Hate still hides in the Northwest

A recent incident on the Spokane River reminds us that hate remains in the Inland Northwest despite the lack of a conspicuously visible presence of white supremacists.

With a dozen people looking on, two men, who the victims say identified themselves as skinheads, allegedly attacked a group of young American Indians on a Spokane River beach Sunday. The attack was described as vicious and prolonged as the pair reportedly yelled racial slurs, beat and attempted to run over 15-year-old Sioux Indian Jim Fry, broke a van window, and slashed a car seat with a 6-inch knife. The minority victims feared for their lives.

The attack occurred a day after an Aryanfest concert and speeches attracted 200 racists to Cascade Locks, Ore., a few miles east of Portland, and a week before a scheduled Indian powwow in Riverfront Park. The teen victims were friends and family members of powwow organizer Bonnie Joseph. It’s encouraging that the two suspects in the attack, convicted felon Andrew Charles Lovelace, 24, and Daniel G. Wilson, 28, of Missoula, were quickly apprehended. But that’s small comfort to the youths traumatized by the hateful attack, including 6-year-old Destiny Joseph, who was chased to the van.

For a quarter of a century, human-rights activists have counseled the region not to respond to hate with hate. At a press conference Tuesday, human rights groups reiterated that message, urging individuals to show their support for the victims and American Indians by attending the upcoming powwow. That’s good advice. Why waste energy hating individuals who are so filled with their own venom that they strike out and are removed from society? However, it’s disturbing to realize that the American hate movement is still producing violent disciples and, moreover, that so many bystanders witnessed the attack without providing aid.

Some may have thought the Northwest hate movement suffered a death blow earlier this decade with the razing of the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden Lake and the death of founder Richard Butler. After all, the loss of the compound removed a staging point for supremacist conferences and parades. The attack on the Indian children on the Spokane River and the Aryan concert prove that supremacists are still capable of meeting and harassing minority members. When they do, the community should continue to stand with them to provide solace and to send a message to the racists that their behavior won’t be accepted.

Unfortunately, the extended community failed the Indian youngsters in their time of need by not helping them appreciably during or after the attack. Teen Fry was shaken by the lack of response from the onlookers, telling a Spokesman-Review reporter: “I love Spokane, but I don’t know what to think.” Maybe the witnesses were so stunned by the unexpected violence that they froze. Maybe they were afraid to get hurt by getting involved. Maybe they didn’t care that monsters were attacking Indian children. The final possibility is almost as unsettling as the brutal attack by hate mongers.