That Race Card Just Won’T Play

Lost in the recent debate over the new Kootenai County Jail is the startling fact that the existing jail is so overcrowded. Why, in this little corner of paradise, are the jails overflowing? It’s really no surprise - the population of Kootenai County has doubled in a decade or so. When more people inhabit an area - whether it’s Los Angeles, Seattle, Spokane or Coeur d’Alene - there are more crimes.

Take a look at the people booked into the Kootenai County Jail and you will find mostly lower-income, undereducated people with unstable family lives who typically have problems with drugs and/or alcohol. And, like the overwhelming majority of North Idaho residents, they’re almost all white.

Yes, North Idaho has a crime problem. The people fleeing southern California for North Idaho can’t blame local crime on “other” people. But that doesn’t stop some of them from badmouthing diversity.

The Hayden Lake Chamber of Commerce announced recently it’s recruiting new businesses and combating the area’s image as the home of the Aryan Nations. “We all need to do whatever we can to show that it is a great place for all people,” said chamber member Marshall Mend.

Here is an unfortunately typical response from a reader: “Yeah, you got the right idea! Let’s diversify the area so the crime rate will go up. … People move here and businesses relocate here because of our low crime rate, high quality of life, safe schools and you people want to ruin that so you can have your diversity?”

And another response: “Sorry, Mr. Mend, but it won’t be a great place any more if it is for `everybody.”’

Here are the facts: there were 155,709 criminal cases in magistrate court in Idaho in 1998, and 11,500 criminal cases in district court. Felony drug arrests increased 73 percent from 1994 to 1998; misdemeanor drug arrests climbed 91 percent in the same time. Like everywhere else, arrests and convictions rose in Idaho along with an increase in population. That population is predominantly white. Race, alone, simply is not a factor. Rather, crime has its roots in problems common to all races - problems such as substance abuse, unstable home lives and a lack of the skills needed for good-paying jobs.

Attempts by the Aryan Nations and other “white flight” residents who left California to blame racial minorities for crime is what’s known as “scapegoating.”

Sure, the crime in poverty-stricken southern California neighborhoods is shocking. But so is the crime in the growing, meth-infested pockets throughout the Inland Northwest.

Groups like the Hayden Lake Chamber of Commerce are on the right track in their recruitment efforts. We need more successful businesses. We need more highly educated residents with good jobs and solid families. We must get the message out that good people of all colors are welcome here.