Violent Clashes Erupt in Sacramento Between White Nationalists and Antifascists
Matthew Heimbach's Traditionalist Workers Party was confronted by antifascist organizations during a protest in Sacramento, Calif., that quickly turned violent.听
A violent confrontation between members of the white nationalist Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), members of the Golden State Skins (GSS), and anti-fascist counter-protesters left five hospitalized in Sacramento, Ca., on Sunday.
The conditions of those hospitalized ranged from good to critical according to Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The scheduled protest, for which TWP had secured a permit聽at the state Capitol,聽immediately turned into a brawl.听According to a preannouncement posted on the website of the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN), the parent organization of TWP, the protest was 鈥渁gainst globalization and in defense of the right of free expression.鈥�
Heimbach tweeted out photos of TWP and GSS skin members wearing masks and carrying shields emblazoned with racist iconography in advance of the event.
鈥淪ome media are reporting that our men targeted minorities in our self defense,鈥� wrote a TWP representative on the group's Facebook page. 鈥淭his is categorically false. The left started the fight and we finished it, defending our right to political expression. We will not be intimidated. We will not back down.鈥�
An estimated 30 TWP and GSS protestors were met by nearly 400 counter聽protestors, according to George Granada, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol鈥檚 Capital Protection Section.听鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there was any verbal exchange, just full on fight,鈥� Granada told the Los Angeles Times.听
Neither Matthew Heimbach, Chairman of TWP, nor Matt Parrott, Vice Chairman, were present for Sunday鈥檚 rally. The violence is hardly new for the organization or its leadership though.
Before the event, Heimbach posted images on Twitter reading, 鈥淲e won鈥檛 bow down to leftist scum.鈥� After the event, he was quoted on Red Ice Radio, a racist online radio broadcast, 鈥淭hey got 1 of ours, but we got 6 of them. 6 Antifa [anti-fascists] on the way to the hospital.鈥�
Heimbach was at the center of another as recently as April of this year after he was identified at a Donald Trump rally in Louisville, Ky., pushing and screaming at a black University of Louisville student who was protesting the event. Writing about the incident afterwards, Heimbach stated, 鈥淲hite Americans are getting fed up and they鈥檙e learning that they must either push back or be pushed down.鈥�
Little more than a year earlier, while protesting an annual S---walk protest at the University of Indiana, Heimbach, an Orthodox Christian, was photographed using the Orthodox cross as a weapon.
This was only one of several incidents where Heimbach and members of TYN were involved in violent conflicts in Bloomington.
TWP, a relatively new political wing for the larger TYN, bills itself as 鈥淎merica鈥檚 first political party created by and for working families.鈥� The organization鈥檚 four major tenets are 鈥渆thnic consciousness,鈥� 鈥渢raditionalism,鈥� 鈥渓ocalism,鈥� and 鈥渆thnopluralism,鈥� all purposely obscured, but well-worn, white nationalist talking points in service of the creation of an all-white ethnostate.
TYN was formed in 2013, following Heimbach鈥檚 graduation from Towson University, where he first formed two other white nationalist student groups: a chapter of Youth for Western Civilization in 2011 and a White Student Union in 2012. Both organizations stirred controversy on the Towson campus, particularly when Heimbach invited Jared Taylor, a well-known white nationalist who founded American Renaissance, to speak on campus, and when the group chalked messages like 鈥渨hite pride鈥� and 鈥渨hite guilt is over鈥� around the college鈥檚 campus in the middle of the night.
Taking a big tent approach to organization, Heimbach wasted little time ingratiating himself with as many聽white supremacists as he could following his graduation.听A mere four months after he graduated, he appeared in a with members from both the Aryan Terror Brigade, a racist skinhead group, and the Imperial Klans of America, a Kentucky based Ku Klux Klan organization that was sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2008 for severely beating a Latino teenager at the Meade County Fair in Bradenburg, Ky.
A month later, Heimbach spoke at a rally held by the National Socialist Movement in Kansas City, Mo. He has also repeatedly appeared at and organized events with Keystone United in Pennsylvania.
Following the event, members of the Alt-Right rushed to Heimbach鈥檚 defense, including Richard Spencer of the white nationalist Radix Journal, who banned Heimbach from the group鈥檚 most recent gathering.
鈥淚 stand in solidarity with those who freely assembled and peacefully expressed themselves today in #Sacramento,鈥� Spencer wrote. 鈥�#Sacramento reminds us of the kind of people who make up 鈥渁nti-fascism鈥� and what they are willing to do to silence their enemies.鈥�
