SKINHEAD LEADER SETS UP SHOP IN CEDAR CITY HOME

CEDAR CITY -- A racist skinhead group is making waves in this
southern Utah community where it plans to set up national
headquarters and begin a "nonviolent" fight against drugs.

Christopher Davis, a self-proclaimed racist skinhead, said he wants
to quell a growing drug problem through peaceful means, such as
staging protests in front of drug houses and offering activities to
thwart boredom for youth.

"We're not here to start a problem," he said Sunday. "We're not here
on the pretenses of being anti-law enforcement or anti-government. We
want to be a visible deterrent to the drug problem."

With a swastika necklace and military-style dog tags hanging from his
neck, Davis, 23, said he only wants to put pressure on drug dealers
in the area to quit or move out.

"We don't want to start a war here," he said, his speech punctuated
with an Irish accent. "We just want them out."

Davis' group, the American United National Socialist Workers Front,
currently has about 10 members, he said, including three leaders who
use military titles to denote their position. Davis, the
self-appointed commander, has started chapters of the group in other
states, although he said they are now defunct. But he said plans are
in the works to bring his organization back to life, and he wants to
start in Cedar City, which he sees as an enclave of drug users.

That is why last week Davis sent letters to area law enforcement
agencies informing them of his new group and offering assistance to
fight the drug problem. It was an effort to keep the "lines of
communication open," he said.

On Saturday, Davis also held an open forum at his apartment, which
serves as his makeshift headquarters, to which about 30 residents
showed up to hear him talk about plans to impede the drug problem.

Some of the audience, a mix of black and white, walked out in
disgust, others fought back with their own concepts of socialism.

Davis already has seen problems stemming from his beliefs. On Friday,
he was charged with aggravated assault in 5th District Court in Cedar
City for allegedly wielding a baseball bat at two men in his
apartment. Davis said the men were making threats and would not
leave; the police said he was the one making threats. Davis was
booked into the Iron County Jail and later released on bail of
$2,068. No court dates have been set yet for the matter.

Davis was evicted from his two-bedroom apartment for the incident and
must move out by today. His girlfriend and roommate, also members of
the group, are being allowed to stay.

Davis' group is aligned with several of the estimated 600 skinhead
groups in the United States, he said, including the Aryan Nations, a
white supremacist group based in northern Idaho.

Many of Davis' neighbors are concerned, including Kelly Mandel, a
Jewish mother of two who lives across the street.

While Mandel said that Davis has the right to live where he wants and
how he wants, she worries that holding meetings or rallies in his
apartment is bringing hate too close to her children and neighbors.

"Rent out a building or go to a park," she said. "I have no problem
with that, just don't do it across the street from me."

Mandel said she would rather deal with the drug problem than a hate
group. "We can do something about drugs," she said.

Neighbor Craig Matheson said he does not want a group like this in
his community.

"I don't like what they stand for," he said. "They stand for
everything I'm against. I hope they get run out [of town]."

Cedar City Mayor Harold Shirley said although he has not met with the
group yet, he is concerned about the presence of a Nazi-type
organization. "We're not really wild about any group that hates
another group," Shirley said.

The mayor said he is not sure how the group can help with the drug
problem and worries how they might go about it.

Iron County Sheriff David "Dude" Benson said he is monitoring the
group closely and is not sure yet whether to call the organization
"allies in the drug war." In light of a recent murder near Cedar City
that sent shock waves through the community, Benson said Davis' group
is probably the last thing he wants to deal with.

"That's exactly what we don't need right now is more hate," Benson said.

Southern Utah is no stranger to white supremacists. The most visible
was John Winston "Johnny" Bangerter. Since 1992 -- when he moved from
Las Vegas to southern Utah to create a whites-only homeland in Zion
National Park -- Bangerter preached his white-separatist ideology to
a small band of followers dubbed the Army of Israel.

The part-time ironworker decorated his roof with a tattered
Confederate flag. The former skinhead once threatened to "seek to
kill" Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. One day later, Bangerter retracted
the threat.

All that was before his 1998 sentencing for failing to stop for
police. Once stopped, police discovered a loaded weapon in his truck
and found that he was driving on a suspended license.

At his sentencing, a contrite Bangerter, whose trademark shaved head
sprouted a shag of brown hair, delivered an emotional apology for all
the trouble he had caused his community. Bangerter told the judge he
no longer has contact with members of the Aryan Nations.