Author: Steve Graham

     Idaho has had a new rash of hate crimes in the last year.  Last Friday, Brittany Edelblute’s Subaru was spray painted with swastikas.   In an article in the Spokesman-Review, it was explained that Brittany Edelblute was apparently targeted because she has friends who are African-American that come by her house.  She has had a problem of people shouting racial slurs while they drive by.  I blogged about a similar incident last month against Haitham Joudeh.   In the news coverage last month in the Coeur D’Alene Press, the comment section was full of hateful comments.   The whole story was later taken down.  This time, the Coeur D’Alene Press did not post a story online about the crime against Brittany Edelblute.   Last month, a majority of the people making comments online accused Haitham Joudeh of vandalizing his own car just to get sympathy.

     Why does this stuff always happen in North Idaho?  I don’t think it is just happenstance. It seems that the people in power over there inadvertently foster such behavior by their own actions.  Look at the shabby way Kootenai County Commissioners Rick Currie, Todd Tondee and Richard Piazza treated Haitham Joudeh.  Haitham Joudeh, an Idaho native of middle-eastern descent, sought a building permit.  The local Planning Department did not object to the project.  In addition, after a lengthy public hearing where all sides were held, the Hearing Examiner Rebecca A. Zanetti recommended that the permit be approved.  But neighbors put together an anti-Joudeh rally against the applicant, and the county commissioners bowed to pressure and rejected the permit.   Haitham Joudeh complained that during the rally and the public hearing, many negative comments were made about his religion and ancestry.   Commissioner Rick Currie is a member of the Mica Grange, the group that allegedly held the anti-Joudeh rally.   Currie boasts of his membership to this group on his re-election website.

     I have done a fair amount of land-use law in my practice, and that sure seems seems strange that the county commissioners would not approve a permit when the experts did not see a problem with it.  And if the commissioners are affiliated with groups opposing the permit, they have a duty to step down and appoint a neutral decision maker.