Aryan Brotherhood

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Aryan Brotherhood ( English for "Aryan Brotherhood"), also called The Brand, Alice Baker or One-Two, abbreviated AB , is a racist and neo-Nazi American gang that was founded in 1967 in San Quentin State Prison , California . The Aryan Brotherhood now exists in many prisons in the United States and has 15,000 members inside and outside the penal system. According to the FBI, the gang is responsible for 18% of murders in prisons, even though less than 0.1% of inmates are members.

The Aryan Brotherhood has an external network of ex-inmates that supports the prison inmates' criminal business. These are primarily the smuggling of drugs  - mainly methamphetamine and marijuana  - and money into prisons. In addition, members of the Aryan Brotherhood have already been convicted of robberies and murders , some murders being carried out on behalf of the gang.

Appearance

Tattooed logo of the Aryan Brotherhood with swastika and SS runes

The members use as tattoos like icons from the era of National Socialism in Germany, from the neo-Nazi scene and national symbols of their - often alleged - European countries of origin. These include a clover leaf, the swastika , the Siegrunen of the SS , the German Reichsadler from 1933 to 1945, the Celtic cross used as the White Power symbol , the number 88 as an abbreviation for Heil Hitler and other symbols . The real sign of the Aryan Brotherhood is the shamrock , plus the letters AB and the number 666 . Since the prison management usually determines gang affiliation with tattoos, the AB sometimes encrypts or even removes the symbols.

The appearance of the gang members changed over the years from the typical rocker exterior to shaved heads with walrus schnauzers. A certain hairstyle is not required to become a member.

history

The California State Prison, San Quentin

The Aryan Brotherhood was founded in 1967 in San Quentin State Prison, California, when members of the Blue Bird Gang , an association of predominantly Irish-born petty criminal rockers that had existed since the 1950s, sought to unite all white prison inmates in order to stand up to the majority of black and white to fight back Latin American gangs. At first they called themselves Diamond Tooth Gang (" Diamond Tooth Gang ") and Nazi Gang and quickly became a catchment area for white petty and serious criminals who were threatened by gangs of other races . Candidates for membership were required to swear the Aryan Brotherhood's blood oath:

An Aryan brother is without a care
He walks where the weak and heartless won't dare
For an Aryan brother, death holds no fear
Vengeance will be his, through his brothers still here
“An Aryan brother has no worries
He goes where the weak and heartless do not dare to go
For an Aryan brother, there is no fear of death
Vengeance will be his, through his brothers who live on "

During the 1970s, when the first members of the Aryan Brotherhood were released from prison, outside support skyrocketed the Aryan Brotherhood's power. They were provided with drugs and money by their external members and participated in the conflicts of the black and Latin American gangs. These fights, which sometimes resulted in numerous deaths, were mostly about the domination of drug trafficking within the prison. Guards were also killed in the process.

Although the individual gangs were antagonistic to one another, if they seriously threatened the conduct of business they did business with one another and let the conflict rest. The Aryan Brotherhood maintains good and sometimes even friendly relations with the Mexican gang La Eme . This went so far that Mexicans also killed prisoners who spoke derogatory about the AB. Also, contrary to the symbols and the outwardly expressed basic attitude, not all members of the Aryan Brotherhood are actually " Aryans " in the National Socialist sense .

In the 1980s, the Aryan Brotherhood spanned a network across the States, with individual departments, so-called chapters , from California to Colorado and Missouri to New York . The non-imprisoned members of the AB robbed armored money transports, forged money and were responsible for numerous murders, often on behalf of the imprisoned gang members who wanted to combat the external sources of their internal competition. The AB restructured itself: They split into two groups, one for inmates in federal prisons , the other for state prisons. From then on, the Aryan Brotherhood was headed by a committee of three .

In the 1980s, attempts by the Aryan Nations to recruit members from the ranks of the Aryan Brotherhood also began. However, this met with resistance from many other groups who propagated " white supremacy ". Former Aryan Brotherhood members who joined such groups were later convicted of murders for racist motives. The most sensational case happened in Jasper, Texas , in 1998 , when three former inmates hooked the African American James Byrd Jr. to the back of their pickup truck and dragged it over three miles to death. The trial revealed that the killers had been members of the Aryan Brotherhood while in prison.

In 2000, the FBI found that the Aryan Brotherhood was becoming increasingly involved in the illegal explosives trade. They uncovered plans to blow up federal facilities, plant car bombs, and mail bombs .

various

In 1973, Charles Manson, convicted of murder as a co-conspirator, wanted to join the Aryan Brotherhood, but was turned down, according to one of his confidants, because he had refused to kill a black man.

In the films Blood in, Blood out - Konsporen auf Leben und Tod (1993), American History X (1998), The Butterfly Effect (2004), Felon (2008), Shot Caller (2017) as well as in the series Sons of Anarchy and Oz - Hell behind bars , the Aryan Brotherhood plays an important role.

Well-known members of the right-wing extremist scene made several attempts to set up German-speaking groups under the name Aryan Brotherhood as a contact point for regional neo-Nazis.

literature

  • Dennis Bauers: Crime Land. The Lexicon of the Gang World. Books On Demand 2010, ISBN 978-3-8423-2745-0
  • Dennis Bauers and Carl Johnson: Alice Baker. My life in the Aryan Brotherhood. Books On Demand 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-6954-2
  • Dennis Bauers and Carl “Cowboy” Johnson: Because you can only kill me once. Report from a strange world. Drug deal and contract murder, the everyday madness in jail and my survival. Books On Demand 2013, ISBN 978-3-8482-8538-9

Web links

Commons : Aryan Brotherhood  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laura Coverson: Aryan Brotherhood Tried for 40 Years of Prison Mayhem ; ABC News. March 15, 2006. Retrieved April 17, 2008
  2. ↑ Matthew Duersten: Who'll Stop the Reign? LA Weekly . February 3, 2005. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
  3. ↑ David Holthouse: Smashing the Shamrock ; in: Southern Poverty Law Center: Intelligence Report ; Fall 2005, Issue 119; accessed November 13, 2010.
  4. ↑ David Holthouse: Smashing the Shamrock ( Memento of 7 December 2008 at the Internet Archive ); Southern Poverty Law Center Herbst 2005, p. 2: “In 1973, no less a reputed mad-dog killer than Charles Manson was rejected by the Aryan Brotherhood when he asked to join but then refused to murder for skin color alone. 'The AB want Manson to kill a black because black is black', Manson's lieutenant Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme wrote in a letter. 'He will not do this and they are against him.' "Retrieved July 2, 2008
  5. ↑ Source: Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster (eds.) (2009): Strategies of the extreme right: Backgrounds - Analyzes - Answers. P. 554