Two dozen Nazis march amid hundreds of opposition protesters

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler and two dozen supporters marched through downtown Saturday, flanked by hundreds of shouting protesters who tried to drown out their message of anti-Semitism and white supremacy.

Butler rode in a white convertible despite the rain, sitting between two young daughters of a supporter. One child frequently gave the crowd a straight-arm Nazi salute.

''They've won the battle, but they have not won the war,'' Butler shouted into his bullhorn. ''Don't let the communist Jews run you out.''

Walking on the other side of yellow police tape, a group calling itself North Idaho Churches Against Racism sang hymns in an effort to drown out the neo-Nazi rhetoric. Other protesters shouted curses, made obscene gestures and berated the white supremacists as idiots.

Groups came from around the Northwest to protest the march, as has become standard practice over the past three years. Some chanted ''No Nazis, No KKK, No Fascists USA!''

Butler supporters responded with slogans that indicated they are not open to religious or racial diversity. Some wrapped themselves in Nazi flags. Butler's vehicle carried a sign reading: ''Diversity Is Unnatural.''

There were no arrests this year. Last year, more than a dozen protesters were arrested after they broke through the police tape and blocked the marchers.

The march was intended to show Butler has not been defeated by the $6.3 million judgment against him in a civil rights lawsuit last month, though it has cost the group its 20-acre compound near Hayden Lake. Vincent Bertollini, a wealthy computer executive and Butler sympathizer in Sandpoint, Idaho, recently bought a house in nearby Hayden that Butler is living in.

Butler vowed Saturday that he will not leave the area.

''We're here to stay,'' he said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Victoria and Jason Keenan by attorney Morris Dees of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, who has made a practice of bankrupting hate groups with such cases.

The Keenans were chased and shot at by Aryan Nations security guards when they drove past the group's compound in 1998. On Sept. 7, a Kootenai County jury found Butler and the Aryan Nations liable.

On Thursday, a judge denied the defendants' bid for a new trial, clearing the way for the Keenans to take over the compound as soon as next week.

Immediately behind the neo-Nazi marchers on Saturday, two Coeur d'Alene street-sweeping trucks churned noisily, scouring the pavement Butler and his followers had just crossed.

Butler backer August Kreis, who has promised to hold annual Aryan Nations conventions at his property near State College, Pa., told the crowd as the march ended: ''Thank you very much. We had a nice time. See you next year.''

This is the third year in the row the Aryan Nations has marched in this resort city. City officials have tried to block past parades in court, but failed because of constitutional free-speech protections. The first parade drew just under 100 neo-Nazis. Last year, about two dozen marched.

Heavy rain Saturday likely reduced the numbers on both sides.

After the parade, Butler and his supporters tried to hold a news conference at the Coeur d'Alene Inn, but police and hotel security officers said he could not hold the event on their premises.

So Butler and his supporters instead went inside to have lunch.

Later, Butler held a brief news conference at the shuttered compound, inside his Church of Jesus Christ Christian.

Power to the compound has already been shut off. A blue-and-white stained-glass window behind the church pulpit - depicting the Aryan Nations' shield-and-swastika symbol - had been shattered by a rock.

''Fifty percent of the people were clapping for us,'' Butler said of the protesters in Coeur d'Alene. ''A lot of people out there understand.''

He said he will soon be opening a new church in the nearby town of Hayden.

''Those who did not like it will have to lump it,'' Butler said.

He also denounced a reporter for a Spokane newspaper, saying the reporter's articles had bolstered the court case against the Aryan Nations. Several of Butler's followers moved toward the reporter in the semi-darkness, demanding that he leave.

Butler's attorney, Edgar Steele of Sandpoint, intervened and they backed off.