BILLINGS — An ongoing protest in downtown Billings against white supremacist sentiments in town escalated to a physical altercation on Saturday.
Jonathan, who requested to be identified by his first name only, has been demonstrating on the corner of North 27th Street and 2nd Avenue North for over a week. Tuesday marked his 11th day. He said that the protest, which includes an upside-down American flag and a "Not in our Town" sign, is a response to what he believes to be hate groups in the area.
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“I think we have a problem, and I don't think we want to admit it,” Jonathan said on Tuesday. "We had that 'Not in our Town' movement back in 1993,1994. I was in the Navy at that time and I remember being so proud of our community."
In his 11 days standing outside protesting, he said he has had some alarming reactions.
"There have been 11 individual salutes, straight-arm Nazi salutes by men. All men," Jonathan said. "I'm gonna be out here is every day that I can because I don't want this."
On Saturday, March 1, Jonathan said two vehicles stopped in the roadway on 27th Street and a man approached him from one of the vehicles.
"The man that was the passenger in the second truck was first at me. I had that sign around my neck and I took him threw it off and that's all I had time to do. I had pepper spray in my pocket, but I couldn't get it out in fast enough. So, I was just holding the flagpole at an angle so that I could keep him back from me. And he kept coming at me and he reached behind himself and pulled up a knife," Jonathan said. "I just reacted and jabbed him straight into the chest with the end of this one inch flagpole.”
Jonathan said he is more aware while he is out protesting now.
"They tried to kill me in the street for, for my First Amendment right. Expressing my First Amendment rights," Jonathan said. "I'll have to admit it. I'm a little more edgy."
But that man, Michael, who asked to not be on camera and also to be referred to by his first name, shared a different narrative.
“The gentleman with the sign and the flag started screaming and approaching my brother's truck in a hostile manner. My sister, his wife, is on that side of the truck. I will not allow an individual to aggressively approach a female that I know. So, I jumped out to confront him,” Michael said.
Michael does not live in Billings and said he was just visiting over the weekend. He said Jonathan was calling his brother a Nazi.
“You know, why are you running at my brother's truck? Why are you calling him Nazi? What, you know, what's going on? I tried to square up with him. He hit me with a flagpole. Then we left. That was pretty much the entire incident,” Michael said. "He perceived my brother with face tattoos, blonde hair and a certain style of haircut and assumed he was a Nazi and started screaming at him in his truck."
When MTN News asked Michael if he had a knife when he got out of the vehicle, he said he always has one with him, but he would not answer if he brought the knife out.
"I'm not going to answer that. I talked with the PD (police department) about that. That's between me and them,” Michael said. "We called Billings PD and willingly went and gave them our statements because we didn't do anything wrong."
Billings police Sgt. Jeff Stovall said a call came in on Saturday about a verbal disturbance. Once police were investigating, the agency heard differing statements.
“We don't have any injuries to go that someone was actually assaulted in that way. However, that's the conflicting reports that we have at this point," Stovall said. "Basically, we had some conflicting statements as to who the aggressors may have been, what weapons were involved, how they were used, those types of things.”
Stovall said the police did not find any indication that Michael or his brother are currently white supremacists.
"I know there's been online talk of, you know, people accusing people of being certain affiliated with certain groups and things like that. We, as the police department in our investigation, have no indication that that is a fact whatsoever," Stovall said. "Until we have a factual reason to accuse someone of being something, we've got to be very careful about doing that, just because there are laws that protect people from being, you know, liable and slandered and stuff like that."
Stovall said no charges have been filed in the case.
"At this point, the information has been forwarded over to the County Attorney's Office for them to review," Stovall said. "This does not fit the hate crime statute."
Michael said he plans to pursue defamation charges against a woman making comments online about him and his brother being Nazis.
"She has gone on to run a slanderous campaign against myself and my brothers with no proof," Michael said. "We're looking at defamation case against her as well as a civil lawsuit."
A Not in Our Town, Not in Our Country protest has been scheduled for Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m. at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in response to this incident.
"The police department, we don't take sides either way politically anything like that whatsoever. But we just ask that people use that the peaceful protest. We ask that they exercise the peaceful side of that," Stovall said. "What we want as a police department is everyone to be able to exercise their rights to do so in a peaceful way. If there's going to be a conflicting side, you know, stand across the street. But escalating things to a point of violence, and threatening physical violence, and using weapons, it doesn't do anything right here."
