‘A day for action’: Federal officials want Idaho public’s help to fight hate crimes

Zoè Butler, a College of Idaho sophomore, walked along the stage as she performed spoken word for a crowded room Monday. The 20-year-old performed a poem she wrote with her mom, about the ongoing fight for racial injustice since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963. She implored others to “keep dreaming.”

“There’s something powerful and impactful about being provided the space and the forum to be heard,” said Butler, who was born in Jamaica, and moved to Caldwell from the Turks and Caicos Islands. “I just feel so fortunate to have the space to hopefully help others to be heard.”

A crowd of more than 150 students, community members and law enforcement officials gathered at the private college in Caldwell for the United Against Hate event, hosted by federal offices and the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.

“This is a day for action, a day to come together,” said Josh Hurwit, U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho in his opening statement. “It’s a day that we renew our efforts to create a type of society that (Martin Luther King Jr.) saw as possible, even in the throes of the civil rights era.”

The event, scheduled on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was part of a nationwide effort by the Department of Justice to host local forums, raise awareness and encourage reporting of hate crimes — hoping it would lead to more prosecutions. Idaho was one of 14 states where the DOJ program began.

Idaho State Police counted 67 reported incidents of hate crimes statewide last year, compared with 48 reported incidents in 2021, according to the agency’s Uniform Crime Reporting data. Most of the reported incidents involved race or ethnicity, mirroring national statistics.

Hurwit, in a guest opinion for the Idaho Statesman, said hate crimes remain underreported, and that one of his top priorities as U.S. attorney is to encourage victims to come forward. Federal agents’ presentations on Monday outlined ways to recognize potential hate crimes when they happen; a victim who is part of a federally protected class, for example, would be an indicator.

“We want to overcome those barriers to reporting so that when hate crimes happen, we can prosecute them and achieve justice,” Hurwit told the Statesman on Monday, not only for the victims but for the communities affected.

Hate crimes against LGBTQ can’t be charged in Idaho

Counterterrorism experts and U.S. officials have been keeping a close eye on Idaho, as the state continues to attract a range of far-right ideologies, the Statesman previously reported. Last year, authorities arrested 31 men associated with the Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, who had stowed themselves in a U-Haul and allegedly planned a violent disturbance at a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene.

“We are not going back to the days of the Aryan Nations,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said after the arrests. “We are past that.”

Nationwide, the second-largest number of reported hate crimes was against those based on sexual orientation, according to the FBI. Idaho’s law on criminal hate speech, known as malicious harassment, excludes protections for people based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

While local agencies in Idaho can’t pursue hate crimes against the LGBTQ community, federal agencies can. Last week, Hurwit’s office pursued a federal hate crime charge against a Boise man who allegedly drove his vehicle at two women, yelled a homophobic slur at them and was connected to other crimes targeting LGBTQ people. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

“The mission of my office, as part of the Department of Justice, is to enforce the rule of law and to attain and seek justice for all Americans in Idaho,” Hurwit told the Statesman.

Ruth Coose, deputy prosecutor for Canyon County’s Special Victims Unit, in a presentation gave the example of a homicide case in 2016. A group lured a gay man, robbed him, stripped him naked and left him for dead, according to previous Statesman reporting. Canyon County ultimately prosecuted for murder; Coose said the county worked with federal partners to pursue federal hate crime charges.

Christina Bruce-Bennion, executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, told the Statesman that the LGBTQ communities, particularly transgender people, have been vulnerable to targeted attacks in the past year. Idaho has also seen more antisemitic incidents and a rollback of women’s rights, she said, pointing to the state’s laws banning and criminalizing abortion.

Boise faced a string of antisemitic incidents that began in November 2021 and continued over the next several months. Those instances included several incidents of swastikas painted in public areas — a downtown building, along the Greenbelt and in a bike lane.

Federal officials on Monday encouraged members of the public to continue to report instances of targeted threats, regardless of whether they’re unsure it would ultimately qualify as a hate crime. The public should report potential hate crimes to 911, local law enforcement and the FBI, said Kate Horwitz, executive assistant U.S. attorney.

Knowledge is power, Bruce-Bennion said, and more information provides the public with more tools to fight hate crimes.

A day ahead of the event, far-right group Idaho Liberty Dogs posted a tweet by Hurwit that showed him attending a Pride event at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. The group encouraged its supporters to appear at the event and “hear what they have to say.”

As a crowd lined up to attend the event at the Langroise Recital Hall, campus security checked each attendant for firearms before they entered the building. Caldwell police officers manned the front doors.

Bruce-Bennion said Monday’s event was also critical in helping local residents who may feel isolated, to see that they’re not alone.

“I think it’s important to sit in the room with people who care about the same issues when it feels overwhelming sometimes,” Bruce-Bennion told the Statesman. “Who are the people who want to be a part of creating a different narrative ... protecting dignity and diversity?”