Neo-Nazi Skinheads

Neo-Nazi skinheads are a subgroup of the skinhead culture with a propensity for committing acts of vandalism, violence, and murder against targeted groups, including blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, homosexuals, and other minorities.

The “skinhead” movement first appeared in the early 1970s, when groups of dangerous-looking teens dressed in combat boots and sporting shaved heads and tattoos began to roam the streets of England. Their original purpose was to represent the workingclass attitudes of toughness, patriotism, and antiimmigration—an antithesis to the “hippies” of the same period. As time went on, however, racist and neo-Nazi beliefs became popular within skinhead groups, leading to the formation of the neo-Nazi skinhead subculture.

Over the next few years, the neo-Nazi skinhead phenomenon spread from England to the rest of Europe and the United States. Today, neo-Nazi Skinheads are active in more than 30 countries around the world, with an especially strong presence in places with high rates of immigration and unemployment.

Skinheads are typically white youth between the ages of 13 and 25, and gangs range in size from just a few members to several dozen. The “skinhead look” is very recognizable: shaved head or very short hair; jeans; suspenders; combat or “Doc Marten” boots; bomber jackets, sometimes covered with Nazi symbols; and tattoos of various Nazi emblems. Beyond [Page 328]their physical image, the hallmark of neo-Nazi Skinheads is the glorification of Adolph Hitler and his dreams of a world dominated by the Aryan (white) race. Their ideology gives them feelings of power and superiority over others. The skinhead gang mentality and lifestyle provide a sense of belonging—a “surrogate family” to youth who often come from broken homes or single-parent families.

The self-esteem of the neo-Nazi skinhead is elevated through the degradation of others, and violence is considered the norm in this world. Their violent hatred of blacks, Jews, gays, and other minority groups is expressed through physical attacks and murder. These assaults and killings are not, however, limited to racial minorities and homosexuals. Neo-Nazi skinheads have also attacked and murdered their nonracist skinhead counterparts. The easy accessibility of firearms in the United States has been a factor in making American skinheads among the most violent in the world, and at least 45 murders are linked to this group. Skinhead groups also participate in general mayhem and vandalism, desecrating Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, and Holocaust memorials by scrawling graffiti, overturning tombstones, and shooting out windows.

Skinheads have moved beyond their own gangs to link up with other organized racist hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the White Aryan Resistance (WAR). WAR founder Tom Metzger has actively recruited skinheads into his organization, and his call for violence against minorities has been heeded by a large number of individuals. Notably, on November 12, 1988, three members of a Portland, Oregon, skinhead gang beat to death 27-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw. In a civil lawsuit filed by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of Seraw's family, a jury found that Metzger and his son, John, were responsible for inciting the skinheads to commit the murder, and a judgment of $12.5 million was awarded to the victim's family in 1990.

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