[Vision2020] Racist Group Leaves Fliers on Lawns

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (April 18, 2009) Spokesman Review.

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Racist group leaves fliers on lawns
CdA neighborhood targeted for recruitment
 
Residents of a north Coeur d’Alene subdivision awoke Friday to find racist 
fliers on their lawns, distributed as recruitment letters by Aryan 
Nations, a white supremacist group.

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White supremacist fliers were dropped in front of homes in a subdivision 
in Coeur d’Alene early Friday morning.
 
http://tinyurl.com/SupremacistFlyer

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“I saw Aryan Nations and put it in the trash,” said Garvin Jones, who 
lives in the neighborhood southwest of Atlas Road and Prairie 
Avenue. “What’s wrong with these people? Give me a break. I bet if you 
went back in their family history, not one is 100 percent white.”

Jones and dozens of his neighbors found the fliers on their lawns, inside 
baggies that also held small rocks. 

They depicted a girl asking her father what he did during the “revolution” 
and asking “Where have all the White people gone daddy?” and “Why did 
those dark men take mommy away?” The fliers were signed “Aryan Nations, 
Church of Jesus Christ Christian,” and listed a post office box and a Web 
site. The group’s address is listed as “Couer d’Alene, Idaho.”

The Aryan Nations Web site lists Jerald O’Brien and Michael Lombard as 
the “pastors” who have taken over after longtime leader Richard Butler’s 
death in September 2004. 

O’Brien said area residents can expect the dissemination of “a lot more” 
fliers and said “like-minded individuals will respond and seek 
membership.” He said the election of President Barack Obama has served as 
the “greatest recruiting tool ever.” He said he had “several handfuls” of 
members in Coeur d’Alene.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations – which has fought the 
Aryan Nations for decades – condemned the flier distribution and offered 
its services to anyone who was threatened or harassed.

“It’s bound to be a small group of people trying once again to bring hate 
into the community. They don’t have anywhere to operate from except a post 
office box,” said Tony Stewart, a spokesman for the task force. People in 
the community, he added, “will reject it as they have in the past. Anyone 
who feels intimidated should take comfort in the fact that the people are 
here for them, and we are here for them.”

Several residents of the neighborhood that received the fliers were 
interviewed for this story, but most of them asked not to be named out of 
fear of retribution. All of those interviewed expressed shock, disgust or 
anger at the fliers. At least two called the police. One caller was a 22-
year-old white woman who has a 4-year-old African-American son.

“My son’s black, so it’s not OK,” said the woman, who asked only to be 
identified as Chelsee B. She said she was afraid to let her son play 
outside. Coeur d’Alene Police Department Sgt. Christie Wood said no 
investigation would be conducted, because the distribution of fliers is 
protected as free speech under the First Amendment. She added, however, 
that targeting people for harassment based on race is a crime and should 
be reported.

Stewart said hate speech is protected, but hate crimes are not. He 
encouraged any member of the public with concerns about racial harassment 
to contact the task force at (208) 765-3932.

The Aryan Nations was effectively bankrupted on Sept. 7, 2000, when a 
Kootenai County jury returned a $6.3 million verdict against the 
organization, its founder, Butler, and three former members. The verdict 
in the civil trial found that Butler and his organization were guilty of 
gross negligence in appointing security guards who carried out an assault 
against two people driving past their property. 

When Butler lost his 20-acre compound near Hayden Lake as a result of the 
outgrowth of a civil suit in 2000, millionaire racist Vincent Bertollini 
bought Butler a home in Hayden. It served as the Aryan Nations 
headquarters until Butler’s death in 2004.

A new Alabama location for the “Aryan Nations World Headquarters” was 
posted on the group’s Web site soon after Butler’s death. A splinter group 
set up shop in Pennsylvania.

O’Brien, however, said the “world headquarters” of the organization is now 
in Coeur d’Alene in a location that is “membership privileged information 
only.” He acknowledged that he lives in a home on the east side of 
downtown Coeur d’Alene that regularly flies two white supremacist flags.

Newspaper files show O’Brien marching in a neo-Nazi parade in Coeur 
d’Alene in July 2004 and joining in a skinhead rally that drew eight 
people outside the Spokane County courthouse in June 2007. O’Brien has a 
large swastika tattoo on his scalp.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to 
have fun doin' it.  Lord, let your laughter ring forth.  Be outrageous, 
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can 
produce.  And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer 
joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it 
was."

- Molly
Ivins

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