Prometheus 6   

How . . . nice . . .

I had a comment, but never mind. Too predictable.

North Utah Faces Influx of Racists
By NICK MADIGAN

ROY, Utah � In the cold months, the stark tattoos of white supremacy are concealed beneath layers of clothing, but the ex-convicts and parolees who wear them are becoming known by their faces.

Law enforcement officials here and in other towns in northern Utah say they are grappling with a marked increase in crimes committed by men who joined white supremacist gangs while in prison and who, once released and bound by ideology and kinship, have settled in the area to pursue lives of crime.

"They're connecting with people of like mind," said Greg Whinham, the police chief here in Roy, an Ogden suburb of about 35,000 residents between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake. "The mentality of white supremacy is rampant in the prison system, and now we're seeing it in the streets."

In response, the Roy Police Department joined forces with nine other law enforcement agencies in Weber County to track gangs and individuals who espouse white supremacist credos as well as other fringe philosophies, many of them promoted and learned in the Utah State Prison and other penal institutions.

"We're just getting flooded with these guys," said Lt. Loring L. Draper, a gang task force leader in Ogden, who recalled first noticing the white supremacists in late summer 2001. Since that time, Lieutenant Draper said, about 65 parolees identified as white supremacists have been arrested in the area, mostly for drug offenses, and 35 were returned to prison for parole violations.

On March 6, the police in Ogden made nine arrests in a sweep aimed at a white supremacist ring that specialized in vehicle and residential burglaries and strong-arm robberies, the police said. At least one of the arrested men was carrying a handgun and methamphetamine, a drug that the police say many white gang members produce and sell.

Altogether, the task force is tracking about 132 known white supremacists in Weber County, and there are more who have not been identified, Lieutenant Draper said. About 2,000 parolees and probationers, 31 percent more than in any other region in Utah, live among the approximately 200,000 residents of Weber County and adjacent Morgan County.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 4/10/2003 11:27:02 AM |