| by Dan Hoyle What would you do if the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in your town? On Dec. 16, 2000, the residents of Skokie, Ill., had to answer that question when 20 Klansmen, led by Grand Dragon Michael McQueeney, convened on the steps of the Cook County Circuit Court. Nearly 400 protestors turned out to attempt to silence the Klan, and 200 police officers tried to keep the peace.
 |  | | Top: Fritz in March 2002. Bottom: The front of Cook County Courthouse, where the Klan rally and violence occurred. - photos by Dan Hoyle | | The Klan wasn't silenced, and peace didn't prevail. The Klan had their rally, and afterwards, the police escorted them back onto their school bus. The protestors were angry they hadn't gotten a chance to confront the Klan. The police wanted them to leave. The protesters became angrier. Violence broke out. Squad car windows were smashed, and tires were slashed. The police arrested 20 people, including one for unlawful possession of a firearm. Ian Fritz, a 19-year-old high school dropout from Milwaukee, Wis., was one of those arrested. He's still awaiting his trial on April 22, at which he could be sentenced to four years in prison.
When McQueeney and his Klansmen were given a permit by Cook County to hold their rally, Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen announced plans for a "Peace and Harmony Rally" to be held the day after the Klan rally as a peaceful protest. Skokie has a history of opposing racist groups dating back to1979, when the Nazi party threatened to hold a rally there but backed down due to overpowering negative community reaction. Van Dusen hoped that, by having his rally the day after the Klan's, the community could show its revulsion for the Klan's ideology without violence or the media attention of a direct confrontation.
The Jewish Defense League planned otherwise. "We will use whatever means necessary to prevent this march, peacefully if possible, forcibly if we must," said JDL Chicago Chapter Chairman Ian Siegel in the Chicago Sun-Times. Other organizations made plans to attend the JDL's protest, including the Anti-Defamation League, Anti-Racist Action and the Workers World Party.
There was speculation that the Klan wouldn't show up, as McQueeney-led groups had done in 1998 after getting permits in Madison, Wis., and Waukegan, Ill. In Skokie, they showed up in full force. Dressed in white robes and holding confederate flags, they stood on the steps for 30 minutes, batting away snowballs thrown at them by protesters. Police officers from Skokie and Cook County as well as the Forest Service, some with dogs and others on horseback, ringed the proceedings.
Protestors and police differ in their explanations of the violence that ensued. Fritz claims the violence was a reaction to police efforts to disperse the crowd, in violation of its right to assemble. He alleges that the police forced the protestors into "a position where we had to either be pushed to the ground or push back."
Although he lacks a high school diploma, Fritz speaks like a college graduate. Despite making straight A's, he left high school halfway through sophomore year, disillusioned with the authoritarian structure of school and the streamlined path his peers were following. "I didn't see the sense in doing all this work to prepare for some abstract goal in the future of going to college and getting a career," Fritz said. "I had to start living my life right then and there."
He commenced a formal self-education in chemistry and biology, culminating in a three-week internship growing microbe cultures at a Pennsylvania State University laboratory. He hopped freight trains around the country, visiting friends or staying in shelters, learning the alternative lifestyle of squatters and dumpster divers. He went to the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999 and was galvanized into political activism.
According to Fritz, he was tackled from behind at the Klan protest after walking past one of the damaged cars. The police searched Fritz roughly, damaging his camera and scattering the papers in his backpack into the snow, before throwing him into a squad car with three or four other handcuffed protestors.
Fritz said he was then taken to the police station, where he was assigned an arresting officer. Fritz was read his charges: criminal damage to state-supported property, a felony; mob action, a felony; and teasing and tampering with a police animal, a misdemeanor. Fritz said that before this last charge the officer told him, "You'll love this one, I had to dig this one up pretty deep."
In a telephone interview, Skokie Police Department Lt. Mike Ruth told a different version of the story. "You make it sound like [Ian] was just some poor, innocent soul walking down the street on some winter's day", Ruth said. "There's enough videotape that clearly shows it was violence. They were throwing snowballs, rocks, batteries, horse manure."
Fritz said he sat on the plastic bed in his holding cell – where he remained for two days – "really angry at the police." In the meantime, more than 1,200 people gathered for the Peace and Harmony Rally at Niles West High School. All hailed the event as a redemptive moment for the Skokie community after the violence of the day before. "Yesterday we saw the worst of humanity," Ruth told the Sun-Times then. "I think all our officers felt better that we saw the other extreme today."
Asked how the violence and arrests of Dec. 16, 2000, could have been avoided, Ruth had easy answers: "[By] not throwing things at other people, not bringing loaded handguns. Don't bring crowbars, tire irons, knives, don't slash out tires of squad cars – kind of what you tell a fifth-grader."
However, according to a Dec. 18, 2000, article in the Sun-Times, the man arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm was not a Klan protestor. William Moore, who was found with a semiautomatic weapon and 16 rounds of ammunition in his car, is a bond bailsman and Klan grand dragon from Woodlawn, Tenn.
Fritz denies all of his charges, and disagrees with the violent tactics of his co-demonstrators. "Violence isn't a part of my life; I'm more privileged than that," he said. "I don't think the ends justify the means."
Although he was unaware of the Peace and Harmony Rally until it was brought up in the interview for this article, Fritz says he still would have gone to the face-to-face protest.
Fritz is being represented by Ed Voci, a lawyer and political activist who does pro-bono work for the Chicago organization Anti-Racist Action. Voci has made a living defending those on the fringes of society, and admits to having "a tremendous respect for people who engage in direct action."
Voci's politics are radical in their own right, as he questions whether the Klan should be granted free speech in the first place. "Given the role of racism in the constitution, I couldn't defend those who espouse the supremacy of the white race, which in itself says white speech is more important than black speech." Voci said.
Although Voci originally offered his services for free, according to Fritz, "[Voci] works more efficiently when he has a little money in his pocket." Fritz estimates his parents have paid Voci approximately $5,000 for his work. Fritz says he will not bring a lawsuit against any of the involved parties, although he said, "It sucks to have to pay so much money to prove my innocence."
Voci and Fritz are both confident the jury will find reasonable doubt of Fritz's guilt, based on the arresting officer's incorrect identification of Fritz at his preliminary hearing. Ruth denies the possibility that amid the chaos, an officer could have confused Fritz with another protestor who participated in the damage of the squad cars. Said Ruth, "If there was a mistake made, that's for the courts to find out."
Fritz's trial is scheduled for April 22 in Cook County Court, where the protest occurred more than one year ago.
Dan Hoyle is on the street beat. He can be reached at maltshere@yahoo.com. Back to the top of the article |
