Vague threats via white supremacists

Being a freelance writer has its costs. About half of the articles I write either spark a little controversy, annoy an interview subject, or result in someone getting hurt or thrown in jail. It can be tough to shoulder the responsibility of, say, a police crackdown, after publishing a piece about escorts on craigslist.

But this is the first time that I've had to consider running out to buy health insurance just in case I get beat up. After the Nazi Skinheads piece (see below) went up on the newswire, the paper received an email from Volksfront. The white power group demanded that we pull the information about Randall Krager's neighborhood from the article (days after it was published, duh,) mentioned both my pen name and my real name (they do their research,) and ended with this lovely bit:

" The use of the address in the context published is
very obviously an attempt to provide criminal elemtents with information
that could harm or members or the general public. We sincerely hope you
consider this request prior to our exploration or other remedy."

Most interesting about Volksfront's letter is their belief that "criminal elements" might use the Krager info to harm someone. Krager is, after all, a man who served time in the Oregon prison system for nearly murdering someone in a racist hate attack. And what do they mean by "exploration or other remedy?" Yikes!

Luckily, I wrote another article covering the anti-racist skins in town and, in the process, met about 10 gigantic bouncer-types who seemed pretty willing to bodyguard anyone the white supremacists might target. I'm not really worried. Even Volksfront knows that if they tried to beat up a journalist there would be a media frenzy of national proportions. But still, it felt like kind of a close call.

Read the anti-racist skinhead article in the Hard Copy section.