
A van belonging to the owner of a Korean restaurant in Bozeman, Montana has been vandalized with white power graffiti for the second time in two months, and suspicion is being directed towards the Montana unit of The Creativity Movement, known officially as TCM Montana. Main story published December 14th, 2009 by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
When 51-year-old I-Ho Pomeroy, who owns I-Ho's Korean Grill, went out to her van early on Sunday December 13th, she found the inscription “White Power” and a backwards swastika scrawled across the rear window in white temporary paint. And this wasn’t the first time; her van was marked the same way back in October 2009 while parked outside her restaurant just days before the hate-free march through downtown Bozeman. The first time, she just blew it off and erased the paint, because she doesn't consider that behavior representative of Bozeman. But the second time, she decided to report it to police, because her vehicle was the only one on Greenway Avenue to be vandalized.
And already, suspicion is being directed towards TCM Montana, primarily because the Creators have been distributing pro-White literature within the community before demonstrating at the Gallatin County Courthouse in September while wearing masks. Police Lt. Rich McLane says he doesn't know who's responsible, “It may or may not be connected to the Creativity Movement,” McLane said. But he believes it to be an isolated incident.
However, it would be illogical for members of TCM Montana to be engaging in vandalism. Not only would it undermine the value of their previous activism and turn the white community further against them, but it would be a violation of their own charter. Under "The Essence of a Creator", Item II states, "A Creator is responsible, productive, and constructive", and Item V states, "A Creator realizes that both love and hate, in order to be constructive, must be directed in the proper channels and to do otherwise is destructive and suicidal". Vandalism is neither responsible, productive, or constructive.
Most likely the vandalism was perpetrated by teenagers out for kicks. This would explain the backwards swastika; teenagers aren't sufficiently educated to appreciate such distinctions. But it is also possible it could be a false flag ops by anti-racists. Fueled by the presence of Montana State University, anti-racist sentiment is particularly virulent in Bozeman, as former National Alliance member Kevin McGuire found out in 2005 when he was outed as a NA member while running for a school board seat. Despite a torrent of abuse unleashed upon him by anti-racists, McGuire scored 3.7 percent of the vote (McGuire was still politically active in Bozeman as recently as 2008). But anti-racists elsewhere have been known to commit "white power vandalism" so that it would be blamed on white activists and turn the community against them.
The two incidents haven’t changed I-Ho Pomeroy's favorable assessment of the city. “I’m still very thankful,” Pomeroy said. “I thought America was the great melting pot -- that we all come together and make this country great. It’ll be okay because the majority of people are very kind." On Tuesday December 15th, many in the community decided to express solidarity with I-Ho Pomeroy by organizing somewhat of a "mass dine-in" at her restaurant during lunch hour.







