White supremacists get an angry greeting

JournalNow.com ^ | September 23, 2002 | Meredith Fischer and Paige Akin

[JediGirl]

Mon, September 23, 2002 White supremacists get an angry greeting Virginia protesters pray, trade chants at racist gathering

By Meredith Fischer and Paige Akin MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE

RICHMOND

Their words collided.

"RAHOWA" - Racial Holy War - the white supremacists chanted.

"Jesus!" the protesters shouted.

The voices grew louder and louder inside the Chester Library meeting room Saturday, where blacks packed seats intended for whites who hate them.

John King, the Virginia leader of the World Church of the Creator, stood at a lectern condemning Jews and blacks. Whites are the superior race, he told them.

"There is no evidence of God or gods," he said.

One man turned his back on King.

"I refuse to look at him," said the black man, who declined to give his name. "I am a Christian person and I do not believe in what he is saying. Chesterfield County never should have allowed him to come here."

Some of the others who filled the room's 60 chairs walked out of the meeting.

"I definitely wasted my time coming out here," said Brenda Berger, who is black.

Barbara Butler, also black, brought her daughter and a niece to hear King's message.

"I don't like him in our community. He is disgusting," she said. "But I wanted them to listen."

Her 13-year-old daughter, Jessica Butler, shook her head.

"I feel angry," she said. "They had no right to be here."

Inside and outside the library, protesters far outnumbered King's supporters. Despite the small number of followers, King vowed to return, then left by a side door.

He smiled at the crowd. They booed him. He gave a salute that resembled a Nazi gesture.

Hundreds of protesters, carrying signs opposing the white- supremacist group, joined together behind a police barricade during King's two-hour meeting. They formed a large circle, inviting local clergy into the middle to lead them in prayer.

More than 100 state and county police surrounded the library. Many wore riot gear and carried tear gas. A state- police helicopter flew overhead. Other officers watched the crowd from atop the building.

There were no arrests during the meeting, but an angry group of protesters surrounded one representative from the World Church of the Creator who came from North Carolina to recruit members.

"We want to rid this country of all nonwhites," Billy Brown said. "If it takes violence, so be it."

The group around Brown followed him across the lawn as he tried to break away. One protester spat on his face. He left with a police escort.

The meeting wasn't what the protesters had expected. It was also nothing like King had hoped.

"I am here to speak to the white people," he said. "This is a white religion."

Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, the pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, sat in the back of the library.

"If they weren't so crazy, it would be funny," he said.

Ron Doggett, a member of European-American Unity and Rights Organization, sat at the front of the room.

"I am here to stand up for the First Amendment, and I am concerned out of an overall concern for white Americans," he said.

Lane B. Ramsey, the county administrator, issued a statement just after the meeting.

"We are delighted with the behavior of the protesters," he said. "Going into this, we said a success would be no injuries and no arrests ... and that's what happened."

• Meredith Fischer and Paige Akin are staff writers for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

[SunStar]

I hope these NAZI bastards go and join up with their Jihadi brothers. That way, we could legally kill them.

NAZI = JIHAD

[Texas_Jarhead]

now if we can just get people to notice mecha and la raza

[AppyPappy]

Why do we bother to protect these people?

[wideawake]

Oh yeah, these guys are going to get real far in the South - preaching atheism goes over real well in Virginia, I'll bet.

[TheBigB]

Idiots. Every skinheaded one of 'em.

[Poohbah]

Funniest moment I can remember hearing about from back in the mid-1980s. I know not the validity of this story, as it was told to me by a fellow Marine with the opening phrase "Now this ain't no s**t!" (That phrase translates best as "Once upon a time...")

A black family moved into a previously lily-white semi-rural area of North Carolina. The father was a businessman bring jobs with him, so he was lionized by almost all residents.

Except, of course, for the local Klavern.

Our intrepid hero is hosting a barbecue at his place, engaging in a good-natured argument with one of his guests over EXACTLY how beef should be barbecued, when the missus comes out and reports that some sheetheads are burning a cross on the other side of the house.

Businessman excuses himself, takes off apron, goes inside house.

About five minutes later, there is the unmistakable sound of automatic weapons fire from inside the house. Guests dive for cover.

Businessman comes back a few minutes later, indicates that sheetheads have left and the cross has been put out. He then seeks out a lawncare guy and inquires as to how much the replacement sod will cost.

Seems that he POLITELY asked the sheetheads to douse the cross and leave, and got a "F*** YOU, N*****" response.

Businessman then revealed to his startled neighbors what he did as a sideline: Class III weapons dealer...

[coloradan]

"Chesterfield County never should have allowed him to come here."

"I feel angry," she said. "They had no right to be here."

These people should be careful what they wish for ... either you have freedom to express your opinion, even an offensive and unpopular opinion, or you don't. Do these people really want to live in a society in which one can be excluded based on what one believes?

[sheik yerbouty]

They both like strutting around in sheets or rags..

[big bad easter bunny]

They should start a boycott of the business's where these idiots work, if they have jobs that is.

[warchild9]

First Amendment, brothers and sisters, First Amendment. The best way to get rid of cockroaches is to overturn their rocks.

[jjm2111]

Even if it IS an urban myth, it's a funny story.

[Poohbah]

Kinda like an explanation of how a particular species of critter became extinct: "It barked up the wrong tree. To be specific, the tree was named 'Bubba.'"

I dunno if it's an "urban myth," it was a ways away from anyplace with lots of folks. "Rural myth?"

[aSkeptic]

religion of peace alert!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

So the nutcase, Brown (ironic, that), who came to recruit, was surrounded by angry Americans who told him in no uncertain terms his message was not welcome. That's the real story here. It's a shame the author made this sound like some legitimate, growing movement....unlike, say, the recruitment of over a million African-American young men in the US by militant Muslims in the past decade....now there's a story the mainstream press has neglected to tell the American people.