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August 8, 2012

New Details Emerge on Wisconsin Shooter’s White Supremacist Past 
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A researcher who closely studied Wade Michael Page while researching
hate music in Southern California several years ago has provided new
details about the shooter's background. In an interview published on
Huffington Post, University of Nebraska at Omaha Criminology Professor
Pete Simi said Page had a drinking problem and often struggled to get to
work and pay his share of rent and food. He emphasized the importance of
music in Page's life, describing him as an "independent neo-Nazi
skinhead who saw his musical involvement as his main form of activism."
In an email exchange with the shooter after the 9/11 attacks, Simi said
Page appeared "very angry about Muslims and said something to the effect
of America needing to go over to the Middle East and bomb 'em all." But
Simi said Page's hate rhetoric was generally targeted toward Jewish
people and nonwhites, specifically African Americans. Simi says Page's
military service strongly influenced his neo-Nazi identification in part
because he saw whites in the army as victims of reverse discrimination.
Page reportedly told Simi: "If you don't go into the military as a
racist, you definitely leave as one."

 

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