Neo-Nazi Parade Blocked in Idaho

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press Writer

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) - Members of the Aryan Nations paraded through downtown streets Saturday under the protection of a federal court order, but were outshouted by protesters who forced the marchers to detour.

Four protesters were arrested.

After the 20-minute parade, a few of the two dozen Aryans saluted their supporters in the crowd with the Nazi straight-arm salute before they got into their vehicles to leave.

City officials had urged people to ignore the march, but thousands of opponents gathered along the parade route, chanting ``No Nazis! No KKK! No fascists! USA!''

And three blocks into the parade, about 20 demonstrators sat down on Sherman Avenue and halted the march. Police immediately routed the Aryans on a one-block detour down a side street, then let them finish on a street they were detoured to.

``Where's that white power, guys?'' shouted protester Brad Nelson of Coeur d'Alene.

Aryan Nations, based in nearby Hayden Lake, is the political arm of the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, which holds that God has ordained the formation of a whites-only homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

Police said four protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges and released on their own recognizance.

The police department assigned 30 to 40 officers to monitor the parade, said police Capt. Carl Bergh.

The police force already was stretched thin because of a weekend hot rod rally and motorcycle show. The town has a year-round population of about 25,000, which can swell to as many as 100,000 in the summer tourist season.

In a similar parade in Coeur d'Alene a year ago, about 90 Aryan Nations marchers clashed with some 1,400 counter-demonstrators. Two dozen counter-demonstrators were arrested; some of them later won an $80,000 settlement from Kootenai County after claiming civil rights violations.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge rejected a move by municipal officials to move the march out of the downtown area and to a route beside a former garbage dump, ruling that it would be an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union supported Aryan Nations in the case.

``Whites still have the right to speak as of this date,'' Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler said Friday.

Despite the city's pleas that people ignore the parade, the Coalition Against Nazis quickly promised to show opposition.

``The main thing we want to do is send a message that the type of white supremacist violence that happened in Illinois will not be allowed to happen in the Northwest,'' said coalition member Ann Slater of Seattle.

White supremacist Benjamin Smith went on a killing rampage through Illinois and Indiana last weekend, attacking blacks, Jews and Asians. Two people were killed and nine others were injured before Smith shot himself to death.

Last weekend, there was shoving and shouting as about 80 white supremacists rallied in Coeur d'Alene City Park and were met by about 200 counter-demonstrators. No one was arrested.