Second night of protests peaceful
Joseph Pleasant of Coeur d’Alene leads a group of Black Lives Matter supporters in chants Tuesday on Sherman Avenue. RALPH BARTHOLDT/Press
More than 30 Black Lives Matter supporters shouted slogans near the west end of Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene Tuesday evening. At the request of NIC criminal justice student Savannah Barnhart (third from right) the group crossed the street and stod beside an armed group of men and women. RALPH BARTHOLDT/Press
Coeur d’Alene dog trainer Taresa Balanesi, with her dogs Klaus and Jacques, discuss Tuesday’s protests with Mike Glass of Hayden, near the corner of Sherman Avenue and Second Street. RALPH BARTHOLDT/Press
Dan Carson (left) and Brett Surplus explain to Bob Dorn (middle) that both the armed men and women who gathered in downtown Coeur d’Alene Tuesday evening, and Black Lives Matter supporters, were there to gather peacefully and to prevent agitation and violence. Dorn, who had earlier hecked the crowds, apologized. RALPH BARTHOLDT/Press
Joseph Pleasant of Coeur d’Alene leads a group of Black Lives Matter supporters in chants Tuesday on Sherman Avenue. RALPH BARTHOLDT/Press
Coeur d’Alene resident Bob Dorn didn’t distinguish between protesters chanting Black Lives Matter slogans Tuesday evening in downtown Coeur d’Alene, or the armed men and women standing nearby on the sidewalk.
“You guys suck,” Dorn yelled at them from behind the wheel of a red pickup truck driving on Sherman Avenue near the corner of Second Street.
The side of his pickup truck spray-painted with the name TRUMP, Dorn made another pass, still shouting.
Dan Carson of Post Falls hoisted a semi-automatic rifle on the sidewalk in front of Hudson’s Hamburgers and shook his head.
“Those are the kind of people who give us a bad name,” he groused.
Carson, a military veteran who organized a group called Veterans For Freedom, stood 30 feet from the chanting Black Lives Matter crowd and decided when Dorn pulled over his pickup truck, to walk over and have a chat.
“We’re here for everyone,” Carson said. “We’re here to prevent looting and rioting.”
More than 50 gathered downtown near the west end of Sherman Avenue Tuesday — the second evening of protests in Coeur d’Alene that flared up as a result of the death of George Floyd in the hands of police in Minneapolis more than a week ago.
The death sent a shock wave of demonstrations across the U.S. and overseas, that resulted in rioting, looting and violence including in Spokane.
Beginning Monday, as North Idaho residents got news of organized protesters heading to Coeur d’Alene, armed groups began patrolling Sherman Avenue, alongside Black Lives Matters supporters.
Conrad Nelson, a bearded member of the veterans group, who carried the Stars and Stripes from a pole over his shoulder said it was looting, and agitating such as what Dorn had done, that he was trying to prevent.
“We’re glad they are protesting,” Nelson said. “They have a voice that needs to be heard … it’s the people that cause problems that we’re here to stop.”
Earlier in the evening, Savannah Barnhart, an NIC criminal justice student who chanted with the Black Lives Matter group, told Joseph Pleasant, the group’s leader, to join the armed men and women standing across the street near Hudson’s Hamburgers.
“I felt we should all come together in this,” Barnhart said. “There’s no hatred and no violence, and no sides.”
The group of 30 or more walked north over Sherman, raised their signs beside the armed men and women who held the Stars and Stripes and returned to chanting.
Dorn, who sat in his pickup truck with his golden retriever, Finley, apologized to Nelson and Pleasant.
“I guess I didn’t get it,” Dorn said. “I was out of line … I hate this situation.”
Many of the protesters and the armed men and women said they will be downtown all week.
They heard an organized group that may be comprised of Antifa — an anarchy group known for its violence — planned to hit North Idaho.
None of them knew when they would appear.
“It keeps changing,” a man with an assault-style rifle said.
Teresa Balanesi, a Coeur d’Alene dog trainer who came downtown with her German shepherd and Australian cattle dog, both on a leash, said she was there to show support for both sides.
“I believe in the First Amendment,” she said. “The right to voice your opinion, and I believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms.”
She lifted her shirt to show a .380-caliber handgun in a waistband holster, as the group nearby chanted:
“No violence, no side … If you can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!”
