Putting on political pressure
A discussion about boycotting businesses as a form of protesting the actions of several North Idaho College trustees has some of those trustees’ supporters reacting strongly on social media.
"Great victories in American politics have been achieved through coalition building," Constitutional scholar and panel moderator David Adler said Saturday, during the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee's Hijacking Democracy Symposium.
"It was not the case that Dr. Martin Luther King was able to overcome segregation and the problems of racism by himself or within the Black community."
Adler said the power of coalition building brought about the Civil Rights Act, Medicare and Social Security.
"Because you are all so enraged by the behavior of the trustees who are prepared to sink this college, what are their livelihoods? Where do they work? Do they own businesses?" Adler asked. "If they run a restaurant, then you could all imitate the great Martin Luther King and Gandhi and others and simply create a boycott of their business.”
This is one way people can apply political pressure, Adler said.
“Boycotting is what ended segregation on the bus lines in Montgomery in 1956. That’s clear as a bell," he said. "When Gandhi led the boycott in South Africa in 1949 saying to the British, ‘We want you to go home,’ and they wouldn’t go, he said to his countrymen, ‘We’re not going to abide by the laws. We’re going to sit down and wait to be arrested. The English, with all their capacity, cannot build enough prisons to build all of us, and they’ll leave.’ And he was right. So boycotting is a powerful tool to use in this very serious fight."
As a member of the "Case Study: North Idaho College/Local Issues and Challenges" panel, Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin disagreed.
“I don’t support boycotts," he said. "I don’t think that’s going to work. You got to understand these people — outside of politics and their church, they are not involved in the community. A boycott will not work."
Those commenting on social media are calling to "dox" and "make life uncomfortable" for those who were involved in the panel as well as for the editor of the Coeur d'Alene Press.
According to Merriam-Webster, to "dox" someone is "to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge." The release of this personal information is maliciously done for the sake of harassment and can lead to death threats, false police reports and worse.
While doxxing is not illegal in Idaho, threatening, terrifying and otherwise harassing people is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail if convicted of a first offense. A second or subsequent conviction could be punishable by up to five years in the state penitentiary.
NIC Trustee Emeritus Christie Wood, who is also the president of the Kootenai County Task Force, said every avenue is being used to hold accountable the trustees in question.
"We will keep after it,” she said.
Wood told The Press Monday she does not support doxxing individuals, businesses or public officials.
"I do not support boycotting businesses," she said. "I will never join in a boycotting type of effort to make a political point."
During the symposium, Adler said the question of deploying lawful, peaceful tactics depends on how concerned people are about the issue.
“If it’s merely a petty issue, you won’t resort to boycotts and other tactics,” he said. “It’s up to you to decide how important it is for you to save the college. If it’s not so important to save the college, then you can just dismiss the kinds of lawful, peaceful boycotts that Blacks employed, that women employed to achieve women’s rights. Women didn’t win the right to vote by staying at home. Women didn’t win a lot of rights by staying at home — they boycotted and they marched.”
