Original subtitles

♪♪

-it's clear that the far right extremist global movement today

looks like what al-qaeda looked like in the early '90s.

Time and again, what we've seen is that if america does not act,

people will die.

-That skull mask you're wearing --

what's its significance?

-They see themselves as sort of an insurgent army.

They almost identify more with al-qaeda

than they do with the klan.

-Left unchecked, these guys are gonna keep recruiting,

they're gonna keep training,

and they're gonna keep planning

and carrying out violent attacks.

-You put anger and alienation together,

you've got a walking time bomb.

-You know, when they're done coming for jewish people

and gay people and black people. What's next?

Are you safe?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-you just kind of open it up for me.

I just want to look at it and make sure it's straight.

Might want a damp rag.

You know, little spot showing up on the side.

Double check that.

-Bill collins is the mayor of rome, georgia,

population 36,000.

He was born and raised here.

Instead of city hall, he prefers to work out of

the auto body shop that he's owned for years.

-Not a whole lot. How you doing this morning, sir?

Oh, you lucky rascal. Are you off today?

-Rome is a town with connections to the ku klux klan.

Yet collins made history in 2019

by becoming the town's first black mayor.

-It's been quite a ride and quite an experience.

I never thought when I live two blocks from here

in a two-bedroom house

with about nine of us staying here,

that I would ever become mayor.

Not at all.

You have a great deal of new faces coming to the forefront,

all nationalities blending together in this city of rome,

saying, "black lives matter."

-what about the state of white supremacy in rome

and in its surrounding counties?

What's it like right now?

-It's behind the scene.

So we don't get a chance to see that much of it.

-Have you ever had any experiences

growing up with the klan?

Was this something that you were aware of?

-I have. I mean, I have actually walked in a convenience store

where about three hooded klans was there,

and I purchased what I was purchasing

just like normal with them standing right there.

-Were you all that surprised

that there was another generation

of young, angry white supremacists

around -- around rome?

-Not at all.

-For mayor collins, georgia's legacy

of organized hate groups entered a new era.

In February 2020, a shadowy terrorist cell

operating out of rome's floyd county emerged.

It was called the base.

-The base originally described themselves

as a network of white supremacists

with the idea of getting training to various members.

They would allow members of other groups to join

as long as they kind of had this core commitment

to violent, extreme nazism.

This is entirely about weapons training.

It's about unit tactics.

It's about people getting together

and using firearms in the woods to clear buildings.

They're showing what their group is capable of

and how they hope to attract others.

-And why do they burn the american flag?

-They're burning the american flag really to show

that they're against the government.

This is about trying to get people to rise up

against the government.

This is trying to get the left and the right

to fight one another.

They wanted to show that they meant business.

-The group is led by new jersey native rinaldo nazzaro,

a pentagon contractor that, for a time,

was said to work with u.S. Special forces.

The base practiced accelerationism,

the idea that generating chaos through terrorism

could provoke the downfall of the u.S. Government

incite a race war,

and establish a white ethno-state.

The aim to catalyze the tenets of nazism

with their modern blend of combat tactics

and online organizing.

-I knew that the base was active in georgia for months,

but we didn't know exactly where.

Turns out a cell was using property

down this road here for paramilitary-style training.

So this was their jump from the online world

into the real world,

is meeting on this property down here.

-Chris joyner, a long-time local investigative reporter

with "the atlanta journal-constitution,"

has covered the klan for years

and most recently turned his attention to the base.

It's pretty crazy in this sort of serene,

peaceful country environment, just over that tree line...

-Mm-hmm. -...There was a neo-nazi

terrorist group training.

-Yeah, I mean, but, you know, people are spread out here.

There are a lot of hunters, you know,

people who have a lot of firearms

for their personal enjoyment.

So hearing gunfire wouldn't necessarily concern people.

I mean, they might hear it, you know,

during deer season anyway.

It's easy to have something like this in an area

where you're this remote.

-Right. If you're gonna do a paramilitary training camp,

this isn't the worst place to do it.

-No, it's not.

-This area definitely has a legacy of white supremacy.

How does the base fit into that?

-Well, there was certainly a lot of klan involvement

that goes all the way back into the '30s

that was prominent in north georgia up in the hills.

It's extremely white,

and it's long had a history of being impoverished.

A lot of that breeds sort of extremist sentiment

and still does today.

The base was sort of a natural fit for folks

who were looking to turn their white nationalist,

white supremacist sentiment into action,

which, of course, is what the base was all about.

-So something like the klan, they burn crosses and they --

-right. Their idea of terrorizing

is much different, right?

You see this a lot with accelerationist groups.

They almost identify more with al-qaeda

than they do with the klan.

You know, they see themselves much more

as sort of an insurgent army

than a political force, for instance.

The base wants to be an insurgency,

wants to be an outsider and violent group.

-In georgia, the fbi says these three men allegedly had plans

to overthrow the government while planning an attack

on members of the left-wing group antifa.

-Why do you think a young, white kid in nearby silver creek

would join a neo-nazi terrorist group like the base

and then carry out paramilitary training near your city?

-I can't really answer that,

'cause we have seen some acts across this great country

that we find ourselves living in that make you scratch your head

and wonder how, and why would this happen in my community?

This is one of those times.

-The base furnished a long list of enemies

from across the political spectrum.

And in January of 2020, georgia cell members were poised

for a planned assassination of an anti-fascist activist.

This is the first time he's speaking about it on camera

and has chosen to conceal his identity.

-The morning three gentlemen knocked on my door

and showed me a badge before I opened it,

and I -- you know, I took kind of a defensive position,

crossed my arms,

because fbi agents have shown up

to other activists' house to harass them.

But he said, "this is what's called a victim notification.

We just arrested three men who were planning to murder

you and your spouse."

-an undercover fbi agent infiltrated the group,

gaining the trust of the georgia cell

and logging its inner workings,

including the assassination plot.

The base had developed a web of cells

across the country, in maryland, michigan,

california, minnesota, among others,

all training for the race war.

Why did the base target you?

-I've been told that they picked me put me off of a dox list

of georgia anti-fascists,

just because I was closest.

-What were you thinking?

-It was a wide range of thoughts, like,

how did I miss a group -- a whole group -- in my backyard?

Who else was in danger because of that?

I raced through my memories so much,

trying to see if I could see them somewhere,

if I literally missed them in -- in my real day-to-day life.

All I could do was stare out my front window

and really memorize every single car that went by my house.

You're not a man for planning to bust someone's door down

and murder whoever is behind the door.

I was both thankful and mad that the fbi had to protect me.

-What kind of justice do you want to see done

to those three individuals in the base?

-I want them to be as alone as they wanted themselves to be

for the rest of their lives.

They think they're so special that other people need to die,

that other -- other other races need to serve theirs.

We need more people to wake the...Up

and shut these racists down.

It's well out of control,

and it's not something that anybody --

anybody can ignore anymore.

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♪♪

-one. [ gunshots ]

-modern hate group the base breathed new life

into long-standing fascist principles,

and for organizations like theirs,

maintaining a strong ideology often requires a role model.

♪♪

tell me, who is james mason?

-[ chuckles ]

I guess I'm a guy that's just out of step.

[ laughs ]

but when you consider all those who are in step,

I'm proud of it.

-James mason is the author of "siege,"

and insurgency manual he wrote in the early '80s.

"siege" is thought to be the ideological influence

of modern-day neo-nazi groups like the base.

Mason, a former kmart security guard,

quit school at age 14 to join the american nazi party

run by founder george lincoln rockwell.

When you were 14,

what initially drew you to the nazi party?

-Alienation...

And anger.

You know, everything coming down the pike just made me sick.

Then in -- we got into the '60s. And I got old enough to realize

something's going on here.

Something's gone wrong in this country.

We're under attack.

Our society, our culture, our people were under attack.

And I don't mean the cold war either.

I mean at home.

The danger's always been here, nowhere but here.

-"siege" preaches mass murder and war.

-I don't think so. -You don't think so?

-I don't think so. -I mean, how would you see it?

-I just -- just the unvarnished truth is all.

I don't tell anybody to go out and do anything

that I wouldn't do myself.

Like nathan hale said,

"I regret I have only one life to give for my country,"

so you better make it count.

-The base wasn't the only group

taking its violent cues from "siege."

mason's writings became the founding doctrine

of one organization in particular --

atomwaffen division.

German for "atomic weapons," the atomwaffen division,

or awd, was made up of angry, young, white men.

They created paramilitary training called hate camps

and used them to make slick isis-like propaganda videos.

At its height, atomwaffen was an 80-man crew

and has been linked to five deaths,

plans to bomb a nuclear facility and synagogues.

James mason would become its chief ideological influence.

-The atomwaffen division started in 2015,

originally came from a website called iron March,

which was an online web forum for fascists, neo-nazis,

and white supremacists of various types.

You have a core group of people

who are going to commit violent acts

to sort of bring about a second civil war

or bring about some sort of insurgency

and to create chaos, to create what they hope for

would be the downfall of the government,

the downfall of society.

-And the base -- are they similar to atomwaffen division?

-Very similar, but you could call them

a little bit more grown up in some ways.

When the base came along,

they decided that they were going to focus more on action

and sort of less on propaganda videos.

The base was a lot more secretive

about their activities.

-What is your role,

or what was your role within atomwaffen division?

-I didn't have a role.

-And were you ever involved with the atomwaffen division?

-Well, I met a lot of them.

They -- they did open up that website

for my stuff specifically.

And I did address their gathering in vegas last year.

But as far as going out on any night rides rides, hell no.

-Do you feel like you inspired the creation

of violent nazi terror groups

like the base and atomwaffen division?

-No, no.

No, no, these things were gonna happen

with or without me,

but I believe I've been able to give them some insight.

-But "siege" was this critical text in the formation

of atomwaffen division.

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

-I mean, this is the basis for the entire group.

-That's okay.

I simply put my thoughts down on paper

and got them out there.

As for activities, I don't know, and I don't want to know.

-Jews will not replace us!

Jews will not replace us!

-After charlottesville,

mainstream news and law-enforcement agencies

outed the identities of protesters

who openly walked with torches.

The exposure reinforced to groups like atomwaffen

that it was better to stay in the shadows

and plan your race war

without showing up on the 6:00 news.

-Charlottesville, for a group like atomwaffen,

shows that they're right, that it's not about

getting thousands or tens of thousands of people,

that what you need is a core group of people

who are going to try and create chaos

and move that along.

These aren't people who are just interested

in spreading propaganda.

They are people who are committed

to committing violent acts.

These groups might have been small,

but they're trying to seek out

the most radical of an already radical scene.

-I spoke to a man who was an atomwaffen cell leader,

who agreed to meet with me if his identity was protected

in order to openly discuss his experiences.

At 17, he says he joined the group

after becoming enamored with the world of national socialism,

or, in other words, nazism.

What was your role in awd?

What -- what kind of responsibilities

did that entail?

And you have -- you have firearms of your own?

Like, a lot?

Semi-automatic?

And would you say that's the same

for most of the members in awd?

And how were you drawn into this ideology, when you were 17?

Where did that come from?

Are you proud of what atomwaffen division achieved?

And why?

That skull mask you're wearing --

what's its significance?

So it's -- it's literally to -- to show that

you're willing to die for this cause.

♪♪

-thank you, everyone, for coming to class today.

Um...We have a lot of work to do,

so let's get started.

-Blaze was really unique.

-Today we've got nacho cheese, rice krispies, tortilla chips,

and daiya cheese.

Three, two...

Unh-unh, unh-unh. Mm!

-He was unique in the fact that his right and left brain

seemed to really be very high-powered.

He was super artistic and creative,

and he was also really good at math and chemistry.

I mean, he had a real mind for seeing patterns,

and chemistry was his thing.

I mean, he told me organic chemistry would be easy

because it was just memorizing patterns of molecules.

He was brilliant, kind, and caring,

and he was a great friend to people.

He was a good person.

He was a really, really good person.

-This is the last place that blaze bernstein was seen.

Today throughout the day, crews met here and headed out

looking for any sign of the teen.

There's still no trace of the 19-year-old

who hasn't been seen since Tuesday.

-He was found approximately a mile from our home

in a park that's adjacent

to the elementary school that he went to.

And the reason that they found him

is because it had rained the night before,

and it had displaced the soil

that had been put on top of his body.

-Blaze bernstein, a gay jewish teenager,

was stabbed to death more than 20 times.

Samuel woodward,

a former classmate and member of atomwaffen,

has been charged with his murder and a hate crime.

He's pleaded not guilty to both charges

and has been denied bail.

He's currently awaiting trial in california.

Had you ever heard of something called

the atomwaffen division before this?

-Before this? No.

I wish I had. I wish I knew.

I don't know if it would have changed anything that we did,

because I never thought that we could be the subject

of a -- of a crime like this.

I just never thought that

somebody would target one of my children.

-So, what about a family like the bernstein family,

that their child, blaze bernstein --

he's a young, jewish --

he was a young, jewish gay man in california?

He was stabbed repeatedly

by a follower of atomwaffen division.

-Yep. Sam woodward. -Sam woodward.

-I met sam woodward.

He came out here with a friend of his

soon after we linked up with atomwaffen division.

And, uh, I served him several nice dinners, some good drinks.

We had a lot of laughs.

And he struck me as being a -- a stand-up kind of guy.

But I promise you, if he had run any of this past me at the time,

I'd have said, "for god's sake, don't do it!"

there's a good man who threw himself away,

threw himself away.

That incident didn't do us a bit of good.

It did us harm if it did anything,

because the masses of people out there --

you want them to be able to at some level identify

with what you've just done rather than be turned off by it.

-What would you say to the bernstein family, though,

that has to deal with the fact that their child is -- is gone?

-I don't know what I would say. It's probably unfortunate.

But blaze bernstein -- well, being a jew,

I suppose that's one thing,

but as far as I would be concerned,

if he was any child of my own, I would say,

"well, he died the minute he came out as being gay."

-I wrote this to my son in 2004 at the beginning of first grade.

It was not a letter that I gave to him.

I kept it for him, like in a scrapbook.

I said, "you say such hilarious things

and some things that are just downright profound.

If there ever was a child

that could think outside of the box,

it is definitely you.

You asked me today what will happen to us when the sun dies."

-gideon, you -- had you ever read that?

-I don't remember ever reading it,

but, you know, when she read that sentence,

"you asked me today what will happen to us when the sun dies,"

was he talking about the sun, as in that in the sky,

or was he talking about what happens to us

when your son dies?

-Yeah, well...

-What would you say to people who think, you know,

atomwaffen division -- it's only 40 or 50 guys?

-You know, atomwaffen --

if it's only 40 or 50 people in the united states,

and if we're all okay with that,

well, are you also okay with the rise above movement

and the brotherhood and the aryan nation?

And -- and if that's okay with you,

if that's okay with society,

well, you know, just don't be surprised.

Don't be surprised when we have mass shootings

and when your kid goes missing in the middle of the night

'cause it's okay with you if there's only

40 or 50 of them running around.

-Should americans care more about these types of groups?

-Absolutely, because, you know,

when they're done coming for jewish people and gay people

and -- and black people and immigrants,

and then what's next?

Are you safe?

-We have certainly seen the rise

of a global neo-nazi, white nationalist movement

that is deserving of our attention.

Many people, experts, have said that this looks like

what al-qaeda looked like in the '80s and the '90s.

Let's not find ourselves asleep at the wheel

as we did in the run-up to 9/11.

-Congressman max rose, a veteran of the afghan war,

is at the forefront of seeking a foreign terrorist designation

for groups like atomwaffen division

and the base.

When you see something like atomwaffen division,

how do you feel about them?

-Scares the shit out of me.

I -- I wouldn't be focusing on this as much as I am

were they not so scary

and were they not given the ability

to completely operate under the radar,

to completely operate in the shadows.

-An fto, or foreign terrorist organization, designation

is how the government classifies organizations like al-qaeda.

With an fto applied to a group like atomwaffen,

members could be banned from travel

or have assets frozen,

while they or anyone assisting the group

or providing material support or resources

could be prosecuted as terrorists and conspirators.

-They're clearly mimicking the cell models

that isis and al-qaeda and other jihadist groups

have improved and perfected over the last 30 years.

You could execute a small-arms attack in 10 different cities,

all at the same time.

You could execute a coordinated explosives and small-arms attack

against health-care facilities during a pandemic.

You could attack law-enforcement officials

during a time of unprecedented racial and societal strife.

And just like the jihadist threat,

the far right movements, these terrorists,

are seeking to radicalize people online,

recruit them online,

and then migrate them to the encrypted apps.

-Do you think other politicians see it the same way,

as a global terrorist movement?

-They're starting to.

Look, we don't have to reinvent the wheel here, right?

We have the designations. We have the mechanisms.

We've largely, if not perfected this,

really professionalized this effort

over the last 20 years

in terms of our fight against jihadist terrorism.

-What the fto designation does

is it truly provides entities like the cia,

like the fbi, with the opportunity

to pursue the threat no matter where it is,

'cause this is a global threat akin to this jihadist threat.

We -- we're trying to act like it's not

every single step of the way we're doing this,

but it doesn't change the reality.

It's classic government, right?

Ignore, ignore, ignore

until the problem hits us.

♪♪

-so I'm about to meet arieana love.

She's the ex-girlfriend of a guy named ryan birchfield,

who's a former member of the base

who went to ukraine to fight with

a neo-nazi far-right militia in the war in donbass.

When did you first meet ryan?

-We actually met online on facebook

through some mutual friends.

That was September of 2018 when we first started dating,

but we had been talking that summer.

He was planning on going to

the marines' version of basic training

in February of 2019,

and then he decided not to follow through

with the army stuff.

-Where was the switch? Did he to tell you why --

why he didn't follow through?

-He was the kind of person

who would want to be deployed all the time,

always seeing front-line-type stuff,

and he felt like the u.S. Military

couldn't offer that to him.

-Did he ever show any signs of preparing to go fight

for a far-right militia in ukraine?

-No, he had mentioned visiting ukraine before

but hadn't really said that there was a particular reason.

-And he never told you why he went?

-He basically just told me that he was going into a war zone,

and that was it. -You didn't know exactly

what he was doing or where he was going?

-No, I knew a little bit based on

some articles from journalists that were published

in the past few months before that.

But that was it.

If I had known all of this was gonna come out of it,

I would have never, ever dated him.

-While the fbi can neither confirm or deny

an investigation into birchfield's actions,

rome's circuit assistant district attorney emily johnson

said in open court that birchfield fought

for an ultranationalist group in ukraine,

something he now denies.

But the base's interest in ukraine doesn't end

with birchfield.

Vice has obtained an exclusive audio conversation

with the base founder, rinaldo nazzaro,

strategizing about training in ukraine.

This is the first time this recording

has ever been made public.

Mollie saltskog is an intelligence analyst

at the soufan center, a world-renowned private firm

with connections to the fbi and cia

that tracks international terrorism.

Why ukraine? Why is it so important?

-Ukraine represents the only chance for white supremacists

to go and gain actual combat experience.

It's their conflict on the front lines of europe.

There's no substitute for the tacit knowledge transfer

of gaining actual combat experience

and being part of paramilitary training,

and not to mention the street cred that these guys get

from actively participating in conflict.

They went there. They were on the front lines.

At least 35 americans have gone over there

since the start of the conflict.

-So what do these guys do when they come back?

Atomwaffen members who've gone to ukraine and come back --

they've definitely intended to plan violent attacks

and threatened to plan violent attacks.

Luckily, they've been caught by the law enforcement.

But in other cases, like the swedish guys who went over

and trained with the russian imperial movement,

they came back home, and within a couple months

they had bombed asylum shelters in sweden.

-What have you heard in terms of washington, d.C., talk

around why they haven't designated

something like atomwaffen division

as a foreign terrorist organization?

-I think there's real concern

that a large part of the membership of atomwaffen

is made up of u.S. Nationals.

And that might have been true.

Atomwaffen started in the united states

and was founded by americans.

But as our recent research has shown,

it is a transnational movement that has affiliates

uk, europe, all the way to australia.

And atomwaffen has also successfully created a brand

that is almost equally identifiable to neo-nazis

the way isis is identifiable to a salafi jihadist.

So all of a sudden,

america's become an exporter of this ideology.

Left unchecked, these guys are gonna keep recruiting,

they're gonna keep training,

and they're gonna keep planning

and carrying out violent attacks.

-By early 2020, there were obvious signs

the fbi was taking atomwaffen and the base very seriously.

Director christopher wray testified to congress

that white-nationalist terrorism

was a real threat to national security.

-We elevated to the top-level priority

racially motivated violent extremism

so it's on the same footing

in terms of our national-threat branding

as isis and homegrown violent extremism.

-Rumors circulated that the state department

was designating atomwaffen as a terrorist organization.

In a sweeping crackdown, five members of awd

were arrested for crimes ranging from swatting

to death threats.

With the fbi closing in,

mason suddenly made an announcement.

Were you ever afraid of getting arrested

for your connections to atomwaffen division?

-It looked pretty bad in March

with this damned...

Who's that jew on staten island that had that bill proposal, uh,

to make us out to be foreign terrorists?

-Congressman max rose? -Yes.

I was a little worried about that.

And I thought that, uh, the only thing to do --

the only thing to do --

was announce the disbanding of the organization.

-Was this disbandment designed at avoiding that from happening?

-Oh, hell yes.

Hell yes.

-When atomwaffen, quote, unquote, "disbanded"...

-Yeah. -...What did you make of that?

-I thought it was not true.

Uh, I think that they wanted to avoid sanctions

from the state department.

It's a classic al-qaeda move.

They deliberately don't name an affiliate,

and al-qaeda name,

to avoid the brunt of the u.S. Counterterrorism apparatus.

And atomwaffen did the same.

-They disbanded and then reappeared under a new name.

-They disbanded, reappeared under a new name.

Atomwaffen leadership --

james mason is their spiritual leader, figurehead,

and they're back to recruiting.

-Not long before atomwaffen members scattered and regrouped,

the fbi also cornered other factions of the base.

In addition to the georgia cell,

they arrested three members of the maryland cell,

one that had plans to derail trains, murder police,

and shoot up a second amendment rally.

All told, eight members of the base were arrested

and are awaiting trial,

a crushing blow to the entire organization.

Yet both atomwaffen and the base were able to avoid

the foreign terrorist organization designation.

So the fbi undertook a pretty striking crackdown

of the base and atomwaffen.

Do you think they went far enough?

-No, it's not enough, because you're still applying

a law-enforcement mindset to a terrorist problem.

The fbi up until recently,

homeland security up until recently,

was unwilling to position this as the top threat that it is.

Now, we've seen over the last couple of months

that that has changed.

But our intelligence holes are still shocking

because we have not authorized the intelligence community

to actually do what it is supposed to do.

-Despite the many fbi arrests,

the "siege"-inspired accelerationist terror movement

carries on.

The former atomwaffen leader we spoke to says

the group has reinvented itself.

And while it's unclear how big or influential

the group actually is,

they call themselves the national socialist order.

Awd -- they were disbanded.

The base -- the fbi raided them.

Is the nso trying to fill the void they left behind?

I mean, what's the difference between the atomwaffen division

and the national socialist order?

So what is the national socialist order?

And when you say taking advantage,

what does that mean?

You know, right now there's a lot of social unrest.

There's a pandemic. There's rampant unemployment.

And you're choosing to refound and create this group now.

Is it designed at this political moment?

Tell me about the numbers. How do you recruit?

Do they find you, or do you find them?

What's the national socialist order's

relationship with james mason?

♪♪

-despite being haunted by an assassination plot,

this activist seems more motivated than ever

to make his political statements.

For him, the symbolism of a burning flag

is one way to steal power from a hate group.

-People who like this piece of fabric

really...Like it. [ chuckles ]

it just means the world to them

when they have one up at their house

or on their driveway or whatever,

flying off the back of their pickup truck.

-Do you think the people that fly those confederate flags,

like, truly understand the gravity of what it means?

Do you think it's just to promote the confederacy,

or is it something else?

-There are folks who think,

"this is because I'm southern," full-stop,

but that is such an enormous lack of empathy.

A lot of them, like, have that language loaded up,

"the heritage not hate,"

the, "well, we come from southern stock,"

all -- all this bullshit.

They all know it's like, "well, it's because

we're white and we're special, too."

this was on a flag pole...

-Kkk, confederacy, and then the base --

do you consider them kind of in the same --

in the same group?

-Kkk -- I know they still exist in this area,

but they don't seem to be actively trying to do anything.

The base -- people like this -- this neo-nazi stuff

is, like, organizing and being accelerationists

and trying to get things stirring

to where more violence can happen.

-Then do you see it as, like, the next generation of klan?

-Yeah, they're not gonna turn to the kkk.

They're gonna turn toward the base, league of the south,

atomwaffen, whatever new name they come up with.

♪♪

-when it come to violence and hatred

and things of that nature,

we have a zero tolerance for it around here,

and you won't find it in the wide open

as far as being discussed in any manner in this county.

Systemic racism -- the things that

are sort of blind and hidden

and have came about over the time.

You got to do your part

as a citizen to respect your fellow man

and to treat him like you like to be treated.

-For the future, what do you see?

Are you concerned that this is gonna turn more violent?

-There's certainly the potential.

There are certainly individuals who are part of these groups.

There are other groups that are looking

to kind of take on this mantle

and that are looking to exploit the situation,

and especially leading into the election.

Currently, the pandemic, mass unemployment,

protests against racial injustice in this country --

I mean, these are opportunities for these groups to exploit

and either try and recruit or try and push the situation

towards something that they think benefits them.

-What do you say to people who would say

not to worry about the base or the atomwaffen division?

-Oh, I'd say that it's, you know --

it's really an old complaint.

And they said it about the klan,

and they're saying it now about the base.

I mean, I wouldn't want to lead readers to believe

that there is an army of base members out there.

What I do want them to understand is

a small, violent group dug into our own community,

plotting against other people in our community

is a significant problem, and it deserves coverage.

It deserves serious coverage.

♪♪

-in jewish tradition, when you visit a grave site,

it's traditional to just leave, like, a little pebble or stone,

that's, like, just a plain rock to show that you've been there,

to show that you've paid respect.

When blaze was killed and everybody knew

that it was at this park,

they had a big candlelight vigil,

and so people started leaving rocks

around all of the trees here.

And then they started painting them

and creating, like, all these beautiful rocks.

And it all evolved from that to the city of lake forest

offering to put a memorial together for us.

So, you know, you're able to turn something so horrific

into at least having some semblance of beauty

to be able to come to pay your respects and just to

try to give you some perspective.

-This one's from japan.

-Limerick, pennsylvania.

Chattanooga, tennessee.

New york city.

Somewhere around here,

he was buried in a shallow grave.

So to be this close and be able to be composed

and, like, come here and look at this

and think about, how many rocks are here?

How many rocks do you think are here?

-Thousands. -500, 1,000? Okay.

-Just rocks, you know?

It's just something really simple

that can become meaningful.

If anything good can come from this,

I will make sure that it does.

It happened because we let it happen.

We became desensitized to violence and hate,

and that has to stop.

♪♪

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