'My life is over': Man who attended Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally forced to move away after being identified
'I can’t live in this community anymore. I’m in the process of figuring out what I’m going to do'
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Your support makes all the difference.A man who attended the white supremacist march in Charlottesville has told how his “life is over” after being publicly identified.
Jarrod Kuhn was identified as a “nazi” after an anti-fascist group posted 250 fliers around the Honeoye Falls area of New York in the aftermath of the Virginia bloodshed that left three people dead.
The flier claimed Mr Kuhn is a “leading figure with the Daily Stormer, an avowedly neo-Nazi website around which local groups have been organizing to promote anti-Semitism, white supremacy and violence against LGBTQ communities,” according to the Livingston County news.
Mr Kuhn confirmed he attended the Charlottesville rally but strongly denied being a “neo-nazi”, claiming it was a “crazy assertion”.
“I’m not a neo-Nazi. I don’t belong to a German workers’ party from 1933,” he told the paper. “... I’m a moderate Republican.”
Mr Kuhn said he only travelled to Virginia to protest the removal of the Robert E Lee statue, which became the centre point of the deadly violence in the town. But he said being publicly identified has ruined his life and that his family had received death threats.
“I can’t live in this community anymore. I’m in the process of figuring out what I’m going to do,” he said. “I’m 21 years old and now my life is over in this area.”
But former friends of his took to social media to denounce him, claiming he had been bragging about his beliefs.
It comes after online vigilantes called for users to publicly identify members of the Virginia rally, the largest of its kind in over a decade.
Logan Smith, who runs the Twitter account, Yes, You’re Racist, launched a campaign to “out” potential nazis. But the controversial posts provoked a mixed reaction.
While some support his efforts, others have warned of the dangers of doxxing - the act of sharing someone's personal information, usually a phone number or address, online.
He also sparked controversy after incorrectly naming a number of innocent people who were not involved in the white nationalist demonstrations.
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