BOISE, Idaho — Boise City Councilwoman Lisa Sanchez has been on the receiving end of multiple hateful messages over the last several months. On Thursday, she received a direct message on Instagram sarcastically thanking her for "ruining Boise" and calling her the "scum of the Earth".
This message, however, is just one of the dozens she has been sent.
Sanchez, who currently has a recall campaign against her, has received an influx of hateful messages since she wrote an open letter to 18-year-old Michael Wallace, the man arrested for shooting a gun during a protest at the state capitol on June 1.
In the letter, Sanchez wrote "your son won the race lottery" and "he tested the boundary of his white supremacy."
She signed the letter "Lisa Sanchez, a brown woman who chose not to have children for fear of their abuse and murder by white people."
While hateful messages have increased since that post went public on social media, Sanchez has been receiving them since she decided to run for office in 2017.
Calling them "a distraction" Sanchez has chosen to not remember most of them. She said if she were to spend all her time collecting all the hateful words directed at her, she would do nothing else. And she has work to do.
"I think it is important for the public to know that this is what some elected officials face in doing their work," Sanchez said. " I thought [this message] was poignant because I think some of my fellow council members felt some kind of way and thought that I wasn't denouncing the protests that were happening at their house. I didn't know how to respond to that and I thought 'I need to show why I haven't'. It's because I have plenty on my plate and I have been handling it all by myself."
When Boise City Council President Elaine Clegg was confronted with protestors in front of her home, citizens and elected officials were quick to stand up for her, according to Sanchez. She feels she has not received the same support.
"I love my colleagues, but quite honestly they set the tone when they, for months, allowed me to stand alone and face this community," Sanchez said. "It is painful but at the same time I finally for the first time feel my colleagues are now having an experience that can provide them some context and empathy for what I've been experiencing quite frankly all my life."
Sanchez said people are afraid to speak up because of an underlying fear they will be treated the same way she has been treated. She does not expect the hate to stop unless people begin to speak out.
One of her colleagues, first-year councilman Jimmy Hallyburton, has spoken up. He referred to Sanchez as a friend and a mentor and mentioned they have voted similar to one another at council meetings.
In a Facebook post, Hallyburton acknowledges that this is not the first threatening or hateful message Sanchez has received. He also admitted that he has received similar messages.
"That one was the first one I actually saw in front of me and it made me really sad and it made me really scared," Hallyburton said. "She has to deal with this on a regular basis. We voted pretty similarly on a lot of issues, I've never had to deal with any of that before in my entire life."
While he has received some hateful messages, it is nothing to the extent Sanchez has. Hallyburton, however, believes he knows why.
"Because I'm white, because I'm a dude, because I look like a lot of other people who are sending these things, I get a lot more permission to mess up without it becoming a major issue," Hallyburton said. "For somebody to mess up or misspeak, and then your automatic response is to recall them, I have that extra privilege. It's something I'm really lucky for and its something that when I do see it, I speak out."
The Instagram account that sent that message to Sanchez does not exist anymore.
Sanchez sent the message to Boise police. After speaking with an officer, she was told the message was not a direct threat. She has not heard anything more from them at this time.
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