How Concerned Citizens Ran a Neo-Nazi Out of Rural Maine

November 3, 2024 2:10 PM

The Crash of the Hammer by Mira Ptacin is a long article about how a handful of Mainers shone the light on a noxious Nazi who’d bought property in their state, and ran him out of town, focusing on anti-fascist podcaster Crash Barry. That wasn’t an isolated incident because, as reported last year by Eric Russell and John Terhune for the Portland Press-Herald, he wasn’t the only fascist to move recently to the Pine Tree State.
posted by Kattullus (8 comments total)

"frequently posting photos and uploading videos to Telegram...But unbeknownst to Hammer, he was being followed. A longtime Mainer was determined to wipe the smirk off the neo-Nazi’s face."
😶
when building a secret strength through Joy woodland compound it might be advisable to keep a low profile on social media. Not quite sure if naivety nor stupidity has anything to do with unbeknownst.

Michigan was late coming into the Union shortly after it's small war with Ohio.This the early unwritten articles of peninsula etiquette....section 2, Article 1 'when going to Maine remember you're in Maine' Article 4, it is not wise to argue with a person from Massachusetts. article 17 when in Vermont always be kind, always. Article 19, pass swiftly through New Jersey unless on business involving a non-religious matters.

I think I told the story of my uncle's friend who served in the Italian army, the German army, and as an advisor to American army all in the same War. a very Stout fellow came from northern Italy and was already in the Alpini, The Tridentina before the war broke out He survived Monte Casino. Having fought Americans but never became a Nazi, he came to America to raise a family.
short story shorter in the late 1970s, a bunch of folks at a bar were trumping up Hitler, he got drunk, went home put on his German uniform and went back.

"get out of here with that Nazi s***"

and they did. the place is empty for a while until some guys from the VFW came in and just stood staring directly at him until he left without saying a word.
these people, they have that warped confidence and wear it in tattoos, the garb and weapon culture like some Jarls boot kick trying to soften the hate, intimidation with that possible barbaric frenzy that could erupt at any moment like Freya is waiting in the car or something.
posted by clavdivs at 3:52 PM on November 3 [13 favorites]

Props to my neighbor Mira!

And fuck the Nazis. All of them.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 4:10 PM on November 3 [12 favorites]

Nice story. Especially in these small communities, a little cold shoulder or call-out can go a wrong way. If every store and restaurant (and Planet Fitness) for 50 miles won't serve him, suddenly his lifestyle becomes very inconvenient. No way to convert these troglodytes but communities can sure work together against them. I'm just glad no one was hurt.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:06 PM on November 3 [9 favorites]

This story charmed me - benefits of a small town.
posted by Toddles at 5:45 PM on November 3 [5 favorites]

Big tough nazi man ran away because of a lack of convenience is very funny.
posted by axiom at 8:47 PM on November 3 [5 favorites]

"We were going to lay the foundations of a white ethnostate here, but the guy at the store found out and refused to sell us pop tarts, so we're leaving."
posted by axiom at 9:01 PM on November 3 [21 favorites]

Good!
posted by DJZouke at 5:06 AM on November 4 [3 favorites]

This reminds of the story that ran around on Twitter for a while about how Nazi's try to take over a bar and how a bartender dealt with it. (It's from Michael Tager, but the upshot, if you don't want to go to twitter is after watching a bartender kick a quiet punk dude out of the bar and being asked about it - the bartender says the kid's vest was covered in Nazi emblems and....

"you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it's always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don't want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.

And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it's too late because they're entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down."

posted by drewbage1847 at 1:46 PM on November 4 [2 favorites]