Hate crimes and human rights advocates

Historical photos of the purveyors of hate crimes in North Idaho and the people who have fought to stop them.

Section:Gallery

Sun., Feb. 7, 2010

Coeur d'Alene police officers arrest Aryan Nation leader Richard Butler on Saturday, April 12, 1997, for trespassing at the Coeur d'Alene Inn.

Photo Archive The Spokesman-Review
Keith Gilbert and Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations are photographed in July 1981.

Photo Archive The Spokesman-Review
Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Nations, sits in the back of a pickup during a march in downtown Coeur d'Alene on Saturday, July 17, 2004.

Photo Archive The Spokesman-Review
Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Nations, arrives at the Kootenai County Courthouse on Aug. 28, 2000. He and his Aryan Nations Church were facing a trial that would ultimately bankrupt the organization.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Human rights leaders Tony Stewart, left, Norm Gissel, center and Marshall Mend are photographed in August 2002.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Tony Stewart, human rights leader, locks up at one of the dilapidated buildings in the shadow of the guard tower before it was demolished on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, at the former Aryan Nations compound.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Norm Gissel, the Coeur d'Alene attorney on the team that wrested the Aryan Nations compound from Richard Butler, watches as a demolition machine attacks the guard tower that stood above the church building in Garwood.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
An excavator digs into a dilapidated cook shack that had a swastika on the roof at the former Aryan Nations compound in Garwood on Wednesday, May 23, 2001.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Norm Gissel, left, talks with Tony Stewart, center, and Gissel's wife, Diana, as the three watch the demolition of the former Aryan Nations compound guard tower Wednesday, May 23, 2001, in Garwood.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Human rights activist Tony Stewart stands in a field of wild flowers at the site of the former Aryan Nations compound near Hayden, Idaho, June 24, 2009.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review
Tony Stewart walks through the doors of the old battery building at Coeur d'Alene City Park in Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday, July 23, 2003. The site was leased to Stewart's Human Rights Education Institute.

Liz Kishimoto The Spokesman-Review
Marshall Mend and Ty Beaver talked about raising money for the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday, March 3, 2009. Mend struck a deal with New York-based Raoul Wallenberg Institute to sell a curriculum the institute produces.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Taskforce on Human Relations speaks at a press conference Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, at which law enforcement officials and human rights organizers spoke against the recent distribution of hate literature.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Spokane mayor Mary Verner, center, and Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick emphasize Spokane's commitment to protecting residents from racial harrassment at a press conference Friday, Aug. 21, 2009, near the state line.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Norm Gissel, a Coeur d'Alene attorney who assisted Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Morris Dees in the case that bankrupted the Aryan Nations, speaks at The Iron Horse Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene on Friday, April 3, 2009.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Marshall Mend talks about the pictures of the first documented hate crime in Hayden at his home on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. He is one of the founding members of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Brothers Ira Tankovich, left, William Tankovich, center, and Frank Tankovich are charged with malicious harassment. The brothers are accused of harassing a man because of his ethnicity in August 2009.

Photo Dep Courtesy Of Kootenai County Sheriff'S Office
A swastika was found on the front door of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Coeur d’Alene resident Haitham Joudeh woke to a call from the Coeur d’Alene Police Department on Friday morning, Dec. 4, 2009, informing him that his truck had been painted with racist graffiti sometime after midnight at the corner of Third Street and Coeur d’Alene Avenue.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review
Brittany Edelblute, 18, center, listens as her friend Stephanie Guy, left, describe a few of the incidents that have occurred in front of their Coeur d'Alene home on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. Edelblute's car was recently painted with swastikas.

Kathy Plonka The Spokesman-Review