A participant shows his tattoo as members of the Trinity White Knights, along with members from other KKK groups and new initiates, attend a gathering and cross-burning marking the 160th anniversary of the Ku Klan (Reuters)
New York Times reporter Debra Kamin says the Trump administration is emboldening racists to defy 57-year-old anti-discrimination housing laws.
Eric Orwoll and Peter Csere believe their “Return to the Land” residential community development meets the requirements for a legal exemption for private associations and religious groups that offer housing to their members, and they’re using it to reserve home lots exclusively for heterosexual white residents.
When asked “Why and why now” Kamin said it comes down to who occupies the White House.
“Racism is, as you know, definitely not anything new. But definitely ‘why now’ is because there is a feeling among the architects of this community and the people who created it that they can get away with it now, because even though the laws obviously very explicitly make it illegal to discriminate, a lot of things that we took as rules and norms just a few months ago no longer really apply,” Kamin said. “They feel that at the highest levels of government, they will be allowed to do this.”
The Times reports Csere, who was arrested in Ecuador for stabbing a miner and remains accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a vegan community there, is breaking ground in Arkansas.
Kamin told CNN while visiting the compound that founder Orwoll pulled a copy of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, “Mein Kampf” from a bookshelf and turned it around to hide its spine just before Times photographers snapped pictures of the room. But Orwoll insists he is not a racist.
“I'm not asking for supremacy over anyone else,” Orwoll said in a clip. “Return to the Land is not a supremacist group. It's not a hate group. It's not even a white nationalist group. We are white identitarians. We value our identity and want to preserve it. That's not hate. That is love for your own people.”
Kamin said the state attorney general is investigating the legality of the development but has done nothing beyond that because “someone would have to say that they've been wronged, and that's where it gets tricky.”
“For someone to say they've been wronged, you would have to have, someone who wants to live here and was rejected, and how many Black or Jewish or gay families are going to want to move to this compound in the middle of Arkansas?” Kamin said. “They’re clearly in violation of the Fair Housing Act, but to bring a legal case against them is going to take a few more steps."
Watch the video below or at this link.
Convicted German transgender right-wing extremist to serve time in women's prison
In July 2023, Marla-Svenja Liebich, then still known as Sven, was sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment without probation by the Halle district court. A year and a half later, Sven became Marla-Svenja by simple deed poll, made possible under a new law.
Marla-Svenja Liebich, previously known as Sven Liebich, has been convicted of right-wing extremist activities, including incitement to hatred, and is due to start a prison sentence soon. The public prosecutor's office in Halle has summoned Liebich to appear at Chemnitz prison.
Liebich published a corresponding summons to start his sentence in a post on Platform X.
According to current plans, Liebich will initially be held in a prison for women.
The background to this is a corresponding self-disclosure on gender identity, based on the new regulations of the Self-Determination Act, which came into force in November last year.
The reformed law makes it possible to have the gender entry adjusted by means of a personal declaration.
Warnings about abuse of new 'self-declaration' law
Since the coalition government's plans for the law became known, concerns have repeatedly been raised about possible abuse. During the election campaign, the CDU/CSU clearly took up the issue. Andrea Lindholz, then deputy chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, declared in April last year that the coalition had "lost its way" with this law.
The coalition agreement signed by the SPD and CDU/CSU in May last year merely stated that the Self-Determination Act would be reviewed "by 31 July 2026 at the latest".
During the coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD, it was therefore not dealt with in the justice working group, but by the negotiators for the "Family" department.
According to German tabloid BILD, however, no agreement could be reached there on how to deal with the law. The issue was therefore referred back to the party leaders. The result was merely a vague formulation in the coalition agreement.
'Clear criteria'
As Benedikt Bernzen, spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office in Halle, explained to German public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), the decision on placement is now based on two clear criteria: the officially registered gender, in Marla-Svenja Liebich's case female, and the registered place of residence.
As this is in Saxony, the local enforcement plan there applies, which provides for female prisoners to be detained in Chemnitz Prison.
However, the Saxon Ministry of Justice emphasised to the local daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that additional psychological or medical reports can be used in certain cases. These include, for example, if there is a suspicion that someone may have deliberately changed the gender entry in order to influence the prison conditions.
In July 2023, Liebich was sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment without probation by the Halle district court.
The sentence included incitement to hatred, insult and defamation. Appeals by both Liebich and the public prosecutor's office failed before the Halle district court.
Liebich had changed gender and first name by making a "simple declaration" to the registry office in Schkeuditz in north-west Saxony.
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