Eight neo-Nazis draw far more in response
BY VENICE BUHAIN
THE OLYMPIAN
January 23, 2006

OLYMPIA - Scores of counter- demonstrators - and a dozen or so police
officers - easily outnumbered eight neo-Nazis who rallied Sunday
afternoon at Fourth Avenue and Bethel Street.

Justin Boyer, Seattle unit leader of the Nazi group National Socialist
Movement, said the rally was a prelude to a larger march on the Capitol
planned in July. He said he was happy with the group's turnout after two
weeks of organizing. The group had planned a march down State Avenue but
at the last minute chose to gather at a parking lot across the street
from The Olympian.

But if Boyer was happy, anti-neo-Nazi organizers were delighted with
their turnout, which drew 150 to 200 protesters to the intersection of
Fourth Avenue and Martin Way, where the rally was scheduled to start.

One man said he gave away 150 anti-neo-Nazi signs at Sylvester Park.

Peter Bohmer, an Olympia peace activist, said he had not heard of
neo-Nazi groups having an active presence in Olympia.

"I've seen leaflets." he said. "It's one of the first I've heard of
National Socialist Movement activity here."

Bohmer said the plan had been to surround the group's march with their
own signs and banners. Anti-neo-Nazi organizers had been expecting about
a dozen National Socialist Movement members based on past rallies in the
Northwest.

"We don't believe in violence," Bohmer said. "We want to turn their
hateful march into a march of social and racial justice."

The National Socialist Movement group had a permit to march from the
intersection of Martin Way and Fourth Avenue to Sylvester Park in
downtown Olympia, but organizer Boyer said it decided to concentrate its
efforts on the small hill in the parking area.

"I understand they disagree with us. Everybody has their own opinion,"
Boyer said.

"This was a better location - more visibility," he said. "We didn't want
the antis here at all."

Boyer's group waved a U.S. flag, a Confederate flag and a flag calling
for a nation for Caucasian people.

The group announced a rally in Seattle for the same time as the Olympia
event, but Boyer said the Seattle event was a ruse. Boyer said the group
wanted to draw people away from the actual march in Olympia.

He said the group protests the "genocide" of the white race through the
spread of a multicultural society. Although the group was outnumbered
Sunday, he said, the media coverage and exposure would attract people to
their cause.

"We don't have to hate nobody," he said. "We love everyone in their own
nations."

"We're not violent," he added.

*Organizing opposition*

Word about the rally had spread quickly throughout South Sound peace
groups and other organizations Saturday via the Internet and radio
stations. One person said he heard about the counter-rally at a Saturday
night poetry reading.

"I think for one night of organizing, this turnout is ... awesome,"
said, Marisa Kaneshiro, another activist.

Though some protesters carried large, yellow photocopied signs, most
people had quickly drawn signs with anti-Nazi slogans and calling for
racial equality.

Participants from both sides chanted at each other and traded insults,
but there was little direct physical confrontation between the sides.
One protester threw glitter at members of the rally, prompting an
Olympia police officer to stop him.

As the rally ended and the National Socialist Movement demonstrators
walked to their cars, the large crowd chanted "Nazis, go home!" and
surrounded the small group as it moved several blocks down State Avenue.
Police decided to escort the neo-Nazi group members in patrol cars to
their vehicles. A few protesters spat at windows of the police cars that
carried the demonstrators away.

*Sylvester Park*

Meanwhile, the larger crowd took the demonstration to Sylvester Park,
where several dozen people had an impromptu rally.

"It looks like we won!" yelled one man with a bullhorn.

Olympia police had extra officers on duty but did not disclose exact
numbers, said Patrol Sgt. Paul Johnson. Troopers from the Washington
State Patrol assisted the city police, he said. There were no arrests.

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