Neo-Nazi rally set for steps of Capitol

OLYMPIA – A neo-Nazi group planning to rally on the steps of the state capitol this week said Saturday that its members plan nothing more than a peaceful demonstration.

“We are not here to instigate any problems whatsoever. You have my word on that,” said Nigel Fovargue, a Los Angeles member of the National Socialist Movement. He was flanked on the Capitol lawn by half a dozen members in black boots and brown shirts emblazoned with swastika symbols.

Shortly after the group marched away, however, a nonuniformed man who identified himself as also part of the group swung his hand at a community member getting close to him with a video camera.

“Don’t do that! Turn that thing off!” said the man, who gave his name as Gary and said he was from the Tri-Cities. He had a pit bull named Eva on a leash. The man with the camera backed away quickly and said he’d turned off the camera.

Unsure what to expect on Monday, state police plan to close off sections of the state Capitol campus to allow the Nazis to hold the two-hour Capitol-steps rally that they applied for months ago. In response to the rally, a group called “Unity in the Community” plans a daylong diversity celebration today.

“The cornerstone of positive race relations is to get people actually talking to each other,” said Anna Schlecht, one of the organizers. “My America is not a melting pot. My America is more of a tossed salad, where one person still gets to be a tomato and I get to be an avocado.”

The application was for a group of 100 Nazis and supporters; police and the group itself say the number will likely be smaller. Previous gatherings in Olympia have drawn five to seven uniformed members.

Far larger, police and community leaders believe, will be a contingent of counterdemonstrators. For weeks, the Washington State Patrol and other local police agencies have been planning ways to prevent violence from breaking out between the two groups.

“We like an audience,” National Socialist Movement member John Brandt, a former Spokane resident, said Saturday. “The actual counterprotesters, especially if they turn violent, we don’t want that.”

The NSM, which claims to have 68 chapters across the country, is a white-separatist group whose multiple Web sites blast interracial love, tout a video game targeting Jews, and hawk music CDs with names like “Operation Race War.” The group’s northwest Web site is full of racial and religious epithets and caricatures.

“They’re nasty in a variety of ways, which is traditional if you’re a Nazi,” said Reiko Callner, another Unity in the Community organizer.

A self-described “storm trooper” of the group, Gary J. Nemeth, disputed a reporter’s description of the swastika as a hate symbol.

“The term ‘hate symbol’ is a term of abuse,” he said.

In interviews, group members have said they picked Olympia because it’s a liberal city. The group, which recently formed a federal political fundraising committee, also clearly wants photographs of members in front of the state Capitol. On Saturday, Nemeth repeatedly asked a television cameraman to make sure that his shots included group members with the Capitol dome as a backdrop.

After about 15 minutes of questions, the group abruptly stopped taking questions and marched away. Gary, the Tri-Cities man, then turned up in a T-shirt and jeans, pretending to be a curious passerby, and talked with reporters and Schlecht, who is Jewish.

Gary’s initial “what’s going on” questions soon turned into a debate over racial separation, whether Schlecht – an American – should move to Israel and whether the Holocaust happened. She finally shook his hand, said she supported his right to free speech and that she hoped he walked away with the impression that he’d “met a nice Jewish lady.”

“I wish that more people would have straightforward discussions with people,” Schlecht said afterward.