WHITE SUPREMACIST CRAIG COBB IS A FREE MAN – NO. DAKOTA RESIDENTS SAY HE SHOULDN'T BE

A guy who just tried to take over a small town in North Dakota and is friend of a former Klansman who faces the death penalty for his recent shooting spree that killed three people who thought they were Jewish? Yeah, that’s the guy you want back on the streets.

One People’s Project

BISMARCK, ND – It was only a few months ago that white supremacist Craig Cobb emarked on a rather lofty goal – purchase lots of land in the small town of Leith, North Dakota in an effort to turn that town into a whites-only enclave. He tried this once before in the European nation of Estonia, but that fell apart when he was deported. Back home in the States he generated a lot of attention, most of it negative and he used it to sell his intentions to the general public. It all fell apart when Cobb, along with one of his pseudo-settlers, was arrested on seven felony terrorizing counts for scaring residents while patrolling Leith with a gun. He was looking at upwards of 30 years, and the town of Leith was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. But this week, that sigh of relief became outrage.

On April 29, Judge David Reich sentenced Cobb, 62, to four years supervised probation and no further jail time after he pled guilty to the charges via a deal he struck with Grant County State Attorney Todd Schwarz. This has incensed the town of Leith, many of its residents feeling that Cobb should have received some jail time. In response, Leith Mayor Ryan Schock, City Councilman Lee Cook and Leith website operator Greg Bruce earlier this month filed a complaint against Schwarz with the state attorney disciplinary board, alleging the prosecutor has acted unprofessionally and possibly unethically.

Schwarz, however, believes he handled the case properly and said Tuesday that he felt justice had been served, and that Cobb would be monitored by GPS. ‘If all of a sudden he gets within 500 yards of Leith, he’ll be back in jail,’ Schwarz said.

But Mayor Schock, who at the very least wanted Cobb to serve four years in prison, says that is not enough, and that Cobb still poses a threat to the city. “When are we going to be safe from him?” Schock asked “He has made his mark on our lives.”

Adding to the concerns is his friendship with longtime violent white supremacist and former Klansman Frazier Glenn Miller, who on April 13, allegedly gunned down three persons in both a Jewish nursing home and a Jewish community center. Miller was corresponding with Cobb while Cobb was incarcerated, his last post on the white suprmacist Vanguard News Network discussion board detailing his phone call with Cobb. “He has real high social skills. He’s a real people person,” Miller said of Cobb “That’s why it’s so shocking. Everyone likes him. He’s a natural leader.”

Miller is currently awaiting trial on charges of first degree murder. If convicted, he might receive the dealth penalty.

Two years ago, Cobb moved to Leith, a community of two dozen residents, bought a house and 12 other lots, and in August began to publicize an appeal to other white supremacists to join him in an effort to create a voting majority there. He now says he is retiring from white supremacist activities and wants to serve his probation in Missouri so he can care for his mother. He has since sold the house and lots he still maintained, but three of them are still in the hands of Alex Linder, the webmaster of the Vanguard News Network, Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance, and Jeff Schoep of National Socialist Movement.

Kynan Dutton, 29, who also was arrested in the terrorizing incident apled guilty to misdemeanors in January, and received a similar sentence or two years superised probation. He reportedly now lives with his wife in Underwood, a town not too far from Leith.