Ayo Kimathi
by Alicia A. Caldwell
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department says an employee who runs a racist website predicting and advocating a race war has been put on paid administrative leave.
An acquisitions officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement who deals with small businesses, Ayo Kimathi, operates the website War on the Horizon. It includes descriptions of an “unavoidable, inevitable clash with the White race.” Kimathi is Black.
Kimathi has been with the department since 2009. He was told Friday that he is being put on paid administrative leave.
While many of the postings on Kimathi’s site are inflammatory, it was not immediately clear whether they cross the legal threshold into unprotected hate speech, and the posts may not violate DHS policies if he does not curate the website at work or espouse the ideologies in the office.
Kimathi hasn’t responded to email and phone calls requesting comment.
According to the ICE acquisitions website, Kimathi is a small business specialist responsible for purchasing handcuffs, guns and other law enforcement equipment and services.
In a brief written statement, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the agency “does not condone any type of hateful rhetoric or advocacy of violence of any kind against anyone. Every ICE employee is held to the highest standard of professional and ethical conduct. Accusations of misconduct are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, first reported on Kimathi on Wednesday.
The opening page of Kimathi’s website describes the group as “a Haitianist organization created for the purpose of preparing Black people worldwide for an unavoidable, inevitable clash with the White race. Whites around the world are absolutely determined to exterminate Afrikan (sic) people in all corners of the Earth.”
“Warfare is eminent, and in order for Black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of Whites — more than our Christian hearts can possibly count,” reads a 2010 post titled “Black Ethnic Cleansing: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.” ”Waging war against Whites is at the core of the Afrikan warrior’s spirit. It’s the flame that drives our willingness to fight in the face of certain defeat and/or death.”
The website criticizes Whites, gays and Blacks who integrate with whites and those of mixed race. Many of the postings are signed with the phrase, “We’ll see you on the battlefield.”
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