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When reached for comment, Patton wrote: "32 years ago I was a lost, scared, and vulnerable child. I won’t go into detail, but the reasons I left home at such a

When reached for comment, Patton wrote: "32 years ago I was a lost, scared, and vulnerable child. I won’t go into detail, but the reasons I left home at such a young age are unfortunately not unique; I suffered abuse in every form. I did terrible things and said despicable and hateful things, including to my own Jewish mother, that today I find indefensibly wrong, and feel extreme remorse for. I have spent most of my adult lifetime working to make amends for this shameful period in my life. In my teens, I dropped out of school, lived on the streets, ate out of dumpsters and raised money panhandling. I was desperate and afraid. I was taken in by skinhead gangs and white supremacist organizations. Over the course of a few years, I did many things as part of those groups that I am profoundly ashamed of and sorry about. Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy. This turned my life around. While serving my country, I worked with law enforcement agencies in hate group prosecutions and left this world behind. Since then, I have tried and failed to completely accept and come to terms with how I, a child of Jewish heritage, became part of such a hateful, racist group. One thing I have done, through therapy and outreach, I have learned to forgive that 15 year old boy who, despite the absence of ideological hate, was lured into a dark and evil world. For all of those I have hurt, and that this revelation will hurt, I’m sorry. No apology will undo what I have done. I have worked every day to be a responsible member of society. I’ve built companies, employed hundreds and have worked to treat everyone around me equally. In recent years, I’ve sought to create technologies that stop human suffering and save lives without violating privacy. I know that I will never be able to erase my past but I work hard every day to make up for mistakes. This is something I will never stop doing."

DaniloDias 6y ago
There is a part of me that wants to extend forgiveness, but then I remember what Banjo does and I feel nothing for him. I’ve known many who were stupid when they were young. It often is a direct result of malignant or neglecting parents. Some recover and do great things. This guy appears to have “recovered” and then went on to monetize state surveillance ambitions.
- scabarott 6y ago
  I don't know why they're down-voting you. I'm at least concerned that someone with that kind of past has anything to do with building such sensitive and influential law enforcement infrastructure. I don't know what his current state of mind is and I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
    > I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles. What exactly do you think a second chance is?
    - s0l1dsnak3123 6y ago
      He should be afforded some basic right to contribute to society - like managing a restaurant, or something. It is not appropriate for a former Neo-Nazi to receive state surveillance contracts. It is not appropriate for a former Neo-Nazi to be able to work with any kind of sensible data. Even if completely rehabilitated, their origins are - to my mind - treacherous.
      - selimthegrim 6y ago
        *sensitive
        s0l1dsnak3123 6y ago
        Damn right I'm sensitive about Neo-Nazis gaining power and authority.
    - throwanem 6y ago
      Probationary.
    - twomoretime 6y ago
fortran77 6y ago
Can someone verify that he actually has a "Jewish mother?"
- notadev 6y ago
  What business is it of ours whether his mother is Jewish?
  - gbear605 6y ago
    If it’s information publicly sed to try to garner sympathy, then ensuring its accuracy is the public’s business.
- blast 6y ago
  That's a perfectly legitimate question and it's surprising that the reporter didn't follow up on it. But if he were lying about that at this point, it would certainly ruin him, so it's probably true. The part that I find unsavory is that his comment repeats the detail twice. That's milking it, which to me makes the whole thing read like PR. He also shouldn't have included the bits about forgiving himself and employing hundreds. Someone is giving this guy bad editing advice. On the other hand, the claim that an abused kid would join a gang of criminal nutcases because they offered him belonging when no one else would, seems completely credible to me.
- romwell 6y ago
  Claiming to have a Jewish mother (and thus being considered Jewish by pretty much everyone else, regardless of how you self-identify) does it for me. You call yourself a Jew? You're welcome. There are way more people shunning their Jewish identity, but I've never met someone pretending to be Jewish.
  - rrdharan 6y ago
    I'm sure there are interesting counterexamples here but all I can think of is the anti-dentite episode of Seinfeld :)... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yada_Yada https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yada_Yada I guess (anecdotally/hearsay) at least one person has done it to get a free birthright trip? https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-pretended-to-be-jewish/ https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-pretended-to-be-jewish/
eropple 6y ago
> But Patton does not mention that, by his own testimony, he continued to socialize with white supremacists while in the Navy. Patton told prosecutors that he gathered with skinheads while stationed in Virginia for training. “I had known some of the Skinheads there from prior rallies in Tennessee and because of not knowing anybody there, I ended up meeting with them and hung out with them for some time,” he said.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  He joined the navy at 18, in 1991 - immediately after getting off the street and out of the gang. Did you expect his transformation to be instantaneous?
  - rvp-x 6y ago
    A bigger question is how is one allowed to join the navy after taking part in a racially motivated drive-by shooting?
    - maerF0x0 6y ago
      and it's follow up is how can a remorseful person make amends and resume normality? I'd argue if there is no path back to normality they they will, by definition, forever find fringe behavior necessary and rational
      - teachrdan 6y ago
        One way a sincere ex-neo Nazi could return to normality is by ceasing to socialize with active neo Nazis. That was not the case here. From the above quote regarding his seeking out and spending time with the same white supremacists: "I ended up meeting with them..." How does one "end up" meeting with neo Nazis? He fails to take responsibility for his behavior after his hate crimes conviction!
        maerF0x0 6y ago
kgraves 6y ago
Can we follow up and send him some small violins with that?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
stevenwoo 6y ago
But from the same story, the court documents that Patton admitted he associated with skinheads in the United States Navy, which does not sound like "get myself away from this world" has any truthiness.
- manfredo 6y ago
  He mentions this in the past tense in his 1992 testimony, when he was 19. He was kicked out of his home at 15, committed these crimes in 1990 at the age of 17. This conforms his narrative of getting involved with hate groups during his youth, and leaving this work in adulthood. I'm not sure how your takeaway from this is that he is being less than truthful about leaving white supremacist groups.
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  I'm not seeing how that is a contradiction. His full sentence: "Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy." I interpret "while serving in" to mean that the process overlapped with his time in the Navy. If there was no overlap, to me it would have been more natural to say something like "upon joining" or "by joining" instead.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
>Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy. This turned my life around. While serving my country, I worked with law enforcement agencies in hate group prosecutions and left this world behind "The US Navy and law enforcement freed me from my racist past" is a bit difficult to believe.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  It's easy to make that assumption if you haven't lived in those worlds yourself and only consume social media to give you an impression of what those communities are like. You might be surprised, but the vast majority of law enforcement officers and soldiers are not, at all, racist.
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    >You might be surprised, but the vast majority of law enforcement officers and soldiers are not, at all, racist. Both have substantial ties to white nationalism, and neither have a reputation for helping people move past such racist views. Everyone involved doesn't need to be racist, somebody that already has connections to the KKK would find plenty of like minds.
    - dx87 6y ago
      Have you ever been in the military? From my time in the USMC, it was a meritocratic institution where your race was irrelevant, and overt racists wouldn't last long. Do you have any sources to back up the "strong ties to white nationalism" and plenty of likeminded KKK type racists?
      - pnw_hazor 6y ago
        In the Army, it seems racists were sniffed out early as possible. I was a trainee leader (Asst Platoon Guide whatever that means). One of the "perks" of my leadership role was bunking with two racist assholes (one black one white) who naturally hated each other. As soon as the drill instructors noticed the behavior of those two, all three of us were moved into a room. To keep an eye on them? Punish me? Who knows what the Army logic was. Anyway, they both were chaptered out before completing training (AIT). I am sure there a few racists but they must keep it on the downlow. The biggest problem I saw later was between Cuban Americans and Black Americans.
Pils 6y ago
or, more simply, "I'm sorry I got caught" Look, the man participated in a drive-by shooting on a synagogue when he was a legal adult. It's disgusting that people on this site are defending a literal terrorist because "he's one of our own."
- wmichelin 6y ago
  Is it so unrealistic to think that an abused child would fall into a world of hate? Yes, participating in a drive-by shooting is absolutely horrible, but if he paid his dues to society through our legal system, why should this man be unable to run a business? He clearly shows remorse for his hatred. I am not defending nazism in the least, but I think "cancelling" someone who made absolutely terrible decisions as a literal child is not a healthy way for our society to operate.
  - Pils 6y ago
    Lets be clear, he showed remorse once he was caught, but none before then. What dues did he pay? He appears to have moved on from that stage of his life fairly quickly, and appears to never have been rejected employment/housing via background checks due to a technicality. There are men on death row who committed the exact same crime. I disagree with your second paragraph entirely. I do not want to live in a society where CEOs of multimillion dollar companies have indiscriminately shot up places of worship when they were 17 years old.
    - jprince 6y ago
      So what do you do with those people who did do those despicable things as teens? I don't just mean this, but any reprehensible action. I think obviously we can maybe keep them from getting any kind of comfortable jobs, keep them doing drudge work. But even then, do you really want a neo-nazi cleaning your toilets? No, that's not good enough. We need to round them up and contain them somewhere. Their remorse can't be enough. We can't have them contaminating our air. If we put them in a single location and kept them from getting in and out, concentrated, we could keep ourselves safe from these people. /sarcasm
ChrisCinelli 6y ago
I met the guy probably in 2010-2012 at some social event where he was trying to recruit people. What I remember of him is that he said: "I used to do car racing. I run our company as a race team." Whatever it means... At that time Banjo was a social network that let you see where other people were. It was the time when privacy was dead. I think they may have pivot into news and then I lost track... Until today. When you raise so much money there is a lot of pressure to return it with the interests. I do not know enough about what the company does now but it seems there may be something off. But this is not about the company. This is a vile attack to a person that seems to have reach some kind of success. Some of us can see his past just as a data point but it is obviously different for the general public. I heard somebody says that in these days the standards are too high. Somebody should have never made a mistake and if he did, he has that mistake on his head for the rest of their days. The Internet does not forget anything. There is a lot of polarization and hunt for something or somebody to blame and complains about. The press and social medias play an important part in this positive feedback loop of negative comments. But this is not new. Witch hunting has existed for a long time. The world does not need more of that. It needs more compassion. I believe people can change and I believe in forgiving those that try their best to become better human beings.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- smt88 6y ago
  > This is a vile attack to a person that seems to have reach some kind of success. Is it a vile attack to just tell everyone, "Hey, this guy who has a sensitive govt surveillance contract shot up a synagogue with his skinhead gang and never went to prison for it"? Those are all facts. You perceive them as an attack because they reflect terrifying, repulsive behavior. The alternative is not to report it because it makes him look bad, but... doesn't he deserve to look bad, especially if he didn't do any time in prison? > I heard somebody says that in these days the standards are too high. "You should not get a government contract if you were a dangerous skinhead" is not a high standard. Almost every human who has ever lived can meet this standard. I have personally found it incredibly easy to get through life's hardships without shooting at a synagogue. So have countless other people who would love the same contract this guy got. > The world does not need more of that. It needs more compassion. If you think compassion is finite, as some people do, then who should we spend it on? Should we lose sleep over ex-skinheads, or should we worry more about their intended victims? I don't really see why we need to shed tears over people exposed for things they did. No one is smearing him -- just talking about what he did. People may change, but the facts of their life don't. If you think compassion is infinite, then I'm not sure your suggestion makes sense anymore. If compassion were free, we would have more of it in the world. > I believe people can change and I believe in forgiving those that try their best to become better human beings. Absolutely! I agree 100%. However, he continued hanging out with skinheads even after joining the military, and it's not really clear he feels remorse beyond the "I got caught and now I have to apologize" angle we're seeing in the news now. Why hasn't he been working with anti-skinhead orgs? Why hasn't he written about his mistakes at length, like Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who was a Klansman and white supremacist as a younger man? Surely if a long-serving senator can rehab his public image, so can this guy.

DaniloDias 6y ago

There is a part of me that wants to extend forgiveness, but then I remember what Banjo does and I feel nothing for him. I’ve known many who were stupid when they were young. It often is a direct result of malignant or neglecting parents. Some recover and do great things. This guy appears to have “recovered” and then went on to monetize state surveillance ambitions.

scabarott 6y ago
I don't know why they're down-voting you. I'm at least concerned that someone with that kind of past has anything to do with building such sensitive and influential law enforcement infrastructure. I don't know what his current state of mind is and I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > I believe in second chances but this kind of history should disqualify you from at least some types of sensitive roles. What exactly do you think a second chance is?
  - s0l1dsnak3123 6y ago
    He should be afforded some basic right to contribute to society - like managing a restaurant, or something. It is not appropriate for a former Neo-Nazi to receive state surveillance contracts. It is not appropriate for a former Neo-Nazi to be able to work with any kind of sensible data. Even if completely rehabilitated, their origins are - to my mind - treacherous.
    - selimthegrim 6y ago
      *sensitive
      - s0l1dsnak3123 6y ago
        Damn right I'm sensitive about Neo-Nazis gaining power and authority.
  - throwanem 6y ago
    Probationary.
  - twomoretime 6y ago

fortran77 6y ago

Can someone verify that he actually has a "Jewish mother?"

notadev 6y ago
What business is it of ours whether his mother is Jewish?
- gbear605 6y ago
  If it’s information publicly sed to try to garner sympathy, then ensuring its accuracy is the public’s business.
blast 6y ago
That's a perfectly legitimate question and it's surprising that the reporter didn't follow up on it. But if he were lying about that at this point, it would certainly ruin him, so it's probably true. The part that I find unsavory is that his comment repeats the detail twice. That's milking it, which to me makes the whole thing read like PR. He also shouldn't have included the bits about forgiving himself and employing hundreds. Someone is giving this guy bad editing advice. On the other hand, the claim that an abused kid would join a gang of criminal nutcases because they offered him belonging when no one else would, seems completely credible to me.
romwell 6y ago
Claiming to have a Jewish mother (and thus being considered Jewish by pretty much everyone else, regardless of how you self-identify) does it for me. You call yourself a Jew? You're welcome. There are way more people shunning their Jewish identity, but I've never met someone pretending to be Jewish.
- rrdharan 6y ago
  I'm sure there are interesting counterexamples here but all I can think of is the anti-dentite episode of Seinfeld :)... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yada_Yada https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yada_Yada I guess (anecdotally/hearsay) at least one person has done it to get a free birthright trip? https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-pretended-to-be-jewish/ https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-pretended-to-be-jewish/

eropple 6y ago

> But Patton does not mention that, by his own testimony, he continued to socialize with white supremacists while in the Navy. Patton told prosecutors that he gathered with skinheads while stationed in Virginia for training. “I had known some of the Skinheads there from prior rallies in Tennessee and because of not knowing anybody there, I ended up meeting with them and hung out with them for some time,” he said.

koheripbal 6y ago
He joined the navy at 18, in 1991 - immediately after getting off the street and out of the gang. Did you expect his transformation to be instantaneous?
- rvp-x 6y ago
  A bigger question is how is one allowed to join the navy after taking part in a racially motivated drive-by shooting?
  - maerF0x0 6y ago
    and it's follow up is how can a remorseful person make amends and resume normality? I'd argue if there is no path back to normality they they will, by definition, forever find fringe behavior necessary and rational
    - teachrdan 6y ago
      One way a sincere ex-neo Nazi could return to normality is by ceasing to socialize with active neo Nazis. That was not the case here. From the above quote regarding his seeking out and spending time with the same white supremacists: "I ended up meeting with them..." How does one "end up" meeting with neo Nazis? He fails to take responsibility for his behavior after his hate crimes conviction!
      - maerF0x0 6y ago

kgraves 6y ago

Can we follow up and send him some small violins with that?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

stevenwoo 6y ago

But from the same story, the court documents that Patton admitted he associated with skinheads in the United States Navy, which does not sound like "get myself away from this world" has any truthiness.

manfredo 6y ago
He mentions this in the past tense in his 1992 testimony, when he was 19. He was kicked out of his home at 15, committed these crimes in 1990 at the age of 17. This conforms his narrative of getting involved with hate groups during his youth, and leaving this work in adulthood. I'm not sure how your takeaway from this is that he is being less than truthful about leaving white supremacist groups.
adrianmonk 6y ago
I'm not seeing how that is a contradiction. His full sentence: "Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy." I interpret "while serving in" to mean that the process overlapped with his time in the Navy. If there was no overlap, to me it would have been more natural to say something like "upon joining" or "by joining" instead.

boomboomsubban 6y ago

>Eventually, I was able to get myself away from this world while serving in the United States Navy. This turned my life around. While serving my country, I worked with law enforcement agencies in hate group prosecutions and left this world behind "The US Navy and law enforcement freed me from my racist past" is a bit difficult to believe.

koheripbal 6y ago
It's easy to make that assumption if you haven't lived in those worlds yourself and only consume social media to give you an impression of what those communities are like. You might be surprised, but the vast majority of law enforcement officers and soldiers are not, at all, racist.
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  >You might be surprised, but the vast majority of law enforcement officers and soldiers are not, at all, racist. Both have substantial ties to white nationalism, and neither have a reputation for helping people move past such racist views. Everyone involved doesn't need to be racist, somebody that already has connections to the KKK would find plenty of like minds.
  - dx87 6y ago
    Have you ever been in the military? From my time in the USMC, it was a meritocratic institution where your race was irrelevant, and overt racists wouldn't last long. Do you have any sources to back up the "strong ties to white nationalism" and plenty of likeminded KKK type racists?
    - pnw_hazor 6y ago
      In the Army, it seems racists were sniffed out early as possible. I was a trainee leader (Asst Platoon Guide whatever that means). One of the "perks" of my leadership role was bunking with two racist assholes (one black one white) who naturally hated each other. As soon as the drill instructors noticed the behavior of those two, all three of us were moved into a room. To keep an eye on them? Punish me? Who knows what the Army logic was. Anyway, they both were chaptered out before completing training (AIT). I am sure there a few racists but they must keep it on the downlow. The biggest problem I saw later was between Cuban Americans and Black Americans.

Pils 6y ago

or, more simply, "I'm sorry I got caught" Look, the man participated in a drive-by shooting on a synagogue when he was a legal adult. It's disgusting that people on this site are defending a literal terrorist because "he's one of our own."

wmichelin 6y ago
Is it so unrealistic to think that an abused child would fall into a world of hate? Yes, participating in a drive-by shooting is absolutely horrible, but if he paid his dues to society through our legal system, why should this man be unable to run a business? He clearly shows remorse for his hatred. I am not defending nazism in the least, but I think "cancelling" someone who made absolutely terrible decisions as a literal child is not a healthy way for our society to operate.
- Pils 6y ago
  Lets be clear, he showed remorse once he was caught, but none before then. What dues did he pay? He appears to have moved on from that stage of his life fairly quickly, and appears to never have been rejected employment/housing via background checks due to a technicality. There are men on death row who committed the exact same crime. I disagree with your second paragraph entirely. I do not want to live in a society where CEOs of multimillion dollar companies have indiscriminately shot up places of worship when they were 17 years old.
  - jprince 6y ago
    So what do you do with those people who did do those despicable things as teens? I don't just mean this, but any reprehensible action. I think obviously we can maybe keep them from getting any kind of comfortable jobs, keep them doing drudge work. But even then, do you really want a neo-nazi cleaning your toilets? No, that's not good enough. We need to round them up and contain them somewhere. Their remorse can't be enough. We can't have them contaminating our air. If we put them in a single location and kept them from getting in and out, concentrated, we could keep ourselves safe from these people. /sarcasm

ChrisCinelli 6y ago

I met the guy probably in 2010-2012 at some social event where he was trying to recruit people. What I remember of him is that he said: "I used to do car racing. I run our company as a race team." Whatever it means... At that time Banjo was a social network that let you see where other people were. It was the time when privacy was dead. I think they may have pivot into news and then I lost track... Until today. When you raise so much money there is a lot of pressure to return it with the interests. I do not know enough about what the company does now but it seems there may be something off. But this is not about the company. This is a vile attack to a person that seems to have reach some kind of success. Some of us can see his past just as a data point but it is obviously different for the general public. I heard somebody says that in these days the standards are too high. Somebody should have never made a mistake and if he did, he has that mistake on his head for the rest of their days. The Internet does not forget anything. There is a lot of polarization and hunt for something or somebody to blame and complains about. The press and social medias play an important part in this positive feedback loop of negative comments. But this is not new. Witch hunting has existed for a long time. The world does not need more of that. It needs more compassion. I believe people can change and I believe in forgiving those that try their best to become better human beings.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
smt88 6y ago
> This is a vile attack to a person that seems to have reach some kind of success. Is it a vile attack to just tell everyone, "Hey, this guy who has a sensitive govt surveillance contract shot up a synagogue with his skinhead gang and never went to prison for it"? Those are all facts. You perceive them as an attack because they reflect terrifying, repulsive behavior. The alternative is not to report it because it makes him look bad, but... doesn't he deserve to look bad, especially if he didn't do any time in prison? > I heard somebody says that in these days the standards are too high. "You should not get a government contract if you were a dangerous skinhead" is not a high standard. Almost every human who has ever lived can meet this standard. I have personally found it incredibly easy to get through life's hardships without shooting at a synagogue. So have countless other people who would love the same contract this guy got. > The world does not need more of that. It needs more compassion. If you think compassion is finite, as some people do, then who should we spend it on? Should we lose sleep over ex-skinheads, or should we worry more about their intended victims? I don't really see why we need to shed tears over people exposed for things they did. No one is smearing him -- just talking about what he did. People may change, but the facts of their life don't. If you think compassion is infinite, then I'm not sure your suggestion makes sense anymore. If compassion were free, we would have more of it in the world. > I believe people can change and I believe in forgiving those that try their best to become better human beings. Absolutely! I agree 100%. However, he continued hanging out with skinheads even after joining the military, and it's not really clear he feels remorse beyond the "I got caught and now I have to apologize" angle we're seeing in the news now. Why hasn't he been working with anti-skinhead orgs? Why hasn't he written about his mistakes at length, like Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who was a Klansman and white supremacist as a younger man? Surely if a long-serving senator can rehab his public image, so can this guy.