Leaders of the local group telling our community how the police should do their job have no training or experience in law enforcement and criminal justice. But they have been frequent subjects of police calls for assistance and the subjects of arrests.
I have obtained their Port Townsend police records. These are public records. I have also requested their records from the Jefferson and Clallam County Sheriff Offices, and am awaiting a response. I do know that one prominent Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County organizer has a felony record for a vehicular theft compounded by a police chase in which he struck a horse then led police on a foot chase. He objects to the fact they had to draw their weapons to make him stop running. That incident occurred when he was a minor. But his contacts with police did not stop then.
I am not going to name these people because the purpose here is not to cause embarrassment or trouble with employment. The purpose here is to let our community know who is driving this defund, disarm and abolish attack on our local law enforcement. These are the people making fantastical accusations about vigilante and white supremacy groups operating in Jefferson County, of Blacks being lynched here, of an incurably racist, oppressive system that can only be fixed by tearing it down and turning it over to “the people.”
These are the people who have attacked the character and integrity, the professionalism and the humanity of our police officers and deputies. Just who are they?
Each of the described incidents comes straight from Port Townsend Police incident and case reports.
The Arrests
Attempted Residential Burglary
A Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County organizer was arrested for attempted residential burglary on March 15 of this year. A resident of Polk Street called 911 to report that a man was trying to open their front door and would not leave. The homeowner had felt the need to arm himself. This person kept banging on the door and demanding to enter, according to the transcript of the 911 call, for a full 5 or 6 minutes, even when told police had been called. He left the porch as police approached and was stopped about half a block away. He matched the description in the 911 call and was positively identified by the homeowner who had been looking directly at him through the front door window as he tried to get in. The BLM organizer said the homeowner was lying and he had just been riding his bike past the house. A police officer confronted him with the fact the house in question was at the dead end of street, at the edge of a cliff, so there was no way he could have been “just riding by.” He was known to the police from prior incidents (described below) and lived on the opposite side of town.
The BLM organizer, according to police reports, “was obviously intoxicated by the way he spoke” with “the strong odor of intoxicants coming off him.” Police took him first to the hospital emergency room for clearance. The BLM organizer did not understand why he was under arrest “and did not seem to understand that trying to get into someone’s home was a crime.” He demanded that his “mom and dad” be brought to the hospital, was told he could call them from jail, then insisted that he had the right to have his parents there. The officer told him that, as this individual was over 30 years old, he had no right to have his parents brought to him, but did have a right to an attorney.
He began telling the officer he was “a dick” and “a piece of shit” and refused to stand up. The officer needed the assistance of hospital security to get him to his feet, at which point the BLM organizer told the officer, “you know what’s funny? You’re a piece of shit.” The interchange was recorded by the officer.
Bench Warrants, Repeated Arrests and Other Police Contacts
A current, prominent Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County organizer was arrested in May 2016 on a warrant out of Jefferson County District Court for failure to appear at a hearing on the charge of driving on suspended license. He was rearrested three days later for the same underlying offense–driving on a suspended license, with the additional charge of possession of a controlled substance. Just over a year later, the BLM organizer was arrested again for driving on a suspended license. In addition, Port Townsend police–the same police he now accuses of inherent, incurable racism–as a courtesy let him know in 2018 that a warrant out of Port Angeles had been issued for his arrest and encouraged him to respond responsibly instead of taking him into custody once more.
This BLM organizer was a subject in a call involving a domestic dispute between two couples. His actions amounted to assault but he was let off with a lecture instead of being charged and arrested. The officer observed in his report that all four individuals in the altercation appeared to be under the influence of marijuana. This individual was also involved in another domestic dispute call the previous year and accused of having made threats.
A local Black Lives Matter spokesperson has been caught multiple times violating traffic safety laws. Port Townsend police, as is their policy, sought to educate rather than punish him. In these incidents he was stopped and warned about lacking a front license plate, riding a bicycle at night without any front or rear lights, running a red light at night and having no valid identification.
This individual was the subject of a night time 911 call from an employee of a downtown business. He reported someone with a bicycle yelling “in a weird way” and hearing “thumping,” which conceivably was him banging on parked cars. The responding officer observed that this person “HBD” (had been drinking”) and fell off his bike as he attempted to pick up money he had dropped. He refused a ride home from the officer.
Calling Police for Help
Black Lives Matter organizers who have called for abolishing police and accused them of racism just by being police have not been reluctant to call for and accept help from those same police when they need it.
A prominent Black Lives Matter organizer has made no less than eight calls requesting police assistance dealing with transients, vandalism, a suspicious person, a dog, and, in a desperate call for help, pleading with police to find his girlfriend who was evading court ordered drug therapy. He wanted police to take her into custody over night then put her on the bus that would take her to her treatment facility. Police had no probable cause to take her into custody but did undertake a search for her out of concern for her safety.
A Black Lives Matter organizer has twice called police for help when he felt he was being threatened.
A Black Lives Matter organizer’s passport was dropped off at the police department. Police tried to find him, could not, so they left the passport with his brother.
Coming to the Rescue
On August 5, 2020, a 911 call from a woman living across the street from Fort Worden State Park reported a crash and a man stumbling at the front entrance. The 911 log reflects concern that this individual was injured and may have a broken knee. The Fort Worden Ranger did not respond and State Highway patrol was not available, so a Port Townsend police officer went to the scene. He found a bicycle crumpled “like a soda can” and the post that secured the front gate dented and pushed back, causing a rut in the pavement at its base. A Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County organizer was bleeding from a knee and hand and smelled of marijuana. It appeared to the officer that he may have urinated on himself. This person gave a fake name and only truthfully identified himself when the officer assured him he would not be arrested for DUI on a bicycle. He made up a story about a phantom car side-swiping him. A witness to the accident said there had been no car present before the crash. It was clear to the officer what had happened: this individual who smelled of marijuana had been traveling at a high rate of speed down the Cherry Street hill and ran head on into the closed gate. A tire mark on the damaged stop sign on the gate showed the point of impact. The area was dark, without any overhead lights. He was not wearing his eyeglasses and did not have a front light on his bicycle.
No Complaints of Racism or Abusive Conduct
In all twenty-nine contacts between police and Black Lives Matter organizers, not one complaint was lodged that the police had acted in a racist or abusive manner. Indeed, in the data supplied by the Port Townsend police to the City Council’s ad hoc Committee on Public Safety and Law Enforcement, there is not one complaint that police have mistreated anyone because of race, skin color or ethnicity. Going back to 2017, there are only eight complaints. Some are comical, such as a person who had accosted an officer not appreciating the officer’s joke that they could be charged with “illegal finger pointing.” All were investigated, including one from a complainant who claimed she had been harassed into pornography and sex by the Chief and was suffering joint pain and muscle spasms due to “dark lasers.” All complaints were determined to be unfounded.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
Well… That’s the thing about a small community. Not much can be hidden when you have a competing news outlet like Port Townsend Free Press not wiling to sweep things under the proverbial rug. Thank you!