Police presence needed for protesters threatening violence over homeless camp in Boise

Followers of a Facebook group called the Idaho Liberty Dogs are threatening to show up Saturday in Boise to protest against a homeless encampment set up on the Idaho State Capitol grounds.

Even though the Idaho Liberty Dogs emphasized on Facebook that it needs to be a “peaceful” protest, some of their followers clearly don’t have peace on their minds.

“Organize 200. 300 folks with ARs to clean up.”

“How bout flame throwers?”

“I’m in! Got a truck & trailer to haul away the trash.”

“I heard baseball bats clean things up real nice at like 2:00am”

“I got Clorox”

“Bulldozer”

“Lot of dogs need to be taken for their walks in front of those tents. Lots of big dogs. Feed them fish first.”

“If the police and government won’t do their job maybe we should. After all it’s OUR Country and OUR State.....OUR County... and OUR town....”

“Take the garbage and transport it to the lawns of McLenin and Sanchez. They’re taking in people that shouldn’t be in Idaho and filling the city with them.”

Aside from the brazen threats of violence, many of the posts demonstrate sheer ignorance, mostly of the problem and the root causes of homelessness: lack of affordable housing, lack of mental health counseling, lack of drug and alcohol addiction treatment services, lack of regulations on an out-of-control opioid industry.

Boise also has a lack of homeless shelter space. Yes, Boise Rescue Mission has beds available, but it does have requirements that guests do not drink alcohol or use drugs. So just stop drinking alcohol and using drugs, right? Problem solved.

If only it were that simple, as if the mere act of telling people to quit drinking and using drugs would somehow magically work. It won’t, and it doesn’t. And what then? What shall we do then with those who are unable to kick their addiction?

Interfaith Sanctuary, a low-barrier shelter, is full, and plans to expand to another location were rejected and are on appeal with the Boise City Council.

The solutions are affordable housing, more shelter space, more mental health services, and more drug and alcohol addiction treatment services.

We also need more compassion and understanding, of course, something sorely lacking in the ranks of the Idaho Liberty Dogs.

The “solutions” being provided by the Idaho Liberty Dogs — run them out of town, intimidate them with AR-15s, attack and hurt them, blast them with air horns, as one person suggested — are despicable.

This sounds dangerously similar to what happened in the summer of 2020, when counterprotesters showed up in downtown Boise at a Black Lives Matter rally to intimidate and threaten. Minor violence broke out, and it easily could have escalated and been much worse, had law enforcement not been on hand. A subsequent rally was moved and changed when Idaho Liberty Dogs threatened to show up again.

Idaho State Police should show up in force on Saturday, on the lookout for bad actors intent on doing harm.

It’s also important for elected officials, including state legislators and county commissioners who tend to align with these bad actors’ political beliefs, to denounce calls for violence. Too often, they stand on the sidelines and fan the flames, reaping the benefits of such misplaced anger at the ballot box. Sometimes, unfortunately, they join in, as we saw Ada County Commissioner Ryan Davidson two years ago stand shoulder to shoulder with angry, threatening protesters who wore Nazi patches and tattoos.

Davidson last year voted to cut funding for the New Path program that seeks to prevent encampments by helping people who are chronically homeless.

Certainly, some protesters (protesting against homelessness, apparently) may be peaceful, but it takes only a couple of bad apples causing trouble to lead to disaster.

While some want to criminalize homelessness, law enforcement should be prepared on Saturday to deal not with people experiencing homelessness, but with the real criminals: those intent on inciting violence.

Like many other cities across the West, Boise has a homelessness crisis. But we aren’t going to solve it by looking down the barrel of an AR-15.

This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 4:00 AM.