American neo-Nazi gets seven years in prison for threatening activists and journalists

A former leader of Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group, has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the state of Washington in the USA: Kaleb Cole, age 25, was found guilty of playing a role in a plot to intimidate journalists and others who work against antisemitism, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday, 11 January 2022. In January 2021, along with three other members of the group, Cole produced posters featuring Nazi symbolsim and the slogans “You have been visited by your local Nazis” or “Your actions have consequences”. 

The group glued the posters to apartment buildings and houses inhabited by several journalists, frequently those of Jewish or other minority origins, as well as several activists’ residences. “Kaleb Cole helped lead a violent, nationwide neo-Nazi group,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. 

“He repeatedly promoted violence, stockpiled weapons, and organized ‘hate camps’,” Brown described Cole’s crimes. Agence-France Presse (AFP) reports that during the autumn portion of his trial, victims described how, because of the attacks, they either moved out of their homes, or had to install security systems, or began carrying firearms, or stopped working for the media. 

Cole’s three accomplices confessed and were given significantly reduced sentences. One was even released without trial by the court because as a transgender man who had been hiding his identity from his companions, the court believed his life was already complicated enough and decided to be lenient, the AFP reports.