Two men who are members of New Jersey-based white supremacist groups have been charged in a New Year‘s Eve beating that targeted three Arabic men last year.
SAYREVILLE — It was a New Year’s party with an ugly resolution for the coming year — go out and beat up Arabs.
Two members of New Jersey-based white supremacist groups were arrested by the FBI today, charged in a hate crime assault that followed a night of drinking at what authorities called a New Year’s Eve “meet and greet” social gathering for skinheads last December.
Federal authorities say the two went out looking for non-whites to attack after the party, and drove to an unnamed apartment complex in Sayreville to find them. Shouting anti-Arab slurs, the two allegedly confronted three residents outside the complex, brandished a knife and used brass knuckles and their fists in a series of unprovoked attacks.
Charged were Christopher Ising, 31, of Waretown, a purported member of white supremacist organization known as the “Atlantic City Skins,” and Michal Gunar, 27, of East Windsor, an alleged member of the “Aryan Terror Brigade.”
Both organizations are on the watch lists of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League as “active skinhead hate groups.”
According to the ADL, the Atlantic City Skins is the largest of the New Jersey-based racist skinhead groups in numbers and reach, and has ties to some outlaw motorcycle groups.
Mark Potok, a senior fellow at SPLC, said the Aryan Terror Brigade has 21 chapters in 19 states, and a web page posting names and addresses of so-called “race traitors.”
In an indictment unsealed in Newark, Ising and Gunar were charged with conspiracy and commission of a hate crime, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.
Ising has a history of violence. When he was 17, he pleaded guilty to pummeling a 14-year-old girl in the head with his fists and a crowbar. The girl, who had once dated Ising, was badly injured. Federal prosecutors said he spent 10 years in state prison for the crime and has had other run-ins with the law.
In the two-count indictment released today, Ising is said to have hosted the New Year’s Eve party last year at his former home in East Brunswick, drinking, listening to white supremacist music and talking with others about where they could go to attack non-whites.
Shortly before midnight, authorities said, Ising, who has swastika tattoos on his arms and down his back, drove with Gunar to Sayreville, looking for targets. They set upon three victims of Egyptian descent, identified only by their initials.
One was punched in the face and head after being confronted in the apartment complex parking lot, as Gunar allegedly stated “show me your faces you Arab mother [expletive],” according to the indictment. Ising allegedly assaulted a second man with brass knuckles to the head.
Authorities said Gunar bragged about the encounter on the internet, claiming “it was me and my other bro on like 6 or eight and we whooped them.”
In federal court today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Waldor in Newark, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan asked Ising be detained pending a bail hearing, citing his criminal past.
“He is a risk to the community,” Kogan said.
Ising, a big man with a shaved head, wearing a black hooded Giants sweatshirt and steel shackles, did not contest the detention order, but asked for a quick bail hearing.
“Christmas is a week away. This is something that happened a year ago,” he said in a low voice to his court-appointed attorney.
He was ordered held, ending an arraignment Jan. 3. Gunar, arrested later in the afternoon, is due to appear in court today.
If convicted, both face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
