A city on edge: Presence of armed groups in Olympia amid protests raises concerns
The presence of armed groups at recent demonstrations in the Olympia area has prompted some citizens, businesses, clergy, police leadership, and elected officials to openly speak out against the groups — in a petition, during public comment periods, and in strong written statements.
The leader of one local, armed group told The Olympian they’ve been going to protests with a goal to stop harm to people and property at events where protesters sometimes leave behind graffiti and broken windows. But others at the events say they only serve to stoke tension and conflict.
Demonstrations sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which are still happening regularly in Olympia, have taken many forms, from organized rallies to late-night vandalism, and have recently been peaceful. But concern about the armed groups is ongoing.
City officials are now looking into whether the armed groups might be violating state law.
The evolution of local protests
Krystafer Brown and Rory Summerson say they have been out in Olympia almost every night since local protests began. Brown was the primary organizer of a candlelight vigil and march here in honor of Floyd May 29. Summerson is a candidate for Thurston County Commission.
They’re both part of South Sound Street Medics, a volunteer group Brown co-founded soon after the protests and one of a few organized groups that offer aid to anyone who needs it at the demonstrations.
There have been a wide array of local events, including open-mic nights at Sylvester Park, a noise demo at the county jail, gatherings on the Capitol Campus, miles-long marches, and community workshops.
Many demonstrators calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality advocate for reducing funding for police in a way that protects citizens but doesn’t send an armed officer to address every issue. Others call to abolish police completely, saying through their chanting and signs that the system cannot be fixed.
The Olympian reporters have witnessed some demonstrators tag buildings with graffiti, including Mayor Cheryl Selby’s house, and break windows in the U.S. Bank building downtown. But other damage has been done, with windows broken at Starbucks and a dumpster set on fire in front of City Hall. An 18-year-old was arrested in connection with the fire.
For about a week, Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower said, a group of 40-50 were gathering at City Hall downtown at 10 p.m., and those events were associated with some illegal activity, such as the graffiti and broken windows.
Typically, a few people on bicycles also monitor the protests to make sure marchers stay safe, which Brown said she appreciates.
“I think the most important thing to explain the different groups of the movement for racial justice and change is that nobody is really identified as antifa and anarchist,” Brown said. “I think there are people that would fall under that umbrella, but nobody is marching around saying they’re antifa.”
“Antifa” is short for anti-fascist and refers to a broad political protest movement made of individuals “organizing against racial and economic injustice,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are generally united by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology and by their belief in aggressive direct action, according to a story profiling antifa in The New York Times.
People who take on the label represent “a large spectrum of the political left,” and some people loosely affiliated are typically involved in “skirmishes and property crimes at demonstrations across the country.” At least once when The Olympian reporters have been at recent protests, someone in the crowd was carrying an anti-fascist flag.
Groups with guns
Small groups of people open-carrying large guns showed up at the rallies and demonstrations in the beginning, back in late May and early June.
In mid-June, men wearing neon yellow shirts emblazoned with “peacekeeper” on the front and back began appearing. A few of the men told The Olympian they were associated with the local group American Wolf.
Peter Diaz, who leads the group, told The Olympian he supplied them with paintball guns, bear mace, zip ties, and flashlights. He also openly carries a pistol.
He arrived to an interview with The Olympian in a limousine with an American Wolf decal on its side, which he called his “mobile office.” He said the group had been at protests to step in if there was danger to people or property because he believes Olympia police aren’t allowed to do so.
At first, they carried automatic rifles, he said. But starting in mid-June, the plan was if they saw a protester damaging property, they would detain that person and take a photo of their face or ID to pass on to police. If protesters threw rocks at them, they’d respond with paintballs.
Was he concerned those actions might be illegal? He said he has a lawyer and feels confident he’s in the right.
He has long-term political goals for American Wolf, he said, and expressed a belief that people with money are controlling the government and trying to consolidate power. He didn’t name who he thought those people might be, saying he didn’t want to “come off as a conspiracy theorist,” and said the group does not align with a particular political group, though it has “endorsed” two Republican candidates for state office.
At demonstrations June 12, The Olympian reporters saw constant tension between the protesters and the armed group led by Diaz, with periodic heated exchanges of words and physical altercations.
Summerson has told The Olympian he’s at the protests to “observe and listen and uplift the voices of black and brown people.” He believes these armed groups inflame the situation.
“They fail to realize that, when you show up armed and show up confrontationally, that’s inflammatory,” said Summerson. “It’s not that they’re there — it’s the way they approach the discussion.”
Police Chief: We don’t need your help
In a phone interview, Interim Police Chief Jelcick told The Olympian department leadership intentionally shifted strategies for crowd control at the protests, and that they don’t want help from armed citizen groups.
Early on, a couple of the protests escalated — late-night confrontations ended with police using flash bangs, pepper balls, and, once, tear gas to disperse crowds.
The Olympia City Council has since banned the use of chemical weapons as a crowd-control tactic during the pandemic.
Department leadership recognized that the focus of the movement is police reform, Jelcick told The Olympian, and that he thinks the department’s presence was “contributing to the emotion and the tension and some of the anger.”
So, leaders made officers less visible in places “where people are trying to have a voice and really talk about these things, which are really raw still in our community” in hopes that it would provide “a sense of peace and calm.”
But, he said, that doesn’t mean the department has not and will not “address behaviors that are putting people at risk.”
However, South Sound Street Medics co-founder Brown said it felt like police “abandoned offering any pretense of safety or protection” to protesters beyond blocking streets where they march.
When asked what might be a welcome form of police presence, Brown said she’s seen officers on bicycles, wearing protective equipment but not riot gear, as the most productive.
“People seem to be accepting of that presence because it was less aggressive,” she said.
On June 15, Jelcick issued a statement addressing the tension between groups.
“The Olympia Police Department respects our residents’ First Amendment right to free speech and to peacefully assemble,” Jelcick wrote. “The Department also respects our residents’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. However, we are increasingly concerned that these two Constitutional rights, as they have been exercised over the last weekend, will collide with unintended consequences.”
The department doesn’t align itself with any group or “seek the help of any militia, any armed civilians, or any vigilante groups,” his statement reads, and doesn’t need “the assistance of armed citizens to keep our community safe.”
Speaking out against armed groups
On June 19, 33 local public officials attached their names to a letter titled “Thurston Leaders Unite Against Vigilantism,” formally opposing “the presence of armed vigilantes patrolling our communities” and calling on business, faith, nonprofit, and neighborhood leaders to do the same.
Local faith leaders who are part of Concerned Clergy of Olympia have affixed their names to their own letter denouncing the groups’ presence, as have 68 local businesses. More than 1,800 citizens had signed that same letter in an online petition as of Thursday.
The letter from public officials specifically calls out groups American Wolf, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters.
“They have created a climate of fear for our residents, particularly residents of color, local businesses, and all who are nonviolently protesting against police brutality and centuries of racial injustice,” the letter reads. “Their presence has not contributed positively in any way to the protests.”
The officials encourage residents to research the groups to understand their political ties and “understand their intentions for our community and country.” The letter acknowledges concerns about law enforcement cooperating with “non-permitted militia activity,” calling that “unacceptable.”
Olympia City Council member Dani Madrone told The Olympian she and fellow council members Jessica Bateman and Renata Rollins contacted elected officials in Thurston County they knew who they thought would at least be “maybes” in terms of signing the letter.
Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza, who ran for office as an independent, said he was not asked to sign the letter and called it “partisan politics.”
Asked his stance on people showing up with guns and other weaponry at protests, Snaza said people have a lawful right to open-carry, but he doesn’t understand the way they seem to be trying to send a message. He doesn’t agree with people carrying paintball guns or zip ties, and said people should let law enforcement officers decide what’s a crime and how to respond.
In a video publicly posted on his Facebook page, Diaz urinated on a copy of the letter from public officials.
David Ross, who ran unsuccessfully for Olympia mayor last year and has streamed videos of protests live, started a separate petition, asking business, faith, nonprofit, government, and neighborhood leaders to disavow violence and vandalism in protests. That petition had amassed more than 750 signatures as of Thursday.
Diaz believes the police aren’t doing their jobs and the people stepping into their place are doing the city a service. He called Jelcick “a politician” and said individual officers have told Diaz he’s doing good work, and that some property owners have thanked him.
“That’s what I told the city council: Untie the hands of the police and allow them to do their job and we won’t be here,” Diaz said. “You think I want to be down here? I don’t want to be here.”
More on the groups showing up armed
Armed groups have been showing up to protests not just in Olympia, but across the state and beyond.
David Neiwert, a journalist and author who has covered far-right extremist movements in the region since the 1990s, recently appeared on local podcast The Olympia Standard, hosted by Emmett O’Connell and council member Madrone.
During the interview, Neiwert said there has recently been a “blurring of the lines” between ideologies at far-right events, with people who are part of hard-core white nationalist organizations mingling with members of groups that aren’t typically “overtly racist.”
“What we’re really seeing is this kind of congealing of a very heavily armed hard-right faction, and they’re showing up to public events heavily armed and causing a lot of trouble,” Neiwert said in the podcast.
Neiwert answered The Olympia Standard hosts’ specific questions about groups called out by public officials here. Proud Boys, Neiwert explained, evolved out of early pro-Trump protests and show up at events where they think there are going to be anti-fascists with the intent of getting into fights.
Members of the Three Percenters movement, as The Olympian has previously reported, claim to be pro-government and say they aren’t a militia.
Washington Three Percent founder Matt Marshall previously told The Olympian the Washington group wasn’t affiliated with the national group — the group has also denounced American Wolf’s actions in Olympia. Marshall has recently shared on social media that he no longer affiliates with the Washington group he founded.
Neiwert said that to say the Three Percenters movement is nonviolent and not a militia is “utterly disingenuous,” and that the organization is dedicated to the idea of a second revolutionary war. The reference to “3 percent,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is rooted in a “dubious historical claim that only 3 percent of American colonists fought against the British during the War for Independence.”
Three Percenters engage in paramilitary exercises, Neiwert said, and in intimidating activities. In a recent case, the Seattle Times reported Washington Three Percenters published the names of people who had reported local businesses for violating stay-home orders.
The people whose names were published became targets of threats and harassment.
As for American Wolf, Neiwert believes they’re “primarily a reaction very similar to what we’re seeing elsewhere,” in response to what they perceive as the threat of anti-fascists.
An ongoing investigation
When a photo of an Olympia Police Officer posing with a group of armed men flashing a Three Percenters hand gesture made rounds on social media June 5, it manifested a concern that armed groups showing up at protests are allied with police — an idea refuted by police department leadership.
Three Percenters were among a handful of armed groups that responded to a call on social media from west Olympia gun shop Private Sector Arms, said owner Don Teague. He said he does not identify as a member of any militia.
Teague told The Olympian he had heard of threats and rumors that his store might be targeted. He was on edge already because of a threatening email he had received that week, which he posted on Facebook. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also had been warning federal firearms license dealers to watch out after a gun store was burglarized, he said.
Three rifles and several boxes of ammunition were stolen from a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Lakewood May 6, according to Jason Chudy, spokesperson for ATF’s Seattle Field Division, and a pawn and gun shop in Lakewood was targeted June 4. The ATF puts out alerts to all dealers in the area whenever there’s a gun store burglary, he said.
Lacey City Council member Michael Steadman, who is running for Thurston County Commissioner and who owns the building where Private Sector Arms is a tenant, said he approached law enforcement after Teague told him about the possible threats.
The officers confirmed a “good portion of the threats,” Steadman said.
Teague posted a call on Facebook with an Associated Press photo taken in Minneapolis, of demonstrators standing outside a burning fast food restaurant:
“ATTENTION ARMED CITIZENRY! Just got direct notification of riots tonight on the westside from LE contacts,” the Facebook post begins. “Plans are to destroy the westside this time. Might not even go downtown to do damage. Suppose to start staging after 6pm at Burger King across the street. Any and all who would like to hang out in our parking lot in a well-regulated fashion to help secure the business in our building are welcome to do so with open arms to watch the sh-- show. Businesses are boarding up windows on the westside already. Charged fire extinguishers might be an asset.”
A group of people he knows gathered at the store initially, Teague said, and armed groups stopped by to check in over the course of the evening, including Three Percenters and Proud Boys.
Ultimately, nothing happened. Steadman said other businesses in the building shut down early because owners were scared or customers weren’t coming in.
Teague said he hasn’t issued any similar calls since then and hasn’t felt the need to have a visible security presence.
The officer photographed with the armed group who stopped by was responding to “a routine noise disturbance” in the area, according to a statement from the Olympia Police Guild.
An investigation into the photo is nearing its end, according to city spokesperson Kellie Purce Braseth. It’s in the hands of an outside attorney for an independent review.
Do the armed groups violate state law?
Olympia City Council also is exploring whether the groups violate a state law concerning unsanctioned militias.
Council member Madrone says she requested the review June 9, after she noticed a petition in the Tri Cities area that cited the law and had collected nearly 12,000 signatures, as well as a letter to the Kennewick City Manager from Mayor Pro-Tem Steve Lee.
The law is currently under review by a city attorney, as is a law concerning open-carrying, Madrone said. The council will meet next at 5:30 p.m. July 7.
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