With people like Richard Tobin, the world is increasingly becoming more dangerous.
According to NJ.com, Tobin sat in the parking lot of Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey and planned to “let loose” with a machete on visitors inside the mall.
“There were so many African Americans around that it ‘enraged’ him,” an FBI agent wrote in court documents.
While he didn’t go forward with the racist act, according to FBI Special Agent Jason D. Novick, Tobin was “triggered by the state of the country.”
On Friday (Nov. 15), Tobin appeared in federal court in Camden. U.S. Magistrate Judge, Karen M. Williams, ordered Tobin to be held before a detention hearing scheduled for next month for his racist actions.
Tobin, who is a member of a white supremacist group that calls itself a “white protection league,” is the latest target in law enforcement crackdown against alleged white nationalists in South Jersey.
The group has been known to encourage its members to participate in military training, as well as “doomsday prepping.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the group may be known as “The Base” per the details from that affidavit, which corresponds to an invitation-only social media network that caught the attention of extremism watchdogs last year. The group’s symbol references a failed 1923 German coup led by Adolf Hitler.
Tobin, a resident of Brooklawn, NJ, reportedly wanted to do something drastically violent so that he could go out in a “blaze of glory”— like a suicide bombing.
Tobin’s anger was not just directed towards African Americans, but also Jewish people and the LGBTQ community. The 18-year-old is also being accused of ordering the vandalism of two Midwestern synagogues earlier this year.
One, in Michigan which was marked by the group’s symbol and swastikas on Sept 21. The next day, a synagogue in Wisconsin was defaced with the same symbols and anti-Semitic words.
On Nov. 7, a search warrant was executed to enter Tobin’s home. The authorities seized Tobin’s computer, a gaming system, and hard drives. The computer evidence showed the troubling Google searches and an internet history that included several news articles about the synagogues that were vandalized.
Tobin also reportedly Googled “suicide by cop,” and read about creating an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) or car bomb similar to what was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Feds also found photos of racist violence, a horrific video of someone firing at a mosque, and guns.
Tobin allegedly directed the “Operation Kristallnacht” from his New Jersey home, ordering the followers to “tag the s–t” out of the synagogues. According to the court filing, he told followers, “If there’s a window that wants to be broken, don’t be shy.”
Kristallnacht is a reference of an attack by Nazis in Germany that killed about 100 Jewish people in 1938, as well as burnt down synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes and businesses.
Written by Tweety Elitou
