Show Page 10 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Thursday August 12 1999 'JewIshlComniunltyCentershootinq Furrow a true believer’ 6 By Dennis B Roddy Pittsburgh Post-Gazet- ered subhuman without souls The imminence of racial war is te Buford O Furrow accused of spraying a Los Angeles Jewish community center with gunfire first wandered into the world of the Aryan race-obsess- ed Nations in August 1991 Floyd Cochran remembered letting him through the gate at the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake Idaho “He was a true believer want- ed to be around the 'true Israelites' " Cochran recalled Furrow was like the Aryan Nations and its leader Richard Butler a follower of a religion known as Christian Identity Identity as its followers prefer to call it holds that white Europeans are the true descendants of the Biblical Israelites It holds AP photo that Jews are the Satanic dants of Cain who they created when Eve mated devil Black people are Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr center worked as a security guard at the Aryan Nations National Congress at the Aryan Compound in Haydnn Lake Idaho This photo was taken on July 2t 1995 Others in the picture are unidentified descen- say was with the consid- - often discussed Those beliefs hardened in an environment rich in conspiracy theories and guided by ideo- logues who advocate seemingly random acts that cannot be traced to identifiable groups of conspirators spoke in gunfire three days ago The shots were taken by a man who was by all accounts largely anonymous even to leading figures in the racist movement a lover of country music a man with no special skill save the ability to put his anger into action in one irreversible moment “He hung around for a few weeks" said Cochran who said Furrow like most new recruits was ushered in to meet Butler the Aryan Nations' leader “He would walk around talking about how white it was in Northern Idaho and if we could only get more white people to move in to Northern Idaho how we could take over" Cochran who left the Aryan Nations in the early 1990s renounced racism and now lives in Pennsylvania said Furrow had a fixation on Jews and race — not unusual for members of a religion based on north-centr- al white supremacy Furrow Cochran said would discuss “the normal stuff about what would happen if white America didn't wake up and how the Jews run the media” Jonn Lunsford an official with the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity based in Seattle said Furrow later became a member of the security detail at Aryan Nations Police who searched a van used by Furrow said they found a copy of "War Cycles Peace Cycles” a book by Richard Kelly Hoskins a retired Virginia 1 See RACE on Page 11 Experts: Hate groups increase instability By Sally Kalson Pittsburgh Post-Gazett- e It's tempting to explain away the Buford Furrows of the wot Id as unstable characters pushed over the edge hv the ideologv of hale Tempting hut mistaken and politically dangerous according to an expert who's been study ing hale groups for 20 years In reality she said the cause and effect often works the other way around “These people are not all nuts when they join" said Kathleen Blee a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh who has published one hook about the Ku Klux Klan and is completing another on the while supremacy movement including nco-Nuand Christian Identity “There are a lot of perfectly stable middle-clas- s educated psychologically healthy people who are nice to their kids and dogs who get attracted to hale groups and become more and more unstable over lime as a consequence of being in the movement" Blee said "The longer they're in the further their ideas and behavior move from the mainstream These ideas actually make them unstable" For example Blee said a lot of new adherents don't have any particular ideas before they join “The hate groups teach them that Jews among others are enemies who manipulate (lie world in a conspiratorial fashion Iliey come to develop a conspiratorial view of the world w Inch is a psychologically abnormal way of thinking But it's a consequence of being in the group not a is ic r" It's also a very luud pattern to break she added “Once you believe in conspiracy everything around you reinforces it" It is politically dangerous to dismiss people like Furrow as deranged because that view ignores the way hatred spreads through society corrupting everything it touches “Were the German people all insane before Hitler came to power and he just happened to walk in?" Blee asked rhetorically “I don't think so Germans adopted delusional beliefs under Hiller hut it doesn't mean they were all delusional before he came along" Incidents like Furrow's rampage at a Jewish community center in Ios Angeles demonstrate a number of disturbing things about the state of contemporary hate groups she said For one thing the size and locution of the various movements arc no longer relevant to predicting the consequences “One person can do a tremendous amount of damage and their targets aren't necessarily located w here the groups arc centered" is So it mutters little that the and Christian Identity movements have settled primarily in the Pacific Northwest or that the Klan is concentrated mostly in the South and the Ozarks “Some of these groups are into spectacular events conducted in a suicidal way" Blee said pointing to Benjamin Nathaniel Smith the hcav ily armed gunman who killed himself during a struggle w ith police in curly July after tarJews blacks and Asians in geting a series of drivc-h- y shootings in Indiana and Illinois He was an iidhercnt of the extremist World Church of the Creator “It's very hard to defend against the combination of no effective gun laws and people whose racial and political commitment is apocalyptic and suicidal" Blee said Y2K FREE to Y°tt ? Hours! Washer Mon-F- & 86 ri Dryer Sat 104 Smetf 4 Appliance Service and Sales “Mmihilk- amahcrc” - Jnu-lrn- MV I 7X2-27II- Six in hrautiful duwnuiwn Bcnsun JJT“ 4271 North 32(X) West 4 mi West III litfun Aiipnn I iih Nonhiil IktiMwChtinh I neo-Naz- Make this year's shopping a Back-to-Scho- ol Fun Adventure! Hundreds of stores are waiting for yon in Salt Lake City and Provo! Choose From: Crossroads Plaza ZCMI Center Mall Itolley Square South Towne Mall University Mall Provo Towne Center the Shops at Riverwoods End your adventure with a good nights sleep Excellent accommodations await you along with a 15 DISCOUNT at one of the following: r Econo DAYS INN Lodge Provo Salt Lake City Hoith Salt Lake Woods (host AS Sandy Provo Springville Shop ai stow Mommy through Row 10 ut-f- l ml styles available in Dowtrowi no ZCMI Wobihu: Satuuw 10 ml-- 7 ml mow: In Salt but 579-66ascwME M Utah wo n the US feem Sait Lake 0roe by VH n m On tomt t St Geow: Mommt ihkuh Smimw 10 jul 6 Cun Suuw a wumUm I: ( POORC |