Christian Picciolini

Christian Marco Picciolini (born November 3, 1973) is an American former extremist and political activist who founded the Free Radicals Project, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent extremism and support individuals in leaving hate groups. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for Township Supervisor in Resort Township, Michigan, during the 2024 election. He is the author of a memoir, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, which details his time as a leader of the white power movement in the U.S. An updated version of the story was published in 2017, titled White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out. His book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism looks at how extremists recruit the vulnerable to their causes.

Early life and education Picciolini was born and raised in Blue Island, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants. His father was a hair salon owner and his mother was a restaurant owner. At age 14 in 1987, Picciolini was recruited to join the Chicago Area Skinheads (CASH) by the group's founder, Clark Martell. Two years later, after Martell had gone to prison for a second time, Picciolini became the group's leader at age 16. He facilitated a merger between Chicago Area Skinheads and the Hammerskins, a more violent and well-organized white supremacist skinhead organization. In 1994, Picciolini opened a record store called Chaos Records where he primarily sold white power music.

Picciolini attended DePaul University later in life, earning a degree in international business and international relations.

Career Picciolini founded another, non-racist punk rock band called Random55 after leaving the white power movement. The band toured with Joan Jett in the mid-1990s. In 1999, Picciolini began working for IBM. Picciolini managed Flatfoot 56, a Celtic punk band from Chicago and The Briggs, a Los Angeles punk band.

In 2011, Picciolini spoke at the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) in Dublin, Ireland which was presented by Google Ideas and the Tribeca Film Festival. He also served as the producer for The Frantic's music video for "Blackout Brigade" and, later, as the producer for Dead Town Revival's music video for "Johnny". Picciolini had previously served as producer for The Frantic's music video for "Audio & Murder" and for Dead Town Revival's music video for "Rain."

Picciolini released Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead in April 2015. He has also appeared on Chicago Tonight on WTTW, The Afternoon Shift on WBEZ, NewsMax TV's MidPoint with Ed Berliner, Al Jazeera, WGN Radio, and The Adam Carolla Show. He has also been profiled in online publications like Vice. In March of 2015, he acted as a technical consultant on the CBS television pilot episode of 'For Justice,' directed by Ava DuVernay and produced by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal.

Picciolini left the Life After Hate organization in August 2017, intending to explore international groups that encourage violent extremists to leave their lives of hatred and find better lives. He went on to establish the Free Radicals Project, a global, multidisciplinary extremism and violence prevention, intervention, and disengagement platform and practice.

In July 2020, Picciolini criticized Donald Trump for sharing tweets by white supremacists, using "pejorative language to describe other people", intentionally instilling fear, and emboldening racist language, saying, "It's as if Trump kicked over a bucket of gasoline on all of those small fires that have existed for 400 years and created one large forest fire."

Awards and recognition In his role as executive producer of JBTV, Picciolini helped the show earn five Regional Emmy Award nominations (three in 2010 and two in 2011). In 2016, Picciolini won a Regional Emmy Award for his role as executive producer and director of ExitUSA's "There is life after hate" anti-hate campaign.