News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Retired policeman Wayne Inman believes that racism and hate crime can happen in any town, and the only way to stop it is to mobilize the community
to fight back.
Inman, who has lived in Sisters for the past two years, did just that as chief of police in Billings, Montana in the early '90s. The story of how Billings rallied in support of its Jewish community, besieged by skinhead vandals, is recounted in the USA Network movie "Not In This Town," airing April 16.
Signs of racism and bigotry directed at gays, blacks, Native Americans and particularly Jews were everywhere in Billings in 1993, Inman said in an interview.
Inman, who had served as Assistant Chief of the Portland Poli
ce Bureau, was especially alert to the problem. He had seen the rise of skinhead activity in Portland culminate in 1988 in the beating death of Ethiopian student Mulugata Seraw at the hands of skinheads aroused to a fever pitch by a recruitment speech by members of White Aryan Resistance.
But Billings' citizens were reluctant to face the presence of racial tensions in their city and slow to respond to Inman's efforts to mobilize a counter attack.
"I encountered a great deal of resistance in my community," Inman said.
Communities generally don't like to think racial violence can happen to them,
Inman reflected, and they often go through a kind of "denial."
"It can and it does happen," Inman said, "and it's a real shock to the community."
According to Inman, racist groups believe the "silent majority" share their beliefs and they take encouragement from a community's lack of response.
"Very basically, silence is acceptance," Inman said.
Gradually, in the face of escalating incidents of intimidation and vandalism, Inman was able to mobilize the community to actively and vocally oppose the skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan.
Inman said the Klan launched a campaign of defamation against him, his family and others in the community, and tried to align them with gays, anti-gun groups and "any group perceived by the citizens of Montana to be outside the mainstream.
"
As a result, Inman and others won a settlement in a lawsuit against the Klan where the Klan acknowledged that they had defamed the community members and agreed not to take that kind of action again.
"I consider that a major victory," Inman said.
The final convulsion of community outrage occurred after a cinder block was thrown through the window of a Jewish household where a menorah, was displayed. Suddenly thousands of menorahs appeared in windows all over town, including those outside the Jewish community.
It was a vivid display of solidarity and resistance, and it worked. The activities of the skinheads and the Klan diminished and faded away.
"The community literally drove the bully off the school playground," Inman said.
Communities like Sisters should be alert to the early signs of racist activity, Inman said, taking action before it escalates into a serious threat to safety.
Should a business discover racist graffiti, for example, Inman recommends making a police report, quickly removing the graffiti, and immediately mobilizing the community to send a message that such acts will not be tolerated.
"The best prepared community is the one that understands that this kind of ugly activity is just under the surface," Inman said.
"Not In This Town" tells the Billings story through the eyes of one of the Jewish families targeted for vandalism and intimidation.
Inman said the film is worth watching, offering an uplifting message of community strength.
"I like the movie because the message is powerful," he said. "It gives us hope, it says we can do something about it, that we must do something about it."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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