According to media reports, on October 26, 2009 (Monday), police in the Florida city of Manalapan said Christopher Nachtman, 31, and John Kopko, 43, were at a hotel for a private event featuring David Irving. Irving is a Holocaust denier and a pro-Nazi, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
Irving lectured to about three dozen invited guests in a conference room he booked at the Ritz-Carlton hotel south of Palm Beach, in Manalapan. Irving's speech was on "decoding the Nazi message." Irving booked the conference room under another name, so hotel management was not aware of who he was or his purpose there, according to a hotel spokesperson.
Police said Nachtman and Kopko got into an argument that spilled out into the hallway, where one man was stabbed and the other one was cut.
One man was airlifted to an area hospital and the other was taken by ambulance.
Manalapan resident Beth Scruggs said her husband witnessed the incident.
"He said there were just blood and guts everywhere," Scruggs told WPBF 25 News. "He was over the phone with me at the time." Scruggs also added that Manalapan, where Irving's lecture took place, is predominantly Jewish.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the attack may be the latest sign of simmering tensions in Florida between two prominent racist skinhead groups, Volksfront and the Confederate Hammerskins.
Irving told Florida television station WPBF that Kopko initiated the attack, and that the fight had nothing to do with his lecture. He said his assistant witnessed the incident. "She said that she saw four people chasing one member of the audience out and beating him to the floor, and she said she thought they were going to kill him, but he pulled a knife from nowhere and stabbed one of these men repeatedly," he told the TV station.
Such violent tendencies and neo-Nazi backgrounds are a good indication of the type of some people who attend Irving's lectures. As Irving will likely be returning to Portland at some point, this background information is good to know.
Sources:
 http://www.wpbf.com/news/21435176/detail.html
http://www.wpbf.com/video/21438407/index.html
http://www.wpbf.com/video/21441675/index.html
link to www.splcenter.org
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LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT JAMES CHASSE AND THE PORTLAND POLICE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49gX7QhYQfw
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