Opinion | How the DOJ’s major takedown of a neo-Nazi group contradicts MAGA’s worldview
The federal indictment of 68 defendants accused of being members of (or being associated) with a criminal gang driven by race-based hate followed an investigation that led to the seizure of Nazi paraphernalia, including Adolf Hitler posters, and 97 pounds of fentanyl, federal officials said Wednesday . U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, who announced the charges, called it one of the " largest takedowns in the history of the Department of Justice against a neo-Nazi, white supremacist, violent extremist organization." That announcement landing in the final weeks of a presidential election prompts us to contrast the facts of our crime problem with the fiction that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, would have us believe.
The dismantlement of the group that called itself the Peckerwoods, a San Fernando Valley arm of the notorious Aryan Brotherhood white supremacy organization, came in the form of charges for alleged racketeering, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking and financial fraud. If convicted as charged, some members, who adorn themselves with tattoos of swastikas and other hate symbols , could face life behind bars. The group was so heavily armed and so violent that the FBI deployed its elite Hostage Rescue Team from Quantico, Virginia, to support the arrests. According to the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, the Peckerwoods, a derogatory name historically used against white people, "has as its mission to plan attacks against racial, ethnic, religious minorities."
Agents seized an arsenal of illegal guns, "bomb-making components" and dozens of kilograms of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin, according to law enforcement officials.
The details of this multifaceted investigation reveal a significant component of America's crime problem: hardened, U.S.-born criminals who traffic in the drugs, guns and violence plaguing our country. This contrasts with the fact-free fearmongering fabrications being sold to MAGA believers. It's not that minorities don't commit crimes; nor is that migrants never murder or rape. But Trump and Vance want voters to believe our gun, drug and violence problems are being driven by migrants when the opposite is true.
Take Trump's claim that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua took over an entire apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. It's a scary story, but it's not true . Just ask Aurora's police chief . Facts be damned, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fell in line with Trump and claimed a hotel in El Paso was taken over by Tren de Aragua, which he declared a foreign terrorist organization. Again, it's a frightening scenario, but it's devoid of evidence .
During the vice presidential debate, Vance claimed the vast majority of illegal guns used in crimes here come from Mexican cartels. The truth is quite different; it's the U.S. that's arming Mexican cartels. We have detailed data demonstrating the extent to which American weapons are fueling the violence in Mexico, right down to the make and model of the guns found at crime scenes across the border.
Continuing their "migrants are criminals" mantra, Trump and Vance repeatedly make false claims about Haitian migrants eating household pets and bringing diseases to Springfield, Ohio, lies that officials including the local police chief and Ohio governor have forcefully refuted . There's no evidence that Haitians are harming the people of Springfield, but there is evidence that the U.S. is exporting violence to Haiti in the form of black-market guns found in the hands of gang members who have wreaked havoc on Port-au-Prince. The U.S. is spending millions to help Haiti battle gang violence, while most of the weapons those gangs have are from the U.S.
In Tuesday's debate, Vance implied undocumented migrants are responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the U.S., a problem he blamed on what he characterized as the Biden-Harris administration's weak posture on border security. The truth is that almost 90% of fentanyl enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry, transported by people who have a legal right to be here. Almost half of them are Americans. Importantly, recent indicators show a fentanyl supply shortage in the U.S., an encouraging sign that Biden's efforts to counter the drug flow from Mexico and put pressure on China to stem the manufacture of precursor components may be working.
There's no clear evidence that migrants commit crimes at any higher rate than U.S.-born citizens. In fact, we'd be hard-pressed to prove that undocumented migrants pose a greater crime threat than those 68 white supremacist gang members who, according to this week's indictment, were part of a major California criminal enterprise.
The Trump-Vance falsehoods about crime are a cornerstone of their strategy to win votes through fear. The reality is that crime in the U.S. has continued to drop through the last six months. The latest FBI crime report shows that murders in the period from January to June dropped 23% from the same period in 2023, while violent crime fell 10% and reported rapes decreased by 18%. Aggravated assaults during that period decreased 8% year over year, according to the data, while robberies fell 14% and reported property crime was down 13%. The murder rate fell at the fastest rate ever last year, and shows no sign of stopping.
At a recent campaign event in the Detroit area, Trump said of the majority-Black city, "You can't walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped." The Detroit police chief begged to differ and invited Trump to walk the streets with him. Trump won't do that, of course, because the sight of people in Detroit walking around without fear wouldn't fit his narrative. Sadly, you likely won't hear Trump or Vance talk about the takedown of a white supremacist criminal enterprise in California or denounce what that gang stands for. That's why it's on us to separate fact from fiction, and reality from their ticket's reckless disregard for the truth.
