'A tolerant community' - 4000 rally; reject racism/embrace a new wave of immigrants (Lewiston, ME)

LEWISTON — More than 4,000 people turned out for a rally urging Mainers to reject racism and embrace a new wave of immigrants Saturday while a small number of white supremacists who have called for the expulsion of Somalis gathered three miles away.

Participants cheer during an antidiscrimination rally at Bates College in Lewiston on Saturday. More than 4,000 people gathered to show support for recent Somali immigrants, whose presence was being protested by a neo-Nazi group meeting three miles away. click to enlarge

So many people poured into the gymnasium at Bates College that up to 1,000 more were left waiting outside in the cold.

Another 400 protesters gathered outside the meeting held by the World Church of the Creator, which denounced the presence of 1,100 Somalis who have moved to this mill city of 36,000 over the past two years.

"We're going to be here and send a message that we're not going to run to the other end of town. We want to look them in the eye," said Rob Hoyt of Portland, who was arrested after confronting several men who tried to enter the white supremacists' meeting.

Concrete barriers and about 60 police officers stood between protesters and a National Guard building where the gathering was held. A fire truck ladder was raised overhead with a hose posed to douse protesters if they crossed a barricade.

Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond caused an uproar last fall when he asked Somali residents to discourage friends and family from relocating to the city, saying "our city is maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally."

Somalis, who said their presence revitalized the city and filled empty tenement buildings, lashed out at the mayor in a statement and called him an "ill-informed leader who is bent toward bigotry."

Several racist groups saw in the controversy over Raymond's past comments an opportunity to promote their message and make inroads in a state where 97 percent of residents are white, the largest percentage in the country.

Matt Hale, leader of the World Church of the Creator, was supposed to direct Saturday's white supremacist gathering, but he spent the weekend in an Illinois jail on charges that he tried to arrange the murder of a federal judge.

Instead, a subdued audience of 32 people, excluding police and reporters, listened as three animated members offered an introduction to their views. While most arrived under police escort, seven showed up on their own.

A majority of the attendees were young men, some wearing black satin jackets, white berets with the group's logo, black pants and boots. Police officers lined the perimeter of the classroom, and the muffled voices of protesters could be heard in the room.

At the Bates rally, many attendees wore stickers that said, "Where is the mayor?"

Raymond, who was vacationing in Florida on Saturday, has not publicly apologized but has said that his message was misunderstood and that he does not condone mistreatment of newcomers.

After the rally, the newly formed Lewiston chapter of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center called for Raymond to step down.

"We were shocked by the absence of the mayor, given what's going on," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the group's national headquarters in St. Paul, Minn.

Among those in attendance at the pro-Somali rally were Maine's entire congressional delegation and Gov. John E. Baldacci.

"We stand united as one in Maine when it comes to neighborliness, when it comes to tolerance, when it comes to opportunity," said Baldacci. "This is not a haven for hate groups or racist organizations."

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, who was raised in Lewiston and Auburn, noted that Lewiston was a city built by immigrants.

"This is a tolerant and diverse community. What has made this community great is its diversity," she said.

Mohammed Abdi, speaking on behalf of Lewiston's Somali community, called on Maine residents to reject the type of ethnic hatred associated with the Balkans, the Middle East and his native Somalia.

"Hate is the tool of the devil's hands," Abdi said, "and people who hate are agents of the devil."

The Lewiston Police Department, preparing for violent clashes, had banned anything that could be used as a weapon, along with cameras, recorders, gym bags and even water bottles. More than 200 law enforcement officers were on duty.

But the violent clashes never materialized as there was little opportunity for protesters to confront the white supremacists, who arrived at the site ahead of most of the demonstrators and were whisked away afterward by police.

Jenny Freeman said she drove up from Kittery to help ensure there was a good turnout at the pro-Somali rally.

The other thing that's going to wig out the "tolerant community" is when they find one of those things huffing and puffing over one of their daughters!

I agree. This guy is really scary looking, and he's probably going to die young of high blood pressure & a stroke:

LEWISTON

World Church of Creator delivers leader's speech

By Scott Taylor

Staff Writer

Racists huddle, call for white pride Jon Fox, a leader of the World Church of the Creator, speaks at a rally at the Maine Army National Guard Armory Saturday in Lewiston. The group was in town to call for the expulsion of Somalis in Maine. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

Their message is simple, say members of the World Church of the Creator.

The White race is in danger of being destroyed, they say, by an all-encompassing international conspiracy that wants to rule the world.

It’s a message that gets ignored, they say, by the “Jewish-controlled mass media.” Or worse, it gets twisted, and they get labeled a hate group.

“We’re not into hate,” Illinois state leader Jon Fox said. “We’re into love, but we love our own kind.”

Fox was the featured speaker Saturday at a meeting of the World Church of the Creator. He filled in for jailed high priest Matt Hale, who was arrested Thursday on a charge of soliciting the murder of a federal judge in Chicago.

About 30 members of the group attended the Lewiston meeting, joined by six spectators, eight police officers and seven members of the media.

They met in a spare rectangular building, the windows of the classroom covered with cardboard and the chairs tied together in rows of five. The cardboard was meant to keep rocks and snowballs thrown by the angry crowd outside from breaking the windows. The chairs were tied together to keep them from being used as weapons in case things turned ugly inside.

They didn’t.

Fox and his supporters listened to two solid hours of speeches, interrupted occasionally by the beeping tones of a police radio and the faint shouts of the crowd outside. When it was done, they melted quietly out the back of the building to a waiting transport van, much to the frustration of the crowd outside. The six spectators stayed behind, preferring to wait for the crowd to leave.

Conspiracy theory

The speeches covered some 7,000 years of history, laying blame for the world’s ills at the feet of an international Jewish conspiracy.

“Not the deli owner down the street. That’s not the Jew we mean,” speaker Robert Freeman of Connecticut said. “Organized Jewry is doing this. Jews act as a team when they act.”

Freeman traced that conspiracy, through the founding of Christianity – a religion Freeman said was designed to enslave white minds – to modern immigration ills.

Immigrants come to America’s shores to weaken the country and turn the nation’s whites into mongrels. Once they’ve taken down America, they plan to take over the world, Freeman said.

“They can call us racist, they can call us neo-Nazis,” Freeman said. “But we’re not going to listen any more. We are not going to listen to what the Jews in the press and the Jews in the government want us to believe.”

David Stearns of Portland, the organizer of the Lewiston meeting, served Saturday as a member of the World Church of the Creator’s white beret security force. The conspiracy has become personal for Maine, Stearns said in a speech during the rally.

The international Jewish conspiracy hopes to dilute Maine’s white stock with Somalis, he said, adding that immigrants are taking away the unskilled jobs he did as a child.

“I used to rake blueberries for money, when I was a child,” Stearns said. “Now, you can’t get a job raking blueberries because they have all the Mexicans doing it.”

Diversity is a sham, he said. It’s a lie that Stearns promised would be proven false in the next 25 years.

“It’s coming, from within our generation,” Stearns said. “This is where the battle has begun, and it’s a battle for survival.”

All three speakers called for the freedom of their jailed high priest, Hale. It’s a typical conspiracy move to destroy their movement, Fox said.

“We are the ones the Jews used to get power, and now that they no longer have a need for us, they want to destroy us,” Fox said. “We’re the ones that can stop them.”

Slamming locals

Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond was alternately praised and derided by the speakers. Freeman praised Raymond for not apologizing for an October letter to Somalis, in which Raymond asked them to slow their migration to Lewiston. But Fox complained that Raymond could have taken the issue further.

“It’s my opinion that he picked up a fat check from his Jew buddies and ran off down to Florida,” Fox said. “They probably got him a condo in Florida and told him that if he just kept his mouth shut, they’d make him a hero.”

The mayor was on vacation in Florida Saturday.

Speaker Freeman poked fun at local Jesus Party preacher Doug Taylor’s attempt to illustrate diversity with M&M candies.

“You can’t compare inanimate objects to people,” Freeman said. “It falls short.”

He also slammed Sun Journal Executive Editor Rex Rhoades’ use of the word “pasty-faced” to describe neo-Nazis and said he refused to be fooled by Editorial Page Editor Judy Meyer’s “anti-white slant.”

Maine Gov. John Baldacci, Lewiston city councilors, City Administrator Jim Bennett, police and the press – all are race traitors, Fox said.

staylor@sunjournal.com

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.