Community leader calls for legal action following allegations of racial harassment in Coeur D'Alene | Spokane News

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — The co-founder of the Kootenai County Human Relations Task Force has called for legal action if the alleged harassers are found.

The incident involved several middle-aged men making discriminatory comments toward Coeur D'Alene Tribe students at McEuen Park during a field trip on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.

Coeur D'Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said he plans to bring city leaders together to address the issue.

Stewart said the task force has worked on several of these types of cases in the past and the number of these incidents in the Coeur D'Alene area has increased in recent years.

“It has increased, we know of two or three other cases where the victims did not want to be made public, but we worked with them. And the tendency is for people to drive by in a car or other vehicle … and yell things,” Stewart said.

This is the second racial incident in this downtown area in the past three months. No charges have been 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 at upcoming community events. They did not respond to our call.

Stewart said the people of Coeur D'Alene do not accept these actions and will work to hold those responsible accountable.

“The community will certainly never support them, I hope we can find ways to go to court again and send a message it's better not to,” Stewart said.