MICHAEL COOK GETS 6 MOS. FOR BODY ARMOR

Michael Cook was the guy who brought World Church of the Creator’s Matt Hate to York, Pennsylvania on Jan. 12, 2002, sparking the biggest confrontation between Nazis and Antifa in years before or since. He is now sitting in a jail cell for at the most the next six months which will be followed by a house arrest for another four after he was convicted of possessing body armor which as a convicted felon he cannot do. Ever since what has been called the “Battle of York”, Cook has tried to step up his game in the WP scene, but it could never take hold. We can only imagine what he will do when he gets out, but whatever happens, we will be there to document the heilarity!

York Dispatch

A Wrightsville man with prior convictions for making terroristic threats was sentenced to federal prison Thursday for illegally possessing body armor.

Michael Wayne Cook was sentenced to six months in prison and four months of home confinement, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Harrisburg.

Saying he was “railroaded,” Cook, a self-proclaimed racist and a member of the neo-fascist group the Silver Shirts, said he was targeted by authorities because of his beliefs.

“I believe it is absolutely political. I will be a political prisoner,” he said. “I’m completely outraged. My constitutional rights have been violated.”

In 2002, Cook was responsible for bringing a white-supremacist leader to York City; the event ultimately resulted in a riot.

U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said Cook purchased a ballistic vest at a gun show in Harrisburg in March 2007. Because Cook has prior convictions of making terroristic threats and destroying property, federal law prohibits him from owning body armor.

A jury found Cook guilty after 30 minutes of deliberation following a one-day trial in Harrisburg in April.

Vest: Since he was charged nearly a year ago, Cook, former head of the York branch of the Creativity Movement, a splinter group of the now-defunct World Church of the Creator, has contended he thought the ballistics vest was actually a flak vest.

He said he sold the vest shortly after purchasing it.

In a sentencing memorandum, federal public defender Thomas Thornton, Cook’s attorney, argued his client was trapped by the government into buying the vest.

Cook said he was enticed by a FBI informant to buy the vest. The informant also tried to persuade Cook to buy guns over the period of a couple months but Cook refused to buy one, Thornton wrote.

Cook is not allowed to own a firearm.

Thornton argued in the memorandum, which requested Cook be given probation, that the vest wasn’t bulletproof.

“Michael Cook bought a shell for a bulletproof vest and did not purchase any ceramic plates which would make it bulletproof,” Thornton wrote.

Plot: However, U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith argued in his sentencing memorandum, which requested Cook be sentenced to 10 to 16 months in prison, that the vest was a tool of revenge.

Smith claimed Cook planned to purchase assault rifles and build an underground militant wing of the Creativity Movement to take revenge on people responsible for the prosecution and imprisonment of Matthew Hale, one of the national Creativity Movement’s leaders.