Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A Robert Rundo rabbit hole reminder

Visiting a San Diego fight club via the Anti-Defamation League

Still from Birth of a New Frontier. San Diego Library in background.
Still from Birth of a New Frontier. San Diego Library in background.

The news that Robert Rundo had been extradited from Romania to the United States to face charges of conspiracy and inciting violence at several California political rallies back in 2017 reminded me of a recent trip down one of the internet’s infinite number of rabbit holes. It began with a sentence in a July 19 NPR story carried on the KPBS website about right-wing Active Clubs: “Also White Lives Matter groups have reportedly attended ‘fight nights’ hosted by active clubs in San Diego and in Washington State.”

I…had not heard about that. Let’s Google “San Diego fight night white lives matter.” Just two hits, both from activist organizations: the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Okay, let’s see what the ADL has on its Active Clubs page. “On August 20, 2022, a variety of Active Clubs traveled from across the United States to participate in a fight night in San Diego, California…One white supremacist media source wrote, ‘Every fighter and attendee understood that they were participating in a historical first and that, like Charlottesville and the Battle of Berkeley, a man could be proud of being there for years to come.’” But: no link to any kind of news coverage. Did this thing really happen?

The Anti-Defamation League reports: “On August 20, 2022, SoCal Active Club held a fight night in San Diego, California, that a variety of white supremacist from across the United States participated in and attended.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Well, there was an accompanying photo allegedly from the event, one that featured a Confederate flag on the wall and a spectator giving a Nazi salute. Okay, Google images, have at it. Just six results, and two of them from the ADL site. Then one from the Will2Rise page on Gab Social, where it served as the header image. A number of the posts were hawking the brand’s clothing, including a Triumph of the Will hooded t-shirt, and a Blackshirts Troublemakers Club shirt. Pretty blunt stuff, given the references to Leni Riefenstahl’s famous Nazi propaganda film and Mussolini’s fascist paramilitary. There was also a post reading: “Coming soon from Media2Rise: an episode documenting the first ever Nationalist combat sports tournament that took place in Huntington Beach, California…the culmination of years of joint efforts to revitalize the warrior spirit in our people. It begins a new chapter in a healthy counter-culture for our youth…”

I guess it made sense to advertise it as being a Huntington Beach thing, since that’s Rundo’s hometown (and the site of an earlier White Lives Matter rally). But the NPR story had it right: the fight night (well, fight day) happened here, in Grantville. Media2Rise’s documentary on the event, Birth of a New Frontier, pretty clearly opens on the beach in Coronado. And at one point, a drone camera rises above the fight venue and gives away its location. Turns out San Diego made sense as well, as one of the first personalities we meet is fighter Luke, who looks an awful lot like Rundo’s associate Grady Mayfield, himself a San Diegan.

So yes, it happened. One participant said that the gathering’s ideological component gave him “a purpose, something to fight for — to prove that our ideology is superior.” Rundo is being held without bond in Los Angeles. His trial is set for December 12.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A history of the house on the hill at Ivanhoe Ranch

From Apolinaria Lorenzana to Jane Goodall
Next Article

A history of the house on the hill at Ivanhoe Ranch

From Apolinaria Lorenzana to Jane Goodall
Still from Birth of a New Frontier. San Diego Library in background.
Still from Birth of a New Frontier. San Diego Library in background.

The news that Robert Rundo had been extradited from Romania to the United States to face charges of conspiracy and inciting violence at several California political rallies back in 2017 reminded me of a recent trip down one of the internet’s infinite number of rabbit holes. It began with a sentence in a July 19 NPR story carried on the KPBS website about right-wing Active Clubs: “Also White Lives Matter groups have reportedly attended ‘fight nights’ hosted by active clubs in San Diego and in Washington State.”

I…had not heard about that. Let’s Google “San Diego fight night white lives matter.” Just two hits, both from activist organizations: the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Okay, let’s see what the ADL has on its Active Clubs page. “On August 20, 2022, a variety of Active Clubs traveled from across the United States to participate in a fight night in San Diego, California…One white supremacist media source wrote, ‘Every fighter and attendee understood that they were participating in a historical first and that, like Charlottesville and the Battle of Berkeley, a man could be proud of being there for years to come.’” But: no link to any kind of news coverage. Did this thing really happen?

The Anti-Defamation League reports: “On August 20, 2022, SoCal Active Club held a fight night in San Diego, California, that a variety of white supremacist from across the United States participated in and attended.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Well, there was an accompanying photo allegedly from the event, one that featured a Confederate flag on the wall and a spectator giving a Nazi salute. Okay, Google images, have at it. Just six results, and two of them from the ADL site. Then one from the Will2Rise page on Gab Social, where it served as the header image. A number of the posts were hawking the brand’s clothing, including a Triumph of the Will hooded t-shirt, and a Blackshirts Troublemakers Club shirt. Pretty blunt stuff, given the references to Leni Riefenstahl’s famous Nazi propaganda film and Mussolini’s fascist paramilitary. There was also a post reading: “Coming soon from Media2Rise: an episode documenting the first ever Nationalist combat sports tournament that took place in Huntington Beach, California…the culmination of years of joint efforts to revitalize the warrior spirit in our people. It begins a new chapter in a healthy counter-culture for our youth…”

I guess it made sense to advertise it as being a Huntington Beach thing, since that’s Rundo’s hometown (and the site of an earlier White Lives Matter rally). But the NPR story had it right: the fight night (well, fight day) happened here, in Grantville. Media2Rise’s documentary on the event, Birth of a New Frontier, pretty clearly opens on the beach in Coronado. And at one point, a drone camera rises above the fight venue and gives away its location. Turns out San Diego made sense as well, as one of the first personalities we meet is fighter Luke, who looks an awful lot like Rundo’s associate Grady Mayfield, himself a San Diegan.

So yes, it happened. One participant said that the gathering’s ideological component gave him “a purpose, something to fight for — to prove that our ideology is superior.” Rundo is being held without bond in Los Angeles. His trial is set for December 12.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

How Much Time Do I Get With My BetterHelp Therapist?

Next Article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader