Huckleberries Online

Racists Hit Bayview w/Hate Literature

Posted by DFO

Dec. 7, 2009 12:13 p.m. • 11 comments

Captain Ben Wolfinger told me today that they invite a criminal complaint on this matter, and will definitely follow through. If you have received one of these pieces of filth and desire the perpetrators to be brought to justice for littering, call the Kootenai Sheriff department 208-446-1300 and file your complaint. Each such call is treated as a separate count of littering. Let’s make it expensive for these Jerks to do what they do. Never has the city of Athol’s claim to fame name wise, ever been more appropriate than with these residents/Herb Huseland, Bay Views. More here.

Question: Has your neighborhood ever been littered with hate literature?

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

OrangeTV on December 07 at 12:20 p.m.
Late last summer, I woke up quite early to one of the rock-in-a-baggies on my front lawn and spent the next half hour walking around my neighborhood gathering them up and throwing them in the trash where they belong.
hhuseland on December 07 at 12:22 p.m.
Give them to the Sheriff Department for criminal prosecution, or police, if you live in a city.
Phaedrus on December 07 at 12:28 p.m.
DFO, the “more here” link isn’t working for me. Herb, thanks.
brentandrews on December 07 at 12:39 p.m.
Heh heh, yeah Herb, those Athols! What were they thinking?
scootermom on December 07 at 1:04 p.m.
While I’m offended by the insane rantings of the remains of the white supremacists, why does law enforcement treat this different than the religious stuff people are always sticking under my door handle, or the dozens of pizze flyers that are taped to my screen door, or countless doorhangers from people who want to replace my furnace, provide me internet service or refinance my house. Not to mention the dozens of pieces of “litter” left under my windshield wipers when I go to the movies.

What about that pesky little First Amendment? If it’s not a call to violence, I think it still free speech.
DFO on December 07 at 1:07 p.m.
@ Phaedrus; thanx for the heads up on the Bayview link re: racist literature attack. It’s fixed now.
hhuseland on December 07 at 1:12 p.m.
Littering is the only way we can approach this, BECAUSE of free speech. The reason other people that litter in the same way don’t get prosecuted is that nobody cares enough to sign a criminal complaint.
scootermom on December 07 at 1:58 p.m.
Any competent defense attorney would argue First Amendment and get the citation tossed. No pun intended.

The Constitution doesn’t provide for “good” free speech, or “bad” free speech. All speech is treated alike. In fact, political speech is given greater protection than commercial speech. If Dominos can litter my yard with pizza flyers and not violate the law, then skinheads can littler my lawn with racist drivel.

I’m not standing up for the skinheads, I’m just pointing out a serious flaw in Wolfinger’s logic.
hhuseland on December 07 at 2:49 p.m.
Scootermpom. you are beating a dead horse. I acqknowledged the free speech issue after your first bringing it up. We’ve all heard it twice now and don’t need a third. Most of us agree that bad free speech is just as protected as good free speech. Obviously we don’t need anyone to judge which is which.

Aside from that, an apology to MAJOR Ben Wolfinger. I referred to him as Capaian as always. It turns out the he has apparently been promoted, since he is now answering his phone with, “Major.”
hhuseland on December 07 at 2:53 p.m.
Sorry. Got in a hurry and didn’t check for typors.
Stickman on December 07 at 4:06 p.m.
My neighborhood has had many such instances. It’s what we do with such material that matters. The garbage can always excepts such things, it doesn’t care. There is an element in this town that will always bring these things up, it’s where we live and who is wandering about us. Of course there is no place for such things these days, so make your stand.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.