NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A neo-Nazi group that targeted Nashville communities during summer of 2024 faces a new lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The federal lawsuit, using an 1871 law created to target the Ku Klux Klan, was filed against the Goyim Defense League (GDL) and several GDL members on behalf of Deago Buck, a bartender involved in a skirmish with the group last July.
Their mission, the lawsuit claims, was "to intimidate and terrorize Jewish people and people of color for the purpose of depriving them of equal protection and other rights that they are guaranteed under state and federal law."
"GDL and more than a dozen of its members targeted the Black and Jewish communities in Nashville during the first phase of their campaign. For ten days in July, they carried through on their plans of violence and intimidation, including marauding through town waving swastika flags, threatening people, screaming racist and antisemitic slurs, and obscenities in people’s faces, harassing a group of Black children, littering lawns with antisemitic propaganda, disrupting a public city council meeting, and viciously assaulting two young men because of their perceived race and/or Jewish ancestry," the complaint states.
"This lawsuit seeks to hold GDL and certain GDL members accountable for the racially motivated harassment, threats, intimidation, and violence in which they engaged in furtherance of their conspiracy to target people based on skin color, race, and/or religion, for the purpose of depriving them of their rights to equal enjoyment of the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States guaranteed by the Constitution and laws, including the right to be free from racial violence and the right to access places of public accommodation, because of their race or religion."
Below is the news release from SPLC:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a complaint on behalf of a young, biracial man against the Goyim Defense League (GDL), its leadership and GDL members for their campaign to assault, harass and intimidate the Jewish and Black communities of Nashville as part of a roadshow of hate. Claims include violation of the federal Ku Klux Klan Act, assault, battery and malicious harassment.
“Hate, racial and religious intolerance has no place in Tennessee or in this nation. The Goyim Defense League actively sought out marginalized communities to stoke fear and disrupt daily life,” said Scott McCoy, deputy legal director, SPLC. “This lawsuit seeks to hold the members of the GDL accountable for their harmful actions in Nashville. Groups like the GDL must learn a hard lesson: their ideologies and violence have no place in a fair, equitable society.”
“We live in a time where the most brazen extremists can wander the streets and cause harm to vulnerable communities with near impunity. Action must be taken to depower and shut down groups like the Goyim Defense League,” said Ben Raybin, co-counsel, Raybin & Weissman, P.C.
“It is critical in a time when hate is emboldened that we are not intimidated but are instead empowered to seek justice and put an end to terror in our communities,” said Erika Jacobsen White, co-counsel, Joseph Greenwald & Laake.
The GDL is an association of antisemitic white supremacists whose mission, according to statements by their founder, includes “expelling” all Jewish and Black people from the United States. The group’s ideologies overlap significantly with those of other racist, antisemitic groups and neo-Nazi provocateurs who peddle similar “great replacement theory” rhetoric.
Members have joined nationwide tours that are roadshows of racist and antisemitic acts of confrontation, provocation, harassment, intimidation and violence used to ramp up recruitment, make money and further their hateful mission to drive Jewish people and people of color out of the U.S. In previous years, dozens of neo-Nazis have met up at these hate tours for the purposes of physically confronting, provoking, harassing, intimidating and/or assaulting people of color, Jewish people and their supporters. They also aim to spread propaganda, using video of their harassment, intimidation and assaults to further harm their victims through livestreams published on the GDL’s online platform and other platforms that cater to extremists.
During GDL’s Nashville tour, which began in mid-July 2024, members marauded through town, waving swastika flags, screaming obscenities and insults in people’s faces and otherwise harassing, abusing and intimidating people they perceived to be of color or Jewish, including a group of young, Black children. In addition, they littered lawns with antisemitic propaganda, disrupted a public meeting and viciously assaulted two young men targeted based on their race and Jewish ancestry.
The SPLC is suing on behalf of one of their many victims.
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
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