By Marta Tahja-Syrett
Editor’s Note: The title of this online article at first differed from the print version, and has since been changed for consistency and clarity. A misspelling of Mayor Cheryl Selby’s name has also been corrected.
During the first week of 2019, white nationalist group Patriot Front littered the Puget Sound with flyers.
Olympia mayor Cheryl Selby was one of the South Capitol residents who received a leaflet outside their home, and she describes her initial reaction to the incident as one filled with both dismay and hope. “It took me kind of back to when Trump first got elected and our community really rose up and decided to just make some really powerful statements around compassion and diversity and against hate,” Selby said.
The flyers referenced a right-wing slogan, “Better Dead than Red,” below an image of an arrow shooting through a sickle and hammer. As described in reporting by the Olympian, these flyers were secured in plastic bags and weighed down by rocks, awaiting discovery outside of residential homes.
The Anti-Defamation League describes Patriot Front as “American fascists or American nationalists who are focused on preserving America’s identity as a European-American identity. The leaflets were spread throughout Olympia’s South Capitol neighborhood and in Tacoma, Bellevue, Edmonds, Redmond, Kirkland, and West Seattle.
In response to the campaign, the YWCA of Olympia posted a statement on their Facebook page condemning Patriot Front’s actions. Also in response, Olympia’s Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) organized an event they titled “Olympia Says NO to White Nationalism,” a canvassing event aimed at opening up the dialogue surrounding local acts of bigotry.
The Tacoma City Council responded to the leaflet distribution in Resolution No. 40206.“The City Council shares the concerns community members have raised in the aftermath of this disturbing incident, and WHEREAS the City is an inclusive, international city that is far tougher than those who would seek to divide it.”
South Capitol is a unique district of Olympia due to the fact that it has strong ties to the political sector of Washington. After reviewing public records The Seattle Times found that almost one-third of all houses in this area belong to lobbyists, who work to impact legislative decisions.
The neighborhood’s voting trends may provide additional information in connection with their selection for flyer distribution, as the district (Legislative District 22) is known for its association with the Democratic party. During the 2018 midterms, the majority (nearly 70% in both races) of the district voted for Democrats. West Seattle districts—another location targeted by Patriot Front during the same time period—are also overwhelmingly Democratic. 84.74% of Congressional District 7 voted for a Democratic U.S. representative, while the race for senator in Legislative District 34 was composed solely of Democratic candidates.
The mayor of Olympia, Cheryl Selby, agrees with the idea that South Capitol was politically targeted.
Selby said Olympia’s progressive image has an effect on the city’s susceptibility to incidents such as the flyers.“We’re known for all of this compassion for folks that have different beliefs and different orientations, and I mean it’s one of the nice things about this community but I think it makes us a target, too sometimes.”
Patriot Front’s presence in Olympia is certainly not the first time hate groups have visited the city and surrounding areas. Selby recalls when the Westboro Baptist Church protested at Olympia High School in 2012, to showcase their opposition to the proposal of marriage equality. A more recent example of hate groups in Thurston county occurred in March 2018 when an unknown arsonist burned Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls in Tumwater and Olympia. “The arsons that have happened at those facilities are people trying to instill fear,” said Mayor Selby.
Selby voiced concerns regarding the federal government’s lack of hate group monitoring in recent years. She recalled how the Oklahoma City bombing elevated the stature of white supremacist groups and other hate groups within the United States.
The government’s waning hate group investigation is addressed within a ProPublica article from 2017 which states that “some government insiders say the intelligence services and federal law enforcement agencies have largely shifted their attention away from far-right threats in the years since 9/11, choosing instead to focus heavily on Islamic radicals, who are seen by [conservatives] to pose a more immediate danger.”
Selby argues that the proper response is to not “engage with the rhetoric that they’re espousing.”
“Keep the mindfulness around what they’re doing because you run the risk if you don’t pay attention that you’ll miss them becoming more powerful in your community,” said Selby.
In an article published by the Harvard Gazette, Associate Professor Bart Bonikowski said, “With white supremacists and other extremist movements, much like with radical terrorism of all forms, one of the primary objectives is media attention.” He says that this causes a dilemma, as ignoring these groups completely in the media just leads to a lack of documentation and consequence. As Selby said, “Seek out ways to engage with more diverse parts of our community, to build those relationships, put that energy there.”
