There is an excellent write up in The Olympian today about the recent activity of the Nazis in the Nortwest. Go read the whole thing.

One important point that Latson makes is that the Olympia police expect that there will be direct confrontation and possibly violence:

Olympia police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad has met with some of the local groups working on a response to the neo-Nazis. He counsels community members to ignore the group entirely but says he knows it is unlikely that everyone will heed his advice.

"It's just terribly wishful thinking on my part," Bjornstad said.

"I know 100 percent that there's going to be a confrontation of some kind there," he added.

I think Bjornstad underestimates Olympia. It is the expressed goal of the Nazis to draw us into some kind of nasty behavior (I've got the emails to prove it). But we don't have to play that game. We can make our own rules. Humor is the best approach in this situation, and I'm very glad to hear that we're moving forward on that front.

One other very important point: it is crucial at this time for all of the groups planning a response to band together and establish a coordinated plan to include everyone. If, through acting independently, the various response groups don't get everyone involved, we run the risk of there being a group of people at the protest who are not associated in either a coordinated direct action (e.g., ridicule and mockery) or a separate demonstration (e.g., singing, dancing, education, speeches). If the Nazis can draw these unassociated folks in to a confrontation, they will.

I call on the leaders of the response groups to meet , decide together how best to coordinate the different response plans so that they include the maximum number of people, and work hard to publicize the ways that people can join in and participate.