NSM is planning their next conference for April 23 in Washington State. These three might not make it, especially their “commander” Colucci who has more than a few court dates ahead of him. But who knows?

ORLANDO, FL – Three associates of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) who participated in rallies in town last weekend were arrested after being identified as those who attacked a Jewish motorist during one. All three have prior criminal records and one of them. NSM leader Burt Colucci, was just indicted in Arizona on charges stemming from an altercation there where he pulled a gun on a Black man. 

According to news reports, Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies announced the arrests Friday of Joshua Terrell, 46; Jason Brown, 47; and NSM “Commander” Burt Colucci, 45, on charges of battery while Brown is also facing a theft charge because during the fight, the driver David Newstat dropped his phone and he is alleged to have picked it up and threw into a storm drain. Newstat was driving by when he saw the rally and one of the NSM members spat into the sunroof of his car. Newstat then got out of his vehicle, according to investigators and got into an argument with the rally participants who noticed a Star of David charm on his necklace to which he declared that he was Jewish. One of the NSM associates attempted to get into Newstat’s car while they were arguing but Newstat was able to prevent him from getting inside. The NSM associate spat at Newstat as they argued, threw some crumpled paper at him and spat on him again. Newstat got out of the car and the fight ensued with the neo-Nazis pepper spraying and hitting the victim.

Video of the assault was shared on social media as well as other video from this and other rallies last weekend. It reportedly shows the NSM associates shouting antisemitic slurs at Newstat as well as Colucci spitting on him multiple times while shouting slurs and pepper-spraying  him as he tried to escape back into his car. Later, deputies said they found a social media post from Colucci which read, “Orlando event today. A 75 year old (sic) man with us was physically attacked by an open Jew. The problem was addressed and the Jew was dealt with. He won’t forget today for a long time.” Terrell was also caught on video bragging about assaulting the victim.

According to journalist Nate Thayer, the three arrested has decades-long list of arrests in their criminal record. Brown, who is the East Coast head of the Nazi Goyim Defense League and a member of Dan D’Ambly’s New Jersey European American Heritage Association, was fired in 1999 from his position as a corrections officer in Dillon County, South Carolina and arrested for forcing an inmate to perform oral sex on him. Sentenced to mental health counseling, Brown had a past criminal record in Gloucester County, NJ before he became a corrections officer for stalking and terroristic threats, and after his dismissal continued to have more than fifty run-ins with the law for the next 20 years that included a May 2020 charge of domestic battery charge by strangulation, his last charge being contempt of court in February 2021. Terrell has a long criminal record, including an 2006 burglary arrest in Lawrence, Indiana and another in Bedford, Indiana on drug charges in 2020. Last week, an indictment against Colucci was unsealed in Arizona for misdemeanor and felony counts stemming from an incident in Maricopa County, AZ where he hurled racial slurs and pepper spray at Black people in a Phoenix suburb and pointing a loaded handgun at a Black man and threatening to kill him and his friends, just two days after leading a hate rally in Phoenix that coincided with their annual conference. He faces at least three years in prison if convicted and was out on bail during this latest incident.

Conservative-leaning accounts on social media attempted to discourage discussion of the rallies, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis even took umbrage at the press for asking about the rallies and refused to denounce them, calling it an attempt to smear him with the question. Nikki Fried, Florida’s Jewish agriculture commissioner hoping to run against him this year as the Democratic Party nominee who has compared the race-baiting DeSantis to Adolf Hitler in the past, said she was “horrified but not surprised” at he would not condemn the group. Meanwhile, DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw suggested in a now-deleted tweet that the NSM could have actually been rival political operatives trying to hurt the governor. “Do we even know they’re Nazis?,” she asked. “I trust Florida law enforcement to investigate and am awaiting their conclusions.” Pushaw has not tweeted about the NSM arrests at the time of this posting on Saturday, but ironically in the past 24 hours retweeted Ian Miles Cheong, a neo-fascist Trump Supporter from Malaysia who once declared, “Hitler is my fucking idol.” Florida politicians from both major parties have denounced the rallies, from Republican Sen. Rick Scott and Democratic House Rep. Val Demings.

Brown and Terrell are currently being held in Brevard County, FL jail while Colucci was released on a $10,000 bond from Polk County, FL jail.