Tag Archives: American Guard

Sean Wulfe McCann: American Guard’s VSC’s Largest Probate

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This article is republished with permission from Corvallis Against Fascism.

Warning: this post contains language and images that are offensive. We do not use words like “hateful” or “anti-Semitic” lightly, and we have chosen to include this content because it is the clearest and most effective way to demonstrate Sean McCann’s beliefs. In some cases we have chosen to partially edit or obscure certain words or images. In all such cases, the content was originally posted by McCann or others without the edits.

– Utah Antifascists

The American Guard (AG) is a group of hardcore white supremacists. The organization was started in Indiana by Brien James, a former Klansman and one of the founders of a violent bonehead (neo-nazi skinhead) gang, the Vinlanders Social Club.  The American Guard has deep ties to other White Nationalist gangs like the Hammerskins, the Traditionalist Workers Party, and the Aryan Nations. Unlike many of these other overtly racist groups, American Guard also associate with alt-lite organizations like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. This makes them particularly dangerous, as they are able to bring their extreme views and violence into spaces that typically cater to regular conservatives, who they attempt to further radicalize.

American Guard has engaged in physical violence at rallies across the country. They are incredibly dangerous, and their members and associates should be treated with extreme caution.

Sean McCann is the president of American Guard’s Utah chapter. He lives in Sandy, Utah, with his wife and two young sons. McCann is also friends with Joshua Long, American Guard’s national Vice President. The two men and their families spend a lot of time together and visit each other frequently.

In addition to AG, McCann is a member of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a neo-Völkisch pagan organization that is also classified as a hate group. Asatrú is a religion that combines elements of several Scandinavian and Germanic pagan traditions. It is not an inherently racist belief system.The Asatru Folk Assembly, however, is explicitly racist, and restricts its membership to “Aryans” and “Ethnic Europeans.” Many other Asatrúers have officially dissociated themselves from AFA because of their “long and well-documented history of discrimination.”

Like many pagan nazis, Sean McCann has an affinity for the Sonnenrad or Black Sun, an ancient European symbol that has a long history of use by white nationalists. It was appropriated by the Nazis during WWII, and is sometimes combined with or used as a substitute for the swastika.

Sean McCann really enjoys anti-Semitic Facebook content. In the conversation below, a user named Don Hansard remarks that the man in the photo “might replace my lampshade” – a reference to an allegation that Nazis had used the skin of concentration camp victims to make lampshades. (The allegations are disputed, but persist in the popular imagination.) McCann replies, “LOOOOOOL.” Hansard then cautions McCann against expressing views that might conflict with American Guard’s sanitized public image.

In addition to commenting on anti-Semitic memes, McCann frequently posts Nazi propaganda and generally hateful content of his own on Facebook. In the image below on the left, he is promoting revisionist history propaganda about WWII. The image on the right is LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson, and is captioned “Be kind to LGBTQ.” McCann posted it to Facebook with the comment, “F***ing cucks!” indicating his opinion that this attitude is weak or unmanly.

Sean is married to Rebecca McCann. She is a new-age “lightworker” and realtor. She generally does not express far-right views online. However, she does wear a Mjölnir pendant, which suggests she may share her husband’s hateful religious views. The Mjölnir, or Thor’s hammer, is a symbol used by many neo-pagans. It is not an explicitly racist or fascist symbol, but it is used by many pagan white supremacists, and as such may be an indicator of Rebecca McCann’s beliefs.

When he isn’t busy being a Nazi or working for Nationwide Energy Utah/Nationwide solar,

Sean McCann trains as a powerlifter/strongman at Ironground Gym. It bears repeating that McCann and the rest of American Guard are dangerous, and should be treated with extreme caution.

Republished with permission from Corvallis Against Fascism. Thank you to Colorado Springs Antifascists, Eugene Antifa, and Long Beach Antifa for their work tracking and documenting the American Guard.

Update: Corvallis Antifascists alerted us that McCann has shifted his allegiance to the Vinlanders Social Club.

Recent photos of McCann show him in Vinlanders colors. At left, he wears a “Firm 22” patch; a Vinlanders probate patch has replaced his American Guard patch. At right, McCann’s shirt declares his support for VSC.

 

Brien James confirmed via Twitter that McCann has resigned from the American Guard.

 

Valerie & Chris Moody: American Guard’s (White) Power Couple

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This article is republished with permission from Corvallis Against Fascism.

Valerie and Chris Moody are members of the Utah Chapter of American Guard. On August 17th of 2019, they traveled to Portland, Oregon to participate in Joe Biggs’ ill-fated “End Domestic Terrorism” rally. They traveled in an armored bus, and members brought weapons, including firearms. It is safe to assume that the group went to Portland with the express intention of engaging Oregonians in physical violence. One California member, Mark Quon, attacked an antifascist with a hammer before being disarmed and smacked with it himself.

The Moodys and Quon with the American Guard contingent in Portland, Oregon

The American Guard is a group of hardcore white supremacists. The organization was started in Indiana by Brien James, a former Klansman and one of the founders of a violent bonehead (neo-Nazi skinhead) gang, the Vinlanders Social Club.  The American Guard has deep ties to other White Nationalist gangs like the Hammerskins, the Traditionalist Workers Party, and the Aryan Nations. Unlike many of these other overtly racist groups, American Guard also associate with alt-lite organizations like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. This makes them particularly dangerous, as they are able to bring their extreme views and violence into spaces that typically cater to regular conservatives, who they attempt to further radicalize.

The American Guard has engaged in physical violence at rallies across the country. They are incredibly dangerous, and their members and associates should be treated with extreme caution.

Valerie Moody serves as the National Spokesperson for American Guard, and Chris Moody is the Vice President of the Utah Chapter. As the National Spokesperson, Valerie authors the organization’s press releases, and the group’s website directs press inquiries to her.

Valerie and Chris also have ties to Salt Lake’s metal scene. Chris is the drummer for (awful) dad metal band Fear Through Flame. The band is believed to be inactive currently. Valerie Moody also helped to found Salt Lake MetalFest, a long-running music festival.

Please send any tips regarding the Moodys and their whereabouts to Utah161 at riseup.net.

Chris Moody (left) with other members of Utah American Guard

Valerie Moody

Republished with permission from Corvallis Against Fascism. Thank you to Colorado Springs Antifascists, Eugene Antifa, and Long Beach Antifa for their work tracking and documenting the American Guard.

American Guard

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The American Guard (AG) is a hate group with multiple chapters in the Intermountain West. We are providing this summary of the group’s history and beliefs as background for future articles highlighting American Guard members who live and work in our communities.

American Guard began in Indiana, as a chapter of Soldiers of Odin (SoO). SoO is an anti-immigrant Finnish vigilante group that has spread to other countries. The Indiana chapter of SoO USA was led by William Brien James, who had previously founded the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a violent neo-Nazi skinhead gang responsible for multiple murders and other violent crimes.

Brien James with the Vinlanders

In 2016 Brien James and two of his associates, Joshua Long and Ryan Ramsey, rebranded the Indiana SoO chapter as the “American Guard,” and started building it into a national organization under James’s leadership.

Ryan Ramsey (left) and Joshua Long (right)

American Guard’s platform and beliefs, as outlined on their website, are mostly unobjectionable. Few Americans would argue against the general idea that “the search of any person or their property without a warrant is unconstitutional,” for example, or that “freedom of speech means all constitutionally legal speech and thought should be equally protected.” But the devil, as always, is in the details, and American Guard professes other beliefs that are more troubling. Included in their list of beliefs is the statement, “We respect freedom of association. We consider any action taken to forcibly segregate, integrate, or restrict the movement and free association of citizens to be unconstitutional and tyrannical.” This appears to be a direct repudiation of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which declared state laws establishing racial segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional.

Their stated respect for the US Constitution, and their belief that “discipline and the law were created within societies to secure freedom, not to hinder it,” would seem to indicate that the American Guard are a law-abiding bunch. However, they also believe that “our federal government is operating in direct defiance of […] the 10th amendment, and has been for over a century.”

Screen capture from American Guard’s website

It’s unclear whether they feel obligated to follow federal laws that have been enacted in the past hundred years, but they do make it clear that violations of the group’s stated constitutional principles “amount to treason by our elected officials and law enforcement.” Constitutional penalties for treason include death, or imprisonment and a fine of not less than $10,000.

Brien James freely admits that he – and many other members of American Guard – have been involved with racist groups in the past, but he claims AG is a different kind of organization. “Several of us are former white nationalists. We are not ashamed of the choices we have made in life. We learn from them and move forward.” As for what attracts so many former neo-Nazis to join his group, James says, “They see American constitutional nationalism as a more practical and productive alternative than the ethnic nationalism they were previously engaged in.”

These statements imply that the members of American Guard no longer hold white nationalist views, but they also echo a statement to the contrary penned by Brien James in 2007, while still a member of VSC. He wrote, “After careful review of the events and circumstances, we have determined that our best course of action as Vinlanders is to separate ourselves from the racist movement … we do not see anything positive being accomplished, for our nation or our people, by participating in the white racialist movement as it stands.” He concedes, “The basic premise that ALL white people are superior and decent is flawed. They are not. … By the same token all non-whites are not savage beasts that have to be treated with disrespect in order to maintain ones ‘white power’ credentials.” He then asks rhetorically, “What does this mean? Does it mean our beliefs are wrong?” before answering, “For the most part it does not have to.”

American Guard’s stated purpose is “voluntary community protection, activism, and service based around the ideals of American Constitutional Nationalism and the preservation of western culture.” They claim to encourage “Americans of any race, class or faith to participate with us in these beliefs,” and are quick to point out that not all members of the group are white.

American Guard does accept people of color as members

If the founders and members of American Guard have indeed left behind the racism and violence they participated in previously, that is good news. But old habits die hard sometimes.

The American Guard has a history of association and cross-membership with the Proud Boys, an extremist group known for its misogynistic and anti-Muslim ideology, and its propensity for violence. AG also participated in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, marching alongside the white nationalists who chanted, “Jews will not replace us” and “Hitler did nothing wrong.”

In December of 2019, Brien James tweeted his agreement with the statement, “It’s about time the term racist is classified as an anti-white slur.”

American Guard’s logo features a pair of meat cleavers crossed over a red, white, and blue shield.

The cleavers are a reference to “Bill the Butcher,” a character from the movie Gangs of New York, who was loosely based on real-life Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole. The character is anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and an explicit racist. American Guard uses images of the character, who was portrayed in the movie by Daniel Day-Lewis, in their promotional and recruiting materials. In this image he is used as a substitute for Uncle Sam in a parody of the classic US Military recruiting poster.

As much as Brien James and his fellow gang members would like us to believe they’ve changed their ways, we’re just not willing to take their assertions at face value.

 

MORE INFORMATION

The following links have more information about American Guard. Utah Antifascists are not affiliated with these sites, and are not responsible for their content. Please be aware that some of the sites that are linked may have racist language and content, or other content that is offensive or otherwise NSFW.

Article on Brien James, detailing his past involvement with racist groups; includes the full text of the statement he wrote about VSC leaving the white racialist movement

RTV6 Indianapolis report on AG

American Guard “What We Believe” theamericanguard (dot) org/what-we-believe/

American Guard “Platform” https://theamericanguard (dot) org/platform/

ADL report on AG’s ties to white supremacist groups

Information on AG’s connections to the nativist “Know Nothing” movement

Scholarly article on the classical symbols appropriated by AG

Daniel Suarez article on Gangs of New York, including excerpt of dialogue demonstrating Bill the Butcher’s racism

RTV6 Indianapolis report on AG at Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville