Hate group Identity Evropa rebrands itself in Arizona

The hate group Identity Evropa is attempting to rebrand itself and has chosen Arizona as its home in doing so.

Non-profit news agency Unicorn Riot first reported on the filing with the Arizona Corporation Commission that bears the name of the founder of the group.

The group’s leader, Patrick Casey, has described the name change as a maneuver to avoid the online bans that plagued Identity Evropa as well as an attempt to side-step “baggage” after Charlottesville (such as legal liability). The group is also seeking to tap into wider right-wing support by using patriotic imagery as cover for their white supremacist ideology.

The new entity, Foundation for American Society, was filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission last month and is registered to Identity Evropa leader Patrick Casey, a white nationalist who has said that he plans to “take over” the GOP. The group also calls itself the American Identity Movement.

Casey lists his address as a P.O. box in Virginia and Foundation for American Society lists the Oro Valley address of its filing agent, a company called Arizona Registered Agent, as its Arizona address.

The contact email address on the corporate filings is [email protected]

Casey also incorporated Identity Evropa in Arizona in 2018.

Chat logs from Identity Evropa released by Unicorn Riot earlier this year showed support for racist comments made by Rep. David Stringer, R-Prescott, last year and a number of users who had been organizing for the group locally.

The database of leaked chat logs can be found here, and references to Stringer in the database can be found here.

The leaked chat logs show that the group has a substantial presence in Arizona that spans from areas like Winslow and Flagstaff to Yuma, Tucson and Phoenix. In 2017 and 2018, there were 31 known instances of Identity Evropa posting recruitment fliers on college campuses in Arizona, including at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.