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Nazi Low Riders: A California-Born White Supremacist Youth Gang Hit the Big Time in Recent Years. Then It Hit a Wall

NCJ Number
207275
Journal
Intelligence Report Issue: 114 Dated: Summer 2004 Pages: 10-13
Author(s)
Camille Jackson
Date Published
2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article traces the rise and decline of the Nazi Low Riders (NLR), which began in California as a racist juvenile prison gang that has been heavily involved in drug dealing.
Abstract
The NLR was founded in the late 1970's by John Stinson, a White supremacist, while he was an inmate in a California Youth Authority prison. A small number of Latinos were allowed to join, and they were put on the front lines in the gang's drug trafficking both inside and outside prison. In recent years, the NLR has spread from the California Youth Authority into the adult prisons of California and several other States. All members must be loyal to the White race and subscribe to an ideology of hate, especially against Blacks and "race traitors." Although experts report that most NLR crimes outside of prison are related to the drug trade, NLR members have been involved in some of the most disturbing hate crimes in California, including the kidnapping and murder of a bisexual man, a near-fatal hammer attack on an African-American, and a baseball-bat attack on a Black youth. In recent years, the NLR has faced the same countermeasures as the declining Aryan Brotherhood; the NLR has been declared a prison gang, which warrants the segregation of gang members while they are in prison. This strategy, along with the 2003 convictions of several NLR leaders, has led the NLR to make alliances with a smaller, less well-known group, namely, Public Enemy Number One (PENI). PENI and the NLR have worked with the Aryan Brotherhood in various combinations in the drug trade.