Huckleberries Online

Car Spray-Painted w/Swastikas

Posted by DFO

Jan. 12, 2010 5:35 p.m. • 8 comments

A car was spray-painted with swastikas sometime early Friday outside the downtown Coeur d’Alene home of a woman who regularly has African-American friends visiting. In addition, about two weeks ago, some men drove past the Front Avenue home in a white pickup truck, slowed down and yelled a racial epithet while flying a confederate flag, the residents told police. Stephanie Guy (left in photo), who has rented the home for two years, called the police around noon on Friday, the Coeur d’Alene police report said. Guy’s daughter, Tara Silva, told police that she went to bed around midnight the night the vandalism occurred. She was awakened by the family’s dog barking around 2 or 3 a.m. but did not get up. Brittany Edelblute (right in photo), 18, owns the 2004 Subaru Outback that was spray-painted with three swastikas on the driver’s side, which was facing the street/Alison Boggs, SR. Rest of unedited story below.

Question: Are you growing concerned about the increase in the number of vandalisms involving racists symbols and statements in Coeur d’Alene?

She discovered the vandalism in the morning when she started her car to drive to a job interview.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ I cried. I went to my job interview in tears,” said Edelblute, who is white and lives at the house.

When police arrived, her emotions turned to anger. When asked if she wanted to press charges, she said, “I said ‘yeah.’ I paid for that car. I think it’s absolutely rude.”

Silva described the vehicle that drove past two weeks ago as an older white pickup, possibly a GMC or Chevy, with tinted windows. She thought the vehicle had a standard cab and a short bed, the police report said. She said the vehicle’s lights were square, rather than round.

Guy said people have yelled racist epithets from passing cars several times in the past year, but she hasn’t informed the police. “This time I was mad,” she said. “I was really mad, and I felt threatened. People should be aware that it’s real and it’s here.”

This is the eighth documented incident of racial harassment in the Inland Northwest since the spring, said Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. He urged people targeted for such attacks to secure license plate numbers and give them to the police.

Other Coeur d’Alene incidents have included a swastika sticker on a human rights center, swastikas spray-painted on a Middle Eastern man’s truck and the harassment of a Hispanic family. In Spokane, a noose was left on a black resident’s doorstep and Native American men were beaten by a group of white men.

“We do know it’s not the same people in each case,” Stewart said. “There’s more than one group involved in these hate crimes around the area. If you catch them, I have no doubt (Kootenai County Prosecutor) Barry McHugh will prosecute them and so will the federal (government). It’s a matter of getting the evidence and that’s the job of the police.”

The police released had no new information, but the case had been assigned to a detective, said Sgt. Christie Wood.

Eight comments on this post so far. Add yours!

OrangeTV on January 12 at 6:42 p.m.
Sigh. It’s very tiresome.
OrangeTV on January 12 at 6:49 p.m.
What is it with these morons and Front Street? When I lived on that street 10 years ago I used to always see a truck full of confederate-flag waving redneck idiots speeding through, shouting obscenities and chugging beer. Quel groupe de merdeux!
hhuseland on January 12 at 7:03 p.m.
I don’t think it’s a real large problem, unless you include the overweight rednecks. I think we are looking at the same perps for all of these incidents. The leaflet thing, and other events. These guys are too stupid to get away much for very long. Soon in their enthusiasm, they will cross that line and we’ll be able to wave at them as they enter the Gray Bar Hotel.
spokelooneh on January 12 at 9:37 p.m.
This story was in the Press this morning, at least in a hard copy version I happened to snag and peruse.

It said that the woman has African-American FOSTER KIDS and THAT’s why she was being targeted by these puke racists.

The story doesn’t name the woman, and doesn’t appear to be online. It was on page A-4, only 4-5 paragraphs, in today’s Jan. 12th edition.
Don_Sausser on January 12 at 10:02 p.m.
“Are you growing concerned about the increase in the number of vandalisms involving racists symbols and statements in Coeur d’Alene?”

Yes, as well as the perceived (I don’t know the stats) increase in business burglaries and, of course, the occasional gunfire.

Is it just growth or only growth in hoodlums?
scootermom on January 13 at 7:35 a.m.
And the Governor wants to de-fund the Idaho Human Rights Commission. I guess we don’t need it.
Arch_Druid on January 13 at 8:11 a.m.
The governor should get a life. Or he should find swastikas painted on HIS car. The latter would make him rethink.
ShoshoneConservative on January 13 at 2:55 p.m.
As I mentioned in the thread on the subject of the IHRC, the IHRC has NOTHING to do with such incidents. It investigates and handles cases of discrimination, but, unless it’s in the workplace, or another venue where discrimination is barred, these incidents are the realm of the police and the prosecutor.

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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.