If you caught this morning’s Pith in the Wind post on the 10 most popular Pith posts of 2017, you’ll have noticed that No. 2 was “Vengeance Strength Kvlt Gym in East Nashville Has Links to Alt-Right.” In July, Scene staffer Cari Wade Gervin spoke with Sky Lemyng, the owner of the fitness facility at 1401 Gallatin Ave., about his and his gym’s ties to Operation Werewolf, an offshoot of a crypto-fascist organization called Wolves of Vinland.
At 8:13 Friday morning, a call came into Metro Nashville Police Department requesting assistance to that address from someone who identified himself as Sky, the owner of the business. A formal police report had not been filed at press time, but MNPD was able to provide the Scene with call logs. The responding officer was able to retrieve footage from a security camera attached to a nearby business, which shows four suspects, possibly juveniles, approaching the business just before 11 p.m. on Thursday night.
“Unable to get in contact with the owner to make report,” read the notes logged with the call. “Card left. 4 suspects. 1 with paint can. Jackets. 1x possible female. Possible juv[enile]. Business next door camera footage. 2254 hours occured [sic].”
At 9:55 a.m., police took another call from the same person. “Front windows and door broken,” read the notes. “Sign also has paint thrown all over it.” The notes go on to say that the caller believed that vandalism was the intent rather than breaking in, and a brick was found inside. In the above photo by Scene staff photographer Eric England, you can see the windows and door boarded up and brown paint dried on the mural that serves as the gym's sign.
You also may remember that over Christmas weekend, someone splashed the statue of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest that’s on a patch of private land just off I-65 with a coat of pink paint. There’s no information to suggest that these two incidents are related — except that they’re both acts of vandalism targeting two highly visible symbols with ties to racist sentiments, which had both been on the receiving end of considerable vocal opposition in 2017. We'll let you draw your own conclusions.
