By now we're all becoming familiar with the life story of Nikolas Cruz. A troubled teen that was adopted very early in life. His adopted father died 14 years ago and mother just 4 months ago from complications of flu. Cruz was expelled from school and had a fascination with guns and torturing animals. But now, we're slowly learning a darker side of his character...an overtly racist, gay hating thug that had a severe man crush with Donald Trump.
The day after the shooting we learned that Cruz had joined a white nationalist group called the Republic of Florida. The groups leader, Jordan Jereb claimed Cruz carpooled with others from south Florida to participate in miltia training in north Florida. From ADL:
After self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum 4chan that Cruz had also been a member, the Anti-Defamation League spoke with an ROF member who identified himself as Jordan Jereb.
Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. In 2016, he was arrested on charges of threatening a staffer in the office of Florida Governor Rick Scott because he was allegedly angry at the staffer’s son.
Jereb said that Cruz was associated with ROF, having been “brought up” by another member. Jereb also claimed that Cruz had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida.
ROF has members in north and south Florida. The alt right white supremacist group borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement (not itself a white supremacist movement). ROF describes itself as a “white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics” and seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida. Most ROF members are young and the group itself is only a few years old.
Jereb quickly walked that back a few hours later saying he lied and was trolling the media. But does that make it untrue? Authorities are continuing to investigate but as you read later on, it seems to line up with Cruz's political views. And while the ROF is a relatively new group, its views are rooted in neonazi propaganda. Again from ADL:
What we know about ROF (the Republic of Florida):
- The Republic of Florida (ROF), also known as the ROF Militia, is a white supremacist group that started in 2014, adopting many concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement (which itself is not part of the white supremacist movement), including paramilitary structures, paramilitary trainings, and uniforms. Members even have a camouflage painted vehicle.
- The leader of the group is Jordan Jereb, based in Tallahassee; the group also has members in South Florida, where Chris Cedeno seems to be one of the leading figure.
- Group members have had contacts and associations with a variety of other white supremacist groups, including the Vinlanders Social Club, the League of the South, and Atomwaffen
- As the alt right grew more well known, the ROF adopted a number of alt right concepts and language and now can be considered an alt right-style white supremacist group. It openly identifies as “identitarian.”
- It seeks to create a “white ethnostate” out of Florida.
- The group does not have a significant track record of violence, though that may be due more to its newness than anything else. Members have used violent language (and Jereb) was arrested in 2016 for threatening a staffer in the governor’s office. In 2014, before he founded ROF, Jereb said on social media that “the traitors of my country (Florida) will be hung in our courts.”
- At least some members of the Republic of Florida appear to have attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.
Some of the "many fine" people of the alt right according to our president. Some had participated at Charlottesville.
And the picture used on the headline of this diary has been labeled a fake by right wing media. However, former students, the sheriff's department, and the spokesperson for instagram all confirm the account belonged to Cruz.
Students who knew Cruz confirmed to the Miami Herald that the “cruz_nikolas” Instagram page was authentic; the web site Heavy.com reported that it had verified the “nikolascruzmakarov” page.
From Instagram spokesperson:
This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the people who have been affected. There is absolutely no place on our platforms for people who commit such horrendous acts. We have found and immediately deleted the shooter’s accounts on Facebook and instagram.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel also seemed to confirm that the “nikolascruzmakarov” account was authentic when he said that Cruz had posted disturbing photographs of dead lizards to social media:
So today we now hear from CNN Cruz belonged to a chat group where he frequently expressed homophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic views.
CNN, investigating comments the shooter may have left on a now-deleted YouTube channel, was added to the private Instagram group by one of the active members in it. The responding group members, who appear to be younger than 18, have refused to confirm their identities to CNN on or off the record.
When asked for comment or whether they knew about the private chat group, the FBI directed CNN to the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Most of the conversation in the group since Cruz joined around August 2017 is between six people -- including Cruz.
"I hate jews, ni**ers, immigrants"
Racism was a constant theme in the chat group, which was called "Murica (American flag emoji) (eagle emoji) great" -- a name it was given by Cruz.
The hatred he and others in the group espoused met little resistance from its active members. In one part of the group chat, Cruz wrote that he hated, "jews, ni**ers, immigrants."
He talked about killing Mexicans, keeping black people in chains and cutting their necks. The statements were not made in jest.
There are hundreds of racist messages, racist memes and racist Instagram videos posted in the group.
Cruz was so enamored with Trump and making 'merica great again he wrote the president a letter and claimed he got a response back from the white house. So far, the white house hasn't responded to CNNs request for the letter.
All this disgusting information points to a disturbed youth that espoused the hatred and bigoted thoughts of our president. While he didn't pull the trigger, Trump is contributing to the angry, gun-toting, white male hatred of others and sooner or later his bigoted angry rhetoric will be directly responsible for one of his demented followers killing of innocents.
CNN article