Spokane7
65°
April 26, 2011
Taco truck protester was set up, brother says
The man who boasted online about taking part in racist protests of taco-trucks in Coeur d’Alene and now faces an illegal weapons charge was the victim of government entrapment, his brother says.
Jeremiah Daniel “J.D.” Hop, 29, was set up earlier this month by an FBI informant who suggested the two of them go shooting and even supplied the shotgun that federal authorities now accuse him of illegally possessing, said Michael Hop, the suspect’s younger brother. The elder sibling has a previous felony conviction, which prohibits him from possessing firearms.
“The FBI took him out shooting and then arrested him,” Michael Hop said. “If an informant hands you a gun and asks you to shoot it, that’s entrapment in my book.”
Frank Harrill, supervisory senior resident agent of the Spokane office of the FBI, declined to respond to Michael Hop’s claims.
J. D. Hop was in court Tuesday for a pre-trial hearing that was eventually postponed until later this week.
It’s unclear whether Hop’s involvement in the taco truck protests had any part in drawing FBI interest, but Michael Hop said his brother was participating in those demonstrations at the request of the community.
The taco truck protests started after girls who work at a nearby coffee stand claimed they were harassed by the Latino men operating the taco trucks, Michael Hop said. Hop’s older brother is not a member of the Aryan Nations or Ku Klux Klan but the brothers do know a man who is associated with the KKK.
“They were just protesting. They did what the community asked them to do. People started protesting them because they didn’t want illegal immigrants,” Michael Hop said of the taco trucks incidents. “We grew up in California. We know what it’s going to look like if they keep coming up here.”
Hop, who said he wanted to set the record straight about his brother’s views, said Native Americans and black people are allowed to have pride in their races, but he feels whites are not.
J.D. Hop “takes pride in his race,” Michael Hop said. “If there is something wrong in taking pride in who you are then we have issues.”
Hop said he didn’t know whether federal authorities focused on his brother because of the protests. But he claims that his brother met a FBI informant who invited him to go out shooting.
Federal agents arrested J.D. Hop on March 25 in possession of a Saiga semi-automatic 12 gauge shotgun. Hop previously was convicted of third-degree rape of a child in 2005.
Michael Hop, who himself was convicted last year of felony possession of marijuana and child endangerment, said his brother had sex with a girl who was 15 at the time. Hop said his brother helped the girl escape an abusive home.
“He’s a great dad and a great guy. He’s not like the news has portrayed him,” Michael Hop said. “He doesn’t just judge them by the color of their skin. As we all know, there is trash in any race.”
Michael Hop said he met the man _ whom Hop would not identify _ who was associated with the KKK when Hop drove by and saw flags flying in front of the other man’s home.
“I stopped because I share an interest in those flags,” Michael Hop said. “He was a family man and a good hard worker, just like myself. It’s not illegal to associate with people.”
He’s been over to the other man’s house “a couple of times” to let their children play, he said.
Michael Hop said he and his family moved to Pullman years ago when their mother came to Washington State University to study. J.D. Hop returned to California to finish high school but moved back to Pullman area to start a construction business.
In his last Stormfront post on April 13, WhitePhoenix said he was helping members of the racist group the Original Knights of America. He described himself as a general contractor involved in construction, maintenance and repair.
Michael Hop said he doesn’t feel safe allowing his children to enter stores in California and that the Coeur d’Alene protests were simply a way of “letting the public know what is going to happen in the future.”
“Most people who move up here are getting away from that,” said Michael Hop, referring to the multiculturalism in California. “Everybody just migrates somewhere else when they don’t like something.”
1992 murder trial begins against sex offender 
SugarShane on April 26 at 3:46 p.m.
Ahhh the people of Idaho are so refreshingly enlightened.
lowtechmaster on April 26 at 3:51 p.m.
shane0312 is right on target! (Pun intended!)
MrNatural on April 26 at 3:53 p.m.
This deceptive rationalization would be almost hilarious if it wasn’t so pathetically terrifying…
ManleyPointer on April 26 at 4:15 p.m.
I thought these guys were from California?
Shadedmuse on April 26 at 4:16 p.m.
So lets indict this tea-bagger with a hate crime charge.
Tea-baggers are corperate Americas usesful idiots.
Kivaari on April 26 at 4:26 p.m.
Just because this guy is from WASHINGTON state and formerly of CALIFORNIA but protested in Idaho, It is somehow indicative of all of Idaho? Come on people, most of the formal Aryan Nations people moved on to Oregon and Iowa. Look up the wonderful history of the American Nazi movement before WW2. The biggest pits of white trash was New York. The George Washington Brigades. We have white supremacists every where including every neighborhood in the country. I contend there are more white power people living in Spokane, then there are in the entire state of Idaho. There are more racists in Congress then there are in Idaho. Stop saying Idaho is home to the neo-Nazi pukes, since they are everywhere and always have been. Just check out the residual racism in the South. Then check out the racism in every inner-city slum. Racism goes both ways.
ldjtw on April 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Shane0312, this man does NOT speak for Idaho. Just as I am sure not every misguided soul in the state you live in speaks for you and your whole state.
ManleyPointer on April 26 at 4:37 p.m.
“Tea-baggers are corperate Americas usesful idiots.”
How do aficionados of a musky homoerotic sexual practice become “usesful idiots” of “corperate America”? And if, in your own rustic way, you are equating someone accused of racism with the Tea Party political movement, Muse, I’d like to know the basis for the comparison. I’m sure that your enlightened progressive approach to politics and life wouldn’t allow you to make unsubstantiated generalizations, so there must be some reason for your assertion.
And, before you start using “tea-bagging” as a perjorative, you might want to give it a try. You might find that you like it. A lot.
Loudin on April 26 at 4:51 p.m.
Yes, the convicted kid-diddler J.D. Hop is the victim here.
:Rolling eyes:
As far as I’m concerned, both of these idiot Hop brothers are the epitome of what is wrong w/America. They’re poorly educated, ignorant, racist losers. Life is too short and this country to important to tolerate such morons.
Pack ‘em up and drop ‘em in some back corner of the globe where Americans aren’t too popular these days…Afghanistan sounds good.
Stupid jackwagons…
Loudin
ManleyPointer on April 26 at 5:09 p.m.
Poorly educated? But he graduated from a public…high……school……. oh, ok. I’ll give you that one.
So “life is too short and this country is to [sic] important to tolerate such morons”? And here I thought we were all tolerant and stuff.
Guess not.
schleufer on April 26 at 5:22 p.m.
I suppose those guys who get busted on bait car or when police officers pose as prostitutes on cops are all innocent people being set up too? Ya it’s not thier fault cause they figured Sombody carelessly left a woman on a street corner or keys in the car.
Rand on April 26 at 5:31 p.m.
Why is it that only people that would be good parents are infertile? Why doesn’t it surprise me that these two have no problem reproducing. Blows a hole in the whole survival of the fittest theory, at least for humans.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on April 26 at 5:42 p.m.
“Humans” are Doomed…. just a matter of time… just a matter of time and tide (Tsunami’s) Gus
ManleyPointer on April 26 at 6:05 p.m.
Speak for yourself, Gus. ManlyPointer is ANYTHING but doomed!!
Spokane_Citizen on April 26 at 6:11 p.m.
ChefGus…I sincerely believe you’re quite correct. God, Gaia, or whatever righteous principle….mechanism…..being….or something very much beyond our understanding…is evaluating this whole ‘human experiment’.
The planet, and the universe, will easily survive… Humans?….perhaps not so much. I’ve got lovely grandkids….and I hope we’re moving in the right direction…but who knows?
Spokane_Citizen on April 26 at 6:14 p.m.
Manly…living in a bunker, subsisting off the detritus of civilization, is not much above being considered ‘doomed’. I do, however, enjoy your sense of irony.
Kivaari on April 26 at 6:33 p.m.
Remember Buford Furrow, he shot and killed a postman in L.A., he lived in Olympia. Robert Matthews was a Washington resident. Most of Richard butlers people came to Idaho for a little time and then split for other more productive target rich environments. The anti-Idaho bigotry is getting old. The racist thugs of the SLA were California based. The SDS hung around Columbia University. The racist George Jackson Brigade were and are Seattle area thugs. Black Panthers (old and new) are east coast thugs. White power advocates are crawling all over Arizona. White power and black power racists are everywhere. They organise into hate groups when any two of them get together. Hang out at exclusive golf clubs, where blacks, Jews, and Latinos are denied access. Listen to the hate speech in your local tavern in any part of the world. Visit Boston and see how they express their love for blacks. Visit the White House and see what Obama and Holder think of whitey. I’ll take Idaho over any metropolitan cesspool. Chances are if you are a minority in Idaho and need a helping hand, Idahoans will help you. Then try getting help in L.A., and you have a target on your forehead.
Most crime is white on white, black on black and brown on brown.
Sweetfire on April 26 at 7:19 p.m.
Whats the address of the taco truck? Good Mexican food is hard to find in N. Idaho.
Dont see why people are whining… Obummer is pushing the amnesty thing as his major campaign for 2012. He needs the votes from these illegals who WE the AMERICANS provide with food, shelter, clothing , medicine AND money, in order for them to survive in America at our expense.
Get used to it Idaho, cuz as long as Obummer is in office, this is what America is gonna have to live with.
America is rapidly becoming the minority and if we protest…we are racist. Sad times in America, and most cant see it.
Charlie on April 26 at 7:57 p.m.
Shadedmuse, are you a real person or a figment of somebodys barnyard imagination? To accuse someone of a crime because you don’t agree with them politically is not to bright.
Scoutster on April 26 at 8:02 p.m.
Looks like a child or two got left behind.
Sweetfire: Those illegals you complain about are gonna be changing your Depends someday. There will be no one else to do it. You better be nice to them.
nslopeofw on April 26 at 9:02 p.m.
Once again the bigot shademuse is using slurs to describe those (s)he doesnt agree with. Proving once again that there is no difference between shademuse, the KKK, and any other bigoted group or person.. At some point i’d expect spokesman review to muzzle this bigot, but they havent so far. Is it because (s)he’s a liberal?
greenlibertarian on April 26 at 11:30 p.m.
Visit the White House and see what Obama and Holder think of whitey.
That’s about the most ignorant thing I’ve read today. Obama was raised by his WHITE mother and WHITE grandparents. He went to CATHOLIC school in Indonesia. He attended the elite Occidental College which was likely about 80% WHITE at the time.
You really think he and Holder (who could pass) are speaking ebonics and dissin’ on whitey? That’s insane.