POCATELLO — Community leaders and local residents gathered on Tuesday at Idaho State University’s Pond Student Union Building to attend the U.S. Justice Department’s United Against Hate forum to discuss hate crimes, discrimination and how the community can bridge together to combat unlawful acts of hate in the area.
The forum was led by Joshua Hurwit, United States Attorney of the District of Idaho, and was the region’s first forum since the Justice Department launched the nationwide initiative designed to address hate crimes, which have been on the rise, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report.
Data collected from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that represents 91.1 percent of the U.S. population shows that reported hate crimes have increased by 11.6 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to the release.
“When you have a diverse population sometimes hate incidents occur, hate crimes can occur,” Hurwit told the Idaho State Journal at the event. “Our goal is to provide basic information so the community knows what a federal hate crime looks like so that they can know to report it to law enforcement and we’ll also discuss the ways to do that.... The other goal is just to build community. Different folks from different walks of life can understand that we just want to all live under the rule of law and people certainly will disagree and come from different perspectives, but violence, intimidation and harassment is never ok, and that can be a criminal violation.”
Many leaders of local organizations and offices attended the forum co-hosted by ISU, including ISU President Kevin Satterlee, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, Fort Hall Business Council Chairman of Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Lee Juan Tyler, City of Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei, Bannock County Sheriff Tony Manu and many others.
Several of these individuals spoke about their perspectives of hate crimes and how individuals can behave in ways that can increase trust in agencies and groups, and create and strengthen alliances between members of the community to combat hate.
“In the act of being here, we recognize an important element of our community and the concept of community,” Satterlee said during the opening ceremony. “Events like these highlight the supportive relationships we have between the Tribes, the city, the county, the United States Attorney Office and the university as a whole coming together to make a difference in this community.... We’re here to raise awareness, get an education and have deeper conversations about unlawful and quite frankly unacceptable acts of hate and to work together to discover the ways all of us collectively and individually can meet the needs of the lives of those around us.”
Tyler, who also shared a song about the unifying power of water that has brought many people from many walks of life to the Snake River region, added. “It’s always good to remind people about what’s going on around here so we can bring healing to our people, to our community and we can do that on a smaller scale here and then on to a larger one.”
Schei shared several stories about ISU athletes who reached out to the city police late at night needing help with transportation, and spoke about the trust that these students had to have in local law enforcement to feel safe enough to ask for rides.
“We had a student of color who lost a family member, who lost his aunt, and didn’t know where else to turn for a ride to the airport,” said Schei, we explained he got the text message at 10:30 at night seeing if he could drop the young man off. “I gave that young man a ride to the airport and had a good conversation with him, and just last night another student, being a student athlete and not having a lot of money, his car broke down at the airport and needed a jump and one of our officers went out there and provided that jump.”
He continued, “The point of that is they felt comfortable enough to call and text the police of chief at 10:30 at night and reach out. In order for a relationship to be there you must have trust, and trust takes time to build. You have to go out and earn that trust. If you want respect you have to give respect, if you want to be listened to you need to listen to others and if you want to influence people you have to let them influence you. If you focus on those fundamentals and you build those relationships, that’s what’ll make Pocatello a great place to live. And I promise you that as the police of chief that I will work with the partners in this room to continue those efforts going forward.”
The event also included a look at the protections under federal hate crime laws, which were presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Horwitz, who went over the details of what a hate crime can look like and where to reach out and report it if one is either a victim or has been witness to a crime.
Also in a gesture of unity, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes shared performances by the Medicine Thunder Drum Group and Shoshone-Bannock dancers, and a panel moderated by Director of the ISU’s Office of Equity and Inclusion Stacey Gibson offered the different perspectives of members of the community.
“It really comes down to the fundamentals of our country,” said Hurwit about the importance of speaking out against hate crimes. “We’re a country of diversity. We’re a country of immigrants. We’re a country where there are viewpoints that span the whole spectrum on an issue. But historically we’ve been able to be successful as a country because we band together around the Constitution, which provides for things like protection and due process for everyone. So focusing our attentions on the rights of every individual is so important in today’s climate — just remembering what our basic values are as Americans.”
To report a hate crime or be directed toward the right agency to report one, contact Special Agent Ryan O’Neil with the FBI at 208-334-7843 or Horwitz at 208-334-1115.