No charges filed in racist incident against Utah’s women’s basketball team, NAACP responds
May 9, 2024, 10:15 AM | Updated: 10:39 am
FILE: Alissa Pili #35, Lani White #3, Dasia Young #34, Kennady McQueen #24, Inez Vieira #2, Reese Ross #20, and Nene Sow #25 of the Utah Utes celebrate win over the Colorado Buffaloes February 16, 2024. Police investigating racist incidents directed toward the Utah women's basketball team near an Idaho hotel say they've found an audio recording that clearly provides proof of a racial slur directed toward the team. (Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
(Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Jeanetta Williams, President of the NAACP Salt Lake Branch, is responding to the decision not to press charges against the 18-year-old accused of shouting racist slurs at the University of Utah women’s basketball team.
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On Thursday, Williams released a statement that said she disagreed with the decision of the northern Idaho prosecutor in the case.
Williams stated in part, “There is a huge difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. There needs to be consequences for these actions. If not, it will happen again. It is my hope that the NCAA will take into consideration of cities that are known to have radical groups to not hold their tournaments in these places.”
The incident took place on March 21, when the team was in Coeur d’Alene for the NCAA Tournament.
According to charging documents, Ryan Hunter, the prosecutor in the case, said that charging the 18-year-old man, “Would clearly violate Mr. Myers’s free speech rights as contemplated under both the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. I, sec. 9 of the Idaho Constitution”
