Spokane7
27°
November 20, 2009 in City
Swastika affixed to door of human rights center
Act could amount to felony under Idaho’s malicious harassment law
A swastika was found on the front door of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday.
(Full-size photo)
Employees of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene arrived at work Thursday morning to discover a swastika sticker on the front door.
Director of Operations Donna Cork took a photo of the 2-inch-by-3-inch decal, then called the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, which is investigating the matter under Idaho’s malicious harassment law. The 1983 law makes it a felony to intimidate another person based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin.
Intimidation, under the law, includes defacing property, defined in part as “the placing of any word or symbol commonly associated with racial, religious or ethnic terrorism on the property of another person without his or her permission.”
Police collected evidence Thursday morning at the institute, said Tony Stewart, of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which has battled the white supremacy movement in North Idaho for 30 years.
“We could get lucky and get fingerprints,” he said. “… We’ve had really good success over the years with the police and the prosecutors.”
The institute’s education director, Rachel Dolezal, locked up the building, 414 ½ Mullan Ave., around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Cork arrived around 8:30 a.m. Thursday to open the doors and saw the sticker.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a great way to start my day,’ ” Cork said, adding “then you get the heart clench.”
Dolezal said the sticker conveys a threat. “It’s a psychological form of violence,” she said.
The institute will turn over to police any evidence gathered on its surveillance camera, which is aimed at the lobby and front door, Cork and Dolezal said.
“With the landscaping lights (outside), I would think there’s a possibility you could tell if it’s one or more people,” Dolezal said.
Sgt. Christie Wood, of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, said officers will take fingerprints, search the premises for evidence and review the video surveillance.
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ChefGus/ John Olsen on November 20 at 5:35 a.m.
Allison… thank you for the article… Mr Stewart is a bright shining light in the North Idaho Caverns of Darkness and Hate… gus
RealityStrikes208 on November 20 at 10:28 a.m.
“North Idaho Caverns of Darkness and Hate” … wouldn’t that statement be the antithesis of the message of acceptance, equality and fairness the Human Rights Education Institute is trying to portray? A prejudiced blanket statement such as that, is ignorance no matter who the target is. I’ve been in Coeur d’Alene for over 10 years now and there have been steady changes to the climate of racial tension here. I’m not sure when your last visit to the South was, but Coeur d’Alene would be considered extremely progressive in comparrison to many areas of the South and the rest of the country for that matter. The Human Rights Education institute is just 1 more example of that progress. So just because a few straggling hillbillies with archaic ideas about race, color and creed crop up from time to time doesn’t make North Idaho a pit of racial despair.
southie4573 on November 20 at 1:34 p.m.
I thought these rednecks got run out of town. Guess not. What a Total embarassment!
ChefGus/ John Olsen on November 20 at 1:43 p.m.
Oh I do so hope you are correct…. it just gives great pause when this sort of thing happens… and we are not talking about the HRC’s gestalt and work here…. rather the disconcerting acts of hopefully a few…. j
shanusmaximus on November 20 at 4:39 p.m.
What? You all don’t think there aren’t Nazi’s in Spokane or Seattle??? Good god. You do know that reporting on this only gives them what they want. Maybe they aren’t even really Nazi’s but people who want to stir up some **** and read it in the paper. OR maybe….it was staged. You don’t know. Whoever did it knows that most of you over there are a bunch of rich, white, carpetbaggers who specialize in hand wringing. Either way, freaking out about it only plays into the game. Besides, if it were really the Aryans, I think they would have done more damage than a dumb sticker.
@Chefs
“rather the disconcerting acts of hopefully a few….”
No need to worry, I am sure it……what’s that over there? And over there? OMG! SWAZIS!!! Coming out of the sewers and alleys….THOUSANDS OF THEM!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Poor N. Idaho. Always gets this stigma. You all do realize that the Aryans that did reside there were carpetbaggers themselves, oddly, from California, Seattle, Spokane etc…..Butler himself was from Colorado/California.