Confess that you are racists. Take out a newspaper ad to proclaim your guilt, demanded Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County of the Sheriff and Port Townsend Police Chief.

Port Townsend Free Press has obtained emails between Cameron Jones, who has identified himself as an organizer of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County (BLMCJC), and Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole and Port Townsend Acting Police Chief Troy Surber. Purporting to represent BLM Jeffco, Jones made these demands in a July 10, 2020 email.  In addition to a public confession of racism, Jones demanded that the public statement from the Sheriff and Police Chief “acknowledges BLMJC’s intentions” and “pledged to work with the community and BLMJC on realizing the intentions stated in our letter.”

One of those “intentions” was disarming police officers and deputies.

Much of the list of “Intentions” was vaporous stuff like agreeing that “Black lives matter.” Nobody disagrees with that unassailable statement, but then you get pulled into endorsing the political agenda of Black Lives Matter, Inc. and all that entails.

Sheriff Nole responded in general terms. “I am in total agreement with the Values of BLMJC,” he wrote to Jones on July 17. He was also in agreement with most of the items on their “Current List of Intentions, i.e., Invest in Community, Economic Justice, Protection of the First Amendment Rights and Protesters, and End White Supremacy and the War on Black People.” Who is not for investing in our community and protecting First Amendment rights? Who’s not against a war on Black people — if it exists? Who’s not against White supremacy — the dumb idea that White people are superior to everyone else by virtue of nothing more than skin color?

Sheriff Nole drew the line at agreeing with the demand to disarm the police and other matters controlled by union contracts and civil service rules.

And he did not agree to publicly flagellate himself and his deputies by confessing the sin of personal and institutional racism in a newspaper ad.

The demand for public humiliation was an escalation in Jones’ demands. Writing on behalf of himself, fellow BLM Jeffco organizer Sean Vinson and the group as a whole, Jones had cancelled a conciliatory Zoom meeting between BLM Jeffco and the Sheriff, Police Chief, County Commissioners Greg Brotherton and Kate Dean, Port Townsend City Councilor Ariel Speser and others and upped his demands.

I have not found any response from PT Acting Police Chief Troy Surber to Jones’ demand in the documents made available to me by the City of Port Townsend and Jefferson County. The cancelled Zoom meeting was not rescheduled. Neither the Sheriff nor Police Chief have issued the public confession demanded by Jones.

Who is Cameron Jones? Who is Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County?

Jones fired back at Sheriff Nole in a condescending and accusatory email a week after Nole did not accede to all of Jones’ demands. He rejected every effort at conciliation unless Nole issued “a direct and PUBLIC apology.” He accused Nole’s deputies of having within them “insidious behavioral mechanisms” acquired during prior military service. (Jones says he served in the military at Guantanamo Bay.) No matter what Nole did, Jones wrote, nothing mattered until Nole published an apology for his own and his department’s racism.

“Right now, since this basic first step seems so problematic, how can you ever imagine we’d have any confidence in your ability as a leader to create a culture within law enforcement that leads to substantial and meaningful policy and doctrinal change?” were Jone’s parting words.

Nole had agreed as part of his conciliatory efforts to participate in the KPTZ radio program, “The Reckoning,” that was broadcast a few weeks later. We wrote about that travesty in “Reckoning with the Reckoning.” Nole endured Jones throwing at him wild, unsupported accusations such as Nole permitting White supremacy and vigilante groups to operate in the county, five Black men being lynched, and Nole imprisoning 30% of Jefferson County’s Black residents. Nole handled the attacks with his usual courteous aplomb. Anyone who has interacted with him knows he is a patient, kind man. He was being humiliated, but he did not respond in kind, a code of conduct his own deputies have demonstrated to the people of this county over the years.

Nole could have, but did not object to being beseiged by a man who was arrested in March for trying to break into an occupied home in Port Townsend, and has had frequent problems resulting from substance abuse that have led to police involvement. We wrote about those incidents in our August 25 report, “Black Lives Matter Leaders Generated Police Calls for Help, Investigations and Arrests.” That report was limited to incidents within the boundaries of Port Townsend. Cameron Jones is the individual in that report who was arrested for attempted burglary, who did not understand it was wrong to break into someone else’s home, who lied to and verbally assaulted police officers and who insisted he could not be questioned unless police brought his parents to the police station (Mr. Jones is more than 30 years old). Mr. Jones is the individual in that report who was stopped repeatedly, but not arrested, for a variety of traffic violations that placed his own safety at risk. He was the individual whose conduct outside the Bishop Hotel led to an employee calling police. He was the individual who crashed head first into the closed Fort Worden gate, lied about his identity and was obviously intoxicated while bicycling.

We have just received records from Jefferson County about contacts between leaders of BLM Jeffco and law enforcement occurring outside Port Townsend. Our request to Clallam County is still pending.

Jefferson County records reveal numerous contacts going back years. They document an automobile theft followed by a high speed chase where the fleeing felon hit a horse, threats and assault, malicious mischief, driving multiple times on a suspended license, warnings about dangerous driving, arrest on warrants, and other matters.

But not one complaint that law enforcement conduct had anything to do with race. We asked for all complaints for anything close to racist conduct going back a decade. There are none, particularly none from any of the current Black Lives Matter leadership that has had many interactions with deputies.

Why no complaints of deputies mistreating anyone because of their race? Because it appears that, while doing their job to enforce the law, deputies also genuinely cared about people struggling with considerable problems and challenges. They searched for a BLM Jeffco leader who went missing after an anger management session. They made a mental health welfare check and searched for troubled runaway teen who later became a BLM leader. They cared when they found someone who became a BLM Jeffco leader unresponsive under the guard rail of the Highway 104 overpass above Center Road.

In a story published by the Leader, the BLM Jeffco leader found under that guard rail said he would not want to encounter Deputy Sheriff Andy Pernsteiner out of fear that he would be mistreated because of his race. It was Deputy Sheriff Andy Pernsteiner who saved that BLM leader from possibly dying of exposure on a cold, wet February night.

Sheriff Nole has declined a personal and departmental public confession of racism with good reason. It would not be true.