By: Daniel Nardini
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested ten people of an extremist right wing group called the American Front for possible attacks against immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities. The leader of this group, Marcus Faella, had intended to cause an attack in St. Cloud, Florida, as a backdrop incident to “get news publicity and gain more recruits.” Fortunately, the FBI had an informer in the American Front, and the FBI acted on this information before this whole thing could have exploded. Faella had intended to start a “race war” from this incident, and other acts which can only be construed as terrorist. This comes as no surprise given the fact that the American Front had training grounds with semi-automatic weapons, in martial arts, and in hand-to-hand combat. None of this sounds like a mere hobby!
Clearly to the informant, and the FBI, the American Front intended to commit violence on a big scale. It was their purpose to exploit the current divisions within a number of Florida communities divided between race and ethnic groups. The danger of this is very real since the controversy over the Trayvon Martin case. The American Front clearly was trying to exploit the bitter divisions between African Americans on the one hand and white non-Hispanics and even Latinos on the other. If their plan had gone ahead, and if U.S. law enforcement authorities had no idea what was going to happen or had not acted fast enough, hundreds of lives may have been lost. This is how big and how dangerous the situation was.
What is important is that despite the bitter divisions that still exist in many communities, and some distrust that is there, most people do not want to start a series of violent acts that could inflame the situation even further since the Trayvon Martin controversy. Not so long ago in American history, an incident like this would have started massive race riots that would have stirred hundreds, even thousands of people, to brutal and depraved acts of violence engulfing whole neighborhoods. There is no question that is exactly what these people in the American Front were trying to do. As if it is not bad enough that such neo-nazi, Klan-type and anti-immigrant organizations are spilling their racist trash, now they feel that only violence will promote their cause. It is this that we must all be vigilant about.
“Race War” Averted
By: Daniel Nardini
Clearly to the informant, and the FBI, the American Front intended to commit violence on a big scale. It was their purpose to exploit the current divisions within a number of Florida communities divided between race and ethnic groups. The danger of this is very real since the controversy over the Trayvon Martin case. The American Front clearly was trying to exploit the bitter divisions between African Americans on the one hand and white non-Hispanics and even Latinos on the other. If their plan had gone ahead, and if U.S. law enforcement authorities had no idea what was going to happen or had not acted fast enough, hundreds of lives may have been lost. This is how big and how dangerous the situation was.
What is important is that despite the bitter divisions that still exist in many communities, and some distrust that is there, most people do not want to start a series of violent acts that could inflame the situation even further since the Trayvon Martin controversy. Not so long ago in American history, an incident like this would have started massive race riots that would have stirred hundreds, even thousands of people, to brutal and depraved acts of violence engulfing whole neighborhoods. There is no question that is exactly what these people in the American Front were trying to do. As if it is not bad enough that such neo-nazi, Klan-type and anti-immigrant organizations are spilling their racist trash, now they feel that only violence will promote their cause. It is this that we must all be vigilant about.