COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) – Northern Idaho has a long and deep struggle against governments that has thwarted efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 major hospitals in the defense sector.
Dangerous protests in 1992 by government agencies near the Canadian border helped establish more wing groups around the country and the site became a long-distance home for the Aryan Nations, whose leader considered the “White Homeland” in that state is now one of the worst affected by the epidemic. of coronavirus.
Hospitals in northern Idaho are so full of COVID-19 patients that the government announced last week that the facility will receive medical care.
“I’m doing this more aggressively than I’ve ever seen,” Tony Stewart said of people who refuse to be vaccinated and wear masks.
Stewart is a founding member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which has been at war with the Aryan Nations for years and helped oust the Nazi party. I have no qualms about seeing so many people frustrated with their friends. ”
Only 41% of Kootenai County’s 163,000 residents received full immunizations, down from the state’s average of 56%, officials said.
Anti-government sentiment is strong in northern Idaho.
A State Rep. Heather Scott, a Blanchard Republican in the northern part of the state, denied the allegations, saying the reporters were liars. Scott encouraged fires in northern Idaho and other parts of the country earlier this year. He is also one of the lawmakers who often repeat lies about COVID-19 on Facebook.
Stewart called dangerous vaccine critics a “meaningless section of society.”
But not everyone agrees that there is a problem.
David Hall, 53, who owns a restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, said Friday “he delivers hundreds of customers a week and I hear no one has been hospitalized.”
“No one who works for me has received it,” Hall told COVID-19. “I don’t know where (the patients) are coming from.”
One of Hall’s main concerns is that hospitals are full of bad business practices, claiming that their costs are low.
Don Kress, 65, of Coeur d’Alene, said he believed Kootenai Health, the town’s main hospital, was overflowing with patients.
“It has become a political issue,” he said of COVID-19. “When you get rid of politics and allow people to use common sense, people will succeed.”
North Idaho has been part of the opposition to the government for many years. It was the stoppage at Ruby Ridge, north of the town of Sandpoint.
Randy Weaver relocated his family to the area in the 1980s to escape what he saw as an evil world. Over time, the security forces began to search for a former military soldier who could join the anti-government groups. Weaver is later suspected of selling state publishers two handguns.
To avoid arrest, Weaver raised their position.
On August 21, 1992, a group of U.S. troops searching the woods to find a suitable place to hide and arrest Weaver met his friend, Kevin Harris, and Weaver’s 14-year-old son, Samuel in the woods. The gunfire started. Samuel Weaver and US Deputy Marshal William Degan were assassinated.
The next day, an FBI agent fired and wounded Randy Weaver. As members of the mob stormed the house, the bomber struck a second bullet, which struck his wife Vicki Weaver in the head and killed her – injuring Harris’ chest. The couple committed suicide on August 31, 1992.
The Aryan tribes were not anti-government, but attracted a large number of illegal immigrants when white supremacist Richard Butler moved there in 1973 from California.
Four years after moving to the rural area of Kootenai, Butler – a former engineer – set up compost. A 20-acre site north of Lake Hayden could be a racist attraction for people from all over the region. The group staged demonstrations in Coeur d’Alene as well as annual general meetings at the compound. By the 1990’s, the Aryan tribes had the first page to hate them.
The Aryan Nations Company and its contents were set on fire and fired after a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center disrupted the movement in 2000.
Now COVID-19 has escalated tensions in Coeur d’Alene, a fast-growing area with retirees who are dragging along the shores of the namesake and attracting celebrities and the rich to the beautiful coastal homes. High-rise condos have replaced wooden mills near the seafront, and many shopping malls are available.
Last year, troops patrolled the city to protect those who had not participated in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
COVID-19 has grown this way.
Kootenai Health has 200 beds for patients or surgeons. On Wednesday, Kootenai Health doctors and nurses were caring for 218 medical and surgical patients, with the help of military personnel and nurses called in to help.
On Friday, the hospital enrolled 101 COVID-19 patients, including 35 in need of intensive care. The hospital usually has 26 beds for critically ill patients.
Jeanette Laster is the executive director of the Human Rights Education Institute, which was established as a result of the rise of Aryan Nation in the region.
He warned that it would be wrong to think that the Aryan Nazi ideological ideology was related to the anti-government ideology that is now on the list.
The Aryan Nations were oppressive white supremacists, a non-partisan group, he said, while anti-government sentiment was established in a constitutional right.
“I don’t understand that most people in our community are anti-Semitic,” Laster said. “This is about legal rights.”
Suspicion of journalists and officials is also a problem, he said.
“People are asking for more information,” Laster said. “There is a lot of fear.”