February 7, 2010 in City, Idaho

Scourge of Hatred

Bill Morlin

Tags:Aryan Nationshate crimeskootenai county task force on human relationsracismRichard ButlerSid RosenThe OrderTony Stewart

Photo Archive photo

Coeur d’Alene police officers arrest Aryan Nation leader Richard Butler on Saturday, April 12, 1997, for trespassing at the Coeur d’Alene Inn.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)

Some similarities, more differences

There are some similarities between what occurred in the region in 1980 and what’s occurring now. Most observers agree, however, there are even more differences.

In 1980, most local, state and federal law enforcement agencies lacked special units monitoring hate groups. Police weren’t trained to spot hate crimes, much less tabulate or track trends.

That has changed, prompted by the deadly 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In 2002, the Rand Corp. delivered a congressional report that called the Aryan Nations the “first truly nationwide terrorist network in this country.”

Now, anything that points to domestic or international terrorism – even something as seemingly insignificant as graffiti – is flagged to the attention of special federal task forces.

“This trend is on the rise,” Spokane-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl A. Hicks said of recent hate crimes in the region. “What I would tell you is, it’s a bunch of thugs, and they’re dangerous individuals.

“The difference today is this activity is domestic terrorism,” Hicks said, “and the FBI pays attention to this kind of thing more than it did in the late 1970s, early ’80s.”

The Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force not only monitors domestic and international terrorism-related activity in this region; its federal and local officers also attempt to quietly disrupt such activity. Success stories don’t always reach the public’s eyes and ears.

“Hate, certainly in its violent manner, will always be around, unfortunately,” said FBI supervisory senior resident agent Frank Harrill. “Here, in this region, it’s been acute in the past.”

But, Harrill added, “We are committed to making sure these groups don’t re-emerge.”

Compound provided aid and comfort

There were only a couple of FBI agents stationed in Coeur d’Alene when Butler moved to rural Kootenai County in 1973. Four years later, he hung up the Aryan Nations sign on Rimrock Road – an emblem of a racist philosophy and lifestyle that would trigger criminal cases for dozens of FBI and ATF agents in the years to come.

The Aryan Nations headquarters were on a 20-acre compound – an old farmhouse and adjoining pasture Butler bought on a tree-lined hilltop north of Hayden Lake. The former aeronautical engineer from California provided his followers a bunkhouse or camping accommodations, warm meals and a racist encampment perhaps like no other in the United States.

As is the case with racist leaders today, Butler faced rivalry from other racists, and his compound was bombed in 1981.

He forged ahead, using his retirement savings to build his Church of Jesus Christ Christian, overseen by a guard tower draped with Nazi flags. There was an adjoining print shop that churned out thousands of racist and anti-Semitic pamphlets, books, fliers and even shooting targets – silhouettes of African-Americans. By the 1990s, the Aryan Nations had one of the first hate Web sites.

For a time, Butler even operated a school on his compound where his followers’ children could learn reading, writing and the proper way to salute a fellow Nazi.

But the landmark compound and its contents were burned and bulldozed into a peace park after the lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center bankrupted the Aryans in 2000.

“Back in Butler’s days, the ‘compound’ was their life,” said Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson.

“Now all that’s gone,” Watson said, explaining that racists now keep a much lower profile. “If a guy’s an Aryan today in this area, you still have to find a place to eat and live.”

Prisons are recruiting grounds

Many of those now professing affiliations with Aryans, skinheads, neo-Nazis or Odinists – followers of the neo-pagan, race-separation beliefs of a Norse god – have criminal records, including those recruited into racist ranks while in crowded prisons, the ripest of recruiting grounds.

There were, of course, several ex-cons in the early 1980s who made a beeline for the Aryan Nations compound once they got out of various prisons.

Watson said many current prison inmates believe affiliating with the Aryan Brotherhood or other white supremacy gangs will provide protection inside prison walls, although they’re still in the minority of the general prison population.

Many Aryan cons take their racist beliefs with them when they leave prison and join white supremacy groups on the outside. Experts say drug use and sales are common among today’s white supremacists – something seldom seen among racists in the early 1980s.

“Some of the other Aryan gang members we’re seeing here now are hardworking laborers, construction-type guys,” Watson said. “Most people wouldn’t even know their beliefs.”

Although Butler sometimes mumbled and was known for his less-than-articulate speeches, he nonetheless became a nationally known, iconic leader – a racist celebrity of sorts. He also became an ecumenical racist, reaching out to other hate groups and inviting them to his annual Aryan World Congress gatherings each July, which attracted hundreds of racists and international media attention over the years.

None of his would-be replacements is even close to gaining such notoriety, according to experts who track the scene.

What’s more, said former Kootenai County Prosecutor Glen Walker, people Butler recruited to racist ranks in the 1980s “had a potential for digging in and becoming rooted here. I don’t sense that now.”

The Rev. Rick Morse, who was a Coeur d’Alene minister in 1980 and remembers the impact of the graffiti sprayed on Rosen’s restaurant, is now a senior official with the Disciples of Christ at the church’s national office in Indianapolis. He travels frequently and has visited 42 states, still mindful of racism.

“It’s not reflective of Kootenai County or Coeur d’Alene, but the racism I saw in North Idaho was probably some of the worst stuff I’ve seen anywhere,” Morse said. The area’s lack of diversity still makes it an inviting environment for racists, he said.

“I don’t think you can allow that and call yourself a ‘civilized society,’ ” Morse said.

Tony Stewart, a retired political science professor and founding member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said while he’s concerned about recent hate activity, many things have changed, mostly for the better.

“They don’t have a compound to operate out of anymore,” Stewart said, “and it’s not the same level of resolve that we saw and experienced in the 1970s and ’80s.

“Today I do not see – and I hope I’m right – the potential to create a compound operation with the kind of resources and organization Richard Butler had,” Stewart said. “Today, they’re operating out of a P.O. box, and that’s a lot different than having a compound where you can feed and preach to recruits.”

Internet becomes the new meeting place

While the Aryan compound provided the common ground for hate in past decades, the Internet has become the new meeting place.

Skinheads, Aryans and Odinists now find like-minded racists on Web sites that provide discussion forums and event listings. One new Aryan Web site has video of Butler’s sermons, including his last, and clips of Aryan parades through downtown Coeur d’Alene.

A case in U.S. District Court in Spokane last month underscored how the Internet has become the new favorite tool for racists.

Keegan Van Tuyl, the 28-year-old son of former Central American missionaries, faced revocation of his federal parole for being a felon in possession of an illegal firearm. Out on parole after serving three years in prison and living in east Spokane last year, Van Tuyl was to have no contact with white supremacists and was not to leave the state of Washington.

Instead, acting on white supremacy beliefs he reportedly learned while in federal prison, Van Tuyl became the co-founder of two Odinist-skinhead groups, Vangard Kindred and Valhalla-Bound Skinheads, Hicks, the assistant U.S. attorney, told the court.

The two racist groups operated with little public notice in the Inland Northwest, and Van Tuyl recruited members while he was in prison, court documents show.

At one meeting last summer, 40 members and potential recruits were in attendance, according to witness accounts that couldn’t be otherwise confirmed.

Van Tuyl and other members of the groups were involved in several racist acts in 2008 and 2009 in the Spokane area and North Idaho, the federal prosecutor said.

Another member of the group, Jacob Wilson, of Coeur d’Alene, was persuaded to testify against Van Tuyl at his parole revocation hearing last month in Spokane. Although details weren’t divulged in court, it’s not unusual for prosecution witnesses to avoid charges themselves by testifying.

Pitting racists against each other in the courtroom is one way federal and state authorities disrupt such activity.

Wilson testified that he and Van Tuyl and other skinheads would “go coon hunting” – looking to maliciously harass or assault African-Americans. Such attacks allow skinheads to “earn red laces” to wear in their boots.

In the parking lot of Bottoms Up bar in Spokane Valley in November 2008, Wilson testified he and Van Tuyl “made monkey noises” when they saw two black men in a truck. Van Tuyl later punched one of the men in the face; the black men drove off, promising to return with a gun, but didn’t, Wilson testified.

On other outings, Wilson said he and other skinheads sprayed graffiti on an Interstate 90 overpass at Flora Road in Spokane Valley, including “VBX88” – a reference to Valhalla-Bound Skinheads and the 88 standing for “HH,” or “Heil Hitler.”

Facebook-style Web site for racists

But it was the Internet, not graffiti, that the two racist groups primarily used to recruit.

Jason Shawn O’Dwyer heard about Vangard Kindred through a Facebook-style Web site that allows racists to meet like-minded friends.

“I knew it was a skinhead group,” O’Dwyer testified. “I wanted to learn more about Odinism.”

The 24-year-old testified that he took a few vacation days and drove last July to a Spirit Lake, Idaho, home where Van Tuyl and other skins hosted an Odinist “rote.”

Although billed as an Odinist religious ceremony, the daylong event turned out to be filled with beer-drinking, racist videos and music, a trip to a Spokane Valley motorcycle shop, getting tattooed and more drinking around a fire pit at the Spirit Lake home, O’Dwyer testified.

At sundown, as the half-dozen racists continued swilling beer, O’Dwyer was asked to recite and remember the “14 Words” of the late David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

Lane, an Odinist and former Klansman, was a confidant of Butler before becoming a founding member in 1983 of a splinter group known as The Order – labeled a domestic terrorist organization by the FBI.

“I started getting hit because I wasn’t reciting the ‘14 Words’ correctly,” O’Dwyer testified.

The skinhead-wannabe was punched and kicked by at least three men, one of whom had brass knuckles. At one point, a knife was held to his throat and his glasses were knocked from his face, smashed and kicked into the fire pit.

His skinhead assailants continued kicking him as he lay on the ground, and one urinated on him, O’Dwyer testified. He staggered to his pickup to get away, where the attackers spotted O’Dwyer’s diabetic syringes and called him a “doper,” renewing the assault and demanding $50 for a tattoo, he testified.

“I pulled my money out and threw it at them,” O’Dwyer said.

With two blackened eyes, a skull laceration and the onset of a diabetic seizure, O’Dwyer drove away, stopping at a gas station where he called police.

He told officers he had been assaulted “by a carload of Mexicans,” because, he testified, he feared retaliation from the skinheads whose group he had wanted to join.

O’Dwyer was at a Coeur d’Alene medical center getting treatment when an FBI agent assigned to the terrorism task force showed up after getting a phone tip about the assault. When the agent challenged O’Dwyer’s claim that he was assaulted by Hispanics, the beating victim confessed he had lied and said his attackers were skinheads.

Then the FBI agent used his cell phone to show O’Dwyer various photos of known white supremacists, leading to the identity of Van Tuyl and others involved in the assault.

Soon thereafter, Van Tuyl was back in jail. His federal parole revocation was referred to Hicks, a federal prosecutor who prosecuted similar Aryan cases in the 1980s.

Rosen still worried, son says

Van Tuyl, who has an Odinist tattoo on the back of his shaved head, told the court he was “just an ordained Odinist minister” whose acts were misinterpreted and exaggerated by the FBI.

U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko didn’t buy that.

The judge followed the prosecutor’s recommendation that Van Tuyl be sent back to federal prison for 24 months, to be followed by 180 days in a halfway house and one year of parole. While under that supervision, Van Tuyl will be ordered to have no contact with white supremacists.

Hicks said he would write to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, recommending that Van Tuyl be put in maximum security, limiting his contact with others “so he can’t recruit.”

“It’s all we can do,” Hicks said, “because he basically has said he won’t stop.”

That case and other racist acts in the region still worry Sid Rosen, who has lived in Idaho since the war against Nazi Germany ended more than 60 years ago, said his son, Joe.

“He just can’t believe that it’s still going on,” Joe Rosen said of his father, who is battling health issues. “He can’t understand why we all can’t get along and why some people are just so ignorant.”

Bill Morlin is a former reporter for The Spokesman-Review who spent 30 years covering the Aryan Nations and extremist groups. He can be reached at bmorlin@gmail.com.

24 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 07 at 12:36 a.m.
??
The national climate of hate is reinforced by statements of elected political officials that state that we should go back to “Tests” for a right to vote… we need to start at the top with statements by publicly elected officials being called out by Papers and Media including the Spokesman Review’s editorials. John
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 07 at 12:40 a.m.
take a look at the “Tea Party’s” speakers
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/tea-party-opening-speaker-suggests-blacks-voting/
Lots of racism poking out its ugly
face.. john
sixandseven on February 07 at 9:13 a.m.
paranoia
#22
leekinny on February 07 at 9:18 a.m.
Bravado driven nationalism that disguises hate in an illusion of the defense of mom and apple pie does not improve its immorality. Haven’t we had enough of lies, fear, and distortions used by the GOP in order to move the American people into a direction that’s reprehensible.
How do you fight for the truth when such willing gullibility and voluntary ignorance is so pervasive among sheepish conservative ranks. They have been so dominated by right-wing purveyors of lies on the radio and FOX that they cannot, even for a moment, open their minds to the fact that these personalities, they willingly make figures of hero worship, are making fools of them while using them for their own extreme political desires.
They are ready and willing to accept something as being green one day, then believe, without a doubt, because they’ve been told, that same thing is orange the next day, while it has been, in fact, truly blue all along.
Hate is evil; it always has been the biggest obstacle to fitting through the needles eye.
I believe the ‘Neocon’ core, of the right-wing, of the current Republican, party is fascist. No, I don’t believe they are Hitler or any other example of this disgraced ideology. They are they’re own unique version of this corruption that may ultimately be termed something else by future historians or political scientist; but, for us, for now, fascism is close enough.
Jpublic on February 07 at 9:41 a.m.
The best way to fight racism is for the government to stop its racism. Every government document asks our race, that is not color blind. Hate crime laws pit us against each other as do affirmative action laws.
We have reached a point where we voted in a Black president, I think that shows the American people are not the problem. Playing the race or sexual orientation card breeds hate and our government fertilizes it.
leekinny on February 07 at 10:01 a.m.
Hate crime laws deal with a specific type of offense committed for the sole reason of who a person is and to effect fear and intimidation to ward the group the victim belongs.
It’s not time to do away with affirmative action laws. It’s great we elected Obama, but it does not signal the end of prejudice and hate in America. There are still many places in this country where a minority person would not be able to get hired for a decent job.
These laws exist because of discrimination and hate which would be there regardless of whether they were there or not.
Jpublic on February 07 at 10:38 a.m.
leekinny;
There comes a point when forced acceptance is counterproductive. We have reached that point. A hate crime is any crime, why should one have added punishment for yelling a slur but not for beating an elderly person or a child?
Why should candidate #1 be overlooked because candidate #2 is of a certain race?
Your previous post shows very narrow minded thinking. If you actually watched fox news you would see more balance than your post indicates you possess. Your progressive post shows more hate than what you profess the “conservatives” hold. You can’t cherry pick a few comments and label the entire group, that is discrimination at its ugliest. Check facts and remove your emotions from the equation.
Jpublic on February 07 at 10:41 a.m.
ChefGus;
They should not take statements out of context. The speaker was indicating that voters of all races should educate themselves and not just vote from emotion. Do you disagree with that?
Albert on February 07 at 11:23 a.m.
This article by the SR is designed to stir up everyone’s ire. The last time the folks in Idaho held “their parade” it consisted of the now-dead mindless leader and his 13 mindless troops. Come on folks, they even lost their ranch, and now have resorted to stupid leaflets thrown from a pick up truck. The reverse platforms are just as bad with their ongoing paranoia, endless court filings, and baseless claims. When the “left/right” smoke all dissipates Americans are historically tolerant and “centered”. Do we really have time to argue “back & forth” just because baseless articles, like this one, bring out the desired effect by the SR? Look at the negative that’s been thrown back & forth in the comments. Why do this? It doesn’t create any civility, which the SR lacks, and in the end accomplishes nothing at all. Pleasant day.
Liberty_Bell on February 07 at 11:30 a.m.
Are you sure leekinny
“The Aryan Nations held annual gatherings of hatemongers, burned KKK crosses and even got permits for disruptive parades down Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, all of which severely tarnished the region’s image.”
When you march down Sherman Avenue, your obviously a bit confused about the Republican Party, and the invention of the KKK, a Democratic Principal since 1865!
General William “Tecumseh” Sherman(R)
Chapter 1 his memouirs?
“…Nearly every man had to be somewhat of a soldier, but I think my father was only a commissary; still, he seems to have caught the fancy for the great chief of the Shawnees, “Tecumseh”
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 07 at 11:35 a.m.
My belief is that there should not be any “test” for a right to vote.. the 1965 voters legislation changed all that I think….one out of three students in Spokane do not graduate from high school.. does than mean they should not vote? There are ways other than reading and writing that offer insight into the candidates that are running. J
Liberty_Bell on February 07 at 12:05 p.m.
And chefGus?
“Take a look at the Tea Party’s Speakers?”
Chapter 1
“…the Sherman family came from Dedham, Essex County, England. The first recorded name is Edmond Sherman, with his three sons, Edmond, Sameul, and John, who were at Boston before 1636…
From Captain John Sherman are decended Rodger Sherman, the signer of the Declaration of Independance…
(Committee of 5 Republicans Jefferson, Adams, Sherman Livingstonm, and Franklin)
Jpublic on February 07 at 12:49 p.m.
ChefGus:
How does one receive all the facts w/out reading? Via tv? Those seeking ratings? We watch and we read and hope we haven’t missed anything of importance. How does one read a ballot when one can’t read?
While I don’t advocate a test for voters, I can understand the frustration that could lead to wanting one. How many people vote for a candidate because he/she “has pretty eyes, a nice face, is black or white, male or female, republican or democrat”? Instead of based on ability and resume’. It is that kind of ignorance that got us into our current mess.
The more we educate ourselves the less effective both parties are in manipulating us.
zelda on February 07 at 3:24 p.m.
Some are forgetting how dangerous the white supremacists have been and still can be. They chased a woman and her son in their car while firing guns. This is what brought about the lawsuit that bankrupted the Aryan Nation. And let’s not forget the rash of bombings that took place in downtown CDA in the mid-80s. The Order created havoc in Spokane by bombing the Planned Parenthood building on S. Pines in Spokane Valley and another bombing and robbery at an Old National Bank branch. Believe me, as a civic activist, getting a death threat over the phone is not something I came to brush off lightly.
This is not “The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight” — amusing, harmless buffoons. They use vandalism, weapons and threats to terrorize innocent people. A society that views them as petty nuisances provides an environment where their behavior is considered ust part of the rustic local atmosphere. And it means that residents are, to some degree, complicit in their activites. Combine this with a bad economy and it’s a petri dish for growing more hate and vandalism.
Gato on February 07 at 4:05 p.m.
I’m having a hard time getting past the grammar of the second sentence:
Tucked away in a box, the World War II veteran finds two small, dog-eared photographs of anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on his Coeur d’Alene restaurant in 1980.
stephina on February 07 at 4:24 p.m.
I agree with Chef Gus.
The civics test comment was either invoking the the Jim Crow philosophy that blacks were not educated enough to be entrusted with the responsibility of helping to elect a president, or it showed complete ignorance of that period of history.
The second would indicate that he himself would not pass his own “civics test”.
Hate is becoming an ever increasing part of our lives here in the Northwest and throughout the country.
The only way to fight it is to take a strong, public stand against it. Tell people if they practice hate, they will be shown the door. We do.
Hate will not stand here!
greyhound2 on February 08 at 4:57 a.m.
There are also people employed full time by the State in its Human Relations Commisson who, worried about budget cuts and the elimination of useless programs, find a need to stir the pot to protect their own jobs.
leekinny on February 08 at 8:35 a.m.
Jpublic ,
All totalitarian oriented societies or political parties whether they’ve achieved complete power or not need, no must have, a propaganda arm. Fox and reactionary radio are that arm.
Their job is to take a spin on the truth, a distortion of it or an outright lie and paint it as the most pro-American or pro-Christian point of view for anyone who loves America to hold. Their very good at playing on peoples prejudices and weaknesses. In other words they are very gifted at getting people to believe what isn’t true with gusto. The sad thing is they have no idea it’s all being used against them and that the propagandists have no love or respect for those who they fool.
It’s absolutely amazing for those of us who have been fortunately immune from this vileness to watch their effect on their mesmerized adherents. The word or phrase of the moment that encapsulates Neocon ideas or concepts are universally parroted by the blind sheep. There’s no amount of facts, proof or evidence that can deter them from their hypnotic trance.
This same group screams about the liberal press but that same press much of which is corporate controlled does little to expose the distortions and lies of the Conservative right. They do little to aid in exposing the truth which is much too often treated as opinion. To their credit they do the right thing now and then but they play ball far too often with GOP and corporate goons.
The propagandists have a back-up for when the corporate heads don’t interfere with the press and they actually do their jobs, it’s called ‘distrust’. They have all made it very clear to their hypnotic audience that the truth comes only from them. No one else is to be believed.
We hold the true truth.
It’s dangerous to listen to them.
We are the truth.
LISTEN!
Jpublic on February 08 at 10:43 a.m.
leekinny
I see facts are not your forte.
MrNatural on February 08 at 11:26 a.m.
WOW!
It’s easy to read the subtle racism between the lines here in comments. And it is evident that not only do the perpetrations not realize it, that they are also adamant in their belief that they are the ones aggrieved. It’s as if one would say I have a gun and you don’t so I’m better than you. Discrimination is just that discrimination (there is no reverse discrimination) and it is unjust in any society that wishes to aspire to positive and productive harmony.
My father was right about some folks though…he’s often say you just can’t teach a pig to sing.
rightwingextreme on February 08 at 5:52 p.m.
leekiny YOU ARE A MORONIC FOOL!!! It’s common when an article like this is wriitten for the ignorant fools to come out of the wood works and call the GOP rascist????? If this is what you believe the GOP is you are a massively ignorant uneducated fool of a person and people most likely laugh at you behind your back when you attend social events and run your mouth with such rediculous. So are you saying all of the black or hispanic members of the GOP or the minority supporters are racist??? How stupid are you!!!! As well are all of the colored members of the Tea party racist as well? When someone says there should be a literacy test to vote it IS NOT RACIST!!! The people they are talking about are most likely the stupid like yourselves! The aryan nations may be made up of a bunch of toothless wonders jumpin around like idiots but they do not always come from the anti government mIlitia. The mIlitia is made up of whites and blacks WHO ARE SICK AND TIRED OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES AND THE OVER TAXATION OF IT’S CITIZENS! THE TEA PARTY INCASE YOU IGNORANT MORONS DIDN’T KNOW WAS STARTED BY A BLACK MAN! WAKE UP FOOLS!! GET INFORMED BEFORE YOU SPEAK SO YOU DON’T MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELVES!!! THE MILITIA AND THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT ARE 2 DIFFERENT THINGS AND BOTH HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARYAN NATIONS OR RACISM! THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE TO PASS A LITERACY TEST TO VOTE IF WE DID WE WOULD BE IN A LOT BETTER SITUATION THAN WE CURRENTLY ARE IN! ANYONE THAT THINKS THAT THE TEA PARTY OR THE GOP HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH RACISM IS AN IGNORANT FOOL OF AN IDIOT!!!
soundbarrier on February 08 at 9:01 p.m.
Passing a “literacy test” does not guarantee that people will vote any smarter. Besides, what kind of questions would be asked on such a test? If the person was illiterate, how would they read the questions on the test? Or is it an oral test?
What a dumb idea. On second thought, the racists described in the article would probably flunk anyway.
leekinny on February 11 at 10:51 a.m.
I was talking about hate.
Poll tests and taxes were a racists maneuver to keep African Americans from voting.
When the Voting Rights Act was passed the Dixiecrats flooded into the Republican Party.
From an earlier poster, “As well are all of the colored members of the Tea party racist as well?, is a racist statement all on its own.
Silas on March 01 at 2:30 p.m.
Another group in the area is the Northwest Front at http://northwestfront.org. They even have a social network that just launched at http://nwfront.net