Vol. 79/No. 44 December 7, 2015
Idaho protests: Prosecute cops who killed rancher!
The shooting death of 62-year-old cattle rancher Jack Yantis by Adams County, Idaho, sheriff’s deputies Nov. 1 has been met by a series of protests, with more planned, and is puncturing the myth that police brutality is limited to large urban areas or only affects African-Americans. Yantis is Caucasian.
Seventy people marched Nov. 14 through Council, a town of 800 six miles from the Yantis ranch, to protest the killing. They carried signs saying, “Justice for Jack, Justice for All,” “Murder is legal if you’re a cop,” and “Don’t pay ’em, arrest ’em,” referring to the cops.
“A great injustice was done to Mr. Yantis and we feel it could have been any of us,” family friend Johanna Nielsen told the press at the protest. “We don’t want it to just be washed away, go for months and months in the hope that people forget about it.”
“This kind of stuff shouldn’t happen to anybody,” Nielsen, a cattle rancher herself, told the Militant by phone Nov. 24. “Some individual police have an old time macho idea that I have a gun and a badge and you need to do what I tell you to do.
“Even though most of the ranches in the area are fairly large, there’s not enough money in it,” Nielson said, “so generally you do it yourself. You might hire one or two people to help from time to time.”
Jack Yantis’ family members, including his wife Donna, are calling the rancher’s death a murder. Donna Yantis and the couple’s nephew, Rowdy Paradis, witnessed the shooting and provided the Idaho Statesman with statements describing what happened. Paradis was interviewed as well.
“I stood 10 feet away and watched two deputies escalate the situation and needlessly kill a man,” Paradis told the paper.
The family was eating dinner when a sheriff’s dispatcher called and reported that one of Yantis’ bulls had been struck by a car and it needed to be taken care of, their statements explain. Two occupants of the car were injured and the wounded bull was charging at people.
The bull, named Keiford, was tame, having been raised and trained by Yantis. It made its way back to the entrance to the ranch before it collapsed.
Jack Yantis headed to the scene and Paradis went to get a front-end loader. The deputies started shooting at the bull with a semiautomatic rifle, leaving it more grievously wounded but still alive. Donna Yantis brought a rifle to her husband.
Jack Yantis had lined up the rifle and was ready to put the bull out of its misery when “the one cop turned around and grabbed his shoulder and jerked him backwards,” Paradis said. He thinks Yantis’ rifle might have gone off accidentally. The other deputy started shooting, striking Yantis in the abdomen and chest.
When Paradis and Donna Yantis ran toward her husband to help him, the deputies “threw us on the middle of Highway 95, searched and handcuffed us, and wouldn’t let us go take care of Jack,” she told the Statesman.
The deputies seemed “smug” and “almost celebratory” after the shooting, Paradis told the paper. Donna Yantis had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.
“Meanwhile, the bull was still alive,” the Statesman said. “Family members asked the deputies to put it down to end its suffering. No one did.”
Word about the killing got around in the rural area. Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman announced that he had turned the investigation into the shooting over to the Idaho State Police and put the two deputies on paid administrative leave.
Cops ‘don’t know’ if there’s video
Zollman spoke to an angry crowd of 300 at a town hall meeting Nov. 10 who wanted answers. He said he did not know if the two deputies were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting or if one of the vehicles’ dashboard cameras had been turned on. He refused to release the names of the two officers.The Idaho State Police also refused requests for any video of the shooting or 911 audio recordings while the investigation is underway. The inquiry, which has been joined by the FBI, could take months.
At least six people have been killed by local police officers in Idaho this year. In five cases the police assert that those killed were armed. In 2014, Jeanette Riley, a pregnant Native American woman, was shot five times outside a hospital emergency room in Sandpoint while she was holding a knife. Riley had mental health problems.
A couple dozen people protested outside the Ada County Courthouse in Boise Nov. 21 carrying signs saying, “Is there video? I don’t know — Sheriff Zollman.”
“If it proves their innocence, why hasn’t it been released yet?” Herrisen Hagens, who helped create a “Justice for Jack” Facebook page, told television station KIVI.
Organizers of the event told the Statesman they’ve received “positive feedback, and plan to protest on a regular basis.” The next Justice for Jack rally is set for noon Dec. 12 in Boise.
Related articles:
Minn. protests against police killing grow after racists shoot demonstrators
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