COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – The co-founder of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations called for legal action to be pursued if the alleged harassers are found.
The incident involved multiple middle-aged men making discriminatory comments towards Coeur D’Alene Tribal students in McEuen Park on a field trip on Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
Coeur D’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said he plans to bring together city leaders to address this issue.
Stewart said the task force has worked with several of these types of cases in the past and that the number of these incidents in the Coeur D’Alene area has increased in recent years.
“Has been increasing, we know of two or three other cases that the victims didn’t want to go public but we worked with them. And what the trend has been is people driving by in a car or some other vehicle… and yelling things,” Stewart said.
This is the second racial incident in that area of downtown in the last three months. No charges were filed in the incident involving the University of Utah women’s basketball team.
Nonstop Local contacted the Coeur D’Alene Police Department to verify if a formal case had been opened or if additional security measures would be in place during upcoming community events. They did not respond to our call.
Stewart said the Coeur D’Alene people do not accept these actions, and they will work to hold those responsible accountable.
“The community will certainly never support them, hopefully we can find some ways of going to court again, and sending a message, you better not do it,” Stewart said.
