UK Neo-Nazi Darren Clifft Arrested after KKK-Style Mock Hanging at Rally
A notorious British neo-Nazi has been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after he was accused of posting racist and inflammatory material on the internet.
Darren Clifft, 23, from Walsall, West Midlands is believed to have been one of the ringleaders behind last month's far-right rally in Swansea, when around 50 white supremacists were confronted by a crowd of around 500 anti-racism campaigners.
Clifft, who also goes by the name Daz Christopher, is known to police having previously voiced support for the Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting spree in Norway in 2011.
Breivik was jailed for 21 years last August, but used his trial as a platform to promote his extreme anti-Islamic, anti-feminist and anti-Marxist views
Cliift, a kickboxing fanatic who has coached youngsters in the sport, has threatened similar violence in the UK, and set up an online petition to free Breivik.
"At least Breivik achieved something with his life," wrote Clifft. "He killed as many left-wing liberal loonies as he could. He is truly an inspiration. He sacrificed his life so that Europe might be free once again from the clutches of Islam."
Pictures from the Swansea March which were later posted on the internet showed a neo-Nazi rabble dressed in the white hooded robes of the Ku Klux Klan, carrying out a mock hanging of a black cloth doll.
The event, organised by the National Front, was followed by a bizarre rock concert organised by Blood and Honour, a Nazi-inspired group which takes its name from the motto of the Hitler Youth.
'A menace to society and a very real danger'
Other known white extremists including Shane Calvert, of Blackburn, and Michael Kearns, from Liverpool, along with locals David and Bryan Powell and Luke Pippen, were also at the event, according to anti-racism campaigners Hope Not Hate.
Police say Clifft has now been bailed pending further inquiries by officers from the West Midlands Counter terrorism Unit.
Matt Collins, of Hope Not Hate, said: "Not only is Darren Clifft a menace to society, he presents a very real danger to any young people he still works with.
"It's time the police took action against these kind of nutters."
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