S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. A recent report dives into San Diego's history of violent white supremacy. We'll talk about what drives that history and what's pushing other movements. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Last month , two men opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego , killing three people and traumatizing many more. The suspects followed a familiar pattern of far right radicalization , and they idolized perpetrators of other white supremacist attacks. It's a grim reminder of how white supremacist ideologies grow and gain traction right in our own backyard. San Diego County has a long and well-documented history of white supremacist and neo-Nazi hate. Joining me to talk about that history is Roberto Camacho. He's a freelance journalist who wrote about this for Times of San Diego. Roberto , welcome.
S2: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.
S1: Glad to have you here. So what made you want to write this story and put the Islamic Center attack in this historical context?
S2: Well , maybe we want to write the story. Is the fact that there is this long history of white supremacy and neo-Nazi organizing here in San Diego , but the fact that this is history , that many people , people that have lived their entire lives , are have very little awareness too. There is this byline that people say that this attack came out of nowhere , that people were not expecting this when it's quite the opposite. There is a long and unfortunate history of this kind of hateful rhetoric and organizing happening right here in our own backyard in San Diego.
S1: Well , what makes San Diego such a hotbed for white supremacist figures and movements here?
S2: To my understanding , what makes this region unique in particular is the proximity to the US-Mexico border and then the always fluctuating demographics. Ever since this part of the nation was ceded and became part of the US , there has always been a flux , especially here in San Diego as well. We have a lot of people that come here that immigrate from other countries. Also , we have a lot of outsiders that come here because of the military nature of this region , which I think it contributes to this particular region , um , having a certain susceptibility as opposed to others. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. Your story points to a few people who were central to San Diego's white supremacist movement and that violent history. What kind of influence did they have and do they continue to have? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Well , like so getting back , I mean , ever since , like , we could go all the way back to like the 1920s when the , the KKK , um , set up , you know , like in Southern California , but here in San Diego. Like going back to like. We go like the 70s. Like figures like Tom Metzger , who was the founder of the White Aryan Resistance. Uh , he moved here to Southern California in the late 60s. Uh , ended up becoming the grand dragon of the KKK here in the state of California. Eventually , in the late 70s , he has a falling out with David Duke , who was then the leader of the Klan. And then by the early 80s , that's when he founded a war , the White Aryan Resistance , and operated out of Fallbrook for the next several decades. Um , there's also other figures , such as Alex Curtis , who was , um , one of the early figures to utilize the internet not just to propagate white supremacist propaganda , but also use it as a recruiting tool as well. And what's significant about these figures , too , is on top of using these , uh , these methods , which are now mainstream , we see this , you know , contemporarily , but also these both Metzger and Curtis. They popularized the the tactic of the quote unquote lone wolf , um , style of attack. And Metzger even authored a tactical guy called The Laws of the Lone Wolf , um , which he used this as a means to cushion the white supremacist movement from attacks , because at the time , this was in the late 80s and early 90s , these white supremacist movements were being infiltrated and be monitored by law enforcement. And the line of thinking was , if these attacks of these instances of violence are being perpetrated by lone individuals , not organized groups , they cannot be held accountable or would not be , uh , surveilled the way that they normally , they normally , other groups normally are in this country.
S1: I mean , how did that work , though , between this organization , its mastermind behind this idea , this idea , this lone wolf idea and actual intelligence. US intelligence and investigators who , um , look into these things and surveil domestic terrorist threats. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So like , um , actually , so , like the there was an actual specific instance that this arrived from. So Metzger was actually found civilly liable for damages for , like there was the murder of an Ethiopian student. His name was Malika Sarah. And this was in Portland , Oregon. And he was murdered by three neo-Nazis who were members of war. And Metzger was held civilly liable. Because of this , this is why he opted to , uh , popularize this lone wolf method instead of , you know , like organizing , like even like a even organizing , like in , like , formal groups was kind of looked down upon because they , they knew that law enforcement was going to be monitoring them continuously. And we kind of see like this and this grows. This grows out of this thing in the early 90s to now , we kind of see like it's this is now the , the main way that a lot of attackers now organize. Right.
S1: Right. And you actually interviewed someone who organized against Metzger in the early 90s when he was a high schooler. What did he share with you?
S2: Yeah , absolutely. So actually , I interviewed Ricardo of Avila , and he was he organized against Metzger in the early 90s while he was a student at Fallbrook High. He joined a group called Mexicanos Unidos in Defensa del Pueblo and which was a Latino youth group formed to protect against white supremacist vigilantes and law enforcement violence. And what favela had told me , because this was out of Fallbrook , where Metzger was headquartered. What favela told me during our interview that stood out is that he said the key difference between the 90s and now in 2026 is that the message and the hateful rhetoric that was propagated by Metzger and other people in the white supremacist movement is that that rhetoric has been now mainstreamed. It now appears as routine messaging from the Trump administration and other conservative politicians in the GOP. It's not just regulated to a fringe corner of the net or these white supremacist groups. It's something that is regularly echoed imperative by mainstream politicians.
S1: I'm curious to know , have law enforcement , you think , caught up with the lone wolf logic here?
S2: I don't believe that law enforcement takes the threat of this kind of violence as seriously as it needs to. I think that actually , the fact that the nature of this attack that happened last month is an indictment of the our society and law enforcement refusal to address this , because even in the federal government's own counterterrorism strategies. They do not treat white supremacist violence as an urgent threat. Even though white supremacist and far right extremism is by far the deadliest forms of domestic terrorism in this country , and has been as long as we've been monitoring this since , like the early 90s. In fact , the Trump administration's 2026 terrorism strategy places an emphasis on what they describe as narco terrorist legacy , Islamist terrorist , left wing extremists and anti-fascists. But it makes no mention a white supremacist or a far right domestic terrorism at all. And I think that that is , um , again , an indictment of this blasé attitude that both law enforcement and greater society , um , attributes when dealing with this kind of violence.
S1: Are you hearing anything from community leaders in terms of how they're pulling apart this , um , the threat of lone wolf attacks or organized white supremacist attacks in light of the attack at the Islamic Center?
S2: Oh , yeah. Absolutely. Like various community members. I've talked to members of pillars of the community and what they. The big the key thing that I've heard from people I've discussed and talked to for this report is that there's there's a lot of anger that these these individuals were already on law enforcement's radar. It wasn't like , again , this didn't come out of nowhere. Like , um , Kayla Vasquez , one of the shooters , like he was it was known about his idealization of , you know , neo-Nazis and mass shooters. You know , like it flagged the attention of school officials , like law enforcement , unsuccessfully asked the court to permanently keep him away from his father's weapons. And it's hard to imagine , like , this same nonchalant attitude being taken or being being promised if any other kind of extremist ideology was so flagrantly and so open about it. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. You know , San Diego has a long history too , of racially motivated attacks. Back in 1984. There was the San Ysidro McDonald's shooting just a few years ago , in 19 or 2019. There was the 2019 Poway synagogue shooting. I mean , what are some through lines between those attacks and the shooting we saw last month as at the Islamic Center?
S2: One of the through lines that I see in all of these attacks is the othering of other marginalized communities from , again , like the the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. James Huberty , the shooter there , was very open about his disdain for Mexicans and other Latinos specifically like blaming them for the loss of his job as a welder in Ohio. In fact , that's the reason why he moved to Mexico initially was the kind of chase his job down , and he was unsuccessful. He ended up in San Ysidro and held this resentment and then ultimately ended up perpetrating , which was then the deadliest mass shooting in the country. It still remains like the ninth deadliest. Um , also like going through to the 2019 Poway shooting. Uh , this individual was also inspired and radicalized through online means. Uh , same as the the Islamic Center shooters as well. And again , what we see is this , um , this othering of marginalized groups , but also that , um , more and more , we're seeing that these , uh , these attackers are radicalized through online means and there but they're not just operating by themselves.
S1: They it is it is organized. And so now I'm wondering the the attack of the Islamic Center , is it being investigated as domestic terrorism , given that that's the case?
S2: I have not heard an update as of yet , I went. It had happened. The San Diego PD did say that they it was under investigation to see if it was. I have not heard from my understanding that the federal government has given any update. If it has been declared a hate crime.
S1: What message do you think that that sense?
S2: I think it sends a very clear message that it's simply not important to them.
S1: I've been speaking with Roberto Camacho. He's a freelance journalist who covers criminal justice reform , immigration and Chicano and Latino issues. You can find his full story linked on our website at kpbs.org. Roberto , thank you so much for your insight and for your reporting.
S2: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
S1: Still to come , we continue our conversation with the growing movement and the Patriot Front. KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. On today's show , we've been talking about how white supremacist movements gained fuel and followers. Really? New reporting by USA today finds that one of the nation's largest white supremacist groups has been rapidly expanding over the past two years. It's called Patriot Front. Joining me to talk about it is Will Carlos. He covers extremism and emerging issues for USA today. Will welcome back to the show.
S3: Thanks for having me on.
S1: Glad to have you here. So remind us what Patriot Front is. This group is is not new , right?
S3: They're not new. They've been around since about 2017. Your your listeners may have seen these guys. They're the guys who show up with wearing chinos and blue button down shirts and white face is carrying American flags and do sort of big southern marches , often at places like pride parades , but also just sort of national monuments , national parks , things like that. There are very much a white supremacist movement. They are pretty secretive. Not a lot has been I mean , there's been some leaks of their materials , but nobody's really kind of spoken out from inside the organization. So I describe them as like basically a sort of a neo-Nazi , white supremacist group that is kind of masquerading as just being about kind of patriotism and American values.
S1: What kind of people get hooked up into these groups.
S3: I mean , primarily young white men , basically. It's almost exclusive. I think Patriot Front is exclusively male. It's , um , it's exclusively , you know , I believe it's exclusively white. There might be some Latino members , maybe some Asian members. Um , but it is. Yeah. It's just it's young , sort of lost white men , basically people who are convinced that , um , you know , a lot , a lot of what's driving Patriot Front is something called the Great Replacement theory. And this is the idea that white people are being kind of systematically replaced by people of color , and that this is all , uh , sort of an organized effort that is , um , you know , depending on how which version of the conspiracy theory you believe , it's either being kind of orchestrated by global elites or by Jewish people , and the idea is that sort of white people are being systematically replaced in America and Europe and groups like this sort of take it upon themselves to try and. Basically redress that balance. Of course , it's all nonsense. It's not happening. But that's what that's how they kind of suck people in , right?
S1: Well , now I have to ask because , you know , earlier in the show , we talked about the Supreme Court's recent decisions on immigration cases. Do you think that their recent decisions sort of in any way feed into this , um , this this theory of the great replacement theory?
S3: The challenge with the great replacement and one of the reasons that it's so popular and so kind of , you know , uh , like long lasting. I mean , people have been talking about this for , for decades. And the reason that it's so sort of compelling is that there's an element of truth to it. Look , I mean , you know , white people demographically are becoming a smaller proportion of the American electorate , but it's got nothing to do with sort of an organized conspiracy. It's just demographics. There are. You know , white people tend to be having fewer children there because of , um , you know , partly because of immigration , but mostly just because of sort of internal demographics. Who is having children in this country? Um , you know , the white people are becoming a shrinking portion of the electorate. So , you know , to answer your question , I mean , look , the Supreme Court is , you know , will say it's trying to ensure that there are , um , you know , that there are safe and fair elections and everything else. Um , but anything that touches on the idea , anything that sort of gets close to the conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced is going to add fuel to the fire and is going to lead more people to go down that route , believe those things. And ultimately , you know , some of them will sort of become extremists like this.
S1: And so then bringing the conversation right on back to the doorstep of the Patriot Front here , you poured over leaked documents provided by a source inside the group. What did you learn about how they're expanding and what they're doing? So.
S3: So. So we learned a few things. I mean , one of the things that was so interesting to me is that these documents kind of read like , almost like corporate manuals. It's like , so what Patriot Front mainly does is to put out white supremacist and white supremacist adjacent propaganda. So they put up banners , they put up stickers , they put up posters. I mean , they do this all over the country. So people may have seen their stickers , they might have seen their posters and not even realized that it was Patriot Front , because they just often just put the logo on it. Well , what I found from the documents is that that that effort is very orchestrated and very controlled. They have very strict rules about what can be put up and how to do it , how to sort of create the banners , that sort of thing. Um , we also got a membership list now , we didn't get real names. We got , we got their , their um , uh , we like that kind of code names , but we did get the states that the people joined at and their join date. And so we were able to track the growth of this group , and indeed , it sort of doubled in size and then doubled again in recent years. Um , so that was another kind of big eye opener. And then I'd say the third sort of big thing we learned from these documents is that the Patriot Front is getting very close to and sort of forging alliances with these groups called active clubs. And active clubs are essentially sort of gathering groups for young men to kind of do MMA , to go training and hiking and , and do weights and things like that and spar and that isn't , you know , it's sort of previously been thought of as a , as a different front in the white supremacist movement. And it looks increasingly like Patriot Front is trying to those grapes. Right.
S1: Right. So they're gaining traction among these. These active clubs. If you can talk a bit about how , you know , for someone who's young , who's kind of lost , who's mis educated , maybe as you've described many of the members to be. How did these these organizations seemingly come off as innocent at first? Patriot front , an active club to learn , you know , self-defense or MMA fighting. I mean , talk about how that tactic lures folks into the group.
S3: Is now and I've done a lot of reading and spoken to a lot of people who sort of , you know , been involved in , in this sort of recruiting and then have kind of come out the other end and it's really just like an age old playbook. I mean , basically they're looking for , you know , mainly young lost men , men who don't have a sort of a goal in life. Don't have , uh , kind of targets , perhaps haven't had , you know , strong father figures like all of those things. And what they basically present to them is a mission , right? Here is a mission for you. Here is something that is going to give your life meaning. And what Patriot Front's mission is , is essentially to , you know , to to preserve America for , um , white people or people of European heritage. Is is kind of their whole , their whole idea. And they talk about the forming in their private chat logs which were which were hacked. You know , they talk about the forming of a white ethno state and essentially just sort of like making America just for white people , so that for a young man who's probably , you know , who's maybe never been told that they're part of anything , never been told that they're working towards anything , what they do is they give them a sense of purpose and a sense of mission. And of course , they convince them and brainwash them that this is , you know , a problem in the first place. Right? And that it's a noble goal. And then they and then they give them stuff to do , you know , go out there and put these posters up , go out there and recruit more people. And , you know , these young men get a sense of pride and a sense of purpose and a sense of , you know , that they're doing something noble and heroic.
S1: And then this quickly turns into radicalization and violence. Correct.
S3: I think we have to be careful when we talk about violence when it comes to Patriot Front , because they have been very careful not to engage in violence. And in fact , the documents that I have strictly forbid members from engaging in violence and from getting involved in violence. So Patriot Front , an interesting group like that , because , look , there are certainly violent people involved. I mean , there are numerous members of Patriot Front who've been their spouses and things like that. So I mean , there's certainly violent people inside the organization , but but now at least Patriot Front has tried to portray itself as a , as a , as a sort of a peaceful movement that's not involved in violence. Now , as they get more involved with active clubs who are all about , you know , learning how to commit violence and learning how to hurt people and , and in addition to self-defense. Then we could see that change. But but certainly for this group , they're not the sort of the skinhead , neo-Nazi acceleration groups of the past who would be all about kind of going out and picking fights and smashing windows. Patriot front is a lot more kind of careful about its image and careful about what its members , um , can and cannot do. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Um , I will say , you know , I mean , ideologies can be violent because they lead to they lead to policies , they lead to , um , other things. And so that , that certainly exists. I mean , what did you discover about their plans to keep growing?
S3: They are planning to just keep getting bigger , exponentially bigger. I mean , one of the other interesting things that I didn't really get into in my reporting , but Patriot Fund is also kind of a bit of a pyramid scheme , too. So the one of the ways that they work is that the main guy , the guy who founded it , a guy called Thomas Russo , who I think is 23 or 24 , lives in outside of Dallas , Texas. And one of the things you have to do as a Patriot Front member , for example , is to buy merchandise from from him. Basically , you have to buy stickers from him , and you have to then put them up and take photos of them , putting them up. And and so he's making money from that , right? So his goal is to get as many members as possible. And that's sort of what they see as their stated goal. We need to keep getting out there and spreading the word and doing these kind of protests that they do , and kind of bring in more and more people in and growing exponentially. So that's that's their main goal now. What they eventually want to happen. It you know what we know about it from. From the files that were leaked from them. Not just my files but from other files. You know , they want essentially , as I said earlier , like a white ethno state. They want to , you know , basically get rid of all immigration. They want to remove people who are not of European heritage. Um , and they , you know , and particularly have a problem with , with Jewish people and with black people. And so they , they want to , um , you know , as they see it , sort of return America to people of European heritage. Of course , all their words. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , I also want to talk more about how this group's messaging and marketing are disguised under the shield of patriotism. What does that look like?
S3: You know , a lot of people might see a Patriot front poster or a flyer and not realize that it's a white supremacist group. You know , they could see it and they could say something like strong families or something like that. Or I could say , you know , uh , I'm trying to think of some other examples , you know , like , but but essentially , you know , strong , you know , keep this country strong or keep this country great. And it's like the the thing is that for every sort of three of those , there's one that is more overtly white supremacist and like they are very , very careful. So , so the whole white supremacist movement in general are probably about sort of 5 or 6 years ago started to take this turn away from , you know , being virulently and , and , you know , very obviously sort of against people , people of color. And they started to take this tack of like , oh , we're really all about preserving white heritage , right? We're about preserving , um , you know , white heritage in the same way that , say , Black Lives Matter is. Or maybe Black Lives Matter isn't the best example , but sort of Black Heritage Month and things like that. And so that is a very it's a smokescreen. Look , I mean , it's it's a smokescreen for their more hateful beliefs , but it's also a way that they can kind of put themselves out there in the world and say , we're not racist , we're not Nazis. We're just , you know , we just we're just proud of being white and we're proud of the things that white people have done. The thing is that once you get into the group , and I know this from my source , and I also know this from the chat logs that were leaked and from other documents that have been taken out. You know , when push comes to shove , these guys are neo-Nazis , like they are , you know , they're very hateful towards people who aren't white and everything else. But the point is that they they put one version of themselves out into the world , and then they have another version. That is how they talk to each other in private. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. When you come through all of the documents , did you find any connections between people who were in this organization and say , people who are making state , local , federal policies.
S3: We haven't ourselves. I will say that there's a whole network of researchers out there who have got similar documents in the past and who have made these connections. You know , in some cases , kind of junior policymakers , in some cases , you know , people who've gone on to work in politics and things like that. Um , you know , but but we haven't done that sort of granular research yet with the list that we have. Part of the part of that's just practical. We don't have people's real names. Now , I will say that I am hoping to get more documents from my source in the coming weeks and days , and I'm hoping to publish some more stories about it. So , um , you know , keep tuned. But for now , we haven't done that kind of granular research ourselves yet. Okay.
S1: Okay. All right. What about law enforcement?
S3: Same same same answer. I mean , you know , again , because we have this , we have this , what we basically have is a list saying , you know , this guy who calls himself an Iron Warrior or something like joined on this date. So we know that there's somebody called Iron Warrior who has a certain email address that joined on a certain date. We don't know whether that person is a police officer or just a , you know , a plumber or whoever , you know , like , we haven't we haven't done that sort of research yet. Sure.
S1: Sure. Well , I know that we'll continue to to look for your reporting on this. I mean , in the last few seconds that we have here , what what can we glean from from your reporting? And , you know , also , the earlier we talked about the San Diego's history of white supremacist violence , I mean , what does this say about white supremacist networks today and how they're moving differently?
S3: I think genuinely , if you want my honest answer , I'm I'm genuinely sort of less worried about groups like Patriot Front that are about sort of politics and optics and propaganda. I'm less worried about them than I am about young , young men. Like the young men who attacked the Islamic Center. You know those people who are just , you know , they call them lone wolves. They're not lone wolves. They're part of a network of radicalized individuals who are radicalizing people in the name of violence. Those are the people we should be really worried about. And. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Absolutely. All right. I've been speaking with Will Carlos. He covers extremism and emerging issues for USA today. Will as always thank you for your reporting and your insight. That's our show for today. I'm your host Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
