Pro-white group is smaller than perceived Police: Group with Adopt-A-Road sign consists of a few men Staff, news services StatesmanJournal, Salem Oregon February 17, 2005 http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050217/STATE/502170369 For more than a year, a Tualatin man has used public-access television, the Internet and the mainstream media to create the illusion that a white-supremacist movement is on the rise in the Northwest, law enforcement officials said. His group, the so-called Tualatin Valley Skins, last month even adopted a rural road in Marion County in the name of the American Nazi Party, supposedly as part of a volunteer litter pickup effort. The move launched a public outcry, and angry residents vandalized the two signs proclaiming the adoption on Sunnyview Road NE. Some dumped garbage in the neighborhood. Others mobilized and put up anti-hate signs. The Tualatin Valley Skins and the pro-white movement are the work of one man, Matthew Ramsey of Tualatin, and perhaps one or two other men, authorities said. Ramsey even created an alternative persona for himself, "Jim Ramm" -- but his real name surfaced two weeks ago in media reports. Still, some experts say, Ramsey, 40, and his Web site should be tracked because he has managed to create a buzz for the white-supremacy movement. "We are concerned that they are getting more attention in the Northwest and in particular in the Portland area than they have any time recently as a result of his grandstanding," said Robert Jacobs, the Anti-Defamation League's Seattle director. In January in Marion County, a man identified by the county as Dylan Marchand applied for a volunteer Adopt-A-Road litter-cleanup program. Marchand wrote the Tualatin Valley Skins' Web site address on his application. By consensus, the Marion County commissioners allowed the application, following advice from legal counsel. The Adopt-A-Road signs went up Jan. 24. The signs lasted less than one week before they were vandalized or stolen, and county officials said they would not replace them. The two commissioners who had allowed the group to join defended their positions, calling it a freedom-of-speech issue. One commissioner said she did not want to end a good program as a way to keep one group from joining. When contacted by the Statesman Journal, Marchand referred questions to Jim Ramm, calling him the spokesman for his group. At that time, Ramm did not respond to an e-mail. In a Jan. 31 e-mail to the Statesman Journal, a person who identified himself as Rocky J. Suhayda, chairman of the American Nazi Party, denounced the road adoption. "Whomever applied for this program, it was not the American Nazi Party," Suhayda wrote. Ramsey earlier tried to reach the public with racist recruitment fliers that began appearing on driveways across the state in January 2004. He took credit for the distributions on his Web site and granted several interviews. Showing off his Tualatin apartment packed with computers and video equipment, Ramsey told a reporter that he had grown up in Hillsboro, seen the growth of Hispanic immigration and graduated from Portland State University. Later, in a voice mail, he said: "You see, my friend, my family they are all Nazis," he said. "And you know what? They are raising Nazi children, white supremacist children." But Ramsey's 87-year-old mother, who lives in rural Washington, told The Oregonian in a telephone interview that she did not approve of her son's behavior and did not know where it came from. Her son did not grow up in Hillsboro, she said, but in rural northern Washington. He did not attend PSU, she and school officials said, but graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in graphic communications in 1987. In Oregon, she said, he holds a blue-collar job. The Tualatin Valley Skins' Web site got more attention at the end of January after the Spokesman Review in Spokane used Ramsey's true name in a story saying that he was organizing a rally in Idaho celebrating deceased Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler. Ramsey says he wasn't the organizer, only that he agreed to promote it on his Web site. But Ramsey did not seem as comfortable with the attention as he did in the summer. There were people in the world, he said, who wished to do him and his family harm. "I'm just saying you might have a little bit of mercy for my kids who don't really deserve to die for the cause because they are still young yet," he said. His mother isn't aware of Ramsey having any children, although she thinks he does have a girlfriend. Statesman Journal reporter Cara Roberts Murez contributed to this story. *New Adopt-A-Road requirements* Marion County plans to tighten the rules for joining its Adopt-A-Road volunteer cleanup program. "They're going to have to give us a county address. They're going to have to give us a real name," Chief Administrative Officer John Lattimer said. "And we're going to follow up on it." Historically, Marion County's Adopt-A-Road program has required that volunteers agree to pick up litter and other trash from the roadway twice per year. The county has put up signs to acknowledge their work. The signs have stayed up as long as the group continued its twice-annual cleanup. Formal and informal groups, individuals and families have signed up since the program began in 1994. Lattimer said he and Public Works Director Jim Sears agree that it is necessary that in the future, the county should require at least a valid local address and name. The commissioners will meet within the next month to consider additional requirements, possibly including applicants to pay a deposit or to complete one road cleanup before the signs go up. A more stringent process can protect the county from people using the program for their own purposes, Lattimer said. -- Statesman Journal Copyright 2006 Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon