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| A hater among U.S. |
Evandale, Ohio Police release body camera footage of the lead Neo Nazi who wanted to retrieve his service dog after residents of the neighboring village of Lincoln Heights rushed them out. In early February, the Neo Nazis held a protest above the Aviation Way connector overpass on Interstate 75. The city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County disavow the Neo Nazis - Patriots Front.
1. James “Jim” Joseph Rodden is the guy behind infamous X account.
So we learn that an Immigration Customs Enforcement prosecutor was outed as an online troll who has posted racist, xenophobic, homophobic and white supremacy to an audience in the tens of thousands.
Rodden went under the handle @GlomarResponder. It has since been protected and the agitator scrubbed his past postings.
Rodden allegedly made "racist, bigoted, xenophobic, hateful, harassing and dishonest" posts on an X account where he tried to hide his identity, according to a legal complaint filed against him.
Rodden — who, as of at least Wednesday, was employed by ICE as assistant chief counsel, functioning as a prosecutor — allegedly identified himself on the social media platform as Mr. X with the username @GlomarResponder, according to the complaint, which was made by J. Whitfield Larrabee, an attorney in Massachusetts.
The Texas Observer claims it has identified Rodden as the operator of the @GlomarResponder X account and published an article on Wednesday titled "ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account." The publication said it identified Rodden "based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation."
The article was included in Larrabee's complaint and appears to be the basis for his legal filing, which doesn't include any independent evidence that Rodden is responsible for the posts made on the @GlomarResponder X account. CBS News has not independently confirmed that Rodden is connected to the account.
The posts on the X account, which has over 17,000 followers, included comments made over the last year such as "America is a white country, founded by whites,'" "'Migrants' are all criminals," and "I'm a fascist," the complaint says.
The posts "directly" relate to Rodden's work as an attorney representing the United States in removal proceedings before judges, the complaint says. Those in such proceedings are often vulnerable immigrants, refugees and political asylum applicants, and Rodden, as an assistant chief legal counsel, "plays a key role in the immigration justice system" and has a "powerful voice in Court."
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"When the representative of the United States in our immigration courts is motivated by bigotry, racism, xenophobia, anti-immigrant bias and hatred of immigrants, this seriously interferes with the administration of justice and undermines the integrity of our legal system," the complaint argues.
The complaint was filed with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in Washington, D.C., where Rodden was licensed to practice, and with the Office of Professional Responsibility for ICE, Larrabee said. It calls for an investigation and for Rodden to be suspended from practicing law.
CBS News has reached out to ICE multiple times for comment and did not receive a response as of Friday afternoon.
According to the Observer, an ICE spokesperson said in an email to the publication that the agency would not comment on the "substance" of its article "pending further investigation, to include whether the owner of the referenced 'X' account is a current employee."
"Notwithstanding, ICE holds its employees to the highest standards of professionalism and takes seriously all allegations of inappropriate conduct," the email reportedly said.
CBS News Texas reached out to Rodden at a phone number and email address listed as his in public records.
The Observer said Rodden did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment, and that a man reached at a phone number associated with Rodden declined to confirm his identity and hung up.
"When approached in a public hallway outside the Dallas immigration court and asked to confirm receipt of the emailed requests, Rodden said only to 'call [his] press office,'" the Observer wrote.
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who represents Dallas Fort-Worth in Congress, said in a post on Thursday on the platform: "James Rodden has exposed himself as a white supremacist while serving as ICE's Assistant Chief Counsel. I am demanding answers, sending a letter of inquiry, and calling for a full investigation now."
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| Evendale Police allowed a Neo Nazi pick up his belongings after residents chased them out of Lincoln Heights. |
2. Evandale Police Got Some Explaining To Do.
The Evendale Police Department announced Friday it has hired an independent team "to both review police actions and provide insights and recommendations on best practice law enforcement in today's ever-changing political and social landscape."
The department has hired 21CP Solutions, a consulting firm led by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey.
According to the announcement, work with the independent firm is anticipated to start next week.
"We owe it to our community and all those affected by February 7 to learn from that day and strengthen trust," Evendale Mayor Richard Finan said in a press release.
Evendale police said the team it has hired is made up of a diverse group of seasoned professionals who work to help communities develop and implement equitable and integrity-driven public safety.
"Our work doesn't end with this review or the work of the county prosecutor," said Steven Berke, Evendale's vice mayor. "We will continue to provide space to address the concerns people in our area have, reaffirm out commitment to justice and stand united for dignity, respect and condemnation of hate in all forms."
Sean Smoot, managing partner with 21CP Solutions said the organization will help assist the Village of Evendale in evaluating what happened on February 7 and providing a review.
The announcement from the Village of Evendale says the village and police department are committed to full transparency in the review process. The village said it plans to provide regular updates and promises to release the findings of the report in full once the review is complete.
The village said it hopes to announce more information about the review next week; More information will also be posted online, the village said.
Ohio Representative Cecil Thomas told WCPO he's happy to hear Evendale is participating in an independent investigation, but he still doesn't think that's enough — so he plans to introduce legislation to change things.
"The most important aspect of law enforcement is good community, police relations and when that level of trust starts to erode, if you don't address that, it can cause problems not just for the agency that's involved but for policing all around the entire area," said Thomas. "So, I'm introducing legislation to say, OK, if you wanna come into a community, we can't do anything about that but you can't come in armed and masked. So if you come in like that, immediately law enforcement's got the opportunity to say 'sorry, shutting you down, get out of here.'"
The decision to hire 21CP Solutions for an independent review is the result of recent resident mistrust in law enforcement in the Evendale and Lincoln Heights areas in the weeks following the Feb. 7 neo-Nazi presence on a highway overpass near both communities.
Evendale police has released hours of body camera footage showing multiple interactions between law enforcement and the neo-Nazi group who appeared that day.
Evendale police have been updating a Google Drive folder with additional video following their initial release of the first body camera videos.
Some of that footage showed an Evendale police officer speak with the neo-Nazi demonstrators after they left the overpass and pulled off in Lockland. During that encounter, the Evendale officer offers to help one of the neo-Nazis get back to his vehicle, which he'd left near the overpass, and his service dog.
However, once the officer returned to the parking lot where the vehicle was parked, he discovered residents who'd appeared to counter-protest the neo-Nazi's presence had slashed the vehicle's tires.
Ultimately, Evendale police said the driver of the Jeep was taken to the Evendale Police Department by an officer after officials said "it was determined there was no safe way to retrieve the vehicle."
WCPO pressed Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey Tuesday for more information about this group. But she wasn't able to give many answers.
“We do not have any specific intel on that U-Haul as far as where it was rented from. Someone might even own it, I don’t even know. We’re working on that.” McGuffey said. “This is a group of men who are intent or intimidation and hate tactics. By all accounts, it’s a small group and I’m not going to give them any satisfaction by saying they have any larger affiliation with anyone — it’s a bunch of cowards.”
The Lockland Local Schools Board of Education is requesting a third-party investigation of both Evendale and Lockland police after the district reviewed and released footage of the neo-Nazis on school property just minutes before dismissal following that interaction with officers.
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