Pair arrested during Nazi movie protest
The Rev. Darryl Kistler, pastor of Community Congregational Church of Kalispell, speaks to a rally of people who gathered outside the Flathead County Library in Kalispell to protest the showing of the film, “Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS.” The event was run by a group called Kalispell Pioneer Little Europe.
Two members of a white separatist group were arrested during a protest over a pro-Nazi film shown at the Flathead County Library on Thursday night.
Married couple Mark Harrington, 42, and April Gaede, 44, of Kalispell, who helped organize the film’s screening, were arrested by Kalispell Police on charges of simple assault and criminal mischief for their involvement in a scuffle that knocked the camera out of a protester’s hand and broke its flash.
Protesters had been urged to turn out at the library at 6 p.m. with protest signs and cameras.
“If everyone brings their camera and actively takes pictures of the bad guys going in and out, it will be immensely effective in running them back under their rock,” an e-mail about the protest urged.
An estimated 200 people had crowded around the library to protest “Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS,” which apparently takes an admiring view of the combat arm of the Nazis during World War II. The film was screened by a white separatist group called Kalispell Pioneer Little Europe.
Pioneer Little Europe members Harrington and Gaede moved to Kalispell from Bakersfield, Calif., in 2006 because of what they called the area’s racial tensions and since then have been active members in the white separatist movement.
Along with a small group, Harrington and Gaede had been making their way inside a little before 7 p.m. Thursday when a woman with a camera apparently got too close. When they attempted to push the camera and her out of the way, a scuffle ensued, according to police reports.
Harrington and Gaede were hauled off in handcuffs. Harrington was taken to the Kalispell Police Department and Gaede was taken to the Flathead County Detention Center.
Kalispell Police Patrol Lt. Wade Rademacher said usually when multiple people are arrested in the same incident, they are taken to separate facilities.
Harrington and Gaede have until May 7 to appear in Kalispell Municipal Court.
Thursday night, residents held signs reading “No Neo-Nazis” and “No Hate in My Backyard” to protest the second film shown at the library by Karl Gharst, a Flathead Valley resident with former ties to a white supremacist group in Hayden Lake, Idaho.
For more on this story, read Saturday’s Daily Inter Lake.