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Friend,
When I started investigating a neo-Nazi camp in Maine last year, I did not expect my reporting would eventually lead to the state restricting paramilitary training.
However, that is what happened this month when the governor signed such a bill into law. It is now possible for the Maine attorney general to seek a court injunction to stop such training designed to create civil disorder. Charges can result in a one-year jail sentence, The Associated Press reported.
When I initially exposed a neo-Nazi’s plans to establish a paramilitary training camp, I knew
that at best I only helped to delay his plans. But now I’m more hopeful. Elected leaders in Maine stood up against hate and sent a clear signal to white supremacists that training to harm diverse communities is not welcomed in their state.
The road to this point was a long, tedious one that required research and long hours on my part as well as that of people in the community dedicated to exposing hate and extremism.
The leader of the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe, Christopher Alan Pohlhaus, never hid the fact that he purchased land in Maine, nor did he hide his intentions. He envisioned using the land as the headquarters for his group and to provide his followers a place to train, strategize and network. But it wasn’t until I saw a video on social media of Blood Tribe members berating what appeared to be a young mother and her daughter outside a drag show in Wadsworth, Ohio, in March 2023, that I started to search property records to locate the camp.
The search was a tiresome process. Even with a tip that helped narrow the search to Penobscot County, the property records did not include an address, just a lot number and subdivision name. After more digging and comparing different versions of hand-drawn maps of subdivisions — and learning that the names of roads changed in the 1990s — I was able to conclusively show the camp’s location in my report published in July 2023.
What happened next was a humbling experience.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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