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Johnston has participated in white supremacy groups since he was a teen-ager in California. “I saw a lot of Mexican immigrants moving in my neighborhood and taking jobs because they were all so willing to work for less. It was seeing my Dad get replaced by an illegal immigrant that opened my eyes.”

Johnston says he feels all minorities are unqualified in every profession they enter. He said most employers go along with affirmative action whether or not the black or Latino person is qualified for the job, and that most minorities know they are nowhere near as qualified as whites. It’s only that they have the law and the pity of society supporting them. Randy Blazak, an assistant professor of sociology at Portland State University in Oregon, has spent more than eight years studying skinheads in the United States and Europe.

“Many kids get involved because they experience some first- or second-hand downward mobility,” Blazak said. “The propaganda around the changing face of the American Dream is just as powerful ... the perception that all white people are moving down, and all minority people are moving up.”

Blazak said these groups also appeal to young people because of what he refers to as the “conspiracy theory.”

“The conspiracy theory basically gives these kids a minority to point their fingers at to explain why their lives are so messed up,” Blazak said.

Matt Morris, a 20-year-old freshman flight technology major at Kent State, has also participated in white supremacy groups since he was a teen-ager. Unlike Johnston, Morris grew up in Bay Village, where downward mobility was not a reality for him. His attraction to white supremacy grew from his time in the U.S. Army, where he served more than a year as private first-class before he was discharged for medical reasons. “I remember when I was in Kuwait, all the whites were just expected to do all the work, while the blacks just slacked off,” Morris said. “No one said a word about it, as if it was OK.”

Morris, who now lives with Johnston on West Main Street, said it was witnessing this unfair treatment that encouraged him to look into white supremacy groups.

“The whole thing got me to thinking about the real situation between blacks and whites, so I just started to do some research on the Internet and what I found really made sense to me,” Morris said. He found the National Socialist Movement’s Web site and its P.O. box. He contacted the movement, which is how he met Johnston.

Johnston was a sergeant in the National Socialist Movement, a politically motivated, neo-Nazi group that ranked its members much like the military. But he had problems with his commanding officer, so he dropped out of the group.

The military style of the movement was nothing new for Johnston because he had six years experience in the Army — three as an Airborne Ranger.

In fact, a majority of the members have had some sort of military and weapons experience, Johnston said.

Roy, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said some people may consider this mixture of hate and weapon experience threatening since skinheads are generally viewed as a violent group.

“These groups have a gang-like mentality,” Roy said. “They can, and will, become violent if provoked.”

Johnston said skinheads can be considered more violent in comparison to other white supremacy groups with a history of violence, like the Ku Klux Klan, because skinheads never back down from a fight. If someone incites a fight, whether verbal or physical, they will respond with violence if that’s what it takes, he said.

Detective Karen Travis of the Kent Police Department, who monitors hate-group activities, said there hasn’t been any problems with racially motivated groups in the 15 years she’s worked at the department.

“Residents of Kent shouldn’t fear us at all because we don’t like to make trouble for ourselves,” Johnston said. “A lot of people have this misconception of skinheads. We’re always being compared to gangbangers when all we want is to keep our neighborhoods safe from slime and criminals on the streets.”

Targeting specific minority groups is another misconception society has of skinheads, Morris said.

“I can’t stand seeing minorities milk the system,” he said, “but targeting a person because they are just black or just Jewish is not what our group is about.”

“There is no point in us going after blacks and Jews, or any minorities for that matter, just to beat on them,” Johnston said. “We don’t mix with them or talk with them at all.… They simply don’t exist to us until they come into our neighborhoods and start shit.”

He said skinheads are “regular people,” meaning they go to work and do what they can to contribute to society.

“The whole reality is that we are your plumbers, your construction workers, your firefighters, your paramedics, and soon we will be your police officers,” Johnston said.

Johnston is a firefighter for Rootstown Fire Department. He said his beliefs do not interfere with his job because he keeps his work and his personal life separate.

It’s a feeling of family that attracts many members to independent movements, Johnston said. He explained that a person has to get to know the group to become a member.

“It’s not like you can just pay 20 bucks and you’re automatically in,” Johnston said. “Skinheads are a sort of family, so they only accept those they’ve gotten to know really well.”

Most people get interested through word of mouth.

Skinheads, Johnston said, do not seek out members by way of fliers or recruitment. When someone is accepted into the group as a member, he doesn't go through some ritualistic ceremony. People know they’re in when they are invited to attend more and more of the group’s meetings.

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