Exposed: The Northwest’s white supremacy problem
James Sapp example of Oregon, Washington white supremacist violence

By Tyler Dunn, KOIN Web Staff
Published: July 18, 2014, 10:00 amUpdated: July 19, 2014, 10:35 pm

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN 6) — A hail of gunfire, an officer down.

Shot seven times, Vancouver police officer Dustin Goudschaal lay on the street struggling for his life as a passerby did her best to bandage a gunshot wound to the 32-year-old’s neck.

Only moments earlier, Goudschaal had stopped a Dodge pickup that was flagged for a stolen license plate. Goudschaal wasn’t even at the truck’s driver door when a man arched a black semi-automatic handgun out the window and fired.

Sapp's-path-map
Investigators say James Sapp shot a police officer and a passenger, assaulted several others and crashed two stolen vehicles in less than 20 minutes.
The shooting was only the beginning of the violence that took place on Vancouver’s streets June 30. James Sapp — now identified as the Dodge driver and charged with Goudschaal’s attempted murder — admittedly drove away after the officer fell to the ground.


Sapp, 48, crashed the truck into a tree four blocks away. Probable cause court records, documenting testimony from multiple witnesses and victims, depict Sapp’s next movements as a frenzied, ever-escalating getaway attempt, though his own retelling often places him outside any blame.

According to the affidavit, Sapp shot at his passenger, punched a woman twice in the face in an attempt to steal her car, assaulted an 88-year-old man in another carjacking attempt, and hurt two others as he sped away.

Minutes later, Sapp had crashed that vehicle as well. By 11:55 a.m. — just 17 minutes after the first 911 officer-shot call was placed — Sapp was found “hiding behind metal dumpsters.”


More than a gram of heroin, 3.5 grams of methamphetamine and 38.7 grams of marijuana were also found near the dumpster and in Sapp’s pocket, court documents state.

Who is James Sapp?

Sapp appeared in court three times since that day, the latest being Tuesday, when he entered a not guilty plea for the Goudschaal shooting and the later-added drug charges.

Known as “Cotton” on the streets, Sapp admits he’s been a heroin user for the past six years, documents state. With a shaved, balding head and scraggly beard, the heavily tattooed, 230-pound Sapp is an intimidating presence.

But it’s the group he claims to be affiliated with that’s most troubling. Sapp, who has a large tattoo of a swastika and the words “White Pride” inked across his lower back, told a Clark County jail deputy in 2008 “he is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood” and that “he would not be housed with anyone of color.”

Three years earlier, Sapp allegedly told Gresham police “he is an active member of the Aryan Brotherhood” and that he “kept in touch with his brothers behind bars.”

According to Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group watchdog, “Aryan Brotherhood members make up less than one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s prison inmate population, yet the white power gang is responsible for 18% of all prison murders.”

Only one other man involved in white supremacist activity in the Portland area has been linked to the AB in recent years, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office officials. That man — 35-year-old Justin Dodson — killed himself last June when law enforcement tried to arrest him on drug and gun charges.

Whether Sapp is an actual member of the infamous white supremacist organization is up for debate, but Randy Blazak, a Portland State University sociology professor, says his alleged actions are in line with the gang’s tactics.

“There’s this thing called ‘doing the dirt’ while you’re in prison. You’re protected by the Brotherhood, but for that, you have to pay a price,” Blazak said in an attempt to explain a possible motive. “It’s called ‘credit.’ Sometimes that price is paid inside, but sometimes it’s paid outside. You have to kill somebody.”

Far From Just the Brotherhood

Even if Sapp has no affiliation with the AB, he still may well be an active gang member.

Blazak says lesser-known white supremacist gangs are on the rise across the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s a growing issue … It’s the notion that whites have the numbers,” he said. “They think it’s the white bastion.”

Blazak even points out a movement that gained steam in the 1980s among white nationalists called the “Northwest Territorial Imperative.” Under the concept, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and the western part of Montana would form a new colony known as the “White Homeland.”

The SPLC supports the professor’s claim, listing nine hate groups in Oregon and 10 in Washington, of which the large majority are classified as “Racist Skinhead,” “White Nationalist,” or “Neo-Nazi.”

Operation White Christmas

The gangs have shown a proclivity to pop up around the Portland metro, and in the past year the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has come down hard on them.

Operation White Christmas, as the now-high-profile effort has been dubbed, began last summer and has netted some substantial arrests.

“The overall success has been huge,” said Josh Zwick, MCSO’s lead case detective for the crackdown. “We got some very nasty people off the streets.”

MCSO officials say the operation came about after “a huge amount of violent crime” in and around East Portland.

Since OWC’s first bust, more than 80 people that investigators say are tied to white supremacist gangs have been arrested, 48 of whom are currently undergoing federal prosecution, according to Zwick.

Twenty-seven OWC-related warrants have been served in that time, Zwick says. Among the items seized: more than nine pounds of methamphetamine; 90 guns; 50 grams of heroin; $78,000; three bulletproof vests; a stolen RV; four vehicles; a violin and other high-end musical instruments; credit cards; social security cards; driver’s license templates; motorcycle parts and about 30 rare coins stolen from Oregon State University’s Horner Collection.


Multiple explosives were also recovered and then disposed.

Most of the arrests are connected to a handful of gangs in the Portland area: the European Kindred (EK); Rude Krude Brood; Irish Pride; All Ona Bitch (ONA); Insane Peckerwood Syndicate (IPS) and Fat Bitch Killers (FBK).

Zwick says White Christmas has almost entirely dismantled the gangs’ primary leadership in Multnomah County, but stops short of saying the operation is complete. Every time we think it’s over, it’s not, he says.

‘A Racism of Convenience’

Zwick and Blazak agree these gangs are about more than racial hatred — it’s a business fostered from fear, and one that starts in prison.

As Blazak explains it, gangs like EK, the Brood and ONA are formed in prisons across the region as a form of protection, something he calls “a racism of convenience.”


“Racism’s a weapon, a tool,” said Blazak, who further suggested many white supremacist gang members are actually of mixed ancestry.

But what starts as an act of survival quickly shifts to a life of crime once released, Blazak says. “It looks more like organized crime than the KKK,” he said.

And once in a supremacist gang, getting out is not an easy feat.

These guys come out of prison as convicted felons with swastika tattoos, Zwick said. “They’re not friendly people. [Being a gang member] is all they know, that’s what they keep doing.”

Down the Rabbit Hole

Blazak blames the rise in white supremacist crime on poor prison policy dating back two decades. The “War on Drugs,” pursued heavily in the 1980s and 1990s, inflated incarceration rates and led to the creation of many of the gangs causing issues for law enforcement today, Blazak says.

And while white supremacist gangs are far from the only perpetrators of violent crime in Multnomah County — county officials recently released a report identifying 133 known gangs active in the area — the sociology professor doesn’t think white supremacists attempting to re-enter society have been given the proper resources.

Lt. Steve Alexander, spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, says he recognizes a cycle of violence and imprisonment as well, but says prisoners are given every opportunity to leave their past behind.

According to Alexander, the goal is to weaken gangs “from the inside.”

Sapp’s history with law enforcement indicates he’s more than familiar with the cycle. Having been convicted of drugs charges four times and once more for riot with a deadly weapon, Sapp now faces his most daunting allegations yet.

Crazy .

That's interesting, with those being incarcerated for drug charges. Probably a lot of middle class whites going to jail/prison and joining some group or gang for protection.

The prison population is starting to change due to methamphetamine sentencing disparities as well as prescription pill abuse.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-is...to-blame-2013-2

Supposedly white gangs are starting to exert control over prisons again which only means these guys will get crazier and more violent. Fun fun.

Personally I do not see white supremacist gangs as becoming a very big threat. Some may be active in prison but I think it will mostly be concentrated there.

There are a lot of WS gangs all over the United States; but I think they are mainly active in prisons but I am not an expert.

I was watching a documentary on the history of the Aryan Brotherhood. It was an episode of one of those gang shows that does a show on the Crips, Bloods, MS-13 etc... Most of the time if you've seen one you've seen 'em all but this particular show had some new info. What I thought was interesting and really exposed what these "white supremacists" were about was when they talked about the business practices and hierarchy of the gang. At the Federal level gang members conduct business and form alliances with gangs of all colors. These relationships extend to the outside. The whole "white power" angle is for lower members and "associates" serving time in State or County lock ups. So basically the leaders preach one thing but practice another - preaching the supremacy and separation of the white race while practicing common sense business with diversity and non-violence for maximum profit. The leaders don't believe in the rhetoric it's a way to control the weak minded.

It tends to vary from region to region in terms of activity on the street. I know from recent cases that the ABT in texas has a street presence thats significant. In california supposedly there is PEN1 that are a big name gang but yet you don't get that much street activity or arrests of them, i don't think they hold any turf, and are addicted to meth which is something a lot of these groups have in common.

Heres an interesting description of PEN1 from LA weekly.


I think ideology wise a lot of them do believe in white nationalist politics but like most gangs end up most often than not targeting and victimising their own.

sounds like the media

I don't consider them a big threat either. i'd say roughly 90% of these groups are infiltrated or outright ran by FBI informants. it's mostly a scam to keep the ADL and SPLC's coffers flowing. the propaganda these civil rights organizations use to make people fearful of this barely existent threat is getting more and more desparate. did you see this "report" that named Stormfront as the murder capital of the internet Lol some weak evidence they presented. http://abcnews.go.com/US/stormfront-webs...ory?id=23365815

Morris Dees made a healthy career out of the SPLC. He saw a niche in the market and filled it. Who's going to argue? It's political, financial and character suicide. Maybe he did some good but he also made many mountains out of molehills.

Race hustling has made him rich. it's a good career move. it's been far more lucrative than his former job,as a lawyer defending the KKK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Dees#Civil_rights_legal_practice

truth is stranger than fiction!

if I understand correctly, this is a (relatively) new trend; these guys getting out of prison and organizing into pseudo organized gangs. Through the mid 80's to late 90's, political groups that were often characterized as "neo-nazis" and/or "white supremacists" did little in the way of actual crime. Mostly they were just a bunch of ignorant dipshits that liked to blame their problems on jews and other minorities.

10-15 years ago most "aryan gangs" were mostly just a bunch of angry skinhead teenagers drinking beer and listening to shitty music. I'm even hesitant to call anything they did "nazism", there's so little resembling an actual political ideology that it really was/is just senseless hate for the sake of senseless hate. most of these knuckleheads wouldn't have been able to explain the tenants and beliefs of the German national socialist party despite the abundance of nazi imagery tattooed on their bodies.

I was heavily involved in the punk scene as a teenager, and there is often an overlap between the punk and skinhead genres/scenes thus I was quite often exposed to these people. It's a story I've seen repeated a hundred times. Most of these guys eventually grow out of it, truth be told. The truly bad apples in these counter-cultural "movements" go to jail, become career criminals, get out and establish the only stabilizing structure they now know: gang life. At that point it ceases to be about a perceived political ideology and entirely about making money and engaging in the same behaviors that made them hate those minorities (from their perspective). Ultimately prison and prison culture become self fulfilling prophecies of recidivism.

Point being, yes, for most of their history the AB's control and organization were pretty much limited to state and federal prisons but that is changing. There is an emerging gang culture cultivated from returning parolees, especially now in California that the prisons have reached maximum capacity and are beginning to let a lot of former "lifers" out.

Unless your not a "minority"

U.S. Department of Justice
July 16, 2014

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 514-2007/TDD (202) 514-1888
WASHINGTON—Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis for the Southern District of Mississippi announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted John Louis Blalack, 20, of Brandon, Mississippi, Sarah Adelia Graves, 21, of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, Robert Henry Rice, 23, of Brandon, and Shelbie Brooke Richards, 20, of Pearl, Mississippi, for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to commit federal hate crimes against African-American people in Jackson, Mississippi.

Blalack, Graves and Richards are additionally charged with a racially motivated hate crime resulting in the death of a victim run over by a truck. Blalack and Rice are charged with two additional racially motivated hate crimes involving alleged assaults, and with carrying a firearm in relation to one of those assaults. Graves and Richards are additionally charged with soliciting others to commit hate crimes against African-Americans, and Graves is charged with making false statements to the FBI. Defendants Deryl Paul Dedmon, 20; John Aaron Rice, 19; Dylan Wade Butler, 21; William Kirk Montgomery, 23; Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp, 20; and Joseph Dominick, 22, all from Brandon, have previously entered guilty pleas in connection with their roles in these offenses.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in the spring of 2011, the defendants and others conspired with one another to harass and assault African-American people in and around the Jackson area. According to the indictment, on numerous occasions, the co-conspirators used dangerous weapons, including beer bottles, sling shots and motor vehicles, to cause, and attempt to cause, bodily injury to African-American people. The co-conspirators are alleged to have specifically targeted African-American people they believed to be homeless or under the influence of alcohol because they believed that such individuals would be less likely to report an assault. The co-conspirators would often boast about these racially motivated assaults. The indictment details several such assaults, including the fatal assault on a victim who was intentionally run over.

The defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison.

The case is the result of a cooperative effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the Civil Rights Division and the Hinds County District Attorney’s office. This case was investigated by the Jackson Division of the FBI and the Jackson Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sheldon L. Beer and Deputy Chief Paige M. Fitzgerald of the Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda R. Haynes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

So the power in prison may actually be shifting back to the White guys?

Poor Black guys can't win from losing .

That way a joke, by the way. I honestly find it very hard to believe. Urban jails will remain 90 percent Black and Latino because 90 percent of the crimes are committed in their neighborhoods. Whether it's socioeconomic or otherwise is a matter of opinion.

I think it's far fetched to say 90% overall in total. It's more like 51% according to the latest update: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/jim13stpr.cfm

Not to get into an debate in this post but I think it's relativity bias to say 90% of crimes goes on in mainly Black/Latino communities when it's every community.

White supremacist prison gang boss guilty alongside underlings and Hells Angel of torture, murder & racketeering https://gangstersinc.org/blog/white-supremacist-prison-gang-boss-guilty-alongside-underlings-an