Don’T Hide From Hate, Watchdogs Warn Law Enforcement, Rights Groups Say The Evil Amid Us Must Be Confronted

The threat is real.

Hate, experts say, should never go ignored.

“Silence is acceptance,” said Wayne Inman, the former Billings, Mont., police chief who helped rally his city against neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

Racists groups won’t go away if you leave them alone, Inman said Thursday during a symposium on hate at Gonzaga University. “They are determined to purify the Northwest … to make way for an Aryan homeland.”

The subject of his opening remarks already was on people’s minds.

This week, the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, Idaho, received a permit to march in Coeur d’Alene on July 18. Human rights organizations and community members have spent five months planning ways to respond.

Most will go to Spokane for a rally against hate.

Some, including the Los Angeles-based Jewish Defense League, want to confront the Aryan Nations in Coeur d’Alene.

Inman, while saying “We can’t afford to ignore the hate groups,” suggested that going to Spokane would be a better alternative.

More than 150 people showed up for “The Changing Faces of Hate,” a national symposium sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los-Angeles based Jewish human rights organization.

The crowd included students, human rights activists, law enforcement - people willing to pay $85 each to learn about hate crimes and what communities can do to prevent them.

“Every minority in Washington has to think about hate activity,” said Rafael Gray, a Spokane County juvenile corrections officer.

“We can all be victims. Skinheads don’t look like they used to. Now, they look like everyone else.”

Gray and other participants spent the day talking about the nature of hate crimes, hate groups in the United States and how those organizations are using the Internet to spread their message.

The event was designed primarily to help law enforcement officers. Experts taught them how to recognize actions of bias and gave them tips on how to work with citizens to prevent crimes of bias.

“Police are part of the problem,” said Inman, who first dealt with racist groups as the assistant police chief in Portland.

For generations, law enforcement officers have taken responsibility for preventing crime, he said. But instead of asking for money to hire more officers, they need to learn to work with the community.

One example cited at the symposium was the Ferry County Sheriff’s Department. The agency has limited resources and less than 10 officers - from the chief to the deputies. So to keep track of the area’s growing militia activity, the department started working with the San Poil Human Rights League in Ferry County.

“Working with the Human Rights League has really enhanced our ability to keep peace in Ferry County,” said Robert Ramsey of the Sheriff’s Department. “We have to take a stand … take the lead in educating ourselves.”

Law enforcement also must learn that hate crimes are different from other crimes, said George Critchlow, interim director of Gonzaga University’s Institute for Action Against Hate.

Critchlow, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, believes in the First Amendment, he told the crowd during a panel discussion.

It protects racist, sexist and homophobic speech, he said, but “you don’t have the right to threaten people and do violence.”

Inman also told police officers to step out of traditional roles. Take risks. Be innovative.

Billings, a city that’s 98 percent white, took a stand in 1993 against the skinheads and other racists, he said. Only six people showed up at the first meeting to discuss hate activity, he said. But police continued to meet with community members, businesses and human rights groups.

Soon after a Klan member threw half a cinder block through the window of Jewish family’s home, nearly everyone put a picture of a menorah - a candelabra lighted by Jews during Hanukkah - on their door. Now, the city has a national reputation for being tough on hate crimes.

“Law enforcement, recognize your responsibility,” Inman said. Build partnerships and “be prepared to say ‘not in our town.”’