A Creswell man with white supremacist ties who was recently featured in a series of articles detailing a resurgence in racist activity in the Eugene area has been arrested for assault in an incident involving a weapon.
Jacob Albert Laskey, 37, was booked into Lane County jail in the early hours of Saturday morning Jan. 20 on charges of second-degree assault, menacing, unlawful use of a weapon and second-degree criminal trespassing, according to online records.
Laskey, who had been at the center of a 2002 attack against Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, was featured prominently in a Eugene Weekly cover story on antifa and racism in Lane County and later in an Oregonian article about the rise of racist activity in Oregon. Laskey calls himself an “anti-antifa supremacist” and works at Wolfclan Armory in Creswell, which is owned by the Laskey family.
Laskey claimed to have burned hundreds of copies of EW after appearing in the cover feature and posted a video of the flaming papers on YouTube. EW reported the incident to the Eugene police.
At the time of his arrest Saturday, Laskey was on federal probation after having served 11 years in prison for his involvement in the 2002 hate crime.
Multiple sources allege that Laskey stabbed an individual during a birthday party late Friday night. EW has asked for confirmation from the Lane County Sheriff’s Office but the LCSO has not returned a request for information at this time.
Those sources described the incident as a family dispute over Laskey’s appearance in the recent articles and over speculation Laskey was the source of rumors that another family member who is involved in Oregon Country Fair is also involved in racist activities.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
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Publisher
Eugene Weekly
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