Nazis in North Dakota?
Sounds like the plot for a bad B-grade movie, doesn't it?
Except that it is true.
It seems that a particularly loathsome white supremacist/neo-Nazi by the name of Craig Paul Cobb had bought up some land in the tiny North Dakota town of Leith (population 19) with the grandiose idea of setting up his own little Third Reich.
Cobb himself lives in a small house in Leith and residents knew he was buying up other lots last year. It wasn't until the past few days that they learned of his scheme to turn Leith into a white nationalists' community, where people could fly Nazi flags and other racial banners, take over the city through elections and write their own laws.
So, what happened when the good folks of Leith woke up one day to learn of this nefarious plot?
Mayor Ryan Schock said his phone has been "ringing off the hook" since the Tribune broke the story Wednesday night, with many of the calls from area residents wanting to know what's going on.
"Everybody’s wound up," the mayor said.
Indeed.
Unfortunately, the idea of creating a white enclave where goose-stepping and swastika wearing can proceed unmolested is not a new idea. Cobb, however, had made it further along in his vision for a 1,000 year Reich than others and might have succeeded if not for those meddling reporters at the Bismarck Tribune and those guys down in Alabama at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"He's one of the most vicious neo-Nazi activists around," Potok said.
The fact that Cobb was able to buy so much property in Leith before anyone realized what he represents is the most successful attempt so far to create an all-white enclave, Potok said.
Cobb is trying to turn Leith into a Pioneer Little Europe, an all-white vision that’s been around since 2001, Potok said.
He said others have tried to create white enclaves — notably April Gaebe's attempt in Kalispell, Mont. — but have not gotten nearly as far as Cobb has gotten in Leith.
"This is much further advanced than anything we've seen," Potok said.
How far along had he gotten? To the point where
he was advertising for fellow fascist wannabes to join him.
In the posting, threaded through the white supremacist Vanguard News website, he writes: “A few well know (sic) WN (White Nationalists) know of this plan; fewer still know the exact place. Suffice to say, you could also make it into the Bakken area to go for a job there too. I want people to move now and quietly get going here without letting the cat out of the bag.”
Bakken is a reference to the oil-rich Bakken Formation of western North Dakota.
He had even managed to find a few takers, it would seem:
County records show Cobb has transferred ownership of two lots -- one to Tom Metzger, a former grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in California, which founded the White Aryan Resistance, and another to Alex Linder, originator of the Vanguard News Network, a white supremacist website.
Another 15 or 20 racists and Mr. Cobb might have gotten himself elected Fuehrer of Leith.
Unfortunately for Mr. Cobb, the folks at SPLC monitor such postings and one day a writer for Hatewatch magazine (published by the SPLC) showed up to inform the mayor of the scheme.