march, the group is met with slight opposition from a local Phoenix resident, 31-year-old Rob Poe. Poe, with his closely shaven head, stands behind the group, commenting about how outdated it is to be a skinhead. He taunts them quietly, standing so close he could be mistaken for part of the group. A Phoenix police officer asks him to move to the sidewalk.
“You’re out of here, faggot boy,” an NSM member says to Poe.
Another NSM member, ranked as captain, instructs the group to turn around and ignore him. “If he comes up behind you, close enough to touch, kick his ass,” the captain says. “You have a right to defend yourself.”
The group departs from their starting point, walking four or five blocks with no incident. Poe follows the group from a safe distance. Poe says he knows the group has the right to free speech, but doesn’t think they should march through the streets without opposition.
“They have this idea they can march and that doesn’t include being protested at the same time while they’re doing it,” Poe said. “Plus it seems sort of leisurely to wait for people to come to you. My idea was to stand there while they were trying to collect themselves and confront them.”
As the group approaches Jefferson Street and Eighth Avenue, they find themselves at a standstill. A group of at least 100 people blocks their way, holding signs with messages including “Silly Nazis, y’all are immigrants too!” and “Take your hate out of our state!” The group is loud but, so far, peaceful. This doesn’t last long, as the distance between the groups narrows.
Police form a barrier across Jefferson, separating the demonstrators. After about 45 minutes, officers release a canister of tear gas and shoot pepper spray into the crowd.
The police huddle around the NSM group, protecting them from nails and screws hailing down, thrown by protesters. The procession moves slowly as nails turn into rocks. Several smoke bombs are set off, also by protesters. A female NSM member is hit on the head and begins to bleed. A photographer is also hit. NSM members yell at a police officer about how the situation is getting out of control.
Hall says he feels the group didn’t receive much support from local law enforcement.
“I worked hard to get our permit,” Hall says. “I felt they stalled on us and I had to let them know we were coming anyways.”
Hall says there were two arrests, but neither was an NSM member. The police tried to keep the peace, but nothing else.
“They definitely went easy on the protesters,” he says. “Not everyone takes it as easy on these lawless rioters as the Phoenix police did.”
Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson says the police did the best job they could to protect the members of the group.
“In the United States, the very first amendment of the Constitution was the right to speak freely," Thompson says, "and that goes whether or not we agree with the individual. As officers, we have to uphold the constitution.”
The group finally reaches the courthouse and members start their speeches. An angry mob of protesters lurks at the entrances to the platform, screaming and trying to drown them out.
The street is quiet only when the NSM group leaves.
Despite the crowd clashes, Hall feels the group got their message across. He says the protesters don’t daunt him because they’re not international groups like NSM. They aren’t in every state and country.
Yet in every state and country, there are firm NSM supporters.
“We’re just real people. We do have people who practice medicine, people who practice law … some are mechanics, plumbers, maybe the waitress you forgot to tip yesterday, who knows?” he says. “We are normal people. You could pass by us and you wouldn’t know.”
Contact the reporters at sheydt@asu.edu.
