The story of Craig Cobb, a man who attempted to turn a dying, tiny, remote ND town into a White community. I've done a synopsis of the movie below.
Craig Cobb moves to Leith, ND. Everybody starts to panic. A town meeting is held and hundreds of people with absolutely nothing better to do travel to the middle of nowhere just to express their views of disapproving of Cobb's plan. It is quite funny how the only people who ended up being kicked out of the meeting were protesters. The violent-labeled supremacists were the ones who didn't cause disorderly conduct.
A Leith resident puts up security cameras for some reason, likely after Cobb doxes him. Keep in mind however, that every person's personal information such as addresses, names, phone numbers, family members, etc. Can easily be found online with a quick search. There is nothing illegal about doing so.
Those that were doxed had a daughter murdered in the past, and seem very paranoid about Cobb doing something to them despite the fact that they are white, so they have a rifle, pistol, and knife by their bed every night and plan to get a concealed carry permit.
Townspeople plead with the county sheriff to tell Cobb to leave, however they cannot do that as he legally owns property in town and can do whatever he wants. There is a clip of US veteran and new town resident Kynan Dutton being berated and captured by a power-happy sheriff. In another town meeting Cobb brings up an issue about the mistreatment of his tenants but is basically ignored.
The paranoid family from earlier decides to move their children out of town for fear that they will be somehow murdered despite them not being black.
Desperate to try anything, the generic farmer and self-appointed mayor Ryan Schock quickly passes a new city ordinance that requires all houses in town to have sewer and running water facilities, which Cobb's does not have. One thing missing here is it is not shown whether or not the ordinance is ever complied with.
Cobb appears on television and attempts to explain a DNA test that says he is 14% black, but is unable to do so after being repeatedly interrupted. I would think though that what shows on the outside is more important than what is not visible on the inside. Cobb later denounced this test and said it was purposefully rigged for ratings.
Kynan and Deborah Dutton show how their family has been harassed with car vandalism, slashed tires, trespassing, and threats. Tired of this, Kynan and Cobb walk the town streets holding a rifle and shotgun. They are repeatedly insulted by residents, though they choose not to aim or fire at anybody. The police are called and the two are later illegally arrested after said police trespass to do so.
A clip shows some stolen white supremacist signage being illegally burned. Cobb's bond is set at 1 million dollars cash, he is charged with 7 counts of terrorizing. One of the counts is later dismissed after a witness was determined to be unreliable, and 5 more were eventually downgraded from felony to misdemeanor menacing charges. He sells his Leith house to a town resident that seems to have taken a neutral stance to all of the recent events.
Kynan takes a plea bargain and gets only a disorderly conduct charge after agreeing to testify against Cobb in court.
The historic Leith Creamery building, which is supremacist property, is abruptly condemned by a health department and is quickly demolished and burned in what appears to be some sort of legalized arson.
Cobb spends almost half a year in jail and is released on strict probation. Leith residents wished for him to get 5-10 years in jail, which is completely unrealistic for the charges he had. It would have been very different if he had actually done something bad such as firing at someone, but he didn't and it is even shown in the video that he was saying he had self control and wasn't shooting anyone. Cobb then moves to Sherwood, ND, near the Canadian border, and has pretty much lived a quiet life since, having never been arrested or in national news ever again.
Keep in mind that I personally do not share the all of beliefs of Craig Cobb, but I just find it incredibly revealing how this entire case unfolded because his views are a slim minority, and therefor there was many instances of prejudice against him and his followers.
I especially find the legalized arson disturbing. That's just like if you hung a swastika outside the front of your old garage and somebody burns your garage down because they didn't like the swastika.
Also, was them patrolling the town with guns even illegal? I would say it was in bad taste, but at the same time, if I was one of the two and had gotten my property repeatedly vandalized, i would have gotten tired of putting up with it as well, and would have wanted to display some force to discourage people from further acts. They had the right to have guns after all. Although there were obscenities yelled, nobody's life was verbally threatened, and neither of them insulted anyone before they had been insulted first themselves. Nor did anybody get shot at or even aimed at. And as mentioned earlier, Cobb talked of himself having control, that he wasn't shooting anybody. But the news media of course edited down the clip to make it seem like they were the bad guys.
The Craig Cobb story is an example of what can happen to someone when they try to openly express minority beliefs in today's society.
Craig Cobb moves to Leith, ND. Everybody starts to panic. A town meeting is held and hundreds of people with absolutely nothing better to do travel to the middle of nowhere just to express their views of disapproving of Cobb's plan. It is quite funny how the only people who ended up being kicked out of the meeting were protesters. The violent-labeled supremacists were the ones who didn't cause disorderly conduct.
A Leith resident puts up security cameras for some reason, likely after Cobb doxes him. Keep in mind however, that every person's personal information such as addresses, names, phone numbers, family members, etc. Can easily be found online with a quick search. There is nothing illegal about doing so.
Those that were doxed had a daughter murdered in the past, and seem very paranoid about Cobb doing something to them despite the fact that they are white, so they have a rifle, pistol, and knife by their bed every night and plan to get a concealed carry permit.
Townspeople plead with the county sheriff to tell Cobb to leave, however they cannot do that as he legally owns property in town and can do whatever he wants. There is a clip of US veteran and new town resident Kynan Dutton being berated and captured by a power-happy sheriff. In another town meeting Cobb brings up an issue about the mistreatment of his tenants but is basically ignored.
The paranoid family from earlier decides to move their children out of town for fear that they will be somehow murdered despite them not being black.
Desperate to try anything, the generic farmer and self-appointed mayor Ryan Schock quickly passes a new city ordinance that requires all houses in town to have sewer and running water facilities, which Cobb's does not have. One thing missing here is it is not shown whether or not the ordinance is ever complied with.
Cobb appears on television and attempts to explain a DNA test that says he is 14% black, but is unable to do so after being repeatedly interrupted. I would think though that what shows on the outside is more important than what is not visible on the inside. Cobb later denounced this test and said it was purposefully rigged for ratings.
Kynan and Deborah Dutton show how their family has been harassed with car vandalism, slashed tires, trespassing, and threats. Tired of this, Kynan and Cobb walk the town streets holding a rifle and shotgun. They are repeatedly insulted by residents, though they choose not to aim or fire at anybody. The police are called and the two are later illegally arrested after said police trespass to do so.
A clip shows some stolen white supremacist signage being illegally burned. Cobb's bond is set at 1 million dollars cash, he is charged with 7 counts of terrorizing. One of the counts is later dismissed after a witness was determined to be unreliable, and 5 more were eventually downgraded from felony to misdemeanor menacing charges. He sells his Leith house to a town resident that seems to have taken a neutral stance to all of the recent events.
Kynan takes a plea bargain and gets only a disorderly conduct charge after agreeing to testify against Cobb in court.
The historic Leith Creamery building, which is supremacist property, is abruptly condemned by a health department and is quickly demolished and burned in what appears to be some sort of legalized arson.
Cobb spends almost half a year in jail and is released on strict probation. Leith residents wished for him to get 5-10 years in jail, which is completely unrealistic for the charges he had. It would have been very different if he had actually done something bad such as firing at someone, but he didn't and it is even shown in the video that he was saying he had self control and wasn't shooting anyone. Cobb then moves to Sherwood, ND, near the Canadian border, and has pretty much lived a quiet life since, having never been arrested or in national news ever again.
Keep in mind that I personally do not share the all of beliefs of Craig Cobb, but I just find it incredibly revealing how this entire case unfolded because his views are a slim minority, and therefor there was many instances of prejudice against him and his followers.
I especially find the legalized arson disturbing. That's just like if you hung a swastika outside the front of your old garage and somebody burns your garage down because they didn't like the swastika.
Also, was them patrolling the town with guns even illegal? I would say it was in bad taste, but at the same time, if I was one of the two and had gotten my property repeatedly vandalized, i would have gotten tired of putting up with it as well, and would have wanted to display some force to discourage people from further acts. They had the right to have guns after all. Although there were obscenities yelled, nobody's life was verbally threatened, and neither of them insulted anyone before they had been insulted first themselves. Nor did anybody get shot at or even aimed at. And as mentioned earlier, Cobb talked of himself having control, that he wasn't shooting anybody. But the news media of course edited down the clip to make it seem like they were the bad guys.
The Craig Cobb story is an example of what can happen to someone when they try to openly express minority beliefs in today's society.