Laramie City Councilor equates Nazi, rainbow flags
Public commenters criticize Councilor Shuster, voice support for expanding bias incident data collection
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| Councilor Bryan Shuster at the Oct. 27 meeting |
Shuster’s comments came amid a discussion on the council’s bias crime reporting ordinance, first passed more than two decades ago in the wake of the murder of Matthew Shepard.
During his comments to the council, Laramie Police Chief Dale Stalder cited a 2018 incident in which someone replaced the American flag in Washington Park with a Nazi flag.
That was when Shuster proffered the comments that would later receive unequivocal condemnation from public commenters.
“I would like to remind the council that twice that has happened,” Shuster said. “Two different groups have taken down the American flag and ran up something different in its place. We had the Nazi flag one time, and we had a rainbow flag the other time. Both times, flags were taken down and replaced with something else. So here we go: Where do we draw the line? Were they both bias crimes? Was one of them a bias crime and one of them not?”
Shuster was seemingly referring to a 2017 incident in which someone who was never identified put up a rainbow flag over the U.S. flag on the University of Wyoming’s campus green.
In the discussion that followed, Shuster went on to question the necessity of collecting data about bias incidents.
“In the last two months, we’ve been seeing body camera (footage) and are watching what the police are called during an altercation — but yet they have to put up with it, they’re not allowed to retaliate or say anything back or anything else,” Shuster said. “It’s kind of wild that it’s not a two-edged sword. That one group can be called something and can do nothing about it. Another group can be called something and all of a sudden there needs to be a report, there needs to be something done.”
Shuster’s comments were criticized during public comment, including by Laramie Human Rights Network organizers Timberly Vogel and Billy Harris.
“I also suggest that city council have discrimination or implicit bias training as some council members have shown their ignorance in regards to bias against protected classes of citizens,” Harris said. “A pride flag is a representation of uplifting a protected class of citizens while a Nazi flag is a representation of malice toward protected classes of citizens.”
Harris also took issue with Shuster’s comments lamenting police officers’ inability to “retaliate” against individuals who insult them.
“I would also like to add that police officers are not a protected class of citizens,” he said. “Scrutiny of them is based on their occupations and not aspects of their identity beyond their control.”
Public commenter Tess Kilwein said Shuster’s statements were especially egregious given Laramie’s infamy as the place where Matthew Shepard was murdered.
“I find myself appalled that a Nazi flag was referred to as an expression of different views and equated to a pride flag,” she said. “One represents the systematic murder of six million Jewish people simply because of an identity they were born with, and the other is simply an expression of love and acceptance for an identity that someone was also born with.”
Despite Shuster’s comments, most other councilors and public commenters agreed that the original bias crimes reporting ordinance should be reformed or expanded.
Chief Stalder had mentioned the Nazi flag incident specifically to highlight incidents of bias not captured by the annual report.
“We actually investigated that crime and found that it was related to a number of juveniles who had done some vandalism up on campus that was — I guess ‘pornographic’ is the best way to put it,” Stalder said. “But the criminal element of that activity occurred on campus.”
In other words, the bias inherent in flying a Nazi flag over Washington Park could not be directly tied to a criminal offense.
“There was not a crime committed there,” Stalder said. “There was no vandalism, no theft. The Nazi flag was run up that flagpole at the bandshell. The American flag was laid at the bottom. For me, that’s probably more of a free speech issue. There was just no criminal activity.”
The case of the Nazi flag is one of many instances in which bias occurs, but crime doesn’t, Stalder said. He cited a more recent episode in which LPD received a call from an individual claiming he was repeatedly called the n-word by an employee of the Buckhorn Bar and Saloon.
“In our discussion over a few days with the city attorney, my staff and the city manager, there was no actionable thing that we could do,” Stalder said.
In light of these shortcomings, several councilors expressed a desire to have a more holistic picture when it comes to the prevalence of bias in Laramie.
“I think what we might be asking for, or at least what I’m asking for, is a tally of those things that don’t actually fit within those strict guidelines of what is a bias crime,” Councilor Jayne Pearce said. “A tally of the lesser offenses within our community we could potentially add to our annual police report, for example.”
Mayor Joe Shumway was initially skeptical, saying it would place an undue burden on local law enforcement.
“I don’t know that we need to have reports on hundreds of fights, disagreements, protests simply because there were thoughts that certain groups were being unfairly singled out or targeted,” he said. “I think what we could ask is: when there is a crime committed, we need to have a report on that.”
But law enforcement might not even be the appropriate channel for collecting information on bias incidents, some councilors argued.
“I agree there are some logistical and practical problems with just having the police tasked with a lot of what you talked about — that might not be possible,” Councilor Paul Weaver said. “But I’m not certain that the police need to be the avenue for climate assessment.”
Collecting that information via a citizen board, local human rights commission or some other entity would carry other benefits, Councilor Jessica Stalder said.
“I think if something gets broken or somebody gets hurt or there’s a crime, the police are going to get called, so it’s really easy to track a bias crime,” she said. “But for a bias incident, I think from conversations I’ve had, those people that are on the receiving end of a bias incident might not be comfortable going to the police.”
This idea was endorsed by many of the individuals offering public comment.
“A database for reporting outside the police department could also lead to higher reporting since many are uncomfortable going to police,” Harris said. “Nazi flags being hung, pride flags being detroyed, white supremacist spray paint, or discriminatory language being used cannot continue to go representatively unnoticed and glossed over.”
By the end of the lengthy discussion, the mayor said the council could further explore the idea and move toward gaining a better understanding of how frequent or prevalent non-criminal bias is in Laramie.
“I think we can come up with ideas and then maybe make some changes to our bias crime ordinance, so we can have reporting not just on crimes but reporting on bias incidents,” Shumway said.
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