IS KEYSTONE STATE 'SKINHEADS' TRYING TO GIVE IT ANOTHER SHOT?

Now it never bothers us when the KSSholes try something, but over the next few weeks, it seems to be the group we haven’t heard jack from in over a year and a half is attempting a Hail Mary of sorts. The last time anyone had seen an organized effort on the part of Keystone State “Skinheads” it was the Leif Ericsson Day event in October 2009. We heard rumors of infighting, saw people go to different crews, and some folks on Stormfront trying to keep it together with brand new websites for the group. Now it seems they are all the talk again, mostly because they decided to announce a few events over the next few weeks, including one that just so happens to be on the same day Anti-Racist Action announced their conference – which means, conveniently enough for KSS, ARA won’t be in town to oppose them! Meanwhile, their own personal Uncle Ruckus of the antifa scene Joe Hardcore is running defense for this crowd yet again because – yet AGAIN –  he is allowing an associate of KSS (who has never been a member – which to Hardcore makes it okay) to table at a huge hardcore punk show happening this weekend. That launched a thousand blog entries calling for people to boycott the fest. And to be honest, folks just need to start putting on more shows in Philly that don’t have Joe Hardcore or R5 Productions involved with them. Because if KSS is trying to make moves again, the last thing we need are people making excuses for them being in the scene.

One People’s Project

When they started in 2001, the Keystone State “Skinheads” (KSS) were among the most prominent white power crews in the country, let alone the state of Pennsylvania, but slowly but surely the opposition used that prominence to their own advantage, making them pariahs whenever they tried to do anything in the state. When their third annual “Leif Ericson Celebration” in Philadelphia back in 2009 was met with opposition, that would be the last time anyone would see this crew publicly. Soon, KSS was eventually written off as dead letter, but its members are still out there. Some have joined other organizations like Atlantic City “Skins”, the Vinlander Social Club and the white suprmacist political party American Third Position (A3P). KSS however is still trying to maintain what’s left of it, and is trying to rebuild. It is a rather curious thing, however that three events are going to take place this weekend that will attract the neo-Nazi scene in Pennsylvania, most notably past and present associates of KSS.

One event is to take place this Saturday in the Harrisburg, PA area. It is a BBQ sponsored by KSS, who has created a new website and now lists its mailing address in Camp Hill, PA, a suburb of Harrisburg. The state capital has been one of the places where a number of members were mostly concentrated, but as the group tries to gain its stature it wants those areas that is considered lost to them, mainly the urban areas of the state. The next event KSS plans is a White Power concert in Philadelphia on Sept. 17 – which just so happens to be the day of the Anti-Racist Action conference in Chicago, which suggests that much of the antifa in the area that would otherwise oppose them will be out of town. The conference was announced months before KSS began promoting their concert.

About three hours away from Harrisburg, in the Scranton suburb of Moosic, PA, there will be a “European American Heritage Celebration” sponsored by A3P. Held in Mercatili Segilia Park as it was last year, it is organized by A3P representative Steve Smith who in addition to being a onetime member of the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and David Duke’s European Rights Organization (EURO), was a founding member of KSS. It is not certain what his status with KSS is currently, but it does strike curious the fact that two events in Pennsylvania that cater to the same white power circles is happening at the same time.

And then there is a third event this weekend that has raised a bit of controversy. This is Hardcore is a hardcore music festival featuring acts like H2O and Madball that will take place Aug. 14-17 in Philadelphia. while the festival itself is apolitical, but questions have arisen because of one of the vendors that will be there. Hostile City Designs is a T-Shirt company run by Van Culgan a onetime associate of neo-Nazis groups and individuals, and the cousin of Gabrial Carafa a member of the Florida-based white power crew The Hated who is currently imprisoned on weapons charges. Culgan himself has also seen trouble. When he lived in Delaware, he and KSS member Andy Boyle tried to rough up a black pizza delivery man and ended up getting arrested on a theft charge after they took the pizza without paying. In recent years however, he has claimed that he is not involved in the neo-Nazi scene, but many of his associates are, and Hostile City Designs had at one time produced a t-shirt of the white power band Skullhead. Regardless, Hostile City Designs, in addition to tabling various Tea Party events like one in Philadelphia’s Love Park in 2010, has been seen at Philly-area shows, many of them promoted by former Friends Stand United (FSU) member Joe Hardcore, who also saw controversy when he attempted to bring the racist, homophobic band One Life Crew to perform at the First Unitarian Church, but after protest moved the show to another venue. Hardcore, who despite his history fighting neo-Nazis as a member of FSU has had associations with KSS members and has caught flak in the past for making overtures to them, is also promoting This is Hardcore.

Within a day of Hostile City Designs announcing on their Facebook page, the word spread around social networks about Culgan’s associations with some calling for a boycott of This is Hardcore. One post that was spread around read, “Don’t stop at their booth. Don’t buy from them. Yell obscenities at them if you feel the need.” All of this got Joe Hardcore’s attention, and just like he did during the One Life Crew controversy, went into damage control, writing a statement on his Tumblr page defending Hostile City Designs and saying that the company is not run by a racist. “(T)he idea that the owner of hostile city designs is in KSS. (sic) 1st there is no active keystone state skinheads in philadelphia,” Hardcore wrote. “(I)ts a myth perpetuated by internet anarchists that need to validate their existence by creating an enemy that is no longer around. The owner is not in a skinhead gang, nor would there be any racists skinheads allowed at TIH.”

However in the midst of the controversy, the onetime head of the Philadelphia chapter of KSS stepped up to also defend the company. While Keith Carney has grown his hair out, been seen at various local metal shows and runs a metal blog, he has not been active politically in over a year. Still, he decided to chime in on the issue surrounding his friend Van in a internet chatroom, defending Van as not now or ever being a member of KSS. “The KSS has always been a convenient boogie man,” Keith Carney wrote. “(E)veryone’s always kss and they’re always lurking in the night committing all these things…”

For the first time Carney also publicly detailed the status of KSS, which he renamed Keystone United at one point, and his role with the group. “I’m actually not in the KSS anymore either btw,” he wrote. “I tried to cut all the undesirable aspects out of it sometime ago by creating Keystone United. Eliminating the whole drunk, thug, hateful nature that goes hand and hand with skinhead nonsense…
but I’ve grown tired of even that and just do my own thing, not very interested in being active in anything of that nature anymore.”

It remains to be seen how much KSS manages to recoup from what amounts to their heyday, but with them being a pariah on the scene, and a rather diminished and unenthusiastic membership, it is not certain if anything will be seen at all. But hope springs eternal. By Sunday, Hostile City Designs posted a message on their Facebook page: “Fuck the haters! We’re not going anywhere!” Among the people who “liked” the statement was neo-Nazi and onetime KSS associate Bryan P. Vanagatis, who is seen on videos participating in the Leif Ericsson Day Celebrations that Carney organized via KSS.

Click image to enlarge.

Old Hostile City Designs Facebook pages