By Thomas Manch on Stuff…
A researcher who infiltrated New Zealand’s largest neo-Nazi group, Action Zealandia, says its members are unfit, ill-disciplined and wary of committing violence after attracting public attention.
The inside glimpse into the secretive fascist organisation, whose members have previously been arrested after making violent threats and for espionage, has revealed six members have military experience, of which two are currently serving.
Despite this, Action Zealandia has been described as “ill-disciplined”, with members failing to live up to their “far more extreme” online personas, in a research paper based on an 18-month-long infiltration published in Political Science.
The researchers suggest that such “deflating” participation in a group could divert possibly violent extremists away from dangerous behaviour, such as committing terror attacks like the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019.
James Halpin joined Action Zealandia to investigate and research the group while at the University of Auckland, participating in the group’s online chatrooms and events. He now works as a reporter for Stuff in the Auckland newsroom, but was not employed by Stuff while a member of the group…
Read the full story on Stuff here.
