Spokane7
49°
January 13, 2010 in City
Vandalism of car in CdA follows racist epithets
Brittany Edelblute, 18, listens Tuesday as her friend Stephanie Guy, left, describes a few of the racial incidents that have occurred in front of their Coeur d’Alene home. Edelblute’s car was recently spray-painted with swastikas.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Someone early Friday spray-painted swastikas on a car 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, slowed down and yelled a racial epithet while flying a confederate flag, the residents told police.
Stephanie Guy, 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, 18, owns the 2004 Subaru Outback that was spray-painted with three swastikas on the driver’s side, which was facing the street. 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, “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.
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 by 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 no new information, but the case had been assigned to a detective, said Sgt. Christie Wood.
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JFRENCH on January 13 at 9:57 a.m.
It’s so embarrassing for the Inland Northwest to have these redneck idiots doing this kind of stuff. Spray painting a girl’s car in the middle of the night…. These guys are tough.
CDANative on January 13 at 12:09 p.m.
This doesn’t surprise me. The city of CDA is one of the most unwelcome and unsafe cities to be if you are a minority. As a person of color who lives and grew up in north Idaho, I learned early on that there are certain establishments where I am not welcome. Aside from being greeted by many store clerks with a frown, or being followed around in the store, one time at a stop light near Hayden there were a couple of young men in a truck who rolled down their window and yelled racist and sexual remarks at me and then followed me down the long stretch of Hwy 95. I didn’t have a cell and it took me a while to lose them. I couldn’t wait to get out of town. I still go to CDA a few times a year, but I do most of my business in the Spokane Valley. The City of CDA has a lot of cleaning up to do. Getting rid of the Aryan Compound was a start, but sometimes it takes more than one flush to get rid of all the crap.
exA on January 13 at 10:52 p.m.
Would there be as much outrage if they painted pink triangles and rainbows on the car?
RoadWARRIOR on January 14 at 12:59 a.m.
Good point, CDANative! Unfortunately there are still uncivilized and savage people such as those racists that hide behind their false bravado in distasteful and disgusting displays of cowardly ignorance and hateful behavior. It is extremely important that North Idaho people band together and put out a strong united message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated. It’s not only maddening, it is inhumane and it is illegal! “We are not afraid” is the message that needs to get across with mobilization of efforts to combat this kind of thing.
I was once a leader with a community action group in another state. It is important for there to be community dialouge (with people from all races) on ways to counter the problem. Mr. McHugh and the CDA police need to be followed up with and accountable to the public as to how they are going about searching for arrests and to what extent the perpetrators of these injustices will be prosecuted when caught - not “if’ caught, WHEN caught! We must go to great lengths to eradicate this kind of activity for the sake of the children of the area. Things can change in CDA!
shanusmaximus on January 25 at 9:59 a.m.
“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.”
How does he know that? If you don’t know who they are, how can you say that? What info is he holding out on us? I seriously doubt that they aren’t connected some way or another…at least in the vandalism cases. It isn’t that big of a town……