{"id":2552,"date":"2014-06-21T22:40:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T04:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2014-06-23T07:19:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T13:19:25","slug":"prairie-lights-dont-forget-a-key-chapter-in-the-battle-against-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/06\/prairie-lights-dont-forget-a-key-chapter-in-the-battle-against-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairie Lights: Recalling a key chapter in battle against hate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ed<\/a>

Ed Kemmick<\/p><\/div>\n

As Billings plays host this weekend to the 20th anniversary Not In Our Town National Leadership Gathering, it\u2019s hard not to feel some pride in this community\u2019s stand against hate and intolerance.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s easy to forget, in the midst of all the reminiscences of menorahs, marches and candlelight vigils, that neither the climate of fear nor the response to it were mere abstractions.<\/p>\n

Real people suffered real harm in the form of vandalism, and savage personal attacks in the form of inflammatory fliers and other publications. Fortunately, the response involved more than rallies and demonstrations of solidarity, as important and uplifting as they were.<\/p>\n

What turned the tide was a lawsuit against the man who was found to have been the author and distributor of most of the hate \u201cliterature\u201d \u2014 a grossly inappropriate term under the circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur court system and our legal system were used to address this problem,\u201d said attorney Malcolm Goodrich. \u201cThat\u2019s been kind of overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodrich was one of five local attorneys who donated their time to represent five individuals and one organization who sued the national Ku Klux Klan, affiliated KKK groups in Montana and Washington state, and John Abarr, described in the lawsuit as a recruiter for Montana Quest and the Realm of Montana, both fronts for local KKK chapters. The suit was filed on Feb. 15, 1994.<\/p>\n

The lawyers got involved after members of the Yellowstone County Bar Association were mailed some of the hate literature. Goodrich and Bruce Fredrickson, both of whom worked for the Crowley law firm at the time, thought the writings pushed First Amendment free-speech rights to their limit.<\/p>\n

Beyond the boilerplate anti-Semitism, racism and gay-bashing of the publications, Goodrich said, they were struck by the vile, patently false, intensely personal attacks on local residents.<\/p>\n

Setting the stage<\/h5>\n

Two Jewish residents who ended up suing Abarr and the KKK had their houses vandalized, and whether Abarr was responsible for the vandalism or not, the lawyers believed his defamatory attacks set the stage for the criminal activity.<\/p>\n

Goodrich and Fredrickson were joined by Joel Guthals, K.D. Tolliver and James Patten, all of whom worked for free on the case. The plaintiffs were the Montana Human Rights Network \u2014 always referred to in Abarr\u2019s writings as the Montana Homo Rights Network \u2014 then-Police Chief Wayne Inman, Drs. Brian Schnitzer and Don Roberts, architect Kurt Nelson, Billings Symphony Director Uri Barnea and Russ Brown, who worked for the Billings Community Housing Board.<\/p>\n

Goodrich said the heroes were not the lawyers but the plaintiffs, who showed great courage. They had no idea how much time it would take, nor how much public scrutiny they would be under, he said.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

And it was by no means an easy case. Goodrich said Abarr was represented for free by local attorney Rob Stephens, later aided by an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. Goodrich said they believed passionately that Abarr\u2019s First Amendment rights were being threatened.<\/p>\n

Goodrich said he and his colleagues also believe in free speech, of course, but they felt Abarr had gone \u201cway over the line.\u201d Except for Inman, none of the plaintiffs were true \u201cpublic figures.\u201d Generally speaking, it\u2019s harder to sue for defamation and libel on behalf of public figures.<\/p>\n

Also, Goodrich said, virtually everything Abarr said about the plaintiffs was \u201ctotally untrue and totally unfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fliers, posters and leaflets said Inman, the Human Rights Network and the Montana Association of Churches were a \u201cPro-Faggot Triad,\u201d and that the association was financed by \u201crich Jews.\u201d One flier said Inman was \u201claunching an attack upon Christian organizations in an attempt to legitimize his own lesbian daughter\u2019s lifestyle choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson was accused of working on behalf of the Human Rights Network to teach \u201cchildren precautions needed to perform anal sex.\u201d Brown was said to be a \u201cNeo-Marxist\u201d who \u201cenjoys reading homosexual literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorneys argued that Abarr\u2019s language went beyond protected speech in that it was intended to harass, intimidate and terrify his targets.<\/p>\n

Doubly offended<\/h5>\n

Guthals said he and the other attorneys were not only offended by what Abarr had written, \u201cbut offended by and concerned about what was happening in the community.\u201d Guthals was one of many people who volunteered to stand guard during services at the Beth Aaron Temple, and to walk congregants to their cars before and after services. The incidents of vandalism and reports of death threats created an oppressive climate of fear among Jewish residents, he said.<\/p>\n

Guthals and Goodrich credited Inman with pushing to take action against the hate before it escalated into violence. He had worked in Portland, Ore., before coming to Billings and had learned there how important it was to counter white supremacists before they gained strength.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the suit was settled after about six months. The plaintiffs had sought unspecified damages, but Goodrich said they \u201cweren\u2019t looking for money or anything. They were just looking for vindication.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what they achieved with the settlement, which was more important than its relatively mild wording would suggest. Both parties were released from all claims, but the settlement stipulated that Abarr \u201cregrets any harm that he may have caused to plaintiffs as a result of any misstatements in published or disseminated materials authored by him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was an apology, however lukewarm, and an acknowledgement of Abarr\u2019s role in producing the defamatory statements. The settlement also said that while both parties \u201cacknowledge the right of all persons to engage in protected free speech,\u201d they also \u201crecognize that not all statements are entitled to First Amendment protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another accomplishment was simply the unmasking of Abarr. Goodrich said they were told by national authorities that specific members of the KKK and other hate groups are very rarely \u201couted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effect on Abarr, Goodrich said, was that \u201cnow, he\u2019s out in the open and the light might have been a little intense. I think that\u2019s why he decided to move someplace else.\u201d<\/p>\n

And whether Abarr acted alone or with others, the lawsuit had the desired effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere weren\u2019t any more fliers,\u201d Goodrich said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t any more bricks through windows. It all stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, this weekend, let\u2019s salute all the many people in the community who stood together to counter hate and to promote tolerance.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not forget the brave individuals who swallowed their fears, gave up their privacy and put their reputations on the line to go toe to toe with the haters. Their victory was a victory for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Billings plays host this weekend to the 20th anniversary Not In Our Town National Leadership Gathering, it\u2019s hard not to feel some pride in this community\u2019s stand against hate and intolerance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[392,777,860,864,863,861,869,862,870,865,859,868,867,866,779],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prairie-lights","tag-aclu","tag-brian-schnitzer","tag-bruce-fredrickson","tag-don-roberts","tag-james-patten","tag-joel-guthals","tag-john-abarr","tag-k-d-tolliver","tag-kkk","tag-kurt-nelson","tag-malcom-goodrich","tag-rob-stephens","tag-russ-brown","tag-uri-barnea","tag-wayne-inman","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}