Geolocating an Energetic Membership ‘Combat Evening’ in San Diego

To remain updated on our newest investigations, be part of Bellingcat’s new WhatsApp channel right here.

The organisers of an annual fight sports activities occasion allegedly instructed the venue proprietor that they had been utilizing the area to movie an activewear business that includes a small “crowd” together with ladies and youngsters. 

In actuality, the occasion hosted on Aug. 30 by SoCal Energetic Membership was a part of a motion that champions violent and racist concepts. It featured fight sports activities fights and performances from two neo-Nazi bands who every have had a member concerned in deadly violence, together with one for a 2012 mass homicide described by the previous US Lawyer Basic as a “heinous act of hatred and terror”.

Bellingcat verified a tip-off from unbiased researcher Wiley D. Cope and researchers from SoCal Analysis Membership (SCRC) that the occasion was held at a suburban San Diego skilled wrestling venue based mostly on photos posted by SoCal Energetic Membership in addition to a teaser video posted by a far-right propaganda outlet, which Bellingcat is just not naming to forestall amplification. The venue operates as knowledgeable wrestling faculty on weekdays, and is out there for rental for occasions on weekends. 

Charles Smith, co-founder and CEO of Rising Star Leisure Group, which leases out the venue, confirmed the situation after Bellingcat confirmed him photos of the occasion. He instructed Bellingcat by electronic mail that he was not conscious that the area was getting used for an Energetic Membership occasion, and had by no means heard of the group or “any form of racial motion right here in San Diego of that calibre” earlier than he was contacted by journalists about it.

Smith stated he was instructed by the occasion’s hosts through Peerspace, a third-party reserving and rental web site, that the reserving was to shoot “an lively health clothes model prototype business”. 

“I used to be knowledgeable that there could be a small viewers of individuals that may be getting used because the ‘crowd’ for the filming and that it could embrace ladies and youngsters,” Smith instructed Bellingcat, “so after all I believed nothing of it.” 

Upon verifying from the photographs that the occasion did certainly happen at his venue, Smith stated that it was “disappointing that that is plain proof that this occasion occurred right here with this viewers”.

The worldwide Energetic Membership motion focuses on utilizing health, preventing and vogue to recruit younger males and boys into the far proper, normalise fascist concepts and put together them for bodily violence. The Energetic Membership motion was based by American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo, who’s at present on probation in the USA after having pleaded responsible in December 2024 to planning and fascinating in riots at political rallies throughout California in 2017.

Since 2023, Bellingcat has been monitoring and geolocating annual “combat nights” held within the US, the place white nationalist teams that give attention to coaching their members to combat towards their purported enemies collect. 

“Collaborations with different Energetic Golf equipment and neo-fascist organisations, such because the Patriot Entrance, function essential cultural occasions for the far-right to develop their sphere of affect,” Heidi Beirich from the US-based International Mission Towards Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), instructed Bellingcat by electronic mail. 

“Exposing Energetic Membership and neo-fascist actions related to violence helps to tell the general public, and authorities, concerning the beliefs that flip into violence,” Beirich added, “particularly when these beliefs have develop into commonplace in mainstream politics.”

Smith, who instructed Bellingcat that he’s of blended African-American and Japanese ethnicity, stated that he visited the venue late within the night after the occasion, when the hosts had been cleansing up.

“I used to be greeted with pats on the again, handshakes, and a pair [of] ‘thanks for letting us use the area, vastly appreciated,’” he instructed Bellingcat. “It’s laborious to imagine it’s the identical group.” 

SoCal Energetic Membership and the far-right propaganda outlet, which was based by Rundo, didn’t reply to Bellingcat’s requests for remark.

Figuring out Particulars: An Orange Wall

On Sept. 2, SoCal Energetic Membership posted a number of images on their Telegram channel from the occasion. Two of those images present particulars of the venue, together with an orange-coloured a part of a wall within the background. 

The images additionally present a banner for a assist group of the Hammerskins, a violent worldwide neo-Nazi gang that has hyperlinks to the Energetic Membership motion, significantly within the United States. Hammerskins members have been convicted of a number of crimes, together with assault and homicide.

A 12-second black-and-white teaser video launched by the far-right propaganda outlet based by Rundo gave a blurry thought of the form of the constructing and the ceiling of the venue.

These photos supplied essential clues for Cope and researchers from SCRC, a Southern California-based analysis collective that displays and shares data on hate and extremist teams, together with Energetic Golf equipment. Primarily based on native information of the world and their familiarity with the actions of members of the Energetic Membership chapter in Southern California, they started looking for San Diego County gyms and warehouses with boxing rings for hire. They discovered the venue the identical day the teaser video was launched, Cope stated.

Bellingcat was in a position to affirm that this was the situation of the Energetic Membership fight sports activities occasion, utilizing movies and pictures from earlier occasions held by the wrestling faculty (which we’re selecting to not identify as there isn’t a proof that they’ve any involvement within the occasion). 

In a video posted on the college’s YouTube channel on Aug. 17, 2025 – two weeks earlier than the Energetic Membership occasion – the identical orange wall and black banners with orange trim which can be solely partially obscured on the Energetic Membership occasion, are seen. Additionally seen in each the venue’s YouTube video and the images posted from the Energetic Membership occasion is a wood ceiling beam, with wires on the left-hand facet.

One other picture posted by the hosts additional confirmed that the skilled wrestling venue was the situation of the Energetic Membership fight sports activities occasion. In a photograph taken of one of many neo-Nazi bands that carried out on the occasion, brown beams and wires are seen on the ceiling; these identical beams and wires, in the identical positions, might be seen in images posted by the venue on their Peerspace web page promoting the venue for hire for occasions.

Bands ‘A Main Trigger For Concern’

The Energetic Membership occasion was greater than only a “combat evening”. Of their publish after the occasion, the SoCal Energetic Membership hosts thanked two US-based neo-Nazi bands for his or her musical performances after the fights, praising the bands for “actually topping the occasion off with unbelievable power.” 

Bellingcat is just not naming the bands to keep away from amplification, who’ve been lively for a few years in US and worldwide neo-Nazi music scenes.

Each bands have had members related to violence, together with mass homicide. A former member of one of many bands, Wade Michael Web page, murdered seven individuals at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012 earlier than taking his personal life in what US authorities known as a hate crime and a terrorist act. Web page was additionally a member of the Hammerskins. 

A present member of the opposite band that carried out on the Energetic Membership occasion pleaded responsible in 2012 to tried involuntary manslaughter and served jail time for his crime. This band member punched a person exterior a Michigan bar and finally brought on the person’s loss of life from a extreme mind damage.

In response to the GPAHE’s Beirich, the presence of those bands is “a significant trigger for concern, albeit unsurprising contemplating the aim of the Energetic Membership motion relies on beliefs in an impending, and unavoidable, race battle”.

“The historical past of violence related to Energetic Golf equipment is evident,” Beirich added.

Night Vigil Turned Into Alleged Assault

Two weeks after the fight sports activities occasion on Sept. 13, members of one of many Energetic Golf equipment that organised it participated in an alleged assault in Huntington Seashore, California. 

Members of Patriot Entrance, SoCal Energetic Membership and different far-right and neo-Nazi teams took half in a night vigil in Huntington Seashore, within the Los Angeles metropolitan space, in honour of assassinated right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

In response to reporting from the occasion by The LA Ten 4, a e-newsletter protecting points surrounding first responders within the Los Angeles space, the person who was attacked was a vigilgoer who confronted the far-right group together with a number of others, calling them “un-American” and “traitors” and following the group right into a parking storage. 

Video footage of the assault taken by The LA Ten 4 reveals the person being punched, kicked and stomped on by a number of others. A minimum of two of the attackers look like sporting SoCal Energetic Membership t-shirts, identifiable as such by images and movies posted from the vigil.

SoCal Energetic Membership has not responded to Bellingcat’s request for touch upon their obvious involvement on this assault as of publication.

Wiley D. Cope contributed analysis to this piece.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the power to hold out our work relies on the sort assist of particular person donors. If you need to assist our work, you are able to do so right here. You can even subscribe to our Patreon channel right here. Subscribe to our E-newsletter and comply with us on Instagram right here, X right here and Mastodon right here. With the unpredictability of social media algorithms making it more durable for information shops to achieve audiences constantly, we’ve got additionally began a WhatsApp channel you could be part of to remain up to date on our tales.