Craig Cobb supporting the planned White Nationalist “Pioneer Little Europe” communities on Facebook.
A man who describes himself as a white supremacist and last year abandoned plans to transform a North Dakota town into an Aryan enclave says he wants to pursue the plan again–this time with crowdfunding.
Craig Cobb is a Canadian hate crimes fugitive in the United States who in 2013 tried create a white nationalist community in the tiny town of Leith, North Dakota with his followers. That plan didn’t work out.
But Cobb recently told the Grand Forks Herald newspaper that he now plans to raise $70,000 through Indiegogo to crowdfund the purchase of property for an all-white-power community in nearby Antler, North Dakota.
Right now, about 20 people live in Antler.
Antler Mayor Bruce Hanson, 63, said he hadn’t yet heard of Cobb’s intentions to buy property when reached by the Herald on Thursday night.
“It’s all news to me,” he said. “I hadn’t heard anything. I know there’s property for sale in town here, but I hadn’t heard about any property changing hands.”
To say that Cobb’s earlier efforts to raise awareness of his project didn’t end up as planned would be an understatement.
From NPR’s coverage back in 2013:
To advance his cause, he thought it wise to go on a daytime talk program, The Trisha Goddard Show (recent topics: “Test Me! I Never Sold My Daughter For Drugs” and “Family Race War: I’m Devastated My Daughters Are Dating Black Men”), and agree to a genetic test to prove his racial purity.
As you probably guessed, he was trolling the Fates.
The test determined that 14 percent of Cobb’s DNA came from sub-Saharan Africa, according to Goddard, the show’s host.
Oops. And as Talking Points Memo details, his behavior in Leith led to problems with the law. Namely “felony terrorizing” and menacing other residents.
Cobb appears to be returning to his white nationalist roots after expressing some desire to leave that lifestyle behind while he was jailed for about five months on charges of terrorizing. Cobb’s neighbors in Leith alleged in November 2013 that he and one of his followers, Kynan Dutton, had threatened them with guns. He was released from jail in April 2014 after being sentenced to four years probation.
Indiegogo’s terms of use bans campaigns that serve “to promote violence, degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” So if Cobb really does launch an Indiegogo campaign for a new enclave, and Indiegogo decides that the group promotes discrimination or hatred, Indiegogo would have an obligation under its own TOU to end Cobb’s campaign.
Screenshot of a page that seems to be maintained by supporter’s of Cobb’s planned white supremacist community in Antler, ND.
And as TPM notes,
[A] Facebook page has already been set up for the prospective all-white community Cobb envisions for Antler, “Antler PLE.” PLE stands for Pioneer Little Europe, a movement of white nationalists that encourages members to band together in pre-existing communities and that has been championed on neo-Nazi websites like Stormfront.org. The Facebook page included a link to an article about McKinney, Texas police officer Eric Casebolt’s resignation after he was caught on video slamming a 14-year-old, bikini-clad black girl to the ground and pointing a handgun at other teens attending a pool party.
“He is welcome in our Antler PLE anytime,” the post read.
Still, don’t hold your breath, white power fans. From the Grand Forks Herald,
Cobb told the Herald he doesn’t intend on moving to Antler unless the city changes its law to allow horses within city limits.