NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Outside a jujitsu gym in an industrial park near Nashville's Armory Drive, NewsChannel 5 Investigates had kept watch on the comings and goings of one of the more visible figures in a far-right movement that's raising concerns among those who monitor extremist activity.
That man, with his trademark handlebar mustache, identified himself in a video posted online as a fighter who goes by the name “Sporty.” His real name is Tristan Rettke, and he works as a licensed EMT for a Nashville-area ambulance service.
Rettke made headlines seven years ago, while a student at East Tennessee State University, when he showed up at a Black Lives Matter protest wearing a gorilla suit.
Now, he's become a player in the so-called Active Club scene, a sort of fascist fight club.
Last October, the Guardian reported that Rettke was among the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that participated in an exhibition – dubbed “Slaughter Smokey Mountain – with a Russian street fighting organization.
In April, the Guardian again listed Rettke among a group that had participated in riot-style combat events with other white nationalists at a compound in Virginia.
There is no evidence that Rettke has done anything illegal.
Such activities are part of the so-called Active Club movement headed by Robert Rundo, a white nationalist who was featured in a recent 60 Minutes segment. Rundo has tried to recast the movement as being about young, white men simply getting fit.
But, behind that image, is another image of Rundo violently assaulting a Trump protester at a California rally in 2017.
Rundo spent 24 months in federal prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice for "planning and engaging in riots at political rallies across California."
The Active Club founder has called organized fights like the ones in which Rettke participates as a "tip-off point for a fascist cultural revolution." He added, "Every victorious nationalist movement was forged by hardened men who already tasted real danger."
"This is not just a national sports club or nationalist sports club. In its essence, it’s the strategy to build a neo-Nazi militia,” said Alexander Ritzmann, a senior adviser for the Counter Extremism Project.
Ritzmann has been studying the Active Club movement for years.
He says that, in their propaganda, Rundo and his followers liken themselves to Italy's fascist militia known as the Blackshirts or to Adolf Hitler's Stormtroopers.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Ritzmann, "So, if this is a militia hiding in plain sight, what is the battle they're preparing for?"
"They say,” Ritzmann answered, “we are preparing for the time when a white supremacist leader is worth and in need of protection."
In one of the hype videos for the fascist exhibitions, Tristan Rettke is shown entering a fight in Texas, escorted by Sean Kauffmann, head of the Tennessee Active Club.
Kauffman has been described by the Stop Antisemitism watchdog group as "a disturbed neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier with a documented history of violence and a massive cache of firearms."
The neo-Nazi figure is now sitting in jail in Perry County, Tennessee, awaiting trial on a domestic violence charge. His bond was revoked last December after shooting a bird at NewsChannel 5's camera in open court.
Other video discovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates shows Rettke competing earlier this year in what was called a "Spring Brawl,” a riot style event that critics argue is designed to prepare men for battle on the streets of America.
A posed photo from the event shows Rettke among a group that included someone holding up a flag for a violent neo-Nazi group known as the Hammerskins.
"They aren’t just exhibitions. They are physically training, as we do in the military, to be able to, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, cause physical harm to another human being," said extremist watchdog Kristofer Goldsmith.
Goldsmith heads a non-profit, known as Task Force Butler, that trains veterans to infiltrate groups that they fear might pose a threat to American democracy.
"It is far, far, far easier for a white supremacist to go and to, you know, punch someone in the face, to hit someone with a baseball bat if they’ve spent a few months punching their friend in the face for practice,” Goldsmith argued.
And the Active Clubs have begun in recent years collaborating with another white nationalist group, known as Patriot Front, that wants to turn America into an ethnostate for white people only.
In one photo posted online, Rettke poses with Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau.
Other photos show Rettke attended the grand opening for a training facility that Patriot Front recruiter Ian Michael Elliott operates in East Tennessee, near Tellico Plains.
So, after unsuccessfully trying to reach him by phone and email, NewsChannel 5 Investigates caught up with Rettke outside the Armory Drive-area gym.
"I'm not interested,” he responded when we first approached him.
Still, we had questions.
"What are you guys fighting for?"
"Sorry, man. I'm not answering any questions."
"Robert Rundo says this is part of a fascist cultural revolution. Are you a fascist? Do you hate democracy?"
"Sorry, man. I'm not answering any questions."
But it's that focus on combat sports and physical fitness that, experts say, makes such gyms prime targets for such groups. In fact, photos posted by the gym show that Patriot Front recruiter Ian Michael Elliott has worked out in the same facility.
The concern is that these activities could potentially hide a much more sinister motive.
After a recent stabbing incident in Belfast involving a Sudanese refugee, mobs of masked white men took to the streets attacking innocent immigrants, burning immigrant businesses, and torching some of their homes.
Online, Robert Rundo's group celebrated the riots, with one post declaring "white boy summer is starting off hot this year."
Another recited the white nationalist slogan "By God, we'll have our home again."
Another warned, "Tomorrow belong[s] to us."
Rundo’s group even published a post about the OpSec – operational security – that helped the Northern Ireland mob to avoid arrest.
The "how-to" post carried a disclaimer, "For educational purposes only."
And what worries observers even more is that the Active Clubs are now making deliberate efforts to target teens.
Among the people we discovered in the exhibition videos was a young man, now an adult, we met three years ago at a candidate forum in Franklin, Tennessee.
Logan Gulbranson later sent NewsChannel 5 Investigates a photo, showing off his swastika tattoo.
We asked Alexander Ritzmann, "What is the danger in allowing these people to work out in your gym?"
"Recruitment,” Ritzmann answered. “The main aspect would definitely be recruitment."
Following questions raised by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, the man who recently purchased the Armory Drive-area gym told us that Rettke has now been banned from the facility.
“Things like that don’t fly anymore,” Nick Britt said.
"We're inclusive, and we've got every color under the rainbow – and every one of them is my brother. There's one tribe, and that's one tribe under God."
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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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