Emotions run high but civility wins day at downtown dispute

Clarkston resident Rosalynn Christianson-Roper said she’s been called the N-word at work and while walking down the street in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.

“I’m scared to raise kids in this town,” Christianson-Roper said, through tears Saturday afternoon.

She and her wife, Shailynn Christianson-Roper, made their way to the Nez Perce County Courthouse after Saturday’s Black Lives Matter Rally Peace Rally, where Rosalynn Christianson-Roper expressed frustrations with law enforcement, racism in the valley — and the people who stood in front of her.

A group of armed men formed a half-circle around where she was shouting her message. Some were with a group called Defend Lewiston, and organizer Heather Rogers said that was by design.

“We had guys surround both of them,” Rogers said, after a verbal argument briefly flared between Rosalynn Christianson-Roper and a bystander. “We’re here to make sure everyone is protected, on both sides.”

Shailynn Christianson-Roper said she didn’t see it that way.

“Things need to change,” she said. “We brought cardboard signs. There’s no need for semiautomatic weapons.”

But the approximately 75 Second Amendment supporters who gathered at downtown Lewiston’s Brackenbury Square late Saturday morning to get instructions from Rogers said they viewed weapons as key to keeping the peace.

“You feel like you have an obligation,” said Bill Alteneder, of Lewiston. “We’re here to defend human life and property from individuals who shouldn’t be here.”

Alteneder, who said he spent three years in the Navy and 18 years with the Army National Guard, carried an AK-300 semiautomatic rifle.

Another Defend Lewiston participant, Ken Hammack, of Lewiston, said he expected the day to go peacefully.

“I think just the presence alone will be enough,” Hammack said. “We’ve seen that in other cities.”

Bryce Beeler, of Clarkston, said he saw that go both ways, with his experiences last week in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. Beeler credited the presence of armed citizens such as himself with ensuring Coeur d’Alene’s event was peaceful.

“That is the key to it, I believe,” he said.

In Spokane, where the initial rally was peaceful, but later in the evening store windows were broken and police used tear gas on protesters, it was a different group that came in and caused the mayhem, Beeler said.

“I think it’s people taking advantage of the situation,” he said.

Happy Day Restaurants Vice President for Operations Pat Rogers stood outside the company’s Main Street Grill as men and women wearing flak jackets and carrying semiautomatic weapons strolled by.

Rogers didn’t expect the armed presence to discourage business; in fact, he said it likely was the opposite.

“We just want safe, peaceful freedom of speech,” he said. “Everybody has that right.”

Diamond Shop owner Mike Haines chose to close his business for the day.

“We just appreciate all the help from the community,” he said through the glass of the store’s front door.

It was impossible to walk a block in downtown Lewiston Saturday afternoon without seeing people with guns ranging from standard rifles to pistols to semiautomatic weapons. But not everyone was armed.

Lewiston resident Noah Norwood walked up one side of Main Street and down the other with a sign painted with the words “Black Lives Matter” and “I am unarmed.”

“I just feel that people don’t need to bring guns to peaceful protests,” Norwood said.

Rogers said her group worked with the Lewiston Police Department and Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office to organize their efforts.

“We’re not encouraging any kind of violence,” she said. “We’re just making sure our town is safe.”

She instructed participants to restrain any individual they saw being violent and call law enforcement.

“They said we can use reasonable force,” she said.

That message was echoed by Cassidy White, who addressed the Defend Lewiston gathering before individuals broke way in small groups to patrol street corners

“Police yourselves,” he said. “Don’t make us look like the bad guys.”

White, who said he was with the group American War Fighters, encouraged participants to patronize downtown Lewiston businesses while they were there.

“We don’t want to scare anyone,” he said.

Stone is the Tribune's city editor. She can be reached at mstone@lmtribune.com.