Neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin says he plans to make good on threats to stage an anti-Semitic armed march through Whitefish next month, despite dismissive comments this week by Richard Spencer, the white nationalist and part-time Whitefish resident who inspired the idea.
Anglin’s insistence comes after Spencer said he doesn’t believe the march will take place, describing Anglin’s scheme as simply a “troll” of Whitefish residents. In an email Thursday, Anglin said Spencer is wrong, and that Anglin plans to apply for a permit that would allow him and a cohort of fellow skinheads to demonstrate in the streets.
“This is not about backing up Richard Spencer,” Anglin wrote of his proposed march, “this is about justice, and making it clear to the Jewish mafia that we will no longer tolerate their criminal gangsterism, their attacks on the families of those they disagree with politically.”
The proposed march was spun out of a recent dispute between Spencer, his mother, and local real estate agent Tanya Gersh, with the Spencers accusing Gersh of a “shake down” aimed at forcing Sherry Spencer to sell a commercial building she owns in Whitefish. Anglin took up the cause, calling for a “trollstorm” against Gersh, who is Jewish, and other Jewish residents of Whitefish. That threat later escalated when Anglin began promoting a “March on Whitefish” for which he would recruit California skinhead groups to carry assault-style rifles through the town.
The situation garnered international attention, prompting Spencer on Wednesday to tell the Daily Interlake and Missoulian newspapers he thought Anglin’s call to arms was just a joke—much as Spencer dismissed his own “Hail Trump” salute at a recent white nationalist conference as ironic play. Spencer did not, however, explicitly call for Anglin to call off the march, saying only that he is powerless to influence the blogger, but has become weary of the spotlight the controversy has put on Whitefish.
“I’m not telling Anglin to do anything,” Spencer now tells the Indy. “I just assumed it was a troll. Can he really bring out people for a march on a ski village in remote Montana?”
…Earlier this month, Anglin and Spencer appeared together on a right-wing podcast. An excerpt reported by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights shows the two men’s difference in approach.
Spencer: “They [Jews] kind of need us in a way… But in a weird way, it’s the people that shall not dwell alone, to borrow a title from Kevin McDonald’s book. They do need us.”
Anglin: “It’s a virus. They’re a human disease” [laughter].
Spencer: “Somewhat inflammatory language, but I understand what you’re saying.”
This week, Spencer told the Daily Interlake that Anglin is “totally wild—that’s not my kind of thing,” while also calling him a “rational” person who wouldn’t engage in physical violence.
Asked Friday morning whether he would call upon Anglin to stand down, Spencer offered this statement: “It’s time to bring this to an end.” He then pointed the Indy to a Youtube video he posted on Friday in which Spencer says that Whitefish residents can end the controversy by renouncing Love Lives Here, and specifically the Jewish rabbis involved.
