‘Aryan' Come-Uppance

COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO

A $6.3 million judgment against the white-supremacist Aryan Nations, for criminal assault, made national headlines recently. Little known, however, is the fact that the two victims of the assault have AFSCME connections. One is Victoria Keenan, former wife of Bill Keenan, organizing director of Washington Council 2; the other is their 21-year-old son, Jason, who belonged to AFSCME a few summers ago while working for Snohomish County, Wash.

On July 1, 1998, Ms. Keenan and Jason drove near the Aryan Nations' Idaho compound in search of a wallet they thought had fallen from their car. As they prepared to drive away, Bill Keenan says, "they heard a rifle bolt click, and they knew there was trouble." Trouble took the shape of a truck carrying three Aryan Nations security guards, who chased them for two miles, fired at their car with an automatic weapon and finally shot out a tire, flipping the car onto its side into a ditch.

One guard pulled Ms. Keenan from the vehicle, roughed her up and threatened to kill her. Another one threatened to kill Jason as well. The mayhem ceased, Bill Keenan says, only because "some other vehicles came along, and a neighbor ran out of his house with a shotgun." The Aryans drove off, leaving Ms. Keenan with separated ribs and assorted cuts and bruises, and both her and her son in virtual shock.

(A possible factor in the incident: Ms. Keenan is one-half Choctaw and, Bill Keenan says, "looks quite Native American, with her hair in braids," sure to enrage any true Aryan.)

Two of the guards have been convicted and sentenced to six years in prison; the third remains at large. Aryan Nation leaders have been fined $6.3 million, part of which will be satisfied by the sale of the group's fortress-like headquarters. Alas, the "Nation" has received offers to set up shop elsewhere.