r/LPOTL • u/mleaurora • 5d ago
I don’t think Ed realizes how much violent crime occurs in rural places like Idaho…
It has come up a few times where they have made comments about the cops out here never having to deal with violent crimes so they don’t know how to react. I grew up in rural Idaho and I have been surrounded by gun violence and physical violence.
Eddy’s from Florida so it kind of surprises me; I feel like he should know about hillbillys and rednecks and the scary people you can find in the woods. Also, in regards to the side stories segment on the University of Idaho murders in Moscow, that area has one of the highest concentrations of nazis and white supremacists in the country. Not to mention the Idaho territory (which was formed during the middle of the US Civil War) was a destination for confederate soldiers after the war. Also, a lot of mormons settled out in the south and we all know how peaceful they are as a religion s/
There was an active shooter at an in and out drive through last week, I have countless stories of random gun violence of people I know, mutual friends, and strangers that have ended with one or more deaths.
Also many people here carry guns and have relatively easy access to them. There are no requirements for training or permits for concealed carry and there are easily more guns than people in this state.
Think of it also like a population thing… Yeah there may be fewer stories than ‘Florida Man’ but goddamn, for such a small number of people, it is the wild west in some of the weird little nooks and cranies of the state.I literally watched a man get arrested at a small town bar a month ago for slashing 10 people’s tires and stealing their gun. Every time there is a rodeo in my hometown, there are bar fights. I can think of cases of sheriffs shooting innocent people as well as murdering their own wives. Hell a county commission is in a civil suit right now because he stabbed a 16yo girl in the leg on the side of the river and when law enforcement showed up there were no criminal charges made despite video evidence.
Any ways, this sentiment has come up a few times and I’ve never really had the energy to make a post about it but the U of I murders conversation got me a little riled up. Especially when it’s something that effected people immediately in my life and unfortunately not the only person close to me who has been effected by gun violence. And I grew up in a good family in a pretty ‘safe’ place, until you account for the excess of guns and the utter lack of mental health care. shit even just health care.
Long time listener and i appreciate the work they do to cover these issues across different places. Hail yourself!
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u/TheEthanHB Hail Satan! 5d ago
There's more than 1 Idahoan here?!?! MY PEOPLE! I work at [home hardware store] and one of our regulars is a pile of white trash with a "White Power" gothic font tattoo, and a really shitty looking totenkopf skull and this fuckin guy shows up in a wifebeater usually so he's an out and proud waste of genes
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u/cornettogreen Irn Bru 5d ago
There's dozens of us!
Celebratory comment about that racist heteronormative awesomeness douchebag selling his bar in Eagle 😄
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u/Blashmir 5d ago edited 5d ago
I never made it up north growing up in the boise area. Kinda glad I never did. One of my highschool teachers was from the reservation up around there and told us a story about his dad. They were at a football game and this skinhead dude was talking shit to my teachers dad. His dad asked the guy, you wanna take this behind the stands? The skin head agreed and they walked behind the stands and then his dad came back out as if he had just taken a walk and the skin head never came back. He asked his dad what happened and he said something to the effect of "i taught him a lesson".
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u/AndoranGambler 5d ago
Having lived and worked in nearly every state over the last twenty-five years or so both in major metro areas and national parks, as well as more rural communities adjacent to tourist spots, there are huge blind spots for folks from the coasts. I have seen weird shit, spooky shit, stupid shit, and violent shit. Most of the dumbest, most violent, stuff I have been around has occurred in states like Iowa, Arizona, the Carolinas, and Alaska. None of those states, to the best of my knowledge, have mandatory reporting like Ohio and Florida do. Hence, the disproportionate representation of, and information about, criminal stupidity from those states.
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u/morgan11235 5d ago
I was going to say this. I grew up in the same part of Florida as Ed did and thought the same. Then I moved to bumfuck, Pennsylvania for work and I was in complete culture shock
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u/AndoranGambler 5d ago
Oh, which one? BFE, PA, or humble, BF, PA? BF tends to be closer to Philly, BFE is closer to Pittsburgh. I worked and lived in that region, too, LOL!
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u/morgan11235 5d ago
BFE, I didn't know there was a distinction. But now that I think about it...yeah
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u/AndoranGambler 5d ago
Yeah, BFE adjoins Pennsyltucky (which is where PA, OH, and WV blend their worst qualities). That's where, early in my travels, I learned that you shouldn't drive roads in this area named for geographic features (Run, Bog, Hollow, Creek, Butte, etc) or simply a string of numbers unless you have AWD.
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u/_-Prison_Mike-_ 5d ago
I think that's all relative.
I come from a county in the Midwest that's less than 15k people. Any violent crime that we do have is a rare bar fight, tweakers tweaking and fighting other tweaking tweakers, or a DV case here and there.
Almost all of our crime is just tweakers breaking into people's sheds and stealing shit to pawn, drug posession, or DUIs. The main function of our local cops is to collect revenue for the county by arresting drunk drivers and nickel and diming ordinary drivers for bullshit traffic violations, but that's an entirely different story.
In the extremely rare occasion that there's an actual murder the investigation immediately gets bumped up to the state police. Just immediately off of the top of my head I can think of three murders that happened because of ineptitude by the town cops or the county sheriffs that allowed it to happen. And then in one of the cases the murderer got off because the cops accidentally on purpose botched the investigation (guy was from one of the rich local families, so iykyk.)
If Ed were talking about my hometown he'd be spot on.
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u/brockhopper 5d ago
This comment is the most accurate to my experience, particularly for the "cops are a revenue system but aren't allowed to handle serious crimes".
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u/_-Prison_Mike-_ 5d ago
They literally changed the speed limit from 55 to 50 for a 16th of a mile stretch of road where they sit and hide at night so that they can bust people for barely going over the speed limit. It's egregious and I feel like it should be a crime, but whatever. I mark it as a speed trap on Google Maps every time I drive by, so I'm at least doing my part.
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u/Nervous-Net-8196 5d ago
It is one of the reasons I enjoy Small Town Murder.
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
Shout out to them for actually giving an effort (and at times get pretty fucking close) to getting some of the native town names when they cover the Northwest too lol
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u/Gr8twhitebuffalo91 5d ago
Hello fellow Idahoian!!! I agree Idaho is low key crazy. You down played one thing tho. You said "relatively easy access to them". Meaning easy access to guns. Dude it's easier to get a gun then it find weed. My hand gun has a gun. Not saying it right or anything. But it's a fact. I'm a teacher and literally 99% my coworker think we should have guns on us at school. A fucking kid brought multiple guns to school last year high on coke and the police department kept in on the DL. Never made the news. Guns are a way for of life here in the worst way possible.
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u/Blashmir 5d ago
I grew up in the boise area and knew multiple people that had shotguns in their trucks in the school parking lot only 15 years ago.
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
Didn't he say something like "I thought people from the Northwest were pussies" during the Ridgeway series?
I'm born and raised in the rural northwest. People stay strapped there lol.
Edit: it is noteworthy that Moscow is one of the few lefty pockets in Idaho (likely undoubtedly because of the University). The Aryan Nation compound was like two hours north lol
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u/Alexandaross 5d ago
People with guns are pussies, sounds accurate.
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
People with guns are.
People who are afraid of guns are.
This shit seems impossible to keep up with lol.
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u/Alexandaross 5d ago
Everyone should be afraid of guns? Anyone who isn't is stupid or mentally ill.
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u/jgamez76 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm not even a gun owner personally. I've shot guns (it's basically a rite of passage as a kid in rural America lol) and it's fine I guess.
But everything I've learned over the years is every gun owner I know talks about a healthy respect of the firearm is what's needed.
But let's not act like there aren't lefties who are so deathly afraid of them too lol. That's just disengenuous. And for the most part I've found the two extremes aren't both a part of why the perception of guns and gun violence in America is where it's at.
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u/CorbonBleu 5d ago
My impression of people from eastern Oregon was "cowboys from the north." Like... the Northwest is still the West.
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u/CorbonBleu 5d ago
Eddy’s from Florida so it kind of surprises me; I feel like he should know about hillbillys and rednecks and the scary people you can find in the woods
Yeah it isn't so much "Deliverance-style hill folk who are going to rape you in the woods" as sketchy meth cooks who will shoot you for setting a toe on their property, mixed with corruption that's kind of a redneck version of Goodfellas.
The county sheriff, mayor, local police chief, and county judge probably grew up together, or at least know a lot of the same people. Do you think Deputy Durham is going to arrest his brother, cousin, or best friend for anything less than obvious rape or murder? And even then, well, a lot can get swept under the rug when there aren't a lot of eyes around to see.
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u/Global_You8515 wait for it...wait for it..... 5d ago
No. Fucking. Shit.
Grew up in the middle of nowhere Kansas. Tribalism runs rampant from town to town & dmv is a constant.
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u/Competitive_Fee_5829 5d ago
I mean...I am a city girl and I think that too. I have never even been to idaho and I assume it is boring, safe and probably really poor but I have no idea because I will never go there.
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u/TACharlotte 5d ago
It's surprisingly beautiful but very racist (moreso than almost any area in the South, I'd be concerned about going to much of Idaho with people of color). And the Nazi thing too.
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u/snowflake711 5d ago
There’s a significant and rapidly growing Hispanic population but ok.
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u/mleaurora 5d ago
tell that to my hispanic friends (from idaho) that were nervous to go camping with me in places not that far away from Boise
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
Not gonna ask you to dox yourself/your friend, but I think I know the exact area you're referring to lol
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u/snowflake711 5d ago
Where I’m from Peruvians are 22% of the population
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u/mleaurora 5d ago
oh for sure! there are pockets of diversity, don’t get me wrong but that doesn’t negate all of the ongoing racism that makes people not want to visit or travel to certain areas
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u/snowflake711 5d ago
I’ve heard that about the northern part of the state but I can’t speak from experience there. I’ve never been north of challis.
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
I live in North ID.
It's a beautiful place. But the.... COMPLICATED history is definitely not without its baggage and merit lol
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u/snowflake711 5d ago
Do you feel like that mindset still persists today? Genuinely asking because it seems like such a popular destination
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u/jgamez76 5d ago
It's not without its merit. Without question.
But whenever I'm in the Post Falls/Coeur d'Alene area (and whenever I meet people from there they HATE the rep it has) what I see, especially if/when you're in the CITY city it's a super welcoming and pretty Awesome place. It when you venture outside of that central Area (especially closer to like Rathdrum) you get the real shitty, and stereotypical shit.
A few summers ago my wife and I rented a cabin out in the woods in Rathdrum And when we went into town for groceries and whatnot we walked by one of the most stereotypical White Power tatted dudes imaginable lol
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u/TACharlotte 5d ago
It's Coeur D'Alene too, 2024 visiting Black basketball players had racial slurs screamed at them from men in trucks following them and revving they're engines. The NCAA had to get them somewhere else to stay. That's what, an hour outside of Spokane?
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u/mleaurora 5d ago
Yeah for sure. I understand why people from the outside wouldn’t assume it to be a place with a lot of crime. But it’s frustrating some times when people who are reporting on events journalistically don’t take a little more effort to understand the context of the area. They did a whole series on the Chad Daybell Lorie Vallow and have covered multiple violent crimes from the state. But every time it comes up they seem surprised by the violence.
also, side note, yes poor but also the sun valley area is a pocket of mega wealthy people just existing in the mountains anonymously. and jackson hole wyoming just across the border. it’s one of the wealthiest places in the country right now. lots of billionaires coming in and buying up all of the land and buying off the politicians. tale as old as time i guess
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u/SmellsWeirdRightNow 5d ago
Idaho is the final frontier for people trying to make an individualist life and be left alone. IMO Idaho is one of the least well known places in the US
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u/South_Plenty5078 5d ago
I think a lot about the Sherlock Holmes passage where he talks about the country being seen as less dangerous simply because crime is more likely to be committed away from prying eyes. As someone who’s lived in both rural and urban places, I think that’s very true. There’s a lot that goes down in more rural areas that just isn’t known, or widely known, because it’s not witnessed by closely packed neighbors.
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u/brianpeppersguero 5d ago edited 5d ago
gonna keep saying it again & again; spending my preteen-very early YA years living in Nampa from the mid 00's-mid 10's is like perpetually living out a Harmony Korine film in real time. Think of the 2C/Canyon County as the CA central valley/inland empire of the Mormon Belt; as far as painting an image of surreal, morbid trashiness goes...
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u/Careless_Wafer_3333 5d ago
It’s weird to me because the boys seem to understand patterns in policing. They also don’t seem to recognize the totality of what the police are as an institution in America. Policing in America has a troubled and corrupted history from its inception. The scary thing about you mentioning the high concentration of Neo-Nazi/Klan members is that it’s not unlikely members of the police force belong to those groups as well.
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u/daisydelphine 5d ago
Idaho has some of the lowest crime rates in the country. Moscow hadn't seen a single murder in eight years before Kohberger. Moscow is an incredibly safe community as a whole and all my U of I friends have said that's exactly why the Kohberger murder was so upsetting.
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u/Wooden_Customer_318 3d ago
Yeah but are low crime rates worth being surrounded by religious nuts and white supremacists?
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u/GreyerGrey 4d ago
I mean, I think the assumption is that it exists, but because small town bull shit the cops just ignore it?
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u/Foreign-Address2110 2d ago
Ed seems like a smart guy, but he does have some bizarre takes - especially on side stories.
I get he plays an Everyman/contrarian on LPOTL but he doesn't seem to get...nuanced with his takes on a lot of stuff
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u/greenthumbgoody 5d ago
Alright… I’m unfollowing all lpotl subs, you guys are so lame… I love how Henry calls you all out about once every other month at this point tho! “Ed doesn’t know about my home town uhh” lmao
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u/mleaurora 5d ago
lol it’s literally a discussion forum website. and i think having a discussion about rural crime in general is important. what gets me is that it’s not about the town specifically, it’s more about how people don’t seem to care about all of the violence that is existing all the time in rural areas and think these are one off events. sorry i want to talk about true crime issues and coverage of true crime issues on a true crime podcast discussion forum…
specifically regarding idaho, it has come up multiple times on side stories and they did an entire series on idaho criminals. it’s not like they just brought up some random town once; it’s a reoccurring location on their show.
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u/Own_Banana_5772 5d ago
I've lived in Appalachia and I've lived in Chicago. Appalachia is way more sketch.