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Elgin James 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elgin James is a filmmaker, musician and a former member of Friends Stand United (FSU), a Boston, Massachusetts area group in the early 1990s. FSU has been classified by several law enforcement agencies as a gang, a distinction that James and FSU deny.
Early life
After a short time in orphanages and foster homes, James (who is of mixed race) was raised by civil rights activists on a rural farm in the Northeast.[1]With a crop of marijuana in the backyard and alcohol and drug abuse in the house, James formed strong anti-drinking and anti-drug beliefs which later led him to be a pivotal figure in the 1990s militant straight edge movement within the punk subculture. He had also become a vegetarian at age 11 after watching the animals he raised on the farm slaughtered.[2]
James had discovered punk rock through an older foster brother and attended concerts by seminal hardcore punk bands Black Flag, Agnostic Front andMillions of Dead Cops. He was arrested for the first time at age 12, and by 14 he ended up in juvenile hall. There he rejected the pacifist beliefs of his parents (who had marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Riders movement), and began studying the writings of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, fusing them with aggressive punk ideals.[3]
James left juvenile hall, and inspired by civil rights attorneys William Kunstlerand Morris Dees, left for Antioch College at age 17 to study pre-law. During a break in his first semester, he was involved in a gang fight and beaten in the back of the head with a baseball bat, which left him with left hemispheric brain damage.[4] He could not speak or move the right side of his body. After intensive physical and speech therapy he eventually recovered his speech and motor skills, but he ended up homeless, living on the streets and in squatsacross the country. Eventually he settled in Boston, Massachusetts.
[edit]FSU
Main article: Friends Stand United
In Boston, James began singing for hardcore punk band Wrecking Crew and befriended a multi-racial group of kids from the tough areas of Boston andBrockton, Massachusetts. They started FSU (originally 'Fuck Shit Up', however it came to be known as 'Friends Stand United' or 'Forever Stand United'). They formed for the purpose of purging violent white power skinheads from the Boston hardcore scene.[5] Having successfully eliminated several of he dominating neo-Nazi groups, James turned his attention to drug dealers,[6] going, in his words, “right after the heart of the enemy, money”.[7]He would rob drug dealers and then give half of that money to local charities.[5]
While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government,[8] James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handguns with inner city gang members for pit bulls used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.
The founding core of FSU eventually splintered, with a large section moving on to motorcycle gangs including the Outlaws.[9] The split was amicable, but James and other founding members decided to leave a more positive legacy and steer FSU away from the criminal world. They established the Foundation Fund, which set up scholarships at local universities (Berklee College of Musicand Suffolk University Law School) in the names of FSU members who had died. The fund also holds yearly benefit concerts to raise money for charities that reflect "hardcore punk culture" (teen homelessness, anti-handgun violence, suicide prevention and local orphanages).[10]
James and FSU were featured on National Geographic TV, the History Channel's Gangland series and in Rolling Stone magazine.[11]
[edit]Music and film career
James began his music career playing in straight edge hardcore bands such as Wrecking Crew, 454 Big Block and Righteous Jams. Later, James would experiment with country-influenced solo work that has been critically acclaimed and described as "hooligan folk" by the Boston Phoenix, and "folk-punk" by Wonkavision magazine.
In 2006, James moved to Los Angeles, California to work as a filmmaker. He wrote and directed the short film Goodnight Moon, starring Pete Wentz ofFall Out Boy, which was released by THINKFilm. In December 2008, James was announced as a fellow for the Sundance Screenwriters lab, whose alumni include Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alison Anders and Darren Aronofsky.[12]
[edit]Arrest
James was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles, California on July 14, 2009, stemming from an incident four years earlier. He was charged with a criminal complaint of federal attempted extortion filed in Chicago.[13][14][15] It is alleged that in 2005 James sanctioned an attack on an individual who had past ties to white power politics.[16] James is then reported as to have said that the man could avoid further trouble if he made a $5,000 “donation” to FSU. After that incident, the FBI became involved, and after another attack, the victim scheduled a meeting with James to give the $5,000 while the FBI had surveillance on the encounter.[17] The individual has been revealed to be a member of the band Mest. Speculation has been raised that lead singer Tony Lovato's previous ties to white power groups[18][19] were the reason why the band was targeted,[16] given FSU's anti-racist stance. However the specific Mest member who was targeted has yet to be revealed.
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