[Vision2020] Swastika Pasted on CdA Human Rights Center

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (November 19, 2009) online edition of the Spokesman
Review.

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Swastika pasted on CdA human rights center
Alison Boggs, The Spokesman-Review

Employees of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene arrived
at work this morning to discover a swastika sticker on the front door.

Director of Operations Donna Cork took a photo of the
two-inch-by-three-inch decal, then called the Coeur d’Alene Police
Department, which is investigating the matter under Idaho’s malicious
harassment law. The 1983 law makes it a felony to intimidate another
person based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin.

The intimidation includes defacing property, which is defined in part as
“the placing of any word or symbol commonly associated with racial,
religious or ethnic terrorism on the property of another person without
his or her permission.”

“It’s a felony,” said Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on
Human Relations, which has battled the white supremacy movement in North
Idaho for 30 years.

Stewart said police collected evidence this morning at the institute. “We
could get lucky and get fingerprints,” he said. “This is not a
misdemeanor. We’ve had really good success over the years with the police
and the prosecutors.”

The institute’s education director, Rachel Dolezal, locked up the
building, located at 414½ Mullan Ave., around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Cork arrived around 8:30 a.m. today to open the doors and saw the sticker.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a great way to start my day,’” Cork said, adding
“then you get the heart clench.”

Dolezal said the sticker conveys a threat. “It’s a psychological form of
violence,” she said.

The institute will turn over to police any evidence gathered on its
surveillance camera, which is aimed at the lobby and front door, Cork and
Dolezal said. “With the landscaping lights (outside), I would think
there’s a possibility you could tell if it’s one or more people,” Dolezal
said.

Sgt. Christie Wood of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department said officers
will take fingerprints and search the premises for evidence.

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A swastika was found on the front door of the Human Rights Education
Institute in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/CdASwastika

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The focus of tolerance education is to deal with the concept of equality
and fairness. We need to establish confidence with children that there is
more goodness than horror in this world."

- Morris Dees


- Unknown