Ryan Scott McCann, a member of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League (GDL), was indicted earlier this month for assaulting a Jewish man in Tennessee, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Law enforcement reported that McCann, a 29-year-old self-employed painter, taunted a 20-year-old Jewish man in a parking lot on 10th Avenue South in Nashville. McCann attempted a “spinning elbow strike” aimed at the victim’s head and neck, then proceeded to kick the individual several times when he attempted to escape.
Previous assault
McCann was previously arrested on a felony aggravated assault charge after striking a bartender with a flagpole last July, the police reported. He was prohibited from leaving Davidson County and was wearing an ankle monitor when he was taken into custody for his most recent assault in early February.
The Davidson County Grand Jury indictment charged McCann with civil rights intimidation and assault. McCann remains jailed, and an additional $50,000 bond was set on the indictment.
Goyim Defense League
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Goyim Defense League—which parodies the ADL’s name and logo—aims to “expel Jews from America.” The ADL states that the organization frequently spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories, including myths that Jews control the media, molest children, and are responsible for the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
In July, members of the GDL gathered in downtown Nashville to protest “white replacement,” the idea that immigrants and people of color will outnumber white Americans, according to The Tennessee Lookout. Protestors wore “Pro-white” t-shirts, carried flags with Swastika emblems, and chanted antisemitic slogans, the Lookout reported.
“Nashville has a Nazi problem,” former Nashville mayor Megan Barry stated in response to neo-Nazi protests in July. “We need to make it clear that they are badly mistaken.”