Lakewood woman finds business card for white supremacist group on windshield

LAKEWOOD, Wash. – A Lakewood woman is concerned that a white supremacist group is actively recruiting in Pierce County after finding one of their business cards on her windshield.

Nancy Ivory-Saunders said she found the card on Monday after a trip to Fort Steilacoom Park with her dog. She said she saw the business card, but waited until she got home to read it. When she realized it was for Northwest Front, she said her reaction was guttural.

“I was angry, I was disgusted, I was shocked,” she said. “I thought I need to let my friends and my neighbors know that these kinds of people are recruiting here.”



Northwest Front is labeled a white nationalist group by Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC recently released a list of all the hate groups currently active and operating in the United States. Of 917 groups, 21 call Washington state home, including Northwest Front.

SPLC defines white nationalist groups as groups that “espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites. Groups listed in a variety of other categories - Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, and Christian Identity - could also be fairly described as white nationalist.”

Northwest Front, based out of Bremerton, says on its website that it wants to create an all-white homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

Ivory-Saunders said she fears that the group could be trying to spread out. “Another neighbor who lives up the road here says, ‘Yep, I’ve got a friend who also got a card, so you’re not the only one,’” she said.

Lakewood Police said they only know of one report where a Northwest Front card was placed on a windshield, and that’s Ivory-Saunders case. They said even though it’s an isolated incident, they are concerned.

“It’s alarming to say the least, in light of what’s going on across the country today, and especially in our local community,” said Lt. Chris Lawler with Lakewood Police. “We’ve made everyone in our police department aware of it and we’ve also notified our regional intelligence groups as well.”

Distributing a card like the one Ivory-Saunders found would not be illegal, said Lawler; the card itself did not contain any racist comments or threats. However, because the group was referenced by Charleston, S.C., church mass shooter Dylann Roof and does want to create an all-white state, Ivory-Saunders said it’s scary.

“No one should be scared like that here right where we live,” she said.

After Charlottesville, Ivory-Saunders said she was not taking chances. She wanted to alert her neighbors and more importantly warn the person who left the card that their group is unwanted in Lakewood.

“You made a big mistake coming to Lakewood, this kind of hate-mongering, this kind of prejudice, this kind of bigotry is not welcome here in Lakewood. Go. Take your business somewhere else.”

Q13 News reached out to Northwest Front for comment on this story; we have yet to hear back.