NAZI GRAFFITI TAGGERS ARRESTED, HAVE TIES TO VENTURA COUNTY RELIGIOUS RIGHT

It’s October 28^th and we’re in Courtroom 11 at the Ventura County Courthouse. We’re getting our first look at Johann Patrick, standing in his blue jail smock behind the cage where in-custody defendants sit for court proceedings. Today is his “early disposition conference” and we literally googled that last night, along with a bunch of other legal terms.

We read about this incident on October 18^thand again on October 25^th after the Ventura County DA released press statements about the arrest of two 18-year-old men who allegedly committed felony vandalism with hate crime enhancements. There were a couple of articles that popped up in our google alerts for “hate crime” and KTLA did a brief piece that left a lot of our questions unanswered:

Two 18-year-olds have been charged with felonies after allegedly graffitiing explicit hate speech onto a Thousand Oaks building, officials announced Friday.

The Ventura County DA’s Office charged both Matthew Daniel Rakowski of Simi Valley and Johann Bernhardt Patrick of Thousand Oaks with one count of felony vandalism and one misdemeanor count of a hate crime.

On Oct. 14, Thousand Oaks Patrol deputies responded to a report of graffiti vandalism where antisemitic and white power hate speech and symbols were tagged on the side of a commercial building.

According to Ventura County DA press releases, the two were arrested October 15^th and 16^th “for their involvement in felony vandalism and a hate crime” in Thousand Oaks. The previous day, the 14^th, Thousand Oaks Patrol Deputies got a report of two suspects on surveillance cameras spraying graffiti on a commercial building’s walls. The graffiti “contained explicit hate speech and symbolism that targeted specific protected classes.” Detectives identified them as Johann Patrick and Matthew Rakowski “along with their associated vehicle.” Detectives took Patrick into custody on the 15^th in Thousand Oaks. Police received a residential search warrant and found further evidence of the crime. Detectives found Rakowski in Simi Valley the next day and a warrant at his residence found evidence implicating him in the crime as well. Both were booked at Ventura’s Pre-Trial Detention Facility on charges of felony vandalism, violation of Civil Rights and conspiracy to commit a crime.

PART 1: ON THE GROUND

From experience, we knew local newspapers would only summarize whatever press releases are issued by the DA. We would need to learn more on our own. Our researchers quickly pulled up and printed everything from the Ventura County Case Inquiry online tool and mapped out the first round of court proceedings about this case. According to court records, Matthew Rakowski was quickly released to his girlfriend on bail, while Johann Patrick remained in custody at Ventura County’s main jail. And we found from the Superior Court Case Inquiry that both men were charged with Felony Vandalism, misdemeanor Violation of Civil rights, and Felony enhancement for committing a hate crime in concert with another. We mapped out how to best monitor the proceedings and got our notebooks ready. First up was Patrick’s early disposition conference.

We knew many court proceedings last only a few minutes and provide little information to court observers. We had already found several social media accounts possibly belonging to Patrick and Rakowski and/or their family members, but we lacked confirmation. The court records and media reports at this point had not provided mugshots. We figured if nothing else, we would have the opportunity to see what the defendants look like.

This brings us to courtroom 11, where we got our first look at Johann Patrick during his early disposition conference. Patrick entered the custody area of the courtroom through a back door. The first thing noticeable was his size and posture. Patrick is 6’2”, 220lbs, aged 18, a high school senior football player with a large head, prominent cheekbones and has shoulder length dirty blond hair, thick and feathered back on the sides with bangs cut to cover his eyes. He ungracefully lumbered into the inmate pen, leaning side to side, attempting to get a view of his family sitting in the courtroom. He appeared to be smiling, happy to see them. His crimes did not seem to be weighing on him. The proceedings were quick and consisted of legal technicalities, scheduling, nothing of substance. But we knew what Patrick looked like now. And we saw a small group who we assumed was his family. More on them later.

That evening, we went to work checking all the data we scraped so far on Patrick. Based on his physical appearance we confirmed through his social media. We already found pics of Rakowski through his mother’s social media and business accounts, so it was easy to find Rakowski’s Instagram by narrowing it down through follows and followers until we found an account liked and followed by both Patrick and family members and located images of Rakowski on the page. It took a few hours, but a single view of Patrick in person allowed us to confirm a lot about the families, their social media accounts, and their online behavior. We continued digging, searching, ruling things out, making lists of facts that needed confirming, etc. And we decided we had a few very specific questions about these two men:

• What did they paint on the walls of the business?
• What was the business and was it specifically targeted?
• Were the men involved in any known hate groups?

Our little activist collective has been monitoring groups like SoCal Active Club, Goyim Defense League, and Clockwork Crew who have all been active in white supremacy events in and around our community. We wanted to know if the men were affiliated with one of these or a similar group.

• Was there a connection/link to the schools they attended?

This is something we decided to explore due to ongoing rumors and the recent whistle blower who is suing Oaks Christian School for ongoing racial harassment.

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On October 20^th, 2024, we return to the Ventura County Courthouse hoping to answer some of our questions. First up, Patrick has a preliminary examination at 8:15 AM in Courtroom 14. A few motions or maneuvers happen fast, and the Judge moves the proceeding upstairs to Courtroom 48. We must tag team today because Rakowski’s arraignment (also his first appearance in court) takes place in Courtroom 11 at 09:00 AM.

Upstairs in Courtroom 48 some really important details start coming through. Patrick is present, in his blue jail smock and leg chains, but not behind bars this time. He’s sitting next to his counsel; Deputy Public Defender Andria Kim is to his right. He never turns to look at his family about 8 feet behind him in the nearly empty observer seats. We learned that this proceeding would be to establish probable cause for the charges against Patrick.

The prosecutor calls a single witness, VCSO Detective Timothy Behrene. The prosecutor questions Detective Behrene to establish that Patrick and Rakowski targeted a Jewish-owned business (we are not disclosing details) that caters largely to Jewish clientele through word-of-mouth advertising, including employees and patrons who wear visible Jewish symbols on jewelry and clothing and an employee who sports a visible star of David tattoo. The prosecution also put on the record that several Black clients utilize the business daily and that most of these clients and employees are exposed to areas affected by the graffiti.

Then comes something we’ve been waiting for—a description of the DA’s exhibits 2-32, law enforcement’s photographs of the vandalism. Most of the graffiti was concentrated on the North and East sides of the building in Thousand Oaks. Over the next 25-30 minutes, Detective Behrene described each piece of graffiti in detail, including the medium used (black paint marker, spray paint) and color of each piece. One of the first pieces described was the sentence, “If you can read this you are a n-word” alongside three swastikas. They clarified for the record that when Detective Behrene said “n-word” he was referring to the actual racial slur fully spelled out. Another piece spelled “fuck jews.”

Throughout the Detective’s testimony on the exhibits there were multiple descriptions of swastikas and the n-word. One significant clue as to Patrick’s motivation and ideology came when Detective Behrene described an exhibit showing “WPW” and “1488” tags. The Detective testified he recognized these two from previous law enforcement trainings on white supremacy groups to mean “white power worldwide (or white pride worldwide), the 14 words, and heil Hitler.” His description went on and on until it became difficult keeping count of swastikas and n-words. But we did not miss the mention of two places where the double lightning bolts “SS” were painted. Again, the Detective testified he recognized this as a reference to the historical Nazi secret police, the Schutzstaffel, which is commonly referenced by modern white supremacy groups.

To summarize, there was a hell of a lot of horribly racist and anti-Semitic graffiti, and most of it is associated with in-the-know white supremacists who have been researching and radicalizing for a significant amount of time. The one outlier was a seemingly inexplicable “P-Diddy is innocent” tag, likely meant to troll everyone by referencing the rapper’s sex trafficking charges. There were multiple terms and groups of letters like, DESA, 5H (or SH?), KPE, SKPE, and indecipherable “scribbles” as described by Detective Behrene. There was also an image of a “cartoon face” the prosecutor specifically questioned the Detective about.

In the final phase of Detective Behrene’s testimony he was questioned about how the men were identified (a plate reader near the scene of the crime, video surveillance footage, and a Sheriff Deputy who recognized Patrick from former days as a football coach). He then described a notebook found in Patrick’s room during a search which contained the n-word written in large black letters, the tagging moniker DESA, and a cartoon face resembling the one found alongside the racist graffiti.

Next came an important revelation about the case against Patrick along with a likely defense strategy for Rakowski. Detective Behrene described his interview with Patrick’s co-defendant Rakowski. Behrene testified that Rakowski admitted during a mirandized interview that both men committed the vandalism, that it was Patrick’s idea, and that Rakowski had felt peer pressured to come along. Rakowski told Detective Behrene that he was “learning to tag” and was working on 5s and Hs which was the meaning of those pieces of graffiti. If that was not enough, Rakowski allowed Detective Behrene to view his private Instagram messages with Patrick. This testimony confirmed our earlier suspicions that Patrick maintained this specific IG account.

The IG account contains a few images of Patrick. Detective Behrene testified that screenshots from the men’s IG private messages included both men trading racial slurs, the n-word, and “13%/50%”—a white supremacist lie that black people are 13% of the population and commit 50% of the crime. Patrick also messaged Rakowski that the “Jews created the great replacement,” and “Perchance you’ll see now why Hitler may have been right.” Rakowski’s Instagram messages with Patrick also revealed Patrick mentioning, “Sniping Jews” and “Death to all n-words, Muslims, Immigrants, and Jews.” Based on these Instagram messages alone we are curious why the District Attorney or the Ventura County Sheriff Office has not filed gun violence restraining orders on both Johann Patrick and Matthew Rakowski.

The only objection Patrick’s public defender made was that the “13% vs 50%” statement was speculation. She then went on to cross examine Detective Behrene, apparently attempting to establish that the men were unaware of the Jewish-owned status of the business, and that there was no intent to specifically target anyone with hate speech. Rather than deny the ideology, she argued that Patrick has a right to hate Jews and harbor racist beliefs and that if he stood on an overpass with the same words on signs there would be no crime. She also attempted to establish that there was not sufficient evidence that the business was visibly celebrating Jewish culture or pro-Black sentiments. She argued that this did not meet the criteria of a hate crime under the law and that Patrick should not be charged with a hate crime enhancement, only the vandalism charge. The Judge stated that he found it hard to believe that in all of Thousand Oaks the men choose this location by pure chance. He ruled that for the purpose of a probable cause hearing, the prosecution had established probable cause for the Hate Crime enhancement. Later in the afternoon, at a separate hearing, Patrick’s bail was reduced to zero and later that evening, he was released from custody. His arraignment will take place on November 14^th. Downstairs during Patrick’s Preliminary Examination, Rakowski walked into the hallway outside of Courtroom 11 wearing a suit, alongside his girlfriend. His mom was already present, waiting on the row of metal chairs that run down the long hallway against the windows. We acquired visual confirmation that the accounts we believe to belong to Rakowski, his girlfriend, and his mom are accurate. At one point before Rakowski’s arraignment, while in the hallway with his girlfriend, mother, and father, Patrick’s sister came downstairs from court room 48 to chat with him. Patrick’s Preliminary Examination was swift and without substance and his Early Disposition Conference is scheduled for December 11^th.

PART 2: RESEARCHING THE SUSPECTS

Our research team spent countless hours looking into social media and other public sources to find some context for what Patrick and Rakowski did. Early in 2024 several activists held a strategy meeting and one concern high on our list of priorities was centered on youth and young adults. We were seeing an increase in far-right extremist youth recruitment. Certain Christian organizations were embracing extreme nationalism and promoting Christofascist rhetoric while platforming conspiracy theories and bigoted influencers. Seeing established Christian institutions embracing and platforming far right extremism, we feared misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and anti-LGBTQI+ hate would be increasingly validated and tolerated by youth.

Nowhere was this more evident than here in the Conejo Valley as Rob McCoy gradually transitioned from Conejo Valley pastor and activist to running the TPUSA Faith branch of Charlie Kirk’s National organization. Throughout 2023 we saw an increase in TPUSA recruitment groups popping up at Ventura and Los Angeles County colleges. We found these networks to be a pipeline into social media circles of white nationalist Groyper movement led by Nick Fuentes. We recognized the danger then and made some admittedly insufficient efforts to counter far right recruitment of youth.

It is through this lens that we began our research into Patrick and Rakowski. We were not surprised by what we’ve learned. According to the recent lawsuit against Oaks Christian, the school tolerated a culture of racism against Black students that included mock slave auctions, apps that simulate the sound of bullwhips used when Black students walked near, and instructors warning Black students to be prepared to accept racist comments in classroom discussions about slavery in America. We see similar variables when we investigate the schools and social media worlds Patrick and Rakowski inhabit.

Johann Patrick (18) is a High School senior. As we know from information revealed in early court proceedings, Johann Patrick is well-versed in white supremacist rhetoric and symbols. Our research to date confirms he is involved in movement white nationalism beyond being an edgelord trolling with casual racism online. Rakowski claimed in an interview with law enforcement that the hate crime was Johann’s idea, and the DA introduced evidence (reported above) that Johann espoused neo-Nazi rhetoric in addition to planning the hate crime.

In 2021 Johann was a student at Grace Brethren in Simi Valley. In 2023 he was a senior at Hillcrest Christian in Thousand Oaks. Johann Patrick runs at least three instagram accounts. His main account is followed by and engages with Lucas Crawford, Pastoral Assistant and Middle School Ministry Leader at Godspeak Calvary Chapel. Another account of Patrick’s is also followed by Dom Mariniello, a regular presenter and guest at Godspeak Calvary Chapel.

Johann Patrick runs another Instagram account with a 1488 in the handle that is followed Godspeak Calvary Chapel @godspeak_kids account. Johann Patrick also runs an Instagram account exclusively for sharing his tagging skills around Ventura County under his “DESA” moniker. The account is @DESA_KRE and shares videos of what appears to be Johann doing graffiti vandalism in Somis, CA and in Thousand Oaks. We have not found any evidence that the district attorney is aware of this account as it was not entered by the prosecution as an exhibit during his recent probable cause hearing.

There is additionally a Facebook account that appears to belong to Johann Patrick and seems to be set up as a troll account. It refers to the owner being a “Private First Class from Grace Brethren Elementary School” and claims to belong to the owner of a “gay strip club” who “studied at Columbine.” This reference to the school shooting and attempted bombing that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999, is another red flag and again brings into question why the VCSO or DA have not petitioned for gun violence restraining orders against both Johann Patrick and Matthew Rakowski.

Prior to publication we located a TikTok account run by Johann Patrick. During an initial sweep of his activity there we immediately noticed some neo-Nazi signage, including 88 and iron crosses in the username and banner image.

Like Patrick, Matthew Rakowski is also a product of a private Christian schools. An old Facebook account verifies he attended Grace Brethren Elementary School in Simi Valley.

We found no one in Rakowski’s family that shared his extreme views. One of his parents who uses a different last name has two known social media accounts. One includes post celebrating queer pride and the other promotes childhood mental health and education. Rakowski’s social media has fewer connections to the local Christian community and is full of abhorrently racist accounts and memes, many of which are specifically anti-black.

Rakowski appears enthusiastically engaged in online racism. He admitted during an interrogation following his arrest that he participated in the hate crime vandalism willingly and admitted to painting racial slurs. Although he attempted to minimize his participation in the hate crime by stating it was not his idea and that he was pressured by Johann Patrick, he did not deny participating under his own free will. Patrick’s next hearing is November 14th and Rakowski’s is December 11th.