OPINION: Keep hate away

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines hate speech clearly as “abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or similar grounds.”

Hate speech motivates some people to become violent.

A safe democracy requires that politicians avoid, discourage and condemn rhetoric that can lead to violence. Unfortunately that is not what seems to be occurring here lately.

Volunteers, who perform the work of the Democrat Party, routinely ask if they are safe in our current heated political climate. I tell them yes, but I can’t guarantee their safety.

Coeur d’Alene has not experienced any of the more than 600 mass shootings that have beset other American cities and towns in 2022. Thankfully.

Last summer we experienced a threat of political violence. It was directed by the Patriot Front against our LGBTQ+ community. An alert citizen called the Coeur d’Alene police and they deftly headed it off before anyone was even aware the threat existed. Again thankfully.

So, why are all these volunteers afraid for their safety?

Hate-related mass shootings can happen anywhere. There is nothing to protect Coeur d’Alene from experiencing one. And the ingredients all seem to be at hand.

We have one politician, Mr. Brent Regan, trying to convince followers that hate speech laws make truth “unacceptable or even illegal.” To support this assertion, Mr. Regan cites two of Donald Trump’s rare Tweets that were not inflammatory or demonstrably false. Trump was of course banned from Twitter after inciting the violent Jan. 6, 2020, insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

These false claims can mislead his followers to think they are being deprived of freedom of speech and that “conspiring speech Karens” are responsible. This type of language is dangerous.

If just one follower believes the lie, they in turn may feel provoked to act out in defense of their “freedom.” The lie then becomes incendiary.

The threat of political violence is not imaginary. A new Senate Report on Homeland Security finds that “over the past two decades, acts of domestic terrorism have dramatically increased.” And that right wing extremism is responsible for the majority of those acts.

To prevent violence, it is incumbent on news sources and those of us in positions of authority to avoid twisting the truth, and to avoid accusing anyone of anything without solid evidence. We should instead condemn political violence, and urge fellow citizens to address conflicts peacefully.

There is a joke going around Coeur d’Alene these days that Love Lives Here, but Occasionally Hate Comes to Visit. Let us resolve to do everything possible to make sure that hate stays away.

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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.