by Jim Scarantino | Sep 17, 2020 | General
Diversity not welcomed. Dissent and free speech punished. Different cultures, values, and faiths oppressed and marginalized. You’ve got to watch what you say and nod your head at the right time. Or else.
That is what Port Townsend is becoming.
This truth came to light painfully for many who participated in the more than 400 car, truck and motorcycle Back the Blue rally on August 30. Parents with children were subjected to verbal abuse, profane gestures and obscenities, along with a grown woman who dropped her pants and panties. Owners of businesses who have been here for decades, who have employed people of every race and nationality, found themselves being labelled racists and Nazis by other business owners. Kind, gentle senior citizens, people who never hesitate to step up to volunteer, who have kept alive traditions and annual celebrations, who built this place, were given the middle finger and told to “Go home. Get out of our town.”
Scroll through the Facebook page of Deputy Mayor David Faber, where you will find an elected official, supposedly sworn to represent and serve all the people, repeating the vitriol and instructing his circle to ignore anyone who doesn’t think like them, followed by hateful discussions about local businesses that are owned by proprietors who are, well, just different.
Different is no longer allowed in Port Townsend. This is not the “different strokes for different folks” crowd in charge anymore, the “do your own thing,” “live and let live” hangout of the hippies of yore who didn’t want to be pushed around and didn’t desire to push anyone around, either.
This is not just teenagers who don’t know any better. This is a public official calling for a large segment of the community to be shunned and maligned, with, as we will see in the discussion that follows, the foreseeable consequence of suffering harm. A growing number of people echo the sneering condescension of the Deputy Mayor towards “the repugnant cultural other”–simply defined as anyone who doesn’t think, talk, vote and act like them. The “repugnant cultural other” is the prism through which they view anyone outside their insular circle
This is harsh stuff. It has been building for years. People have been run out of our community because they are different. People who have raised families here wonder what has become of a town they loved.
It is ironic that for a city with prolific “Refugees Welcome” signs the targets of hatred have frequently been minority-owned businesses that trusted in the promises of this nation, specifically freedom of speech. There was the fudge shop on Washington Street that dared put a “Trump” sign in its window. The boycott and whisper campaign that resulted, whether it crushed their revenues or not, made it clear that this minority family was not welcome to participate in the American Dream, at least not in Port Townsend.
Lobo del Mar was a mixed-race and ethnically diverse, huge extended family that made this a better, livelier place to live. They were conservative and did not hide their values. The facts are murky, but they pulled out when it became unavoidably clear they were no longer welcome to be themselves in and around Port Townsend.
This summer, Black Lives Matter activists encouraged a boycott of two immigrant-owned businesses because a red truck painted with a Culp for Governor emblem and “All Lives Matter” was frequently parked on their premises and the businesses displayed political signs with which the activists disagreed. Sure, they went after the owner of the truck and are still at it, but they also encouraged harm to the immigrant-owned businesses.
This same crowd went after another immigrant-owned business simply because it employed a girl who, in a moment of immaturity and stupidity, was recorded singing some offensive ditty. They wanted to hurt the girl, and they didn’t hesitate to hurt the business that employed her. They harassed the owner. They posted false derogatory reviews and comments on social media and consumer review websites. The owner had to let the girl go to protect himself. She grew up here, but has moved out of state for her own well-being.
As I was writing this, I got a Facebook message copying the explanation of a local business as to why they are leaving. They say because of their beliefs and their reluctance to endorse the Black Lives Matter movement their business had been “taken down” and they are selling out and moving out. Because they are still in the process of extricating themselves from the persecution I cannot reveal more at this time.
I wrote earlier this summer how the Deputy Mayor had sparked an ugly campaign against the owner of a Port Hadlock business park by exploiting false allegations as to why he had not permitted a Black Lives Matter sign in the window of the office of his tenant, the Jefferson Community Foundation. It was falsely alleged that he had been motivated by racism. It turned out the owner had a mixed race family and was simply enforcing a rule against any political signage that applied to all tenants. A bar and grill in Port Hadlock started getting false and damaging reviews because someone found a story we wrote about how this businessman had helped start the place two years ago. The businessman received so many hateful calls and emails he felt his personal security was threatened and left Jefferson County.
We’ve gotten the hate here. I’ve written about that before, and it never lets up. I am sure we’ll get more after this article is published.
I don’t like publishing articles from contributors under pen names. But some people do not feel safe identifying themselves. This is especially true of business owners. They know who is solidly in control of local government. They fear the whip. They’ve seen uppity business people punished.
What have we done to earn the attacks? We’ve spoken up, as is our right as American citizens. We haven’t toed the line. We see the world differently, consider facts some don’t want discussed, and reach different conclusions.
I was shocked to see prominent downtown business owners join in this chorus of vitriol. When you reach out to them to meet to try to understand why they are calling hundreds of their neighbors “racists”–people who come into their restaurants and bars and stores, whose homes they list for sale– they cover their tracks and pull up the drawbridge.
Do I now do all my shopping and dining elsewhere, and encourage my circle of contacts to spread the ‘boycott’ word? I’m not going there. This stuff has real potential to seriously damage this little community.
I launched Port Townsend Free Press because it startled me that people would thank me just for expressing ideas and beliefs they shared, but were afraid to say themselves. Something back then seemed very wrong to me, and now I am getting a better picture of the problem.
Learning to Talk to Each Other
Since the huge Back the Blue rally I’m reading “I don’t feel safe” on the social media of those who have attacked others. As far as I can tell, their insecurity springs from the recent realization that they are surrounded by lots of people quite different from themselves.
This was Sheriff Joe Nole’s observation, reported in The Leader. People “were freaking out” at that six-mile long Back the Blue motorcade. “They couldn’t believe what they were seeing,” he said.
One public effort at bridge building was reported by the Peninsula Daily News. It involved Oceana Van Lelyveld, owner of the Cellar Door pub, who was an instigator of sorts in blocking Water Street to the last cars of the Back the Blue rally (and dozens of uninvolved motorists). On her social media she branded participants as racists and worse (though it is hard to imagine a worse epithet). She was invited by a young man in one of those cars to meet and talk to try to understand each other. She ran with this to the newspaper to show how reasonable she was. The young man and Van Lelyveld set a date and place, but she backed out without explanation.
Can Port Townsend be a truly diverse community? It is going to have to find a way, because those people in those hundreds of cars and trucks that upset the apple cart are not going away. This is their home.
We need a substantive, honest effort to communicate with each other. We will begin that important work by talking without fear of ostracism, isolation, retaliation or banning–you know, what President Obama did with his “beer summit” between a White police officer and a Black Harvard academic.
With such heated passions at the moment, an alcoholic drink may not be the best solvent. So who’s up for coffee?
[Related: Brett Nunn’s observations as a long time resident of the sad turn being taken by the town he loves
and
Gabrielle Guthrie, When Nazis Secretly Live in Your Trees]
by Jim Scarantino | Sep 9, 2020 | General
The homeless and their activists on one side, homeowners and concerned parents on the other, and the Jefferson County Fairgrounds caught in the middle. Lines are forming in a struggle for the future of this piece of open land in the heart of Port Townsend. The homeless contingent wants up to five acres turned into either a temporary or permanent encampment. Nearby homeowners on all sides of the Fairgrounds, the Lynnsfield community on the forested hills above, the apartments at the south edge, North Beach and the neighborhood squeezed between the Fairgrounds and San Juan Avenue, are organizing to stop what they see as a a power grab that would hurt their communities, home values and their children.
Currently, a sizable number of people identifying as homeless have claimed the right to live at the Fairgrounds for free. Relying on the Governor’s eviction moratorium, they are refusing to pay rent or other compensation to the Fairgrounds Association. They use the washrooms and trash bins and have run a long cord across the open field to a refrigerator in a tent set up against the fence at the back of the apartments just outside the Fairgrounds.
The story of how they got there is a convoluted tale compressed into the time since the Governor’s COVID declarations started putting those housed by COAST in the American Legion basement out on the street or into a hotel, and then, for those who could “congregate,” into the Oscar Ericksen Building at the Fairgrounds. Some have moved back to the American Legion basement, while others are squatting on the Fairgrounds property.
During this time there has also been a contingent of those who can’t or won’t “congregate.” These are people who have difficulty in society (e.g., some combat veterans), women who have suffered violence, people who would rather keep a pet than accept housing, and people who refuse to follow rules and choose to continue abusing alcohol and drugs.
They are not a homogeneous group. Port Townsend’s homeless population, according to a city employee who wrote for us in 2018, is composed mostly of those suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues. Some of these people can be very violent. There are also the “Bohemians” who choose this lifestyle and exploit the community’s compassion and free services, criminals on the run and, last in number, people who have lost housing due to rising rents, unemployment, domestic abuse, and other emergencies. See “Knowing the Homeless,” PTFP, August 24, 2018, and also, “Knowing the Homeless: The Individuals on Port Townsend’s Streets,” PTFP, September 27, 2018.
In the homeless tent encampment at the Fairgrounds, I met people who told me they had overcome addictions, a military veteran, people who had job skills and incomes but could not afford rent in Jefferson County, and people who maintained neat camp areas and cooked for those less fortunate than themselves. I saw the more resourceful people caring for some damaged, fragile individuals. I saw a young man with a large garbage bag cleaning up trash. I saw a man who may have severe mental health issues, dressed in a winter coat on a hot day and with a nine iron on his shoulder.
On the basis of two visits at different times of the day, the homeless seem to be getting along with the paying campers. On a morning visit, I saw a family with children rolling out of their tent while not far away a group in the homeless encampment were brewing coffee.
There are different groups at the Fairgrounds, says housing activist Barbara Morey. Some live in rather decrepit trailers and vehicles in the middle of the field. Several woman have moved away from the tent campers to be off by themselves. “It’s a way of life, of survival,” says Morey. And while she does not know of any needle use by the homeless at the Fairgrounds, she says she does not know all of them, especially recent arrivals.
There are indeed recent arrivals. On my second visit I saw RVs and trailers backed into spaces where before people had been living in tents. A woman I spoke with at length is gone, chased out by a man whom she told the Board of County Commissioners in a public comment is a drug dealer with people working for him. I had also interviewed this man at length. While we were talking a dog ran by with a large steak in its mouth and he had to chase after it. He was cooking steaks for “the community” that night. The long electrical cord running across the field went to a refrigerator in his tent. The woman who fled says he is the point of contact with the local food bank and uses food to exert control. In another letter to the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners, in which she related her reasons for fleeing, she said she had gone to bed “without even a morsel” when she got on his bad side.
Drug use among the homeless in Port Townsend is a serious problem. In a 2018 photo essay for this site, Sky Hardesty documented bags of dope in the homeless camps at Kah Tai Park, and reported how drug dealers were using the homeless to move drugs though our community. In a recent essay here, Gabrielle Guthrie shared how the homeless have peddled illegal drugs to children in Jefferson County.
Flyer announcing neighborhood meeting on Fairgrounds controversy
Though Morey says she walks her dog every day at the Fairgrounds and has seen no evidence of needle use, discarded needles are a concern for neighbors who convened an outdoor meeting of about 25 people in a driveway on August 27. They won’t walk their dogs on the Fairgrounds, they say, because of discarded needles in the grass. They say that since the homeless moved in they have also seen discarded needles scattered near the Fairgrounds and on trails leading from the Fairgrounds. They report that two young girls walking their dog on one of those trails came across a man shooting up in the middle of the day.
A recent letter to the BOCC from a neighbor northeast of the Fairgrounds reported multiple instances of the honor box for their small farm being vandalized and stolen and having to call police for a man who passed out on their property. They wrote of hearing from neighbors of sexual acts and defecation in public, fights, drug use, and other thefts. The Fairground in the last week reported to police that its overnight cash box had been stolen.
At the August 27 meeting, homeowners talked about three overdoses among the Fairgrounds homeless population, one requiring a helicopter evacuation. They talked of a trailer that burned down, of fights, loud arguments with threats of violence, open substance abuse, shouting matches and conflicts with neighbors outside the Fairgrounds. One woman related how blaring music at 3 a.m. drove her to her balcony to plead for it to be turned down. She got no response, so she dressed and drove around to the gate. At the fence behind her apartment she found the source of the noise inside a tent. The occupant did not respond when she shouted at him. He was passed out.
Since that meeting, one of the participants has reported to me that the area is experiencing thefts from mailboxes and stolen packages have been found ripped open on trails leading from the Fairgrounds.
Parents are worried that the proximity of a large homeless population poses a risk to their children. If the homeless population becomes a permanent fixture, there is concern that youth activities, like 4-H, will be lost.
A permanent homeless encampment would also pose very substantial challenges for the Jefferson County Fair when it resumes after the COVID closures.
Even the more stable homeless campers I met know there is a significant problem with other homeless who use drugs and engage in criminal conduct. “We’re not like them,” they told me. They say that the washrooms are locked at night because a homeless woman had moved into the ladies room and wrecked it–after it had just been remodeled.
I am not naming any of the individuals on either side. I was allowed to attend the meeting with homeowners on the condition, set mostly by one woman, that I take no photographs and use no names in anything I wrote. I won’t name the homeless individuals who shared their addiction and recovery stories and who leveled accusations against other homeless. I don’t want them risking retaliation from people who could easily be set off. (I have received direct threats from quite dangerous homeless individuals after writing about their violence in Kah Tai Park. I don’t want to put anyone else through that by using their names, especially people living in vulnerable circumstances.)
The neighbors, some of whom own the apartments within a dozen yards of the homeless encampment, are angry that no one from the County and no homeless activists had come to ask them how they feel about a huge change to their neighborhood.
At the end of the meeting they discussed how to get organized and shared contact information for County Commissioners and the mayor. One woman said she will be getting the police reports that could show how crime and emergency calls have increased since the homeless took up residence on the Fairgrounds. They lamented that “the homeless are more organized than we are.”
There are a number of proposals to create a permanent camp at the Fairgrounds for the homeless. “We want five acres,” I was told by the homeless group who met with me. “We need access to bathrooms for personal hygiene. We can put RVs over there, tents here We need electricity.”
Morey, who led what was essentially squatting by homeless on the Fairgrounds in 2015, says she is working with others on the City-County Joint Task Force on Affordable Housing and Homelessness. She has submitted to that group a proposal to lease a section of the Fairgrounds to Bayside Housing for eight months, with the installation of at least 12 “wooden tents” and spaces for RV living and tent camping. The “wooden tents,” Morey said, are already being fabricated. They are in the nature of stripped down tiny houses.
Is any deal to lease any portion of the Fairgrounds for a prolonged or permanent homeless camp at hand? “No,” says Sue McIntire, Jefferson County Fair manager. Morey acknowledges, in less definitive terms, “Negotiations are ongoing, but we’re not making much progress.”
County Commissioner David Sullivan. who has been engaged in discussions with the Fairgrounds and homeless activists said at the August 31 BOCC meeting and repeated at their September 8 meeting, that nothing has been agreed upon. “The Fairgrounds people have good hearts,” he said. “They have helped the homeless in the past. But this is not their mission.”
At almost all the meetings this summer, the County Commissioners have discussed the deteriorating situation at the Fairgrounds and the coming onset of winter. Sullivan has said some of the pressures on the Fairground may lift as adverse weather and muddy fields drive campers away. But the discussions continue, and there is increasing pressure to find a solution for what happens after October 1 when the Governor’s eviction moratorium expires and the Fairgrounds can evict those who are now claiming its property as their own.
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 31, 2020 | General
About 400 cars, trucks, and motorcycles. A line 6 miles long that took an hour to drive to the end of Water Street and turn around. A massive Back the Blue Rally organized by the wives of law enforcement officers stretched from Chimacum through Port Townsend on Sunday, August 30, 2020.
The starting point was H.J. Carroll park, where all parking spaces, the open field and the sides of roadways were filled almost an hour before the scheduled departure. The event took off 20 minutes early because there was no more room. I stood at the exit as the motorcade got underway with a hand counter. 342 vehicles rolled by me. I learned that more participants had parked at Chimacum High School and the Grange when word got out that the park was filled. Along the way, other vehicles joined in at Ness’s Corners and closer to Port Townsend. One observer counted 60 vehicles parked on the shoulders of Highway 19 near Anderson Lake Road waiting to join the long, long line of cars, trucks and bikes decked out with flags, streamers, balloons, and signs proclaiming “We Support Law Enforcement,” “Back the Blue,” “Thank a Cop,” “Cops or Chaos” and “Blue Lives Matter.”
Organizers did not intend this as a political event. It was open to anyone supporting law enforcement. But numerous “Culp for Governor” and “Trump 2020” signs rode the route along with pro-law enforcement messages. I spotted Sue Forde, who is challenging incumbent Michael Chapman to represent the 24th Legislative District. I also spotted Brian Pruiett who is challenging incumbent Steve Tharinger who holds the other seat representing the 24th LD. No Democratic candidates or their representatives were present. I did not see any signs for any Democrat candidate, though I did recognize in the cars leaving H.J. Carroll Park people I know to be Democrats and to have held elective office in Jefferson County.
The Rakers, Port Townsend’s popular classic car club, turned out in force for law enforcement, as did several motorcycle groups. Jefferson County has a very large retired law enforcement population, and they were well represented.
What impressed me is that nearly all of these people, really 99% of them, had not been engaged in anything like this before in Jefferson County.
Someone, perhaps intending to intimidate participants, drove up and down the rows of cars before the start filming license plates. Their vehicle bore the campaign sign of a candidate for the District 2 position on the County Commission, but the persons doing the filming did not include that candidate. I don’t think it would be fair to that candidate to align her with the actions of these people as I know she has spoken highly of our deputies and police officers.
I was the last to leave H.J. Carroll Park. Along the 9 miles into Port Townsend ahead of me the line of cars decked out for the event stretched as far as I could see. Groups of people along the roadway waved in support, unfurled American flags and held up signs supporting law enforcement. It was noisy, with horns honking and cheering, especially when the long line had doubled back on itself.
The night before someone had gone along the route hanging Black Lives Matter type signs and banners on private fences. The paper banners were in tatters. Someone then came along and affixed plywood boards with messages to private property. At least one property owner had called the Sheriff’s Office to report their property being targeted without their consent.
There were a handful of counter-protesters approaching Port Townsend, no more than half a dozen. And there were people having nervous breakdowns.
One woman going south was driving with both hands in her hair and shaking her head back and forth. Just off Sims Way, in a lot near Kitsap Bank, a young woman was doubling over, writhing, screaming, “I can’t breathe.”
And there were the usual middle fingers from old White women. This seems to be a Port Townsend ritual for greeting opposing viewpoints in a town that supposedly celebrates tolerance and diversity.
Supporters of the motorcade and opponents report that it rolled through Port Townsend steadily for about an hour. As I approached the intersection of Water and Taylor, suddenly the slowly moving line of vehicles came to a complete stop. I walked up to see what was happening. A group of about 25 people, mostly young, all White, had blocked traffic in both directions. They were screaming profanities into the air and at people on the sidewalks, dropping to their knees and raising their hands over their heads, laying down on the blacktop and…
…dropping their pants (this is on video but I won’t publish the images).
They seemed to be following the lead of an adult woman who owns a downtown bar. She was the one talking with the police officer who was begging them to clear the roadway and advising them that their actions were illegal. Several times she turned and addressed the group with questions and instructions. Video she took and posted to her Facebook page confirms that she seemed to be a leader of sorts.
An individual named Rex Fergus, who does not live in Port Townsend, caused a bit of a sensation. He was filming the event for his own media activities. He was wearing a tee shirt that said “Proud Boys.” He was not part of the motorcade (he was on foot). The video he took, including conversations with some of those blocking Water Street, may be seen at his Facebook page. It does not show him engaging in anything other than media commentary and discussion with bystanders and traffic obstructors. At the end of his video, a woman who identifies herself as Port Townsend resident, asks him to join her for a drink and a chat.
Except for about 15 vehicles, the other approximately 400 Back the Blue vehicles had completed their route and were on their way back to Chimacum before Water Street was blocked. The cars stretching for half a mile or longer back to Sims Way, and north along Water Street to Hudson Point were vehicles occupied by people having nothing to do with the event.
Police warned the protesters that they could be cited for illegally blocking a public roadway, but would likely not be physically arrested. That emboldened them and prolonged the blockade. At the request of police, the cars closest to the blockade turned around and the rest of the traffic followed. A truck and a car were slapped or kicked by those in the street, and a young man had to be restrained by police.
I do not know at this time whether any charges were or will be filed against the people who blocked traffic on Water Street.
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 25, 2020 | Politics
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.
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 20, 2020 | General
Is ejecting a man from a yoga class because of the color of his skin color a racist act?
It looks like one of the lead organizers of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County kicked a Hispanic man out of the yoga class he leads at Fort Worden because the Hispanic man’s skin was not dark enough to meet some racial standard and he did not choose to label himself “BIPOC.”
Here’s what happened. It involves Cameron Jones, one of the two or three leaders of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County.
Mr. Jones teaches a yoga class for the Mystic Monkey Yoga studio in Port Townsend. The class is entitled, “Yoga for BIPOC: Mindful Movement for Black, Indigenous and People of Color.” To participate in Mr. Jones’s class you book a spot and pay through the Mystic Monkey website. Then on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. you look for Mr. Jones at Fort Worden State Park where he holds his class outdoors.
On this particular Sunday, a Hispanic man new to the group spread his yoga mat on the ground and sat down. Mr. Jones in an August 7 Facebook post described what next occurred:
“I didn’t know this person and one of the other students commented on their approach with…apprehension…and why’d they be coming to class because this person was very, very light skinned….The person who came to class, an apparently cis-white male came ‘in’ (we were outside) placed their mat down and was ready to begin. Not that I expected this, but there was no preamble, no prior connection, seemingly no awareness as to the discomfort of others present. So I asked them their name and if they knew this was a BIPOC class. They responded yes. So I asked if they considered themselves BIPOC, they said, ‘well, my dad was Mexican.’ Ok. Cool. At this point there was still a low level of discomfort, so I asked if they identified as BIPOC. Their response was, ‘I really don’t believe in labels.’ This, for lack of a better word, triggered me. And I asked them to leave. They were visibly frustrated at always being perceived as a cis-white man and ended up leaving in frustration and anger. As they were leaving I attempted to invite them back so we could all sit and talk about what transpired, but they were too upset. Understandable.”
Understandable? What an understatement. Is this not an overt, rather aggressive display of bigotry that resulted in injury to a man who only wanted to participate in a yoga class?
Mr. Jones actually blames the victim for having helped “incite the event.” The “event” was that Mr. Jones and others did not approve of the color of this man’s skin, and it took off from there.
Nobody would or should tolerate a commercial enterprise offering a service only to White people. Nobody would or should tolerate a White instructor grilling a customer because of apprehension about their skin color. Nobody, regardless of who they are or the nature of their business, is entitled to treat any person differently because of the color of their skin.
The right to be free from discrimination on the basis of race and color is one of the most fundamental and protected civil rights under Washington law. Our state guarantees the “right to full enjoyment of accommodations, advantages, facilities, of any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage or amusement.” This law was enacted in 1890 as the result of the efforts of a towering figure in Washington state history, William Owen Bush, a Republican and the first Black elected to state public office. (On a side note, Democrats opposed this bedrock civil rights law and Democrat legislators continue to defeat periodic efforts to honor Mr. Bush by naming an area of the Capitol after him.)
Perhaps the Mystic Monkey business is unaware that its teacher excludes and gives a hard time to anyone who does not have the right skin color. But there is no need to wonder. The owner of the Mystic Monkey business applauded Mr. Jones for his actions. The very first comment to Mr. Jones’ account of how he ran this Hispanic man off came from Jason Caslyn, who owns the business:
The Jefferson County Board of Health is expected today to declare systemic racism to be an emergency in Jefferson County. The preamble to the proposed resolution does not set forth a single instance of racism in Jefferson County among the justifications for their declaration. Maybe they’re looking for racism in the wrong places and among the wrong people.
