22 hate groups exist in Central Florida, Southern Poverty Law Center says

Former Central Florida politician was headliner at Charlottesville rally

The Christian American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is based in Cocoa, white nationalist group America Vanguard is based in Orlando, and black separatist group Nation of Islam is based in Pine Hills.

They are three of the 22 hate groups that exist in Central Florida, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC. In Florida, there are 66 hate groups, according to a "Hate Map" released by SPLC in 2017.

According to its website, the SPLC "is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society."

The SPLC lists more than three dozen hate groups across the state of Florida.

In 2014, prosecutors said the American Front, a neo-Nazi group, was training in rural Osceola County.

Marcus Faella, the accused leader of the American Front, was convicted of paramilitary training in 2014; jurors noted they believed that Faella was planning to select his victims specifically based on race.

Prosecutors said Faella and 13 other members of his American Front organization were preparing for an all-out race war to be waged in Central Florida.

Florida attorney Augustus Invictus ran for U.S. Senate in Central Florida last year as a Libertarian.

Flyers posted on social media advertising the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday list Invictus as a headliner for the event.

Richard Spencer, the man who claims he organized the rally that turned violent, wrote on AltRight.com that he and Invictus collaborated on what they call "The Charlottesville Statement," a list defining race, Jews, women, and white America, among other groups and terms.

Invictus describes himself on Twitter as a radical philosopher and social critic, agitator, rebel, "and the most dangerous Libertarian in America."

Invictus' Senate campaign was perhaps best known for him sacrificing a goat and drinking its blood.

He lost the U.S. Senate Florida Libertarian primary to Libertarian challenger Paul Stanton.

Invictus, according to the Orlando Sentinel, is representing Faella as Faella appeals his conviction. Faella has said he has severed all ties with the American Front.


About the Author

Erik von Ancken anchors and reports for News 6 and is a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist in the prestigious and coveted "On-Camera Talent" categories for both anchoring and reporting.