How Trump's lawlessness is emboldening bad cops
An ugly incident in Idaho is likely a harbinger of things to come.
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As three men manhandled Teresa Borrenpohl at a Republican town hall on February 22 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Sheriff Bob Norris stood nearby, filming what was quickly becoming a violent and attention-grabbing encounter.
Norris didn’t step in to help Borrenpohl. Instead, he sided with the men — three private security guards dressed in all black with no bearings or badges — warning Borrenpohl that he would pepper spray her. (You can watch footage of the incident below. Warning — it’s disturbing.)
The day after the incident, Norris began posting to his Facebook page. With no caption, he shared a photo of a MAGA hat. The next day, he posted a photo of himself grinning with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and another photo with members of the NYPD at Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential inauguration. He also posted the results of his recent election, in which he garnered 70 percent of the vote. Finally, Norris posted a statement from a member of the Republican group that held the event from which Borrenpohl was removed.
“None of this would have happened if Borrenpohl had been respectful of others,” said Brent Regan of the Kootenai County Central Republican Committee in the post shared by Norris.
While Norris was busy posting pro-Trump material on his Facebook page, the video of the attack on Borrenpohl was going viral. Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White quickly announced that the charges against Borrenpohl — who allegedly bit one of the security guards — would be dropped.
Norris has mostly avoided speaking to the press about the incident, but a review of his online footprint shows that he is awash in far-right beliefs, Public Notice and American Doom have found. He appears to be part of a troubling wing of US law enforcement that considers itself culture warriors who bear allegiance to Trump.
In an increasingly divided nation primed for protests and other events that will inevitably involve police, this wing of law enforcement could play a pivotal role in determining the level of violence carried out on behalf of a president who has explicitly called for it.
As Trump flouts court orders, threatens Democratic officials, militarizes immigration enforcement, and threatens use of the military at protests, rightwing Americans — from members of Congress to local police — are becoming emboldened and defensive of the policies coming from the White House.
Borrenpohl is far from alone in making her voice heard at an event held by Republican elected officials. Just in the past week, citizens across the country have been showing up at town halls held by members of Congress to express their opposition to Republican policies and Trump administration actions, to the point that GOP insiders are warning elected officials to avoid such events altogether.
But rowdy voters at town halls could just be the start. As spring turns to summer and the daily onslaught of attacks on democracy continues to flow from the White House, widespread street protests — and counter-protests — are a real possibility. And it will be local law enforcement agencies bearing the brunt of the growing strife between red and blue America, with their actions becoming a test of their loyalty to the Constitution and democratic ideals over their fondness for Trump.
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Norris falls squarely on the side of law enforcement officials who appear ready to ignore their oaths and duties in order to carry out Trump’s wishes, regardless of their legality or consequences.
“‘You’re letting them assault her,’ that’s what I kept yelling at him,” Borrenpohl’s friend, Tamara Sines-Kermelis, told Public Notice and American Doom. “A lot of other people were standing up and sharing their concerns, but when we have our county sheriff looking like he’s directing things, it was very intimidating.”
With broad support among police for Trump’s authoritarian policies and rhetoric, the addition of private security forces to the law enforcement apparatus is a troubling sign of rightwing extremism transitioning from policy to boots-on-the-ground practice.
In recent weeks, members of Elon Musk’s private security detail have been deputized by the US Marshals, giving them some legal authority to act as law enforcement officials. Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and others have pitched the Trump administration on an idea to allow a “private army” to conduct immigration raids and enforcement. And a state lawmaker in Mississippi has proposed a program that would allow citizens to become “bounty hunters” to find and turn over undocumented immigrants to law enforcement.
Meanwhile, ICE is deputizing thousands of police officers across the country to carry out federal immigration enforcement through the agency’s 287(g) program. So far during the Trump administration, 138 law enforcement agencies in 12 states have signed up for the program, allowing them to detain immigrants regardless of whether they’ve committed a crime.
Norris did not respond to questions for this story. Laura Tenneson, a friend of Borrenpohl’s who spoke to Public Notice and American Doom on her behalf, said that without the video, the truth about the encounter would never have come out.
“I think that our video is so important for this matter because a lot of our elected officials lie,” she said. “We do not trust them to tell the truth, and so when Teresa turned to us and said, ‘get this all on video,’ I took that as my job.”
Scenes from an authoritarian state
Borrenpohl was one of a handful of local residents who attended the event to protest. She interrupted speakers several times, Norris and others have said, but was the only protester to be removed. As three private security guards working for a company called Lear Asset Management attempted to remove her, Norris stood by, filming with his phone. Borrenpohl and others repeatedly asked Norris who the men were, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he threatened to pepper spray Borrenpohl.
Borrenpohl was eventually removed from the event space and allegedly bit one of the security guards, for which she was initially charged with a misdemeanor. The charges have since been dropped, and Police Chief White has condemned the actions of Norris and security. Norris has claimed he had no involvement in the hiring of private security and was simply there to monitor the event after a local man had threatened one of the speakers.
The situation drew national attention when a video of Borrenpohl’s removal went viral. (You can watch it toward the top of this post.) Many were incensed at the actions of Norris, whose online posts and career history show a member of law enforcement who is aligned with far-right belief systems.
Another friend of Borrenpohl’s, Laura Tenneson, says Norris has declared himself part of the constitutional sheriff’s movement, a far-right network and belief structure rooted in the idea that sheriffs are the last line of defense between colonial-era concepts of liberty and freedom and a tyrannical federal government. Its adherents have become prominent voices across a variety of culture war battles, from opposition to covid vaccines to election denialism and immigration enforcement.
“This definitely fits into the greater scheme of things in North Idaho,” said Tenneson, noting the region’s history of white supremacist, separatist, and nationalist politics. “For a long time we have not had faith in him as a law enforcement officer.”
Norris has a significant online paper trail detailing his far-right beliefs, Public Notice and American Doom have found.
Norris says he got his start in law enforcement when he served with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. His service during the LA riots of 1992 following the beating of Rodney King by several members of the LAPD appears to have been a formative experience for him, according to Facebook posts discovered by Public Notice and American Doom and other online material. In April 2022, Norris took to his Facebook page to weigh in on the unrest following the killing of George Floyd two years prior, sharing photos from his time on the streets of Los Angeles during the riots in 1992.
“I never thought I would see anything close to the Rodney King Riots of 1992. I was wrong,” Norris wrote. “What happened in our country throughout regions across this nation, since May of 2020, was shameful.”
Like many Trump supporters, the unrest following Floyd’s killing was a formative experience for Norris. The American right has used the unrest, looting, and violence that followed Floyd’s murder to justify a range of Trump’s excesses, including his January 6 coup attempt. Norris adhered to a typical rightwing argument about the unrest of 2020 when he wrote an op-ed for a local newspaper in 2021, saying the carnage of that summer amounted to “attacks against law enforcement by thugs and politicians.”
In the same op-ed, he defended his actions in an incident that occurred just a week before, in which Norris threatened to pepper spray a man who was filming a traffic stop at which Norris was present. Norris tied that incident to the unrest following Floyd’s killing.
“The idea of local citizens using their video cameras with the intention of harassing our local officers and interfering with their duties, only to get characterized later online as if we were in the wrong, contributes toward this national disgrace,” Norris wrote.
Ruling over a county in northern Idaho — which is a haven for far-right extremist groups — Norris has not been shy about getting involved with culture war causes championed by Trump and Republicans. He refused to support covid guidelines like mask mandates during the pandemic. In 2023, he forcefully removed a sex education book from local libraries in line with rightwing protests and book bans nationwide. He supported citizens who armed themselves in the wake of Floyd’s killing and has spread questionable claims of threats from antifa during the unrest of 2020.
On the North Idaho Experience podcast, which recently hosted the author of a novel that fantasizes about a group of Americans violently resisting government tyranny, Norris touted his “plain-spoken” political messaging.
“We have evil in this community and in this country,” he said on the podcast last year, referring to alleged threats of violence from protesters in the Coeur d’Alene area following the killing of George Floyd.
Norris has said he’s received death threats following the incident involving Borrenpohl — a common charge from Trump supporters whose actions have gotten them in hot water— but did not answer questions from Public Notice and American Doom about the specific nature of those threats.
Tenneson said that she hopes the attention on the incident will help convince Americans to continue speaking out against Republican policies — including at town halls.
“I hope that this doesn’t scare people into staying home and being quiet, because that’s exactly what they want,” she said.
Justin Glawe is an independent journalist and the author of the forthcoming book “If I Am Coming to Your Town, Something Terrible Has Happened.” He writes the newsletter American Doom.
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I visited Coeur d’Alene last year to support a relative in a sports competition. It is a touristy town with a definite air of menace about it. Bumper stickers on big trucks advising Californians to enjoy their trip home, etc. Too bad such a beautiful place is infested with such nasty people.
The comments by the person on stage were clearly disrspectful, one-sided, agenda driven. It's pretty clear that the meeting was intended for a certain group.