SPOKANE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 25: Alissa Pili #35 of the Utah Utes is launched earlier than the sport in opposition to the Gonzaga Bulldogs within the second spherical of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at McCarthey Athletic Center on March 25, 2024 in Spokane, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

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Steph Chambers/Getty Images

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 25: Alissa Pili #35 of the Utah Utes is launched earlier than the sport in opposition to the Gonzaga Bulldogs within the second spherical of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at McCarthey Athletic Center on March 25, 2024 in Spokane, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and the FBI are investigating after a crew within the NCAA Women’s basketball event stated they have been racially harassed whereas staying within the metropolis.

Members of the University of Utah ladies’s crew advised police somebody in a truck displaying a accomplice flag yelled racial slurs and revved the engine in a menacing approach as gamers and employees walked to dinner final Thursday. They say that very same truck and a second have been ready because the crew returned from dinner and adopted them again to their resort.

Utah’s crew, and the ladies’s crew from the University of California, Irvine, have been staying within the north Idaho city to take part within the basketball event in close by Spokane, Washington.

“It was really upsetting,” stated Utah Head Coach Lynne Rogers. “And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, that’s messed up.”

The NCAA says it labored with the groups and event web site host Gonzaga University to get the groups further safety. Utah’s crew was relocated to a resort in Spokane the subsequent day. UC Irvine returned residence Saturday after being eradicated from competitors.

“I strongly condemn the appalling treatment of the female college athletes who are visiting Coeur d’Alene prior to the beginning of the basketball tournament in Spokane,” stated Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond at a press convention Tuesday.

The incident occurred in part of the Pacific Northwest that was as soon as synonymous with hate teams and has these days seen an increase in extremism even amont its elected officers. Coeur D’Alene and northern Idaho grew to become often called a haven for extremism and racist teams within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s when the Aryan Nations relocated its headquarters there. Skinheads held parades within the Nineteen Nineties. Activity declined following a lawsuit, however two summers in the past 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front have been arrested there, with plans to disrupt a queer pleasure occasion.

“This is yet another example to those individuals who claim incorrectly that racism is no longer a problem. They are wrong,” Tony Stewart with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations stated on the press convention, carried by KXLY tv.

“We are witnessing a troubling growth of a very toxic environment in our country and locally, by individuals and organized extremist groups to advance many forms of hatred,” Stewart stated.

Idaho governor Brad Little, Gonzaga University and the NCAA launched statements condemning the incident.

Local police are working with the FBI to research, and asking the 100-some individuals who could have witnessed the harassment s to report what they noticed.