Neo-Nazi Who Threatened Mass Murder of Latinx People Thanked God for Donald Trump: Court Docs
Federal law enforcement in Washington state arrested 35-year-old Eric Lin last week, alleging he made a series of threats toward a Miami-area Latinx family over the past several months. The threats, which called for the eradication of minority groups, also allegedly included references to President Donald Trump, whom Lin reportedly thanked for an impending “racial war.”
According to the Miami New Times, Lin—who has been charged with interstate transmission of threatening communication—is accused of sending multiple Facebook messages to a Spanish immigrant, identified only as “C.I” in an FBI affidavit, threatening that “In 3 short years your entire Race your entire culture will Perish only then after I kill your Spic family I will permit you to die by hanging on Metal Wire.”
In another message, Lin, who also frequently spoke approvingly of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, is accused of writing (emphasis mine):
I thank god every day Donald John Trump is President and that he will launch a Racial War and Crusade to keep the Niggers, Spics, and Muslims and any dangerous non-White or Ethnically or Culturally foreign group “In Line.” By “in Line” it is meant that they will either be sent to “Concentration Camps” or dealt with Ruthlessly and Vigorously by the United States Military.
Lin had also allegedly been coordinating with an accomplice to assault C.I.
“I was wondering if you can go to Miami and beat up this Spic who insulted me,” the FBI claims Lin wrote to a man identified as “Chris” on July 10. “I can pay you $10,000.”
“You don’t need to kill her her,” he continued. “Hurt her at most you will be charged with Kidnapping. Nothing will happen to you if you get the Right lawyers She’s a Spic who Hates White Americans… I doubt the FBI would care much about her.”
More recently, Lin is accused of threatening that “the time will come when Miami will burn to the ground—and every Latin Man will be lined up against a Wall and Shot and every Latin Woman Raped or Cut to Pieces.”
Lin is just the latest Trump follower to cite the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric in his threats against minority communities. Patrick Crusius, the suspect in this month’s mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, echoed Trump’s xenophobic messaging, writing “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas”—a phrase Trump has used. He also claimed that his hatred “predate[s] Trump.”
Trump, meanwhile, has blamed the media for contributing to the “anger and rage that has built up over many years.”
According to the Associated Press, Lin appeared for his first court hearing on Monday, and has not yet entered a plea in response to the charges. He is scheduled to appear at a bail hearing in Seattle next week.