Neo-Nazi leader hopes to be heard
By Venice Buhain
The Olympian
19 June 06
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/NEWS/606190355

The least that John Brandt hopes for is a chance to be heard.
 
The Snohomish County unit leader of the National Socialist Movement and 
organizer of the July 3 rally on the state Capitol steps said: "We're more 
interested in an average person who hasn't formed an opinion yet."

The best outcome would be the beginnings of a grassroots political movement, he 
said.

"Increased membership - I want to see e-mails and letters," Brandt said.

The neo-Nazi group anticipates about 30 members at the July rally, though 
organizers were not yet sure how many other people - who either share or oppose 
their views - also plan to be at the Capitol that day, said Tacoma unit 
commander Gary Nemeth.

"Our efforts are to make a political foothold in the state of Washington," 
Nemeth said. "A hub of political focus is Olympia."

Several times since January, members of the National Socialist Movement, which 
espouses "racialism," or the idea that different races should mix as little as 
possible, have rallied in Olympia. Each time, including a visit Sunday to the 
Olympia Downtown Neighborhood Association Street Fair, the group has been met by 
taunts and heckling from local groups.

Brandt said the group is trying to avoid recruiting people like Buford Furrow, 
the Thurston County native sentenced to five life sentences for fatally shooting 
a Filipino postal worker after wounding five people at a Jewish community center 
in Los Angeles.

Furrow had white supremacist views and had been a security guard for the Aryan 
Nations compound before the shootings.

"What we don't want is Buford Furrows," Brandt said. "There are many people who 
are very frustrated. I hope we can take that energy and we can do something 
constructive."

Brandt said most members of the National Socialist Movement do not want to kill 
nonwhite people. He hopes instead to convince nonwhites that it would be better 
if they moved away from the United States and returned to their country of 
family origin.

In his view, American Indians and their white conquerors should be able to stay 
in the United States, albeit in separate locations.

Brandt acknowledged that some neo-Nazis on the more "radical" end of the 
spectrum believe his stance of engagement "dilutes" the message.

But he said he feels political engagement is the preferable tool for change.

"We want to see judges and state senators who support our values," he said.

Member march, give out leaflets

About five members of the National Socialist Movement stopped in Olympia on 
Sunday, marching through the Olympia Downtown Neighborhood Association Street 
Fair in the morning and dropping off leaflets in neighborhoods in Olympia's west 
side.

The neo-Nazi demonstrators attracted some challengers who argued with them. No 
one was arrested, Olympia Police Sgt. Paul Johnson said.

Witnesses at the street fair said the neo-Nazis stayed for about two hours. At 
their previous rallies in Olympia, which had been announced beforehand, the 
neo-Nazis were far outnumbered by protesters.

Vendor Ron Patton said a few protesters wrote words like "love" and "diversity" 
in chalk on the street.

"That was the way of protesting them being here," he said. "They showed a lot of 
restraint."

Earlier in the day, residents in the Normandy Park neighborhood discovered 
leaflets with statements against Jews and blacks in driveways. Some of the 
leaflets had an image of a hooded figure holding a noose against the backdrop of 
a Confederate flag.

"It was very, very upsetting and offensive," resident Deborah Wentworth said.

The Olympian