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by repost from local media
Friday, Sep. 08, 2006 at 9:40 AM
Well known white supremacists move in near Bakersfield: Neighbors react
A small brigade of people went door-to-door in a south Kalispell neighborhood Thursday evening, telling others about a family of avowed racists who have moved in.
Their concern is the daughters of Lamb and Lynx Gaede, twin 13-year-old girls who perform music as the group Prussian Blue.
The girls have been featured on national TV news programs such as ABC’s “Primetime” for what that program called “a message of hate.”
One song they recorded, called “Sacrifice,” praises Nazi leader Rudolf Hess and white supremacist Robert Matthews. The girls have performed at rallies for white nationalist causes.
On their Web site, they say, “Today, if you are White, and proud to be White, it is considered politically incorrect by the media. The music that Prussian Blue performs is intended for White people. They hope to help fellow Whites come to understand that love for one’s race is a beautiful gift that we should celebrate.”
The Gaede girls, their mother, April, and stepfather, Mark Harrington, moved to Kalispell from Bakersfield, Calif., which April Gaedes said on “Primetime” is “not white enough.”
County records show that Harrington filed a deed on the house in February. Neighbors say they moved in a few weeks ago.
Their arrival caused some trepidation in the neighborhood.
Neighbor Bill Matteer said he met his new neighbor, April Gaedes, recently.
“She started to talk politics” immediately, he said.
Later, he saw a rerun of the “Primetime” show on the girls and realized, “That’s that lady!”
He and other neighborhoods researched the family and were troubled by what they found.
On Thursday night, they took action in a peaceful way.
“The last thing we need to do is to get aggressive and hateful,” neighbor Rebecca Kushner-Matteer said.
They printed information sheets about the family and knocked on doors to pass them out.
“This letter is not written as a means to harass the family or to begin a witch hunt,” the sheet says. “We wish the family no harm. Our goal is to peacefully communicate that this kind of hate and ignorance will not be accepted here in our neighborhood where we live and raise our families.”
“No hate here” is printed on one side of the brightly colored fliers. The eight or so adults and as many children who went door-to-door Thursday asked residents to display the sign in their windows. Many did.
“It’s cool you guys are doing that,” one resident told Matteer.
“We don’t have any problem with them being here,” Matteer said of the family. “We just don’t want them speaking hate.”
Most residents were surprised at the news.
“Oh, them!” one said when he heard about the family.
The group walked to the Gaedes’ house to tell them what they were doing. No one answered the door.
Neighbors in a home close to the Gaedes’ said they have had no problems with the family. Kalispell police Chief Frank Garner said several people have called to inquire about the family but had no complaints.
The family, though, called police Thursday night to say they were being harassed by the neighbors’ efforts to post fliers. An officer counseled the family about freedom of speech and civil liberties. The report says April Gaedes expressed concern for her children in the public school. She said she will go to a neighborhood meeting so people will know she wants to live quietly and get along with everyone.
Bakersfield police said they “wouldn’t be able to release” information about whether conflicts related to the Gaedes occurred there.
No one answered the doorbell when a reporter visited the Gaedes house Friday afternoon in Kalispell. The curtains in the home had been drawn.
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