President Donald Trump’s rise in the United States has unfolded concurrent to a continual rise of virulent racists elsewhere in the world. He has explicitly tied his ascent to power to British racists, giving them a platform — and now, the United Kingdom has thrown half a dozen members of an outlawed neo-Nazi group in jail, including a couple who had named their baby after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In other words, Britain continues to take the issue seriously. In the U.S., it takes rounds of public pressure for President Trump to even single out white nationalists for any form of special condemnation.
The group that the jailed couple and their friends were a part of had previously been declared illegal in the U.K. after it celebrated the murder of the Labour Party’s Jo Cox, a member of Parliament at the time of her death at the hands of a far right ideologue embedded in the same racism.
Judge Melbourne Inman QC, who threw the accused in jail, noted that one of National Action’s aims pushed by the couple and their friends is “the overthrow of democracy in this country by serious violence and murder, and the imposition of a Nazi-style state which would eradicate whole sections of society by such violence and mass murder.”
Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas were among those jailed for their participation with National Action. Photos recovered from the pair depicted scenes like Thomas holding their child while dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes and Patatas holding her child — whose middle name had been declared Adolf — while she and Thomas displayed a flag emblazoned with a swastika.
Patatas had made declarations like that “all Jews must be put to death,” while Thomas’ highlighted actions include his procurement of a terrorism manual including instructions for making “viable” bombs.
Ironically enough, they weren’t the only ones in their group to bring their children into their hatred. Their friend Darren Fletcher was also documented to have taught his daughter to perform the Nazi salute — and in similar fashion to Patatas and Thomas, was jailed for five years recently.
Besides those three, their cell’s leader, financial handler, and “security enforcer” were all also thrown in jail.
The situation contrasts strikingly with what the United States has faced concurrent to Trump’s rise to power.
Last year in Charlottesville, for instance, thousands of white nationalists descended for a weekend of violence that left one counterprotester dead. Recently, the man responsible for her murder faced a jury recommendation for life in prison, but plenty of other members of violent racist groups walked free since — for the moment — they didn’t murder anyone.
Meanwhile, the president of the United States insisted there were good people on “both sides” of the situation.
That incident isn’t alone. Trump has given white nationalists’ violent policy aims a place in the White House through means including his Muslim ban, proposed border wall, and dispatch of thousands of active duty troops to the southern border to face asylum seekers.
That’s a clear manifestation of the same push for violence that the jailed Brits are guilty of. Yet, rather than residing in prison, the man responsible for it resides in the White House.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
