3 March 2016
Kalispell Stand for Tolerance rally draws armed counter-demonstrators
Updated 5 March 2016 at 12:56:57 MST. April Gaede asserts that the armed man described below was not a member of her group of protesters.
Sixty to 70 Flatheaders assembled in Kalispell’s Depot Park late Tuesday afternoon (images) to show their support for tolerance and extending a warm welcome to political refugees who may resettle in Montana.
Across Highway 93, a tenth as many, at least one openly carrying a sidearm, countered with signs alleging refugees are murderers and rapists (images). In a crude attempt at satire, one counter-demonstrator, dressed in a gorilla suit, danced and pranced on the street corner, waving a sign reading “Kalispell Needs Sharia Law” (video).
The Stand for Tolerance rally and honk-n-wave, one of several in Montana on Tuesday (hundreds marched in Missoula), reminded politicians and the public that all have human rights, and that the anti-immigrant and refugee speakers at the “national security” rallies in the Flathead and Bitterroot in late February do not represent all Montanans.
Kalispell’s “national security” rally was sponsored by the Flathead chapter of Act for America. I’ve found no evidence that Act for America sponsored the anti-tolerance demonstration in Kalispell on Tuesday. Instead, Tuesday’s counter-demonstration was organized through messages on Craigslist, and may have been associated with Kalispell’s April Gaede, known for exercising her constitutional right of free speech to express support for the white race.
I asked the man with the pistol why he was packing. “Because I can,” he replied. He left early with an uneasy look on his face. Some might wonder whether he was worried about an encounter with law enforcement officials, but he might just have been hungry and late for dinner. Still, there’s no good reason to pack heat at a political event.