Nazi Lowriders
Encyclopedia
The Nazi Lowriders or NLR or "The Ride" are a white supremacist criminal organization primarily based in southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, although it is believed to have spread to other states. They are allies of the larger and more notorious gang, the Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Brotherhood
The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, or the One-Two, is a white supremacist prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 20,000 members in and out of prison...

. Their main rivals are the Bloods
Bloods
The Bloods are a street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. They are identified by the red color worn by their members and by particular gang symbols, including distinctive hand signs...

, the Crips
Crips
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang. They were founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams...

, Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

 Chicano gang members (i.e. the Norteños
Norteños
The Norteños , also Norte, are affiliated with Nuestra Familia , are a coalition of traditionally Latino gangs in Northern California A member of these gangs is a Norteño or Norteña based on Spanish usage...

 and their parent group Nuestra Familia
Nuestra Familia
Nuestra Familia is a criminal organization of Mexican American prison gangs with origins in Northern California. While members of the Norteños gang are considered to be affiliated with Nuestra Familia, being a member of Nuestra Familia itself does not signify association as a Norteño...

) and the Black Guerrilla Family
Black Guerrilla Family
The Black Guerrilla Family is a prison and street gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson and W.L...

.

History

The gang originated in the mid to late 1970s as middlemen and muscle for the Aryan Brotherhood, but was not really noticed by law enforcement until the early 1990s, by which time the California authorities had been cracking down on the Brotherhood and gave the Lowriders more room to move in. As opposed to other white criminal gangs in California prisons, the NLR gained a reputation for being very violently pro-active instead of reactive. They are labeled as a prison gang
Prison gang
Prison gang is a term used to denote any type of gang activity in prisons and correctional facilities. Prison officials and others in law enforcement use the term security threat group or STG...

 by the California Department of Corrections
Department of Corrections
A Department of Corrections is a governmental agency responsible for overseeing the incarceration of persons convicted of crimes within a particular jurisdiction. Entities serving that purpose include:* Department of Corrections...

. They are strong in numbers in such California communities as Oildale
Oildale, California
Oildale is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Oildale is located north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 469 feet . The population was 32,684 at the 2010 census, up from 27,885 at the 2000 census...

, Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....

, Inland Empire
Inland Empire (California)
The Inland Empire is a region in Southern California. The region sits directly east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Inland Empire most commonly is used in reference to the U.S. Census Bureau's federally-defined Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, which covers more than...

, and Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...

. The Nazi part of their name is more a sign of a racist belief in white supremacy than anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

, while Lowriders is a play on the term used for Hispanic gangs.

The gang eventually progressed from being muscle for the Brotherhood to a fast-growing gang in their own right. Unlike other white supremacist gangs, they appear to be well organized and have developed links with other white gangs throughout the West Coast including the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

. Paroled gang members have been known to move east to further spread the organization's reach.

On January 28, 1999, California prison officials recognised the Lowriders as a prison gang, and inmates known to be members could now be subject to be removed from general population and other restrictive treatment in an attempt to disrupt the gang's criminal activities. The Lowriders responded by striking an alliance with Public Enemy No. 1
Public Enemy No. 1
The gang started as "Peni Death Squad ,a punk gang in the 1980s, the name being derived from the anarcho-punk/deathrock band, 'Rudimentary Peni'. Originally, PDS were mainly a loose-knit group of suburban kids, runaways and homeless kids. Other punk gangs, La Mirada punks, Vicious Circle, The HB's,...

, another white disruptive group, which has since taken over the reins on California's white mainline prison population. Where Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Brotherhood
The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, or the One-Two, is a white supremacist prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 20,000 members in and out of prison...

 and NLR have left off, PENI or Public Enemy No. 1 (Pronounced 'PEE NYE') plan to continue the 'key holding'.

Organization and members

In prison the Nazi Lowriders have a three-tier hierarchy system consisting of senior members, junior members and kids. The seniors typically lead the gang, and some may be old enough to have been in the gang since its early days. For senior status, gang members must have been active for at least five years and been elected by at least three other senior members. Below them are juniors, who cannot themselves induct new members but can attempt to recruit potentials. Kids usually come from smaller gangs like Public Enemy No.1, and the senior member who inducts them becomes their mentor. On the streets the organization structure is not so clear and appears to be more loosely connected.

Gang members may have tattoos and other body art depicting swastikas and SS sigrunes, although they are not necessarily required to do so. A tattoo of the letters NLR commonly appears on the stomach, back or neck and while it stands for Nazi Lowriders, they may deny involvement to certain people and claim it means No Longer Racist or other NLR terms. Other popular tattoos include Nazi Low Riders written in Old English script or the runic alphabet
Runic alphabet
The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...

.

Despite the NLR's avowed racism, Latino last names and Latino wives and girlfriends are OK, but, experts say, members are supposed to be at least half Caucasian. All must show loyalty to the white race and subscribe to an ideology of hatred, especially against blacks and "race traitors."

The 8 Keys

This is the oath that is taken before one joins the NLR:

1. I, as a Nazi Low Rider, hereby swear an unrelenting oath upon the green graves of our sires, upon the children in the wombs of our wives, upon the throne of god almighty, sacred to his name, to join together in the holy union with the brothers in this circle and to declare forthright that from this day moment on that I have no fear of death, no fear of foe, that I have a sacred duty to do whatever is necessary to deliver our people from the Jew and bring total victory to the Nazi Low Riders.

2. I, as a Nazi Low Rider Warrior, swear myself to complete secrecy to the Order and total loyalty to my comrades.

3. Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should one of you fall in battle, I will see to the welfare and well being of your family.

4. Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should one of you be taken prisoner, I will do whatever is necessary to regain your freedom.

5. Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should an enemy agent hurt you, I will chase him to the ends of the earth and remove his head from his body.

6. And furthermore, let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that if I break this oath let me be forever cursed upon the lips of our people as a coward and an oath breaker.

7. My brothers, let us be his battle axe and weapons of war. Let us go forward by one’s and two’s, by scores and legions and as true Nazi Low Riders with pure hearts and strong minds face the enemies of our brotherhood and families, with courage and determination.

8. We hereby invoke the blood covenant and declare that we are in a full state of war and will not lay down our weapons until we have driven the enemy into the sea and reclaimed that which is rightfully ours. Through our blood and gods will, the land will be that of our children.

“UNTIL DEATH”

Criminal activity

The organization is involved in criminal activity both in and out of prison, notably in the production and distribution of methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...

and has become a major distributor of the drug in Southern California.

While the organization's main motive appears to be criminal profit it has been associated with a number of racist attacks, including several outside prison. The most prominent incident associated with the gang occurred on April 1996, Danny Williams and Eric Dillard, two known members of the gang, beat a black teenage boy to death with a baseball bat. In July of the same year, they attacked two more black men, stabbing one of them in the back several times.

More information

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