Hate groups in the U.S., including the Sikh temple shooter

Air Date: August 9, 2012

Pete Simi holds his book "American Swastika" while posing for a photo in his office in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. Simi, a professor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, has done extensive field research into domestic hate groups, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. He knew Wade Michael Page, the Wisconsin Sikh temple gunman, from field research he did in southern California in 2001-2003 but had since lost touch with him. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Hour 2

Wade Michael Page, the man police say shot up a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on Sunday and killed six worshipers there, was a well-documented participant in the underground white racist extremist fringe of this country. He played in hate-metal bands and is reported to have significant, long-lasting ties to hate groups. Joining us to help explain this world is PETE SIMI, University of Nebraska at Omaha Criminology professor and co-author of “American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate.” Simi met and interviewed Page extensively as part of his research into the hate-rock music scene in Southern California. Also joining us to help us understand how the Delaware Valley’s racist hate groups fit into the national scene is DARYLE LAMONT JENKINS, founder of The One People’s Project, a Philadelphia-based effort to track right-wing hate groups and people. And we’re joined by FRANK MEEINK, a former racist skinhead leader from South Philadelphia turned peace educator and author of “Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead.”

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[audio: 080912_110630.mp3]

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