The skanner., December 21, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

A Few of Our Newsmakers of 2011
Attacks
continued from page 1
Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane; and a for-
mer militia member who opened fire on deputies in
Montana and vanished into a forest.
To be sure, the perpetrators are by no means representa-
tive of the broader, law-abiding population in the Pacific
Northwest. But they are part of a trend that has seen extrem-
ist activity on the rise nationally. The region has also been
the base for some of the highest-profile ones, including the
Aryan Nations and the Militia of Montana.
Travis McAdam of the Montana Human Rights Network
said the reasons for the trend include the election of a black
president, growing distrust with the federal government, the
downturn in the economy and the continued growth of
minority groups in the population.
“All of this has created a perfect storm of anger, fear, and
resentment that white supremacists are trying to tap into and
capitalize upon,” McAdam said.
The number of hate groups and patriot groups, which do
not all share the same beliefs and conduct, has been grow-
ing across the country since President Barack Obama was
elected in 2008, according to an annual report by the
Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which
though he was a Christian, according to court documents.
Clark was black.
Grigsby and Pedersen were arrested outside Yuba City,
Calif., when a police officer spotted them in Myers’ car.
Grigsby told officers “the couple was on their way to
Sacramento to ‘kill more Jews,’” court documents said.
In another high-profile incident, a man planted a pipe
bomb along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Jr.
Day parade in Spokane. The shrapnel-packed bomb was
found and disabled before it could explode, but the FBI said
it had the potential to kill or injure many of the 2,000
marchers, who included children.
White supremacist Kevin Harpham, 37, was arrested in
March and has pleaded guilty to attempted use of a weapon
of mass destruction, and the hate crime of placing the bomb
in an effort to target minorities. He faces 27 to 32 years in
prison when he is sentenced by a federal judge on Dec. 20.
Another violent incident occurred June 12 outside of
Missoula, Mont., when former militia leader David Burgert
opened fire on two Missoula County sheriff’s deputies on a
remote logging road in the Lolo National Forest.
Burgert disappeared into the forest after the gunbattle, in
which no one was injured. He has yet to be found, despite
an extensive manhunt.
Burgert is a longtime patriot activist who spent eight
years in prison on weapons charges and authorities charged
him at the time with trying to spark a revolution. He was
released in 2010.
Another outrageous incident occurred in July when a
skinhead told a black man he did not belong inside a bar in
Bayview, Idaho, and was knocked out with one punch.
Daren C. Abbey, 28, woke up to find he was under arrest.
“What, you’re arresting the white man?” he told deputies,
according to court documents.
26 Th aNNuaL
News
They are part of a trend that
has seen extremist activity on
the rise nationally
tracks extremists.
SPLC’s 2010 compilation of active hate groups found
1,002 nationwide. Of those, 15 were located in Oregon and
13 each in Washington, Idaho and Montana, the SPLC said.
The group counted 888 hate groups in 2007, before
Obama’s election.
Obama is also seen as someone who would curtail indi-
vidual rights such as gun ownership, said Rich King, a pro-
fessor at Washington State University in Pullman who stud-
ies hate groups and teaches a class on white power move-
ments,
Meanwhile, the financial woes sparked by Wall Street
have fed anti-Semitic sentiments, King said.
It has been a busy year for extremists in the Northwest.
In the most violent incident, a young couple was arrested
and charged in connection with a murder spree that claimed
four lives in three Western states.
David “Joey” Pedersen, 31, and his girlfriend, Holly
Grigsby, 24, were arrested in California in October. They
have expressed white supremacist beliefs.
They are charged in Washington with aggravated first-
degree murder, accused of killing Pedersen’s father and his
wife in Everett sometime around Sept.
26. They are also suspected of killing 19-year-old Cody
Myers in Oregon and Reginald Alan Clark, 53, in Eureka,
Calif.
They shot Myers because his name sounded Jewish, even
M arTiN L uThEr K iNg , J r .
B r E a K fa s T
Monday
January 16, 2012
8:30-10:30 a.m.
The Oregon Convention Center,
777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon
R Reserve a table: MLKBreakfast@theskanner.com
R Call 503-285-5555 for more information
A limited amount of non-profit tickets are available,
first come first served
December 21/ December28, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 5