Tense hearing at Idaho Capitol over picketing bill prompts protest at lawmaker’s home
A bill that would prohibit targeted picketing outside officials’ homes drew a large crowd at the Idaho Capitol on Wednesday, a protest outside a state lawmaker’s house and the arrest of an Eagle man.
The bill bars anyone from picketing outside someone’s residence with an intent to “harass, annoy or alarm” another person and classifies it as a misdemeanor. Rep. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, who co-sponsored the bill, posted on Facebook on Wednesday that about 15 people gathered outside his house Wednesday night.
Idaho State Police also arrested David Pettinger, 44, at the Statehouse shortly after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday over two outstanding warrants. He faces charges of resisting or obstructing officers and assault or battery upon certain personnel, according to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m more frustrated for my family than anything,” Chaney said by phone Thursday.
He tweeted that protesters showed up to his home with torches and pitchforks. On social media, one protester posted a photo of a stuffed animal hung on a noose, dressed in a shirt with his name on it. He said one of his daughters had asked, “Why do they want to kill Dad?”
“They say they do this because have nowhere else to protest,” Chaney wrote on social media Thursday. “I was at the Statehouse all day allowing them to insult and slander me in my own committee, and they still showed up where my wife and kids were.”
House Bill 195, sponsored by Chaney and Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, prohibits picketing or demonstrations on the street or sidewalk in front of a person’s place of residence and would take immediate effect if it’s approved.
The legislation is a direct response to targeted protests that occurred last year over COVID-19 public health orders — one of which forced a Central District Health board member to abruptly leave a meeting to deal with an agitated mob outside her home, where only her 12-year-old son was at the time.
In an op-ed Chaney and Green published last week, they said free speech doesn’t require civil servants to be held “captive in their homes” and have fear instilled in them.
“Intimidation isn’t a form of democratic expression — it’s mob rule,” they wrote.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 10:48 AM.
