Since late 2017 the Patriot Front has menaced Olympic College (OC) in Bremerton, Washington (Kitsap County), posting racist and anti-immigrant flyers on newspaper boxes, elevators, and classroom windows and placing recruitment cards in library books and magazine racks. Nearby Gig Harbor has also been hit with multiple Patriot Front flyer distributions.

While the identities of those engaged in these activities at OC has as yet been unknown, IREHR has identified two young men who distributed Patriot Front flyers at the college in late 2017. The two Pierce County men are also likely candidates for poster distributions in Gig Harbor.

In December 2017 Jacob Landis Prior, 24, of Gig Harbor, and James Daniel Valentine, 27, of Lakebay, were stopped by campus security as the two were placing posters on an elevator at Olympic College’s art building. The two were seen taking photos of their handiwork, according to documents obtained from OC. Patriot Front activists routinely photograph their activism for posting on the group’s Twitter, and now Gab, accounts.

James Daniel Valentine

Prior had previously been identified in connection to Patriot Front activity in both Gig Harbor and Tacoma by the Puget Sound Anarchists.  The group also appears to have recruited at least one student at OC-Bremerton. An individual with a German Nazi SS symbol on their motorcycle helmet was also recently reported on OC’s campus, though the Patriot Front tends to shy away from displaying openly Nazi symbols.

The posters placed by Landis and Valentine declared, “Will Your Speech Be Hate Speech?…A new front must open within this American nation. Join us in our struggle for race and nation.” Landis and Valentine’s activity mirrors the Patriot Front’s targeting of college campuses and communities around the country. Other Patriot Front posters distributed at OC declared that “Occupied America” is where “Borders are Irrelevant.”

Posted at Olympic College by Valentine and Prior, December 2017

Patriot Front Flyer, Olympic College, October 2017

The Patriot Front is a white nationalist and avowedly fascist organization that spews anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry. As seen on posters and cards distributed at OC-Bremerton, the group’s logo contains the fasces, or bundle, used as a symbol by Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s party.

Logo of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party

Patriot Front Logo

Befitting such symbols, the Patriot Front’s manifesto declares,

“An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American…The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora…America is truly unique in this pan-European identity which forms the roots of our nationhood. To be an American is to realize this identity and take up the national struggle upon one’s shoulders…Our people must learn to internalize their natural identities and come to connect that re-emerging identity with their homeland. Americans are descendants of Europeans, but at the same time they are not European. This nation is unique in its newly realized pan-European identity which has allowed it to succeed. A nation without its people realizing a common identity is no nation at all. The previous era has been spent broadening the definition of what an American is. The coming era will refine the definition of an American…Our tradition is revolution, and our land is where tyrants come to die. [Italics added]”

Among the apparent “tyrants” in the Patriot Front panoply are Jews and Muslims:

To dress fascism up as American, the Patriot Front creates memes affixing its fascist symbol to racist and anti-Semitic quotes from prominent figures in American history:

The Patriot Front grew out of Vanguard America, a national socialist group that took part in the infamous 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia “Unite the Right” rally. After the rally, James Alex Fields was arrested after allegedly driving his vehicle into a crowd and killing Heather Heyer. Fields had previously been photographed in a Vanguard America uniform.