Officials promise 'boldness' against Aryans | Spokesman.com

August 21, 2009 in City, Idaho

Officials promise ‘boldness’ against Aryans

Meghann M. Cuniff The Spokesman-Review

Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick emphasizes her department’s commitment to protecting residents from racist harassment at a news conference Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, near the state line. The event was held in reaction to the recent distribution of racist fliers in Coeur d’Alene.
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Criminal citations and civil lawsuits are options. But the recent surge in racist activity is best dealt with by a unified community dedicated to rejecting discrimination and hate, leaders from across the Inland Northwest said Friday.

“We have been vested with the authority and the power to take action and I assure you I will use that power and authority to take a stronger stance of boldness,” said Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick. “People who are hateful are bold. But stand by to stand by, because we are more bold than they are.”

City leaders and law enforcement from around the region gathered with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations to respond to racist fliers that have been distributed since April.

A man with extensive ties to hate groups, Paul R. Mullet, moved to Athol from Ohio about five months ago and has promised to resurrect the Aryan Nations. The group moved its headquarters from Hayden Lake after the death of its founder, Richard Butler, in 2004.

Mullet and Kevin McGurre were ticketed for littering and Todd Weston for aiding a misdemeanor Aug. 8 after neighbors in Coeur d’Alene complained about the fliers to police.

“We will not be known as places that allow hatred to dwell,” said Spokane Mayor Mary Verner.

The Kootenai County task force is credited with dismantling Butler’s Hayden Lake compound with a successful civil suit that bankrupted the Aryan Nations in 2000. The land is now a peace park.

But racist activity has lived quietly in the region since. In 2007, a man claiming Aryan Nations ties interrupted a talk by task force founders Tony Stewart and Norm Gissel at the Human Rights Institute. Three others stood outside the building handing out pro-Aryan literature. That summer, two men reportedly screamed racial slurs and neo-Nazi mantras at Hayden Lake, and Silverwood Theme Park near Athol ordered a group of men with swastika tattoos to cover the markings or leave. The men left.

Then in April, Coeur d’Alene residents awoke to fliers advertising the Aryan Nations in their yards. Residents in Spirit Lake have gotten them, too. Earlier this month, Coeur d’Alene police ticketed Mullet, McGurre and Weston after a neighbor said they’d thrown the fliers to children playing in a yard. Less than two weeks later, Spokane Valley yards were littered with the same fliers, police said.

Spokane Valley Mayor Richard Munson encouraged citizens to reject Mullet and his “type of vitriolic nonsense.”

Officials from Rathdrum, Spokane Valley, Dalton Gardens, Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Liberty Lake, Spokane, Sandpoint and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe attended the press conference, which was held near the state line.

“We believe that where there’s hate speech, good speech is essential and it wins out in the end,” said Stewart, task force secretary. “… I think it comforts the people in the neighborhoods. They know we are speaking out.”

Two assaults have been reported in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene in the past month that police think may be racially motivated, but detectives say they have no reason to suspect members of the Aryan Nations. Idaho’s hate crime law makes it a felony to “intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin.”

Washington’s malicious harassment law can be used to prosecute racial intimidation.

Mullet condemned the press conference in a prepared statement and said his organization will not violate the law.

“For far to long ALL other groups have been able to spread there messages unchallenged and nay encouraged to have free speech but one group the WHITE RACE!” the statement reads, verbatim. “The media blitz this morning is nothing more than them stirring up a population of people to do nothing more than attack us for having the willingness to speak truth, granted to us under the constitution of the United States!”

Mullet has promised to fight the littering citation filed this month. His next court date is set for Sept. 30.

Discuss

Huckleberries Online: Are Inland Northwest officials reacting appropriately or over-reacting to the attempt by 3 men to resurrect the Aryan Nations?

Seven comments on this story so far. Add yours!

Rifleman_Dodd on August 21 at 2:11 p.m.
“People who are hateful are bold. But standby to standby, because we are more bold than they are.”

Tell that to Otto Zehm and Shonto Pete.

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westside on August 21 at 10:51 p.m.
We are going to be bold!! What the hell does that mean? Public relations summit to make every one feel good and warm and fuzzy..

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CitizenPatriot on August 22 at 7:35 a.m.
Boldness, damn it! We need more Boldness! Let's boldly go where no law enforcement agency has a constitutional right to.

We will not tolerate intolerance! It's intolerable!
Ms Kirkpatrick what should we do? Wait, I know…

Let's misuse our official status as a law enforcement agency to publicly stigmatize a specific group of people for advocating their own self interests and the preservation of their unique socio-cultural identity and racial homogeneity.

Let's abuse the powers we've been entrusted with to harass and intimidate this group of people by ticketing them for littering when they attempt to exercise their 1st Amendment rights.

Let's use our badges (and guns!) to enforce a policy of political correctness and dictate what thoughts, ideas, speech, and expression are acceptable and protected under the law, and which are “hate crimes”.

Let's go out of our way to not only protect but openly promote every obscene, depraved, indecent, illegal, offensive, reprehensible, and repugnant point of view imaginable while bringing to bear all our considerable power and influence to openly rebuke the only remaining group of people still willing to stand up and speak out against the vile corruption, filth, depravity, decay, and cultural debasement we've allowed to pollute our once-great society.

Let's pretend that no multicultural, multi-national, or multi-ethnic state has ever failed every time it was attempted in the past, and that the introduction of different, diametrically opposed races, cultures, and religions into a common society never, ever results in violent conflict.

Let's focus our efforts on stifling dissent and prohibiting the open, honest debate of critically important issues instead of enforcing the law as it is currently written.

Let's ignore the out-of-control murder, violence, and rape being disproportionately committed by the so-called minorities that has left our once-thriving and productive cities in ruins.

Let's not even look for the 50 million aliens who have entered our country illegally and now openly flaunt their criminality while advocating their own “la raza” and “reconquista” as they suck the life and the retirement savings out of the taxpaying citizenry.

Let's commit a gross act of malfeasance by ignoring the fact that the U.S. Constitution, to which we swore an oath to uphold and defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic, no longer stands in full force and effect; that the president-elect still has not provided documentation which proves he meets the eligibility requirements to hold office; and that the currently regime is in reality an illegal occupation.

C'mon… it'll be fun! We can even burn a few books while we're at it.

The only people who call the Truth “Hate” are those that Hate the Truth, and those would be people like Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Mayor Munson, Tony Stewart, Norm Gissel, and the other hypocrites at the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

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Stephen Eugster on August 22 at 12:03 p.m.
Mayor Verner and Chief Kirkpatrick are taking public position against racism and that is good. Racism is an evil.

However, there is something hollow about the publicity they seek. What is it that brings about the press conference? Somebody has been distributing flyers in North Idaho which encourage racism. They are taking a stand against that.

It looks like the mayor and the police chief have an anti free speech agenda. Being against free speech is quite bad. Being against free speech for a person who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Washington is very bad, very bad indeed.

Something else may make one think the mayor/police chief display may have other meanings. That something else is this: It seems a pitch is being made that these leaders are right on top of things, on top of the advancement of good things.

But these leaders have serious problems they … . see more at http://www.spokanerecord.com/?p=454.

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SomeGuyfromJersey on August 22 at 9:30 p.m.
“stand by to stand by”…I like that. It's kinda like “Hurry up and wait”

Dead on - “Let's ignore the out-of-control murder, violence, and rape being disproportionately committed by the so-called minorities that has left our once-thriving and productive cities in ruins.
Let's not even look for the 50 million aliens who have entered our country illegally and now openly flaunt their…” - can you say coddle…

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Ron_the_Cop on August 22 at 10:48 p.m.
I was having a similar discussion with a friend over this rather provocative rant by a Black radio personality and what is “hate” speech et al:

CAUTION - This could be considered racist in its own right

http://la-gun.com/manning/

“A friend responded with this thought and I replied with this follow-up. I've said it many times before the MSM was so enamoured with the image of Obama marketed by the campaign that they failed to do the vetting of his personal life and ideology. I know more about Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber than I do about Obama. I just have this sinking feeling sometimes that we've elected a Manchurian Candidate whose handlers have yet to be fully disclosed/investigated by the MSM. I have issues with targeting citizens as “un-American” that would seek to address and hold accountable their elected representatives accountable at public meetings.

I have admiration for Obama's success in winning the position of POTUS. I was hoping we were seeing the first true post racial President. Time will only tell.”

“Agreed! I'm not condoning what he is saying only his right to say what he thinks. I'm just interested in how PC we've become in our speech. The MSM will tolerate hate speech if it comes from some one based on their race e.g., the Rev. Wright. If this were to have come from a White supremest what would the reaction be? I have a problem with what “hate speech” is in general as who is the arbitrator. Case in point people are free to speak obscenely and desecrate Christianity/the Bible and Judism but on the other hand in certain European countries they are beginning to pass laws regulating speaking Evil of the Koran and Islam. Which gets to my point re regulating free speech, we must tread very carefully e.g., yelling fire in a theater, inciting a riot, and advocating the violent overthrow of the government. If folks find speech offensive then they should feel free and unrestrained to critique/challenge it openly.

My concern with Obama is his socialistic ties and Chicago radical associations. The MSM is giving him a pass and are soft peddling re challenging his ideology and thoughts. It's the free flow of thoughts and ideas that are an effective check against oppressive totalitarian governments.”

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Achtun on September 06 at 11:14 a.m.
It's appropriate to step up the watch by law enforcement, it's needed. Not because these Aryan folks hate “mongrels” or “mud races,” have guns, talk with defiance of those with other color, tout their mythical lost tribe, fear adulteration of pure Nordic women, advocate separate spaces (means whites only parts of the country), insight Armageddon and their role in such, demonstrate sheer paranoia — but on the basis of actually inflicting terror through violent threats and actual acts of violence.

On a simpleton level, it's easy enough to buy the argument about celebrating “white people.” On a parity basis, who could argue? But celebrating whites is a ruse in their routine. “Christian Identity” - as it is practiced - is a euphemism for making “whites only” a precursor of a holy war, no regard for law of the land, justification for committing hate crimes. It's a belief that “violence is the solution to all problems” - underscore those words to recognize what the cause is all about.

Look closely at the teachings, the propensity for intimidation that is being instilled around every opportunity among these supremacist folks. They threaten where threats are less productive than civil approach. They take pride in threatening and harming others, and train to do so.

Police are justified in having a hair trigger for any of these new age clansman (they prefer “Kinsmen”). The big difference is thinking/believing something vs. acting out violence. A watch list of followers is appropriate, with a no-tolerance position for threats and violence. That aggression is what separates a justified arrest situation, as opposed to Constitutionally-protected rights of expression of hate.

The Constitutional right to assemble includes the stipulation of “peaceable” assembly.

Prosecutors and judges need to take a serious look at this situation too. It does less good for ONLY the police to take these folks seriously. Toss 'em back on the streets and the problem only multiplies.

Prepare a prison in Idaho and one in Washington. For the protection of all, segregated prison is where “whites only” sense.

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