3 Idaho family members face hate crime charges

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho. - Three family members have been charged with hate crimes in connection with a confrontation outside a Coeur d'Alene home.

The Coeur d'Alene Press reports that Ira Tankovich, 47, William Tankovich, 49 and Frank Tankovich, 46, were arrested this week and each charged with one count of malicious harassment and one count of conspiracy to commit malicious harassment.

According to police records, Ira Tankovich was arrested in August on suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm and providing false information to an officer. Police say he went to a Hispanic man's home to instigate a physical altercation.

The prosecuting attorney's office dropped the false information charge and initially only pursued the gun charge, but they continued to investigate the incident and added the hate crime charges this week.

Related Coverage
'We will not be known as communities who tolerate hate,' says Spokane mayor

(August 21, 2009)

At a press conference Friday morning regarding hate pamphlets being dropped in Kootenai and Spokane counties, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner was one of many officials to denounce the racist literature and promise the Inland Northwest will not be known for racism.

The conference, held at the old Interstate 90 bridge on the Washington-Idaho border, involved the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, the Spokane and Kootenai County Sheriff's departments and mayors and police chiefs of several Inland Northwest cities.

The words of all officials who spoke carried the same message.

"We will not be known as communities that tolerate hate, that allow hatred to dwell," said Spokane Mayor Mary Verner. "We will be known as communities who stand up against what is wrong." >>More

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