Not according to the Sanford police who, one would think, might have an inkling if "10-20 locals and volunteers" were riding around the small community armed and loaded for bear.

The idea that the Neo-Nazis had set up shop in Sanford came from a blog at the publication Miami New Times, and was based on an interview with some fanatic from Detroit who claims his storm troopers are patrolling Sanford to protect white people from a race riot.

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over."

Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community.

Schoep, whose neo-Nazi group is based in Detroit, tells Riptide the patrols are a response to white residents' fears of a race riot.A group called the New Black Panther Party recently offered $10,000 for a citizens' arrest of George Zimmerman, Martin's shooter. Schoep said the bounty is a sign that "the possibility of further racial violence... is brimming over like a powder keg ready to explode into the streets."

The patrols are comprised of between 10 and 20 locals and "volunteers" from across the state, including some from Miami, he added. He couldn't go into specifics on what kind of firepower, exactly, the patrols had with them.

"In Arizona the guys can walk around with assault weapons and that's totally legal," Schoep said, referring to the group's patrols of the US-Mexico border. "What I can tell you is that any patrols that we are doing now in Florida are totally within the law."

What a great story. A real scoop. Except that the idiot blogger never confirmed the lying loony's story with the Standford police - something William Jacobson did:

My initial e-mail (which included an embedded link to the Memeorandum thread):

"There are a number of reports in the media that Neo-Nazis are conducting armed patrols in Sanford.  Can you confirm or deny whether this is true, and provide any information you have on the subject? If someone is able to get back to me as soon as possible (and before Monday) that would be appreciated, since such rumors are spreading."

Response from Sanford Joint Information Center:

"At this time the City of Sanford has not confirmed the presence of Neo-Nazis groups."

My follow up:

"You say "not confirmed." Is there any indication of such patrols that the Department is aware of?"

Further Response from Sanford Joint Information Center:

"We have no indication of any such patrols at this point in Sanford. The only large gathering was the children and their parents at the Easter egg hunt."

Maybe those Easter eggs are actually bombs planted by the storm troopers.

Several other blogs and publications picked up on the story and are already backtracking furiously - except another lying loony on the left, Charles Johnson:

You know all that rhetoric about "race war" that's showing up at Breitbart.com and many other right wing sites these days? It's not just rhetoric. There are some people in Sanford, Florida right now who are taking it very seriously indeed: Armed Neo-Nazis Now Patrolling Sanford, Say They Are 'Prepared' for Post-Trayvon Martin Violence.

First of all, way to go Charles, trying to connect Breitbart to neo-Nazis. That sort of hackery is soooo 2005. But really,the only people taking this nonsense seriously are serial liars like Johnson who, along with everyone else - except Jacobson -- didn't make the effort to contact the Sanford police and confirm the Motor City Madman's story.

Now, it is possible, I suppose, that neo-Nazis are indeed, tooling around Sanford looking for a race riot. But one would think that the Sanford police would be cognizant of such a threat and be on sharp lookout for such a development. These guys are sitting on a powder keg and believing that they wouldn't be able to sniff out a dozen or more fanatics on "patrol" is ludicrous.

In internet parlance, the Florida blogger got "pwned" by the white supremacist.