Outside the temple ahead of Shabbat services on Friday evening, Minadeo and his group, the Goyim Defense League, displayed swastikas, shouted anti-Semitic messages, and wrapped a Pride flag around a blow-up doll representing a Jewish man, which they hung from a utility pole.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says that officers told Minadeo to stop shouting obscenities through a bullhorn during the demonstration. The 40-year-old former rapper and actor — who has used his livestream channel to promote violence against transgender people, yell racial slurs at children online, and spout hate against immigrants despite his family's Mexican American background — allegedly refused to comply with Georgia police and was subsequently arrested. He was released later that evening after posting his $910 bond.
A sheriff's office spokesperson tells New Times no one else was arrested and the group dispersed following Minadeo's arrest. The department referred to Minadeo as a West Palm Beach resident.
Earlier that day, residents 20 miles south of Macon in Warner Robins woke up to anti-Semitic flyers on their properties. A video on his Gab profile shows Minadeo and other group members throwing out weighted plastic bags from the back of a truck riding around the community.
The Goyim Defense League (GDL) has been responsible for distributing flyers nationwide that spread anti-Semitic hate and prejudicial tropes. In January, Palm Beach police cited Minadeo for littering after he and others left flyers on residents' lawns throughout the area.
New Times previously documented how, after being banned from popular social media platforms, Minadeo found a home on the Odysee video site, where he received thousands of dollars in donations per week from his followers via the Entropy platform. Minadeo recently amassed a large round of donations after claiming to have crashed a drone into an FBI building in West Palm Beach and pleading for money to replace the allegedly wrecked drone.
Check out an extended profile on Minadeo and how he monetizes bigotry: "Neighborhood Nazi Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute."
Minadeo founded the GDL and its network of anti-Semitic and white supremacist agitators out of his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. He became known throughout the West Coast for his anti-Semitic stunts and demonstrations, which included driving around in a white van covered in swastikas as part of his "Name the Nose tour" and hanging Nazi signs on highway overpasses.Disturbing video footage of the neo Nazi rally outside of a Chabad Jewish center during Shabbat in East Cobb, GA yesterday.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 25, 2023
Important to note leader of the rally - Jon Minadeo II - was arrested the previous day after disturbing a synagogue in Macon, GA. pic.twitter.com/KItQLjfnbc
Before rising through the ranks of extremist media, he was known as Shoobie Da Wop and put out rap albums, including American Man Whore in 2013 and Whore Moans in 2015. Songs like "College Girls" and "Pocket Full of Dope" showcase him rapping about sexual escapades, booze, and weed.
He has since gained a following nationwide through his nearly daily GoyimTV livestreams, where he uses anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic rhetoric to rile his followers while soliciting donations, or "donos," as he calls them.
In December, Minadeo moved to the Sunshine State from Petaluma, California, telling his followers, "Florida is the battleground" for his self-described war against the Jewish people and that he no longer felt at home in California. Florida has become a haven for neo-Nazis and white supremacists who routinely stage protests with Nazi messaging and flags.
Minadeo's antics continued for a few months in Florida as he staged Nazi light projections on buildings throughout the state and confronted people outside of synagogues and temples. In February, a viral video captured Minadeo and other neo-Nazis harassing people outside the Chabad of South Orlando, shouting into a megaphone, "Heil Hitler."
His stunts in Florida were stifled in May when the state enacted a new bill that makes it illegal to harass people based on their religious attire and criminalizes dumping material onto private property to intimidate or threaten the owner.
After his release from jail, Minadeo returned to the Georgia synagogue the next day as Macon residents gathered in solidarity and held signs saying, "Stop the hate." He was spotted later that evening at another neo-Nazi demonstration outside a synagogue in East Cobb, Georgia. The group displayed Nazi flags as people shouted, "Go home."
