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The organisers of an annual fight sports activities occasion allegedly advised the venue proprietor that they have been utilizing the area to movie an activewear industrial that includes a small “crowd” together with girls and youngsters.
In actuality, the occasion hosted on Aug. 30 by SoCal Energetic Membership was a part of a motion that champions violent and racist concepts. It featured fight sports activities fights and performances from two neo-Nazi bands who every have had a member concerned in deadly violence, together with one for a 2012 mass homicide described by the previous US Lawyer Normal as a “heinous act of hatred and terror”.
Bellingcat verified a tip-off from impartial researcher Wiley D. Cope and researchers from SoCal Analysis Membership (SCRC) that the occasion was held at a suburban San Diego skilled wrestling venue based mostly on photographs posted by SoCal Energetic Membership in addition to a teaser video posted by a far-right propaganda outlet, which Bellingcat will not be naming to stop amplification. The venue operates as knowledgeable wrestling faculty on weekdays, and is accessible for rental for occasions on weekends.
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Charles Smith, co-founder and CEO of Rising Star Leisure Group, which leases out the venue, confirmed the situation after Bellingcat confirmed him photographs of the occasion. He advised Bellingcat by e-mail that he was not conscious that the area was getting used for an Energetic Membership occasion, and had by no means heard of the group or “any type of racial motion right here in San Diego of that calibre” earlier than he was contacted by journalists about it.
Smith mentioned he was advised by the occasion’s hosts by way of Peerspace, a third-party reserving and rental web site, that the reserving was to shoot “an energetic health clothes model prototype industrial”.
“I used to be knowledgeable that there could be a small viewers of individuals that might be getting used because the ‘crowd’ for the filming and that it might embody girls and youngsters,” Smith advised Bellingcat, “so in fact I assumed nothing of it.”
Upon verifying from the pictures that the occasion did certainly happen at his venue, Smith mentioned that it was “disappointing that that is plain proof that this occasion occurred right here with this viewers”.
The worldwide Energetic Membership motion focuses on utilizing health, combating and trend to recruit younger males and boys into the far proper, normalise fascist concepts and put together them for bodily violence. The Energetic Membership motion was based by American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo, who’s at present on probation in the US after having pleaded responsible in December 2024 to planning and fascinating in riots at political rallies throughout California in 2017.
Since 2023, Bellingcat has been monitoring and geolocating annual “combat nights” held within the US, the place white nationalist teams that concentrate on coaching their members to combat towards their purported enemies collect.
“Collaborations with different Energetic Golf equipment and neo-fascist organisations, such because the Patriot Entrance, function necessary cultural occasions for the far-right to develop their sphere of affect,” Heidi Beirich from the US-based World Undertaking Towards Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), advised Bellingcat by e-mail.
“Exposing Energetic Membership and neo-fascist actions related to violence helps to tell the general public, and authorities, in regards to the beliefs that flip into violence,” Beirich added, “particularly when these beliefs have turn out to be commonplace in mainstream politics.”
Smith, who advised Bellingcat that he’s of combined African-American and Japanese ethnicity, mentioned that he visited the venue late within the night after the occasion, when the hosts have been cleansing up.
“I used to be greeted with pats on the again, handshakes, and a pair [of] ‘thanks for letting us use the area, drastically appreciated,’” he advised Bellingcat. “It’s onerous to consider it’s the identical group.”
SoCal Energetic Membership and the far-right propaganda outlet, which was based by Rundo, didn’t reply to Bellingcat’s requests for remark.
Figuring out Particulars: An Orange Wall
On Sept. 2, SoCal Energetic Membership posted a number of photographs on their Telegram channel from the occasion. Two of those photographs present particulars of the venue, together with an orange-coloured a part of a wall within the background.
The photographs additionally present a banner for a help group of the Hammerskins, a violent worldwide neo-Nazi gang that has hyperlinks to the Energetic Membership motion, notably within the United States. Hammerskins members have been convicted of a number of crimes, together with assault and homicide.
A 12-second black-and-white teaser video launched by the far-right propaganda outlet based by Rundo gave a blurry concept of the form of the constructing and the ceiling of the venue.
These photographs offered essential clues for Cope and researchers from SCRC, a Southern California-based analysis collective that displays and shares info on hate and extremist teams, together with Energetic Golf equipment. Based mostly on native data of the realm and their familiarity with the actions of members of the Energetic Membership chapter in Southern California, they started looking for San Diego County gyms and warehouses with boxing rings for hire. They discovered the venue the identical day the teaser video was launched, Cope mentioned.
Bellingcat was in a position to verify that this was the situation of the Energetic Membership fight sports activities occasion, utilizing movies and pictures from earlier occasions held by the wrestling faculty (which we’re selecting to not title as there isn’t any proof that they’ve any involvement within the occasion).
In a video posted on the varsity’s YouTube channel on Aug. 17, 2025 – two weeks earlier than the Energetic Membership occasion – the identical orange wall and black banners with orange trim which might be solely partially obscured on the Energetic Membership occasion, are seen. Additionally seen in each the venue’s YouTube video and the photographs posted from the Energetic Membership occasion is a wood ceiling beam, with wires on the left-hand facet.
One other photograph posted by the hosts additional confirmed that the skilled wrestling venue was the situation of the Energetic Membership fight sports activities occasion. In a photograph taken of one of many neo-Nazi bands that carried out on the occasion, brown beams and wires are seen on the ceiling; these identical beams and wires, in the identical positions, could be seen in photographs posted by the venue on their Peerspace web page promoting the venue for hire for occasions.
Bands ‘A Main Trigger For Concern’
The Energetic Membership occasion was greater than only a “combat night time”. Of their submit after the occasion, the SoCal Energetic Membership hosts thanked two US-based neo-Nazi bands for his or her musical performances after the fights, praising the bands for “actually topping the occasion off with unimaginable power.”
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Bellingcat will not be naming the bands to keep away from amplification, who’ve been energetic for a few years in US and worldwide neo-Nazi music scenes.
Each bands have had members related to violence, together with mass homicide. A former member of one of many bands, Wade Michael Web page, murdered seven folks at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012 earlier than taking his personal life in what US authorities known as a hate crime and a terrorist act. Web page was additionally a member of the Hammerskins.
A present member of the opposite band that carried out on the Energetic Membership occasion pleaded responsible in 2012 to tried involuntary manslaughter and served jail time for his crime. This band member punched a person outdoors a Michigan bar and finally induced the person’s demise from a extreme mind damage.
In line with the GPAHE’s Beirich, the presence of those bands is “a serious trigger for concern, albeit unsurprising contemplating the aim of the Energetic Membership motion relies on beliefs in an impending, and unavoidable, race warfare”.
“The historical past of violence related to Energetic Golf equipment is evident,” Beirich added.
Night Vigil Turned Into Alleged Assault
Two weeks after the fight sports activities occasion on Sept. 13, members of one of many Energetic Golf equipment that organised it participated in an alleged assault in Huntington Seaside, California.
Members of Patriot Entrance, SoCal Energetic Membership and different far-right and neo-Nazi teams took half in a night vigil in Huntington Seaside, within the Los Angeles metropolitan space, in honour of assassinated right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
In line with reporting from the occasion by The LA Ten 4, a publication overlaying points surrounding first responders within the Los Angeles space, the person who was attacked was a vigilgoer who confronted the far-right group together with a number of others, calling them “un-American” and “traitors” and following the group right into a parking storage.
Video footage of the assault taken by The LA Ten 4 reveals the person being punched, kicked and stomped on by a number of others. Not less than two of the attackers seem like sporting SoCal Energetic Membership t-shirts, identifiable as such by photographs and movies posted from the vigil.
SoCal Energetic Membership has not responded to Bellingcat’s request for touch upon their obvious involvement on this assault as of publication.
Wiley D. Cope contributed analysis to this piece.
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