S14, known officially as Storm 14, is a Tristate (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York) Neo-Nazi organization that has been increasingly active in the region as of March 2023. They have been busy with banner drops, conducting protests, and doing large scale stickering and graffiti campaigns, in an effort to recruit masses of young people and push their fascist agenda. Their escalating activity, includes the rollout of a propaganda subcommittee, which stages flashy fascist demos like their recent midnight New Brunswick march, as a part of their larger organizational growth strategy.
To analyze S14’s current activity and future organizational trajectory a closer look at their origin must be taken.
Back in October 2022, an Illinois based Neo-Nazi known by the alias Stephen Quest, put out a call on Stormfront that he was forming a national socialist organization called the National Socialist Youth Alliance (NSYA), aimed at young people. Quest modeled this organization after the National Alliance. He requested that interested people message him to help form on the ground attachments.
Quest created a closed Gab account for the NSYA and altered his personal account to recruit young people and create tangible on the ground cells. At this point in time, Quest began actively recruiting and connecting with prospective members on Gab.
At some point in late 2022, Quest formed a circle of other leaders and began to push for in person attachments and actions to take place. Quest placed a Nazi using the alias “Joachim Peiper”, as the leader or “commandant” and took up post as the second in command. (Peiper has since been unmasked as Philadelphia resident Mark A. Kauffman). Kauffman’s Gab account was created during this time as well. Kauffman took charge in leading on the ground support and action for the NSYA in the Tristate area.
In early January 2023, Kauffman officially launched the NSYA’s Tristate attachment at a collaborative protest in Hamilton NJ, in support of the right wing January 6 insurrection prisoners. Kauffman and other NSYA members, including Kauffman’s fiance Sara Sheaffer, worked with WLM-PA and NJEHA and their leader Dan D’ambly for this protest.
Kauffman and the NSYA also unveiled their organization flag at this same protest, signalling its usage for the first time on the ground.
Kauffman and the NSYA Tristate attachment continued to do actions with D’ambly and NJEHA, WLM-PA, and other fascists like Embrace Struggle AC and Atlantic Nationalist Club throughout January and February 2023. They coordinated cross posts on all of their respective organizations social media to promote their partnership.
Despite increasing organizational overlap and connections being forged within the Tristate far right, as of February 2023, Kauffman and Quest were drifting a part organizationally. Reportedly Quest began acting erratically.
After an internal power struggle the NSYA split, with Quest keeping the NSYA organization and moniker and Kauffman leaving with the majority of membership behind him to start a different iteration of the group, S14.
Kauffman launched S14 in March 2023. With Kauffman now in place as the organization’s head, or “commandant”, he instituted a new ranking system, logos, and different organizational structures with a primary focus on recruitment and propaganda.
At some point during NSYA/S14’s time of flux, former antifascist now turned fascist Paul Minton and his girlfriend Daisy McGowan, also joined the group.
Notably, Kauffman has forged strong bonds with several subordinates, who he has given leadership positions to, in order to help direct S14’s subcommittees and regular day to day activities. This includes his fiance Sheaffer, who now acts as his second in command and is taking on greater responsibility for S14’s functioning. As such, S14 has been producing recruitment propaganda and running in person actions between NJ and PA at a steady rate since the split.
Internally, with Kauffman at the helm of S14 and Sheaffer at his side, the organization’s main drive is on building up base membership numbers. Kauffman specifically has special interest in recruiting underage teenagers and those in their 20’s and 30’s.
Kauffman and his circle, which includes minors in organizational leadership roles, has been very active inundating both PA and NJ with physical and virtual recruitment materials, as evident by both the mainstream news and their own propaganda videos. Their propaganda subcommittee has been prolific in creating both general S14 propaganda and merchandise for them internally.
Externally, Kauffman and S14 has put a lot of energy into promoting cross-organizational membership and solidarity between the different fascist organizations in the area. Kauffman is open about the fact he is also personally a member of WLM-PA and routinely references that members of NJEHA, S14, the Garden State Nationalists, WLM-PA, Embrace Struggle AC, and Atlantic Nationalist Club have crossover membership. Kauffman and his crew can also be seen in their varying propaganda videos putting up graffiti and stickers from these organizations as well.
While S14’s activity in the region has been escalating over time their bad security culture practices, probable swarming of state agencies, and resistance from antifascists leaves one to wonder how long they can keep this up before their behavior catches up with them. This is especially true now that certain S14 members like Kauffman, Sheaffer, Minton, and McGowan have been exposed and now have a magnifying glass on them. The heat will likely only be turning up higher considering their ownership over their Ridley Township white nationalist flyering action and their proven connections to Nicholas Mucci, who has the force of the state crushing him down.
Despite all of this including the recent doxxes of Kauffman and Sheaffer as covered NJ Hate Watch, S14 and their members don’t seem to be changing anything they are doing and are navigating their social media platforms as if nothing has happened. There are changes on the horizon however and S14 members will continue to be exposed for who they really are.
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