by Jim Scarantino | Aug 17, 2020 | Politics
Update as of 4/20/21: The jury has rendered its verdict. In our legal system, unless a court finds reversible error or there is a gross miscarriage of justice, that verdict should be accepted.
Officer Chauvin, I am sorry for rushing to judgment. Like the rest of America I recoiled in horror as I watched the video taken by a bystander of you with your knee on the back of Mr. Floyd’s neck. He died in front of us. It was brutal to watch. And like the rest of America, I jumped to conclusions based on information I didn’t have.
I didn’t know what led up to those last moments. I didn’t know that Mr. Floyd had been out of his mind, incoherent, sweating profusely, not making any sense, struggling, resisting, kicking. He complained he couldn’t breathe while he was standing up outside the patrol car, and also inside the patrol car. But he was able to keep talking without any difficulty whatsoever.
I didn’t know that Mr. Floyd, as the toxicology report would show, had in his blood more than three times the level of fentanyl known to cause death. The toxicologist also found meth and morphine in Mr. Floyd’s blood. I hadn’t known that.
I didn’t know that Mr. Floyd did not die of asphyxiation. Your neck on his knee–he must have suffocated him, is what I and tens of millions believed. But we didn’t know that the autopsy would find there was no injury to his neck. His windpipe had not been constricted, there were no bruises, no sign that his carotid artery had been impinged and his brain denied blood.
I didn’t know, until I read the autopsy, that Mr. Floyd was a very, very sick man, with a terribly bad heart weakened further by a recent attack from the COVID-19 virus.
I didn’t know that there were no life threatening injuries that could explain his death. In other words, I didn’t know that there is no physical evidence that anything you did stopped his heart from beating.
I didn’t know that the officers on the scene had called for an ambulance not once, but twice, requesting that it hurry with lights flashing and siren wailing. I didn’t know that you and the other officers wanted the ambulance because you were concerned Mr. Floyd was suffering excited delirium. Even when I heard this discussion on the officers’ tape recordings, I didn’t know until I looked into it that excited delirium can be fatal, and it kills by a sudden stopping of the heart. I know now that Mr. Floyd’s behavior fit precisely the symptoms of this fatal, drug-induced syndrome.
I didn’t know that your putting a knee on the back of his neck was precisely what you and other Minneapolis police officers had been trained to do to restrain someone showing the signs of excited delirium. You were taught to do this to prevent such a person from harming himself and others and to secure him until the ambulance arrived. The page from your training manual, reproduced at the top of this article, shows you were doing exactly what you had been instructed to do. Placing a knee on the back of the neck is taught as a way to hold someone undergoing Mr. Floyd’s distress and alleviate the risk of asphyxiation.
I didn’t know that there is no reported instance of the method you used to restrain Mr. Floyd having caused death in any other case. I didn’t know that this method of restraint had been reviewed and approved by physicians before becoming part of your training manual.
I have previously said that, when I described Mr. Floyd as a good man in another article, I hadn’t known of his long criminal record, and that he had led a violent home invasion. I didn’t know he had disguised himself as a utility worker to gain entrance into the home then shoved a handgun in a woman’s stomach, and ransacked the house while the woman and her friend screamed as they were being viciously beaten.
I corrected myself then. I want now to correct myself for ever saying you were “a bad apple,” or things like “just because one policeman acted wrongly doesn’t mean we judge others by his misconduct.” With what I know now, from watching all those body cams, the interview of Officer Thao, listening to and reading the transcripts of the audio recordings, and the official autopsy and full toxicology report–I can’t see where you did anything wrong.
I didn’t even realize until last week that the autopsy does not use the word homicide. It does not declare a cause of death but is entitled “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.”
I had to read that case title twice to understand. It does not say that the actions of law enforcement officers caused cardiopulmonary arrest. Cardiopulmonary arrest is what complicated the way Mr. Floyd was held under control. The autopsy found Mr. Floyd had severe arteriosclerosis and hypertensive heart disease. He had ingested drugs in potentially lethal quantities that stress the heart tremendously. His heart stopped. That is what killed him.
Now that I know better, now that I have actual facts instead of my imagination to fill in the blank spaces, when I watch again the horrible video of Mr. Floyd on the ground and hear him saying, “I can’t breathe,” I realize he is exhibiting no trouble breathing. He is talking the whole time. At no point does he gasp or gulp for air. And now I know that it was Mr. Floyd who asked to lay on the ground when he wanted out of the patrol car, not that you dragged him to the ground for no reason. And I know that he suffered no physical injuries from your actions that in any way jeopardized his life.
I study the video closely and force myself to calm my emotions: it does not appear you ever put your full weight into the knee upon the back of Mr. Floyd’s neck. If you were trying to kill him, as is alleged, you would have tried a lot harder.
I know you will get a trial, but how could anyone be sure it will be a fair trial? So much of the nation instantly hated you–because we didn’t know, well, anything really. We recoiled in horror at a scene police officers and EMTs see far too often in this nation. We can’t relate one bit to having to hold onto someone suffering fentanyl, meth and morphine induced mania, let alone someone weighing over 300 pounds and standing six feet seven inches tall. We don’t put ourselves in the position of trying to arrest or help people like Mr. Floyd. We leave those people and their problems to you. Then from the comfort of our living room couch we judge you with all the time in the world to criticize every step you took under the pressure of the moment.
Our rush to judgment — based on our feelings in watching just a fraction of the encounter — was more about us than anything you did.
I know now that the evidence shows you are innocent of the charge of intentionally killing Mr. Floyd. I know now that the evidence shows you did not negligently cause his death. You and the other officers are going to be acquitted, but only after you have survived prison until March 2021 or later. You’ll be released, but you’ll never get your life back. Just like the officer in the Ferguson case, instantly reviled, but never guilty of anything. Three separate investigations found he had acted in self-defense against repeated attacks from a larger, more powerful Michael Brown who had tried to seize that officer’s weapon. The last two of those investigations were led by liberal, progressive Black prosecutors, including President Obama’s attorney general.
Though that officer was completely cleared of wrongdoing, he and his family remain in hiding and will probably spend decades fearing for their lives….
…because he did his job, just as you did yours.
Officer Chauvin, I am so very, very sorry.
[For the information upon which this apology is based, please see the following:
George Floyd autopsy and toxicology report.
Interview of Tou Thao by Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
George Parry, former Philadelphia prosecutor of police misconduct, Who Killed George Floyd? and Chauvin, Lane, Keung and Thao: The George Floyd Fall Guys (the image at the top from the Minneapolis Police Department training manual is reproduced from this article)
John Paul Leonard, Or Did George Floyd Die of a Drug Overdose?
Court-approved body cam release
Leaked Body Cam Footage obtained by Daily Mail
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 10, 2020 | General
The following letter was hand-delivered late last week to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The writer indicates it was also delivered to Port Townsend’s Chief of Police. We obtained this letter from a member of the law enforcement community.
Good morning,
I have written what has been on my mind. I have written it to get my thoughts out so | don’t have to dwell on them all the time. I wrote it as an anonymous person and give you full permission to share with whoever you feel could benefit from reading it. I don’t know if you or anyone else will agree with my writings but it makes me feel better to put it out there. Share it or shred it, it’s totally up to you. Please only share it if you think it will make a difference. It won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t. My hope is that if you do find it useful you can get it into the hands of those who make decisions for public safety. Commissioners, board members, whoever could benefit from hearing a different opinion. I have left one copy with the Sheriff and one with the Chief of Police in Port Townsend.
Thank you
To anyone who will listen,
During these last few weeks I have found myself heartbroken and frustrated. Doing a hard job that I worked so hard to get is now demonized and perceived by many as unnecessary. I get the impression that the loudest of people are fighting to be judged as individuals and not by class, color, sex, etc. I can agree with this however it seems that the narrative includes all but those who choose to serve and protect. It appears as though some people have forgotten that we too are people from communities just like theirs. Everyone deserves to be judged as an individual based on their character and their actions. Everyone.
As I hear about racism and brutality I think hard about examples that I have seen. I have worked for two departments and with dozens of different officers/deputies. I have seen so many different situations and seen the best and worst of people in our community. What I have not seen is what is being portrayed by the media. No evil cops. No racism, no brutality. Only men and woman in uniform dealing with situations that they have been called to handle. Why is it that all who wear the badge must be shamed and ridiculed for the acts of a few? Does the act of one bad officer outweigh the acts of those who are good at their job? And do people know what that job is? Do people think our job consists only of what they see in the news or in movies? Do people even care to know? How many have taken the opportunity to ride with an officer?
Defund the Police. Who will replace us? Who is going to check on Grandma when you haven’t heard from her in a few days and you live in another state? Who is going to summon aid when she is found alive and injured? Who is going to investigate when she is not? Who is going to take the photos and document? Who is going to live with those images of death and decay? Who is going to tell the loved ones that she has left this world? Who is going to give them comfort in that moment when their world has changed? Who is going to look for your toddler who wandered away? Who is going to search miles of roadway when you are entrapped in an upside-down vehicle? Who is going to stop the bleeding until aid arrives? Who is going to search for the drunk driver who put you there? Who is going to stop that drunk driver before he runs into you? Who is going to interview that child who has lost their innocence to true evil? Who is going to live with that child’s story playing over and over in their mind? Who is going to do have the courage to complete this task again and again? Who is going to search for the Alzheimer’s patient who went for a walk in a winter’s night? Who is going to come when there is a bump in the night? Who is going to light up the darkness when you fear what lurks in it? Who is always going to be ready to help you?
I often remind people when I respond to a certain house or neighborhood that I was called to be there. There is likely a million other things I would rather be doing but someone asked for help and it is my job to serve. And when I am on patrol and not responding to a specific call I find myself like many others, spending time in certain neighborhoods. It is not because I have a prejudice towards anyone. It is purely because the best part of my job is preventing a situation before it starts. When you have been called to the same house or the same neighborhood dozens of times you feel the need to give it more attention. It is not because of the bad people in that particular neighborhood. It is because of the good people in that neighborhood who deserve our attention and deserve to feel safe.
With the badge that some of us pin on in the morning comes an accepted risk. This risk is outweighed by the pride that comes with knowing you stand between what is right and what is wrong. Protecting those who cannot protect themselves. A criminal accepts a certain amount of risk as well. This risk is outweighed by the possible gains taken from others with the least amount of work. A selfish choice to take from others so that they need not work for it themselves. This choice can take property. This choice can cause physical pain. This choice can cause mental pain. This choice can take innocence. This choice can take lives. This choice can destroy communities. This choice can destroy futures.
The risk associated with both paths are accepted on both sides. It seems that those who see it from a distance can have a difficult time processing this. Does an officer need to be shot to shoot? Do we need to be bloodied to fight back? Are our lives valued less because we choose to wear the badge? Is it an acceptable loss for you because we signed up for it? What about the criminal who also signed up for it? Do our families deserve to have us come home any less than those whose family member chose a different calling?
De-escalation is in everything we do. An officer does not go a day without de-escalation. It’s pure and simple. A million officers and millions of contacts with the public. Rarely do people call when they are at their best. Whatever situation they have been dealing with has escalated to the point of calling 911. De-escalation works. We know it and we get trained to do it. But the unfortunate fact is that it doesn’t always work. People can’t always accept reason. Mental health and substance abuse can cause this disconnect. De-escalation works until it doesn’t.
Violence and instinct. I can only think of few professions that require as much violence and instinct as law enforcement. In a moment’s notice a calm situation can turn to chaos. I have had people try to bite me, spit on me, swing at me. How do I describe the feelings you get when a 6’6 man who is spun up on meth decides he wants to slam his head into yours? The same man who just left his victim bloodied moments before, and you were somehow able to sneak him into handcuffs before anyone else got hurt. A split second does not allow you to think about that man’s skin color, sexual orientation, or political views. It only allows you the time to protect yourself or receive what is coming. Violence has many levels. Violence exists and at times it must be met with violence. Violence is not pretty in any form. It is a cause for chaos and at times the only solution to that chaos. It is not a fact that feels good. A perfect world would not contain this violence but we do not live in a perfect world. Some people create violence. Others are called to handle it.
I want each person who has a strong opinion about our current situation to ask themselves if they have the information needed to have a strong opinion. Do you know an officer or deputy? Have you ridden with them? Have you seen what they see? Do you care to have an informed opinion? Please ask us why we do what we do. Please
don’t assume when you can actually see it for yourself. And please remember that these are people from your community. And please consider the fact that however you feel about them and however you treat them, if you need them they will come.
Sincerey,
An individual from your community.
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 7, 2020 | Politics
Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County requested a police escort for its Juneteenth march down Port Townsend’s Water Street. They got it, at taxpayer’s expense.
A public records request by Port Townsend Free Press has obtained the application for the special use permit under which BLM Jeffco was able to block off and claim the use of Water Street and part of Sims Way for its June 19 march. They also were granted use of Pope Marine Park. The application was submitted by Sean Vinson, who has identified himself as lead organizer for the event. He was the keynote speaker at the conclusion of the march.
The application also covered painting of a block-long mural on Water Street outside City Hall. Vinson requested that that portion of Water Street be closed to traffic through midnight of Sunday June 21.
BLM has called for the abolition and defunding of police across the nation. On a recent KPTZ show, another lead organizer of the local BLM said there was nothing police could ever do to satisfy them. Police were inherently racist, white supremacist and must be abolished altogether so that “the people” could do the job themselves.
But BLM of Jeffco wanted a police escort enough to ask for it twice in its application.
At this time, while our public records request has not received a complete response, it is unknown exactly how many law enforcement officers and vehicles were provided in response to the request of BLM Jeffco for an officer escort. Photos of the event published in local newspapers and on social media show law enforcement officers at the front and along the route–as BLM Jeffco had requested.
“Special use permits will not be issued until insurance has been approved.“
So states the application submitted by BLM Jeffco.
Every special use permit seeking use of city spaces requires that the organizer provide proof of insurance to indemnify the city in the event of damage to property, personal injury or other loss. City businesses that seek to use a portion of a sidewalk or the edge of a street for outdoor dining and display of merchandise must prove that they have obtained adequate insurance.
Coverage under the required insurance policy must be primarily for the City’s benefit. It must provide a minimum of $1 million commercial general liability coverage and $500,000 automobile liability.
Evidence of insurance meeting these requirements must be submitted no less than 15 days before the event.
In this case, BLM Jeffco was given exclusive use of nearly all of Water Street, Pope Marine Park and part of Sims Way. They had an entire block of Water Street for several days while painting the BLM mural on a city street with paint supplied by taxpayers.
By June 19th, the nation had seen massive violence and destruction in the wake of BLM protests and marches. Criminals in these “protests” killed or attacked people in dozens of cities, most of them Blacks or other minorities. Seattle by June 19 had experienced destructive and violent rioting, resulting in the torching of police vehicles, injuries to scores of officers and first responders, arson of private property, hundreds of smashed windows and the vandalism of hundreds of businesses.
BLM Jeffco could not have obtained the required insurance. It was not at the time any sort of legally recognized entity that could sign a contract. It had no structure, no officers, no board of directors nor any registered agent. BLM Jeffco did not file for non-profit status until July 22. That action followed our report published July 17 raising questions about where donations to BLM Jeffco were going.
So far, no proof of insurance for the event has been produced in response to our request for public records.
Even now one thing is clear: the City did not obtain any proof of insurance as required by its own special use permit law. Proof of acceptable insurance must be submitted no less than 15 days before the event. This is intended to give city staff adequate time to examine and verify the insurance. Vinson submitted the application for a special use permit less than two days before the march.
In light of its preferential treatment of BLM Jeffco, the City will have a hard time in the future enforcing its special use permit regulations against other groups. It cannot enforce the law in a way that discriminates on the basis of the content of the message advanced by groups wanting to march in its street. It cannot enforce against other groups the regulations it chose not to enforce against BLM Jeffco.
A young man who has been involved with events in Portland and Seattle told me has been thinking about organizing an armed open-carry march down Water Street, something that is completely legal. The requirement for insurance in the name of a legal entity may have been an obstacle he could not overcome. But no longer need he be concerned about obtaining insurance if he moves forward with his idea.
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 5, 2020 | Politics
Outside money bankrolled Lorna Smith. An out-of-state donor made the largest single contribution to top finisher Heidi Eisenhour. Even Amanda Funaro, who is in third place after the first count of ballots, received sizable contributions from outside Jefferson County and the State of Washington.
Eisenhour and Smith will move onto the general election. Funaro’s first attempt at public office is over.
Outsiders Bankroll Lorna Smith
Lorna Smith
Eight of ten of Smith’s top donors were from outside Jefferson County. Not including loans from herself, she raised just under $20,000 from 188 separate donations, of which 84 were not from here. Many of those donations were from out of state.
Smith’s largest single donations came from Seattle residents Martha Kongsgaard and Peter Goldman of the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation. The wealthy husband and wife contributed $3,000.
Smith received $11,518 from donors outside Jefferson County, or 58% of all funds she raised. Smith received more money from out-of-county and out-of-state donors than Funaro raised altogether. Without help from outside donations, Smith would have raised under $8,500, less than Funaro raised within Jefferson County.
Funaro raised a total of $11,084, not including $1,020 she donated to her own campaign. Of that amount, $1,957.40 came from five out-of-state donors. Funaro’s second largest donation, $1,000, came from Carolyn Elgin of Talihina, Oklahoma.
Eisenhour Received Significant Outside Money
Top vote-getter Eisenhour raised a total of $28,020. Her largest contribution, $1,000, came from rancher and conservationist Seth Hadley of Tucson, Arizona. Of 191 separate donations, 33 came from outside Jefferson County or outside Washington state. Outside donors gave Eisenhour $6,375, or 23% of her total.
Notable Out-of-State Environmentalist Funding
Both Smith and Eisenhour have earned national recognition for their work in conservation and wilderness protection. It is unsurprising that they have substantial support from environmentalists, some quite notable. Smith received $500 from Brock Evans, a legendary activist who has held high level positions with the Oregon Environmental Council, Audubon Society and Sierra Club. He is currently president of the Endangered Species Coalition. Smith has received support from other individuals well known for their work in protecting wilderness, such as the Jones sisters of Boulder, Colorado. These twin sisters currently hold the positions of Boulder Mayor and county commissioner.
Eisenhour can claim her own legendary conservation support. Her largest contribution, as mentioned, was from Seth Hadley. He and his family have created a very successful collaborative effort between ranchers and conservationists in New Mexico’s Bootheel and the Guadalupe Mountains, known as the Malpai Borderlands Group. The Hadley patriarch–cowboy, poet, conservationist–the late Drum Hadley, created the Animas Foundation, to acquire the 502 square mile Gray Ranch at the tip of the Bootheel from the Nature Conservancy. The Gray Rach has since become one of the world’s leading models for how a working ranch can responsibly manage and protect grasslands and fragile habitat.
This may be an over generalization, but if any difference in the environmentalist support received by these candidates stands out, it is this: Smith’s endorsements come from professional activists who protect land and animals by removing people or prohibiting human activities, while Eisenhour’s endorsements run more along the line of land trusts and conservation easements which keep land in productive use while protecting its natural and wild characteristics.
[Editor’s note: This data was compiled from campaign finance reports filed with the Public Disclosure Commission. In another life I was executive director of a small national environmental group and a statewide wilderness alliance and so became familiar with the people and organizations mentioned in this article.]
by Jim Scarantino | Aug 3, 2020 | General
The KPTZ program called “The Reckoning,” was supposed to be a moderated conversation between Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole and a Native American woman, an organizer of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County and an Hispanic man, with Port Townsend’s Mayor jumping in at the end. It was announced as “an open conversation about racial prejudice in policing, especially in our county.”
The show aired for two hours on Thursday, July 30, 2020. The moderators were far from impartial. One of them, KPTZ radio show host Paul Rice, has encouraged activists to pursue and harass a local law enforcement family and in the past has himself attempted to injure the reputation of at least one other law enforcement official. This program was created and sold as a kind of set-up of our Sheriff. It fell short. Instead of a set-up, it was pathetic.
“The Reckoning” was hardly a conversation about prejudice in policing in Jefferson County because the panelists offered nothing on the subject that could be substantively discussed. They threw around vague, sometimes vicious allegations against no one in particular. They never offered proof or evidence for their wild claims.
Much of what the panelists said was irresponsible, intending to fan the flames of racial tensions rather than making it possible to achieve any sort of understanding and accord.
First some facts on the Sheriff’s office:
The Jefferson County Sheriff has had no officer involved shootings since the 1930s. No complaints of racial prejudice have been filed against any Sheriff’s deputy in recent memory. There has been civil litigation over the years over everything from the death of a violent prisoner with a bad heart racing on meth to public records act disputes. As far as I know, though, the Sheriff’s Office has not had any court judgments against it nor settled any claims based on charges of racist behavior. It has not been the subject of any investigation for abuses of force or racial misconduct by the Washington State Attorney General or the U.S. Department of Justice.
Now, on to the panelists:
Cameron Jones, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County, claimed that 30% of Jefferson County’s Black citizens have been imprisoned in the county jail in a single year. Where in the world did he get that from? Jefferson County in the 2010 census had about 30,000 people, 1% of whom were Black. That would mean that 100 Black residents of Jefferson County (1/3 of 300) were in our county jail that year. There would be a list of those 100 Black inmates–if those alleged prisoners existed. Jones did not offer or claim to have such a list. He never explained the source of the information for his wild allegation.
Sheriff Nole told Jones he was absolutely wrong. Jones might be confusing our small jail with the STATE correctional facility at Clearwater on the west side. That large facility holds people from all over Washington. And there’s that little problem of size: our county jail cannot hold 100 people.
Later Jones challenged Sheriff Nole to explain what he was doing about the “white supremacy and vigilante groups operating” in Jefferson County. He also suggested that somebody had lynched five Blacks in Jefferson County. Yes, Sheriff Nole said, over a number of years there have been five Blacks who died by hanging in different areas of the county. Nole said each sad, tragic case had been investigated and no evidence of any malicious activity had been found. These were suicides. We do have a serious problem with suicide that we don’t like to acknowledge. We have also had several White people who have hung themselves in recent years.
Jones said “someone in our group” had been researching the cases and found suggestions of foul play. He didn’t say what that evidence was, who was doing this research or offer to share it with the Sheriff so the cases could get another look, if warranted.
Jones also didn’t offer any evidence–not a single specific instance–of any activity by “white supremacist and vigilante groups operating in Jefferson County.” Who are these groups? I emailed Jones to ask what information he had on them and what they had been doing. This is something law enforcement, city, local, state and federal should know about. He did not answer my questions. It is not unreasonable to conclude he is just making this up in an effort to paint Jefferson County as some sort of Klan infested, deep South backwater from last century. That misperception helps his group’s political activities and fundraising but disserves a county of good, decent people who would not tolerate such organizations in their midst.
Jones also said “people of color are afraid to move here “because we don’t have a multi-cultural community center” and Port Townsend has Victorian architecture. Seriously, he said this.
Jones leveled hearsay allegations by an anonymous source that ten years ago a former school resource officer–now Port Townsend’s Interim Police Chief–had “acted with petulance toward youth of color,” whatever that means. And he complained about an ongoing case in which a Black man called law enforcement to report his truck stolen. It was located by deputies and found to have been burned. The complaint by this man is that police “questioned him aggressively” and “showed up in excessive force.” Not that they used excessive force. He just believes too many police responded to the call and he is upset they did not immediately believe him. No allegation of deputies using racially pejorative terms has been raised.
On his Facebook page the owner of the burned truck alleges that, though he does not know who allegedly stole and burned his vehicle, he believes he was the target of racial animosity. BLM of Jefferson County says of this incident, “The escalation continues,” though they don’t know what happened. A Go Fund Me campaign has attracted over $8,000 to help this man buy another vehicle. This is an active, unsolved case for which I am trying to obtain records. From what I can gather at this point, the question of whether a theft really occurred remains unanswered.
Jones read a statement by Paris Jade, a Black woman. She had three incidents to report. She said that in the first three to four months she moved here she was followed by the same officer “almost every day on my way home, and out and about and especially at night.”
This officer must have been working a double shift for 3-4 months, and not doing anything else but following Ms. Jade. One also must wonder how could she know it was the same officer behind her…at night?
She was never stopped, never arrested. She was never questioned. She never filed a complaint. But suddenly and without explanation it all stopped and she’s still here. She mentioned no other contacts with law enforcement in the past three years.
From my ride-alongs with police, I know they are in almost constant contact one way or another with a network of law enforcement resources. Officers and deputies can see on their computer where other units in service are and know generally what they are doing. I might be overstating that a bit, but officers are not free without explanation to follow a car for any signficant length of time, over and over, day and night, for more than 120 consecutive days. It might be possible that what Jade claims happened happened. It is highly improbable.
Her misperception, overreaction, whatever you want to call it, to the two other incidents she brings up undermine her crediblity on this claim of being followed almost every day and “especially at night” for up to four months. In the first, she saw someone wearing a MAGA hat and, in the second, she saw another person wearing traditional clothes of a culture not their own. This is being exposed to racism, she claims.
If this is all the “racism” she has experienced in PT in more than three years of living here, it is a pretty solid acquittal of our community.
Though other panelists poured out subjective feelings and spouted political theory, including calling for the destruction of capitalism and insisting that “the people” can police themselves (good luck with those midnight domestic violence calls, robberies, burglaries, car chases, rapes, agg assaults, and murders), they cited not a single instance of racially prejudiced police misconduct.
At the end of the discussion, Port Townsend Mayor Michele Sandoval weighed in. She had powerful evidence of racism to offer. Here it is: she lost by 150 votes when she ran for county commissioner twenty some years ago. She emoted for several minutes, but never mentioned a single instance of racism by police or another member of a community that has kept her in office as Mayor or City Councilor for the past two decades. (Was the fact she was not elected unanimously in each of those elections evidence of racism? Is it racism if someone simply disagrees with her?)
Sandoval ended in tears and the broadcast was promptly wrapped up. Listeners were left at a loss to understand what she was crying about because in all the time given her she did not describe a single experience where someone hurt or discriminated against her or anyone else because of race or ethnicity–except maybe those 150 people twenty years ago who voted for someone else.
One could say that this was an unproductive waste of time and a cynical attempt by some to widen racial divisions with rumor and innuendo. But it did show that we don’t have a racism problem with law enforcement in this community. On the other hand, we do have a problem with people who desperately want to believe they are surrounded by racism when they are not.
At this time, while our public records request has not received a complete response, it is unknown exactly how many law enforcement officers and vehicles were provided in response to the request of BLM Jeffco for an officer escort. Photos of the event published in local newspapers and on social media show law enforcement officers at the front and along the route–as BLM Jeffco had requested.
