Revealed: How white supremacists terrorised New Zealand for decades

Warning: This article contains content that may disturb some people.

It's Sunday morning, and armed police are visiting New Zealanders' homes as part of the response to the Christchurch terror attack.

"The reason we're here, it's basically down to the recent events in Christchurch," a police officer tells one man.

"A number of people have been identified that we've been tasked to go and speak to. You are one of those people."

But while there have been 13 arrests for sharing the video, when it comes to white supremacy or people linked to it, police say they have made zero arrests. They say the response is about "community reassurance" instead.

Newshub spoke to one of those visited. He did not really want to cooperate, but said he had been asking people how many white supremacists they knew and the answer was "virtually zero". He accused Newshub of "spreading disinformation".

The dark history of white power in NZ 

 

Gang expert Jarrod Gilbert says up until now, much of the far-right has often been viewed here as sad idiots.

"They were more sort of bumbling, no one took them particularly seriously," he told Newhsub.

But there has always been a dangerous element to the white power movement here. Gilbert describes them as "hard-as-nails skinhead street-gang kind of guys" who thrived in the South Island.

The most notorious was the Fourth Reich, which terrorised Nelson and the West Coast.

They were responsible for the murders of young Māori man Hemi Hutley, gay man James 'Janis' Bamborough, Korean tourist Jae Hyeon Kim and Christchurch woman Vanessa Pickering.

Like the Nazis they emulated, most of the skinheads' venom was aimed at Jews. But then, in 2001, 9/11 happened and the extreme far-right added a new 'enemy' to the list. Sociologist Paul Spoonley says this led to new followers.

"They were much more online and they were much more Islamophobic than anti-Semitic. And they were much more internationally connected," he told Newshub.

But no one listened to the warnings

 

Joris De Bres was the Race Relations Commissioner from 2002 until 2013.

Alarmed at an increase in threats against Muslims, he repeatedly asked the Government and police to start recording crimes motivated by hatred and racism.

"I don't think we're sufficiently aware that we do have people among us who do those things and who have a real and worrying hatred," he told Newshub.

But when they wouldn't collect the data, De Bres started collecting it himself. During his time as Commissioner there were more than 100 race-related crimes reported in the media.

"I always had the sense that it was only the tip of the iceberg," he says.

Aliya Danzeisen from the Islamic Women's Council has been abused many times for her religion and the clothes she wears.

"I've had a car drive up on the curb towards me and then swing by laughing," she told Newshub.

She says the rise of the Islamic State saw a rise in Islamophobia here. So five years ago the Women's Council wrote a report about the increasing discrimination and sent it to the Ministry of Social Development. She says nothing happened.

She says regular pleas for the police and the SIS to monitor the rise of alt-right groups followed - and were also ignored.

Hooked into the global white supremacist network 

 

Globally, white supremacy was on the up: the march on Charlottesville was just one symbol of a global movement linked by everyday social media platforms and darker sites like 8Chan.

And it was getting violent. Dylann Roof killed nine black Americans at a church in 2015, then Robert Bowers killed 11 Jews at a synagogue in 2018.

Another Islamic Women's Council member Anjun Rahman saw it coming.

"It was only a matter of time before it came here."

And it did on March 15.

The accused gunman appears to fit the pattern and profile of young men who have been radicalised on sites such as 8Chan.

"They are part of a big international network and that's a big challenge here in New Zealand, just not realising that we're now hooked into this conspiratorial, racial vilification, white supremacist network," Spoonley says.

Of the Christchurch victims, the Prime Minister said: "They are us. This person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not."

But he is part of a growing movement in New Zealand.

"The far right have been part of us and are us," Spoonley says.

Blenheim man Joseph Ward has a swastika tattoo and the email handle "Nazi New Zealand".

"I've been told I am you for 30 years.  And now I'm not you... I'm exiled," he says. "We need to have a national conversation."

So the warning signs about white supremacy have always been there - year after year.

But as a nation, we ignored them.

Newshub.