Warsaw Listed On National Hate Map For White Aryan Resistance
WARSAW — Warsaw was named as one of 26 locations in Indiana to headquarter hate groups. While this may not be news to those familiar with Warsaw’s history, it does give the nation a hateful view of the town. The hate map was created by Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.
Warsaw is listed as the headquarters of the White Aryan Resistance, founded by Warsaw resident Tom Metzger. According to SPLC, Metzger is one of the most notorious living white supremacists in the United States. He is a former California grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who, in the mid-1980s, founded WAR.
WAR’s website confirms that the group is headquartered in Warsaw. The website also goes on to identify itself as “an educational repository on the benefits of racial separation, highlighting the dangers of multiculturalism and promoting racial identity and a territorial imperative.”
Along with WAR being headquartered in Warsaw, it is known that several members of the Aryan Brotherhood reside in Kosciusko County. In 2016, Mike Cox, former gang specialist for Warsaw Police Department and past president of the Midwest Gang Investigators Association, confirmed the existence to Ink Free News.
“We have had a few AB members that have lived in this area,” said Cox in a previous interview. “When I found out about one, I would check with the prison system. I recall three that I checked and confirmed as members of AB who lived in or outside the city in Kosciusko County.”
Kevin Lee Bronson, who is currently awaiting a jury trial for three counts of corrupt business influence, C felonies and seven counts of intimidation, D felonies in Kosciusko County has connections with the Aryan Brotherhood. He is reported to have told police he is in the top seven in control of the Aryan Brotherhood.
A Youtube video also shows Bronson admitting to joining a “gang,” the Aryan Brotherhood, in prison and remaining a member for over 20 years. In the video, he claims to have left the brotherhood in July 2009.
Other close locations listed on the hate map include South Bend for Radical Traditional Catholicism, Kokomo and Auburn for the Ku Klux Klan and Roanoke for White Nationalist.
The information also shows the number of hate groups in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2016. The SPLC found that the number of hate groups operating in 2016 rose to 917 – up from 892 in 2015. The number is 101 shy of the all-time record set in 2011, but high by historic standards.