[Vision2020] Vandalism Deplored as Hate Crime

[Glenn Schwaller]

Hmmmm . . .  I suppose had they painted these things IN FRONT of the
vehicle on the street it would have been "First Amendment Rights
freedom of expression" eh??  After all this WAS the case for Freedom
of Expression writings on the sidewalk in front of NSA a year or so
ago.  Or is this an entirely different situation??

Funny how the law works - and how the intoleristas spin "hate" in
their favor when it's "necessary and warranted"

Keep up the Good Works my friends

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 7:26 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
> Courtesy of today's (December 5, 2009) Spokesman Review.
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> Vandalism Deplored as Hate Crime
> Graffiti on truck includes racial slur, swastikas
>
> By Allison Boggs
>
> A Coeur d’Alene man of Middle Eastern descent left his pickup parked
> downtown Thursday night and returned to find it spray-painted with
> swastikas and a racial slur and a front tire slashed.
>
> The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations counts the incident as
> the seventh hate crime perpetrated in the Inland Northwest since May,
> co-founder Tony Stewart said Friday.
>
> Haitham Joudeh, 33, who is a Muslim of Jordanian descent, was celebrating
> a friend’s birthday Thursday and left his black Ford F350 truck parked at
> the corner of Third Street and Coeur d’Alene Avenue. Friends drove Joudeh
> and his wife home around midnight, he said.
>
> In the morning, he was notified by police that his truck had been
> vandalized. Two swastikas were painted on it along with a slur urging him
> to “go home.”
>
> “I was born in this state. This is my home. What are they talking about?”
> said Joudeh, a University of Idaho graduate. “It makes me feel like I
> don’t belong in this place. It makes me fear for my life and my family’s
> life. I mean, what’s next? They’re going to come to my house? Seriously,
> what’s going to be next?”
>
> Someone already has been to his house, where Joudeh lives with his wife
> and baby son. On Friday morning, Joudeh found a racist flier from the
> Aryan Nations in a plastic baggie on his lawn. The flier was similar to
> those distributed in several other Inland Northwest neighborhoods in
> recent months.
>
> Stewart said the vandalism of Joudeh’s vehicle qualifies as a hate crime.
> It is the most recent in a spate of hate crimes, he said. In other
> incidents, a noose was left on a Spokane doorstep; a swastika sticker was
> affixed to the door of a Coeur d’Alene human rights center; and Hispanic,
> African-American and Native American people were targeted in several
> harassment and assault cases.
>
> “There is an escalation,” Stewart said. “We don’t know who’s doing it. My
> suspicion is, from some of the profiles … it seems to be more than one
> group involved.”
>
> Stewart said the task force will do everything within its power to help
> Joudeh’s family. “In all these cases,” Stewart said, “if you can find the
> people, you prosecute them for a felony and you send them to prison. This
> community won’t turn a blind eye.”
>
> Coeur d’Alene police said they are investigating the incident as a hate
> crime.
>
> Idaho’s malicious harassment law makes it a felony to deface personal
> property with “any word or symbol commonly associated with racial,
> religious or ethnic terrorism.”
>
> Joudeh, a developer, said he has faced harassment since he filed a
> multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Kootenai County, alleging improper
> denial of a project he had proposed at Mica Bay. Joudeh’s company, Jordan
> International, proposed a condominium storage unit facility on 10 acres
> just off U.S. Highway 95. The case is pending in 1st District Court.
>
> Joudeh said his ethnicity was raised, in a negative light, by people
> opposed to the project during the first hearing.
>
> “Nothing was done or said about it,” Joudeh said.
>
> Since he filed his lawsuit, he said, he has been the subject of racist
> e-mails and Internet blog posts regarding his proposed project.
>
> A tort claim filed against the county as a precursor to the lawsuit
> alleged that the project was denied partly because of racism.
>
> Kootenai County commissioners deny that race was any factor.
>
> Board Chairman Rick Currie said that accusation is an “embarrassment to
> the residents of our county.” Commissioner Todd Tondee said decisions are
> not made based on race; they’re made based on the project.
>
> Currie also expressed anger toward whomever targeted Joudeh in the
> vandalism incident.
>
> “That is absolutely unacceptable,” he said. “There is no place in this
> country for that type of action. It is something we cannot tolerate.”
>
> ------------
>
> Coeur d’Alene resident Haitham Joudeh woke to a call from the Coeur
> d’Alene Police Department on Friday morning telling him of racist graffiti
> painted on his truck sometime after midnight at the corner of Third Street
> and Coeur d’Alene Avenue.
>
> http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2009/12/04/PX248_27F0_9_t620.jpeg
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> These racist incidents by neo-Nazi scum are becoming more and more
> frequent, Moscow.
>
> It's time to take a stand,
>
> Speak up!
>
> Speak out!
>
> Seeya round the 'hood, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen, Intolerista
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
> and the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
> - Unknown
>
>
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