by the Editors | Dec 16, 2022 | General
Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that readers who want to speak to other important issues, events and concerns that our small crew can’t cover don’t have a place for that. Last month we introduced this new feature to make a place for readers who want to bring up other topics, post news flashes, announce community events, or express concerns outside of the selected subjects we write about.
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Based on our trial run, we will be posting a new Off Topic! forum monthly. December’s will be a shorter month, but beginning January 2023, a fresh letters forum will be posted on the first of each month.
How this works:
Submit your letter in the white box below Comment Guidelines at the bottom of the page containing the muted prompt “Enter your comment here…”
Either provide your own title to the letter as a top line or we will title it for you.
To respond to someone else’s post, hit the REPLY button under that specific letter or comment you wish to respond to.
by Stephen Schumacher | Dec 12, 2022 | General
It’s like deja vu all over again. On Dec. 9, NYC’s health commissar advised that everyone (including 2-year-olds!) “should wear a mask at all times when in an indoor public setting.” Then our state’s public health leaders followed in lockstep.
As a weirdly-authoritarian Dec. 9 Seattle Times front-page story pontificates, “It’s time, Washingtonians: You should resume regularly wearing a mask indoors, if you haven’t already.”
That’s based on:
“new guidance from 12 county health officers and 25 hospital executives is fueled by the region and county’s surge in viral respiratory illnesses – mainly influenza and RSV” with “pediatric hospitals … overcapacity for months”, so they “recommend that everyone wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask when around others in indoor spaces to protect against both acquiring and spreading these infections to others.”
Likewise Jefferson/Clallam County Health Officer Allison Berry filled the front page of the Dec. 10 Peninsula Daily News, saying “our health care systems are not strong enough to handle all of … these viruses at the same time… It’s been worn down by two years of responding to COVID-19, we were short-staffed going into the winter season,” but “If we wore masks indoors, particularly around kids and around the elderly, that would make all the difference.”
Berry reveals she’s involved in “ongoing discussions about returning to mandatory masking” which is “possible”, but “what makes us consider mandates is when we see critical infrastructure fail. So when we see that people can’t access medical care when they need it… that’s when we begin to look at mandates.”
Questions Begged
Of course, this begs lots of questions. For instance: Why precisely are our heath care systems weak, worn-down, and short-staffed, especially after all the federal funding windfalls pumped into them?
Could public health authorities possibly be to blame for monomaniacally focusing on a single virus while throttling care for all other conditions, driving people crazy by exaggerating its dangers while enforcing useless hygiene theatre, and preventing safe and effective early treatment options while pushing deadly and useless Remdesivir and mRNA jabs?
Could all the health workers forced to quit or retire to avoid jab mandates, or who were made sick by taking the jabs, or had their morale destroyed by hostile work environments, possibly have contributed to short-staffing?
When Berry says she might dictate mask mandates if “we see critical infrastructure fail” or if “people can’t access medical care”… how is that more logical than kicking your dog when you’re mad at your boss? Where’s the causal connection between gagging innocent bystanders and fixing infrastructure management failures?
This harkens back to Berry’s Sep. 2, 2021 fallacious and discriminatory restaurant/bar mandate, which targeted those unwilling to disclose their HIPAA-protected private medical records to eateries. Where was there ever any causal justification for this punitive mandate, especially given CDC admission that mRNA injections are “not effective at preventing transmission of the virus”?
Another question being begged: How dare NYC and other health officers blithely talk about reintroducing masking in schools and child care facilities for all kids two (!!) years old and up, with no concern about the psychological hell, impoverished learning, disrupted socialization, increased suicides, and physical harms they’d be cavalierly inflicting on children at minimal risk from these seasonal colds and flus?
Have these fools or knaves learned nothing from the destruction wreaked on kids these past few years — not by covid, but by their own lockdown measures? What’s being “advised” by these health authorities is literally child abuse.
But the main question being begged here is: Why face masks? Why trot out this singularly ineffective nostrum once again, as if it were an all-powerful savior, when it was never considered a panacea for respiratory viruses prior to 2020, and it has failed miserably to have any significant beneficial effect during the years it’s been pushed and mandated worldwide, as documented by numerous careful studies.
Stephen Petty is a Certified Industrial Hygenist and Certified Professional Engineer who has worked for 45 years in the field of health and safety, protecting workers and the public from toxins. He has been involved in over 400 legal cases of exposure control and PPE. In the powerful 15-minute expert testimony below, Petty summarizes the reality on masks’ effectiveness against viruses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3dnkbKoj4A&t=12s
Mask misconceptions have been covered extensively by multiple Free Press articles, hence there’s no need to retread them here… check the story links at the bottom of this article if you’re interested in all the backstory evidence.
Breaking News: “High-Quality” Masks Don’t Work
The current warmed-over propaganda campaign to force “high-quality” masks over everybody’s mouths and noses has long been rendered absurd.
And now, coincidental to the latest mask campaign, an extremely high-quality randomized controlled mask study was published on Nov. 29. This was big news that should have been reported in the papers and by health officers if they were worth their salt.
Ian Miller (author of Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates) summarizes this study as follows:
The Annals of Internal Medicine just published a randomized controlled trial comparing the ability of medical masks to prevent COVID infection to fit-tested N95s. Importantly, this trial was conducted on healthcare workers who would be most likely to use masks appropriately.
They examined 29 different health care facilities on multiple continents, from North America to Asia and Africa. The percentage of healthcare workers testing positive for COVID in each group was tracked to determine how effective or ineffective higher-quality masking was in preventing infection.
Unsurprisingly, the results confirmed that there is essentially zero difference between surgical [the common blue and green pleated “medical” masks made of nonwoven material] or N95 respirators when it comes to tests results.
The N95 masks provided statistically-insignificant 1% reduction in cases, while causing 3% increase in adverse events compared to surgical masks — that’s 13.6% gratuitous adverse events compared to wearing no mask at all!
Miller concludes:
The researchers also took pains to ensure that the control and treatment groups shared as many similarities as possible. The N95s in use were even specifically fit tested and approved respirators, far from the KN95s commonly used by the general public.
Everyone, in each health care facility, “for all activities,” was required to wear masks. They even tracked potential exposure points, whether at home, in the community or in hospital exposures.
Yet none of that mattered; there was no difference in outcomes between the medical and N95 level masks.
On top of being functionally useless, N95s were substantially more likely to result in adverse effects.
This becomes even more noteworthy since compliance with respirator masking was lower. While still extremely high, health care workers “always” wore N95s 80.7% of the time instead of 91.2% for medical masks.
This is one of the many issues the “experts” now pushing for (now disproven) “higher-quality” masking should address. Health care professionals who are trained to use N95s can’t always use them yet experience higher rates of adverse effects.
Imagine how much worse compliance would be among the general public, especially if 13% are suffering significant side effects.
Beyond statistics, just think about the physical facts: Sure, surgical masks can protect surgeons from blowing bacteria directly into an open wound. But viruses are more than an order of magnitude smaller than bacteria, so they CAN pass through surgical masks, and they DO easily pass around the sides and top of all kinds of masks when breathing out, as viruses follow the paths of least resistance, after which they enter the persistent viral soup of indoor atmospheres.
That’s why masks have never shown any significant viral protection for others in randomized controlled studies. Your mask does little or nothing to protect you, but most significantly there’s no way it can protect grandma or anybody else. And thus falls the entire pretext for mask mandates.
Wearing a diaper on your foot would be just as “effective” and a lot safer than wearing it on your face. Health authorities still pushing face diapers on kids (or anybody else) after years of lockdown failures are neither competent nor fit to keep their positions.
_______________________________
“Masking is a stupid, superstitious exercise that does nothing to stop virus infections, but that’s beside the point. Imagine, instead, that strapping these low-quality pseudomedical plastics to your face actually reduced your rate of respiratory infection. In this counterfactual scenario, it would follow that masks are at least partly responsible for the immunity deficit causing the unusually high rates of RSV and influenza infection…. Continuing to mask would merely prolong our immunological naiveté for another season, potentially leading to long-term dependence on this ridiculous, antisocial ritual. It’s a blessing that masks actually do nothing.”
— eugyppius (writing about a similar situation in Germany)
_______________________________
More from the Free Press about mask follies:
Masks Don’t Stop Viruses and Could Harm You: The Latest Research
Parents Appeal to PT Schools:Are Students Facing Mask Segregation?
Masks: The Great Face-Covering Psyop
TOP TEN 2021 Spin Doctor Disinformation Statements
“Masks Are Never Completely Going Away”
Unmasking Masking Mendacity
Double-Masking, “Pandemic Denialism,” and Belief in the Ignorance of Experts
by Dr. Rob Rennebohm | Dec 9, 2022 | General
Dr. Michael Mörz, a pathologist in Germany, has recently published an article entitled, Multifocal Necrotizing Encephalitis and Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against COVID-19. The article is a case report of autopsy findings in a 76-year-old man who had died 3 weeks after receiving his third vaccination against COVID-19.
This case report was published by the peer-reviewed journal Vaccines on October 1, 2022 (Vaccines 2022, 10, 1651).
Dr. Mörz’s article provides compelling and sobering evidence of the potential of mRNA vaccines to cause serious harm to the brain and heart — namely, vasculitis, necrotizing encephalitis, and myocarditis. His article may prove to be one of the most pivotal articles to be published in the conventional medical literature during the COVID-19 pandemic—because of its potential to change attitudes about the safety of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
To summarize the Mörz article, to present its pathology images in a way that might be more understandable to the general public, and to underscore the importance and implications of the article, I have written a Summary and Commentary about Dr. Mörz’s article.
Here is a link to the long version of the Summary/Commentary.
Here is a link to a shorter version of the Summary/Commentary.
The shorter version has been published on Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche’s website and republished on the Trial Site News website and on Dr. James Lyons-Weiler’s substack.
The shorter version of the Summary/Commentary is reprinted below.
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My email to Dr. Allison Berry, Dr. Tom Locke, and members of the Jefferson County Board of Health regarding the Mörz article:
On November 16, 2022, I sent the email below to Jefferson County’s Health Officer, Deputy Health Officer and members of the Board of Health (BOH), to alert them to the Mörz article and its significance. As you can see, I asked them to respond to several important questions. I requested that they respond within two weeks (by November 30).
It is now December 8, 2022. I have received no responses from Dr. Berry, Dr. Locke, or any members of the BOH. I have not heard a single word from any of them — not even a courteous, “Thank you for sharing this information. We will respond to it as soon as possible,” which would have taken less than 20 seconds to type.
The lack of response to this extremely important article is disappointing, to say the least. Perhaps, they are still engaged in the process of studying the article and carefully discussing it among themselves and, perhaps, with outside experts. But if that is the case, the professional and courteous thing to do would be to let me know that they are in the midst of that process.
Perhaps, the article is too complicated for them to understand, making it difficult for them to respond. But that is why I wrote the Summary/Commentary and wrote it in such a way that non-physicians could understand the article and its significance. Again, the professional and courteous thing to do would be to let me know that they are working on a response.
Perhaps, they think the article does not represent good science and simply represents misinformation/disinformation. But if that is the case, the professional and courteous thing to do is engage in scientific dialogue with me, during which they could explain their criticisms of the article and we could learn from each other.
Perhaps, they do not want to challenge their long-held COVID beliefs and understandings by considering new information. Perhaps it is too difficult, too uncomfortable (emotionally and psychologically) for them to consider a reversal in their thinking and recommendations. But such rigidity goes against fundamental principles of science and medicine.
Perhaps, they concluded that this vaccine-related complication (if it is, indeed, related to the vaccine) is probably “very rare” and, therefore, “it is best not to scare the public” by mentioning it—“lest it unnecessarily frighten people from becoming vaccinated.” Such a conclusion, however, is irresponsible in at least two ways. First, they do not know how rare or not rare this complication is, nor does anyone else, because this represents the only autopsy in which a definitive test for presence of vaccinal spike protein has been performed. Second, even if this complication proves to be extremely rare (which seems unlikely to me), health care workers have a moral and legal obligation to comply with a proper informed consent process, which includes mention of even extremely rare potential side effects. Frankly, I suspect that if more autopsies are done, and if they include testing for presence of vaccinal spike protein, it will become evident that versions of this complication are common—particularly if electron microscopy is performed on the tissues.
Perhaps, they simply do not care. Perhaps, there are other reasons for their silence.
Whatever the reasons are for their silence, it is sad and instructive that the individuals who are most responsible for caring about the health of Jefferson County citizens have remained silent about such a profoundly important article.
I am not sure what our next step should be. What would readers of the PTFP suggest?
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Dear Dr. Berry, Dr. Locke, and members of the BOH,
As a pediatrician/pediatric rheumatologist (formerly at Cleveland Clinic) and as a resident of Port Townsend during the first year of the pandemic, I have been deeply concerned about the wisdom and safety of the COVID mass vaccination campaign, both nationally and in Jefferson County—especially the campaign to vaccinate infants and toddlers with the mRNA vaccines.
Policies regarding the COVID pandemic should be based on a deep scientific understanding of the immunology, virology, vaccinology, evolutionary biology, and the glycosylation biology of the COVID situation. This includes a deep understanding of the immunopathology that is emerging among the COVID-vaccinated—particularly the neuro-immunopathology (which was my specialty at Cleveland Clinic).
I have attached an extremely important article, recently published (in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccines) by an excellent pathologist in Germany (Dr. Michael Mörz). It provides compelling and sobering evidence that spike protein produced by the mRNA vaccines can end up in the endothelial cell lining of capillaries in the brain and heart; that this is closely associated with CNS vasculitis, necrotizing encephalitis, and myocarditis; and that these vaccine-associated phenomena can be fatal.
I have attached the Mörz article for your review. I have also attached a Summary (for the General Public) and Commentary on the Mörz article that I have written to help non-physicians to more easily understand the Mörz article and its significance.
I have some questions for all of you:
- What is your reaction to the Mörz article?
- Do you think the COVID vaccine is responsible for the neuropathology and heart pathology documented by Dr. Mörz?
- How worried are you about the possibility of vaccine-related neuro-immunopathology occurring in some who receive the COVID mRNA vaccine?
- To what extent do you, as the COVID health experts in Jefferson County, feel obligated to call this article to the attention of the public in Jefferson County?
- Should discussion of this article be part of the informed consent process?
- Do you think the Mörz article should cause hesitancy about continuing the COVID vaccination campaign?
- Is the Jefferson County Board of Health encouraging COVID vaccination of infants and children?
I would appreciate hearing back from you within 2 weeks (i.e. by Nov 30), if possible.
Finally, would you be interested in organizing a Town Hall meeting in PT to discuss this article—so that the public could learn about the article and its significance? I would be happy to be a guest speaker at such a meeting.
With Warm Regards,
Rob Rennebohm, MD
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(Dr, Rennebohm’s article published on Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche’s website, Trial Site News website and Dr. James Lyons-Weiler’s substack.)
A Summary (for the General Public) and Commentary Regarding the Case Report Published by Dr. Michael Mörz:
Multifocal Necrotizing Encephalitis and Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against COVID-19
By Rob Rennebohm, MD
November 10, 2022
Above is the title page of an article written by Dr. Michael Mörz, a pathologist in Dresden, Germany. Here is the link to the full article: (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/10/1651). It is a case report of autopsy findings in a 76-year-old man who had died 3 weeks after receiving his third vaccination against COVID-19. This case report was published by the peer-reviewed journal Vaccines on October 1, 2022 (Vaccines 2022, 10, 1651).
Dr. Mörz’s article provides compelling and sobering evidence of the potential of mRNA vaccines to cause serious harm to the brain and heart—namely, vasculitis, necrotizing encephalitis, and myocarditis. His article may prove to be one of the most pivotal articles to be published in the formal conventional medical literature during the COVID-19 pandemic—because of its potential to change attitudes about the safety of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
To summarize the Mörz article, to present its pathology images in a way that might be more understandable to the general public, and to underscore the importance and implications of the article, I have written a Summary and Commentary about Dr. Mörz’s article.
Here is a link to the Summary/Commentary:
https://notesfromthesocialclinic.org/a-summary-for-the-general-public-and-commentary-regarding-the-publication-by-dr-michael-morz/
Take Home Visual images:
The above image (from the Mörz article) shows a cross section of a capillary in the heart. It demonstrates the presence of an abundant amount of spike protein (the brown material to which the red arrow points) within endothelial cells, which are the cells that line the inner wall of the capillary. There is endothelial cell swelling, and there are a few mononuclear inflammatory cells within the wall of the capillary. The spike protein was demonstrated to be of vaccinal origin, not from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The above image (also from the Mörz article) is a cross section through a capillary in the brain. It shows prominent signs of vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessel wall). The vessel is filled with hemolyzed blood, which is normal in autopsied cases. The many tiny blue cells that are present in the walls of the vessel (immediately surrounding the hemolyzed blood) include many lymphocytes (inflammatory cells). The presence of numerous lymphocytes in the wall of this vessel means that the vessel wall is inflamed—-i.e., the vessel is experiencing vasculitis.
The importance of the Mörz article:
Dr. Mörz has conclusively demonstrated the presence of an abundance of vaccinal spike protein in the endothelial lining of the walls of capillaries and arterioles in the brain and heart. He has also demonstrated significant inflammation within the walls of these same vessels. His interpretations of the findings are accurate and not overstated. He has appropriately suggested that these two findings are linked—that the inflammation in the vessel walls (vasculitis) was most likely triggered by the presence of vaccinal spike protein in those walls.
Dr. Mörz has also conclusively demonstrated diffuse and multifocal inflammation in the brain tissue (encephalitis) and in heart muscle (myocarditis). The encephalitis was necrotizing—i.e., associated with death (necrosis) of brain cells (neurons).
The two images shown above (along with the several other images presented in the Mörz article) support the following hypothesis: When the mRNA (that is embedded in the lipid nanoparticle of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine) is injected into the arm, the mRNA finds its way (via the blood stream) into distant cells—in this case endothelial cells that line the small blood vessels in the heart and brain. (The vaccine does not simply stay in the arm.) Once in the endothelial cell(s), the mRNA instructs the ribosomes in the cell to manufacture spike protein. The spike protein then migrates to the outer surface of the endothelial cell. The immune system then sees the spike protein (or fragments thereof) on the surface of the cell, recognizes it as foreign, and concludes that the endothelial cell has become infected. Accordingly, the immune system sends lymphocytes and other inflammatory cells into the walls of the vessel to attack the presumed infected endothelial cell(s). The vessel wall becomes inflamed (vasculitis) and, during this process, the endothelial cells become immunologically injured and may swell to varying degrees. Sometimes, abnormal intravascular coagulation (clotting within the vessel) may be triggered. In some instances spike protein finds its way through the blood vessel wall and penetrates into the brain (or heart) tissue, where the spike protein may trigger an inflammatory reaction in the brain (encephalitis) or heart (myocarditis).
People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 (and those contemplating vaccination) deserve to know whether the Mörz report of probable vaccine-induced microvascular and parenchymal (tissue) injury in the brain and heart represent extremely rare phenomena or are more common than that. Vaccinees and the public at large deserve to know the prevalence of such phenomena, and they deserve to know the full spectrum of such findings. If such phenomena are more than rare, our hope would be that the abnormalities are usually only minimal, not as dramatic as in the case reported. We would also hope that the abnormalities might be reversible, possibly amenable to treatment—particularly if patients are warned to not receive any further COVID-19 mRNA vaccination.
Scientific understanding of potential serious side effects of the mRNA vaccines—including knowledge of the prevalence, spectrum, and pathogenesis of such complications, and potential treatment options for them—would improve if more autopsies were performed in situations like that of the case reported by Mörz.
Physicians, nurses, hospitals, medical centers, health departments, the CDC, NIH, FDA, WHO, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the pharmaceutical industry, government leaders, and media outlets that have assured the Public that the COVID-19 vaccines are “very safe” owe it to the Public to thoroughly, openly, honestly, publicly, and prominently discuss Dr. Mörz’s article and its implications. To date, there has been no mention of this article by the CDC, NIH, FDA, WHO, AAP, Pfizer, Moderna, government leaders, the mainstream media, or the medical experts who routinely inform the Public. On the contrary, instead of halting the mass vaccination campaign (which is the scientifically and morally correct thing to do), the promoters of the COVID mass vaccination campaign are currently re-doubling their efforts to greatly increase vaccination rates—spending billions of dollars to maximize vaccination against COVID-19, even among infants and toddlers.
To those people who have been encouraged, pressured, even mandated to receive COVID vaccination—physicians and scientists owe a massive top priority collaborative effort to thoroughly study the pathogenesis (the causative chain of events that lead to disease) and potential treatment of vaccine-induced endotheliopathy, vasculitis, encephalitis, and myocarditis—even if these complications prove to be rare. The death of the 76-year-old man reported by Dr. Mörz should not go in vain. We need to determine how to promptly recognize and promptly provide optimal early treatment for vaccinated people who may be developing early evidence of similar complications in their brain, heart, both, and/or elsewhere.
In the meantime we should deeply thank Dr. Mörz for performing and publishing his extensive and careful study of this one patient. The scientific quality of his work is excellent. His careful article represents a major contribution to medicine and Humanity. He is to be commended for the expertise, time, effort, and courage it took to present this compelling and valuable information. He has superbly honored the best traditions of science, medicine, and ethics and has performed a great service to Humanity. We should also commend the journal Vaccines for demonstrating the wisdom and moral courage to publish Dr. Mörz’s article. Like Dr. Mörz, Vaccines has honored the best traditions of science, medicine, and ethics, and has honored Humanity in the process.
Rob Rennebohm, MD
Pediatrician and Pediatric Rheumatologist
Retired (formerly at Cleveland Clinic)
Email: rmrennebohm@gmail.com
Website: www.notesfromthesocialclinic.org
by Annette Huenke | Dec 5, 2022 | General
Meet Alexander Zachary French.
Alex French, 25, was arraigned in Jefferson County District Court on Monday, November 21st, for assault in the 4th degree committed on the evening of August 15th. That summer evening, across from City Hall, a press conference organized by women’s rights activist Amy Sousa following the expulsion of 80-year-old Julie Jaman from the YMCA, had turned ugly.
Regular readers will at least remember French’s blood-stained “Discharge” tee shirt. What we didn’t get to see before was his face, covered as it was by that toxic blue mask. Less than an hour before the above frame was snapped, French was pushing between and around women’s and men’s legs on the brick substrate alongside the Cotton Building, adjacent to Pope Marine Park, as can be seen in our previous coverage below. He wasn’t just somersaulting, crab-walking on his back and slithering, though. Six feet one-inch tall, 195 pounds — this hefty agitator was locking rally participants’ legs between his thighs, pushing his head against their groins and butts, disabling their sound equipment and taking their personal belongings.
The feature image is from police body cam footage taken that evening. The video reveals that French was taken by surprise to see a police officer as he strode cockily into the entrance of Elevated Ice Cream’s parking lot, shortly after he’d escaped the grasp of Officer Kamal Sharif and sprinted away.
His fingernails sporting dark polish, hands and shirt filthy from crawling around on his back for an hour — French recovered from his surprise and can soon be heard lying through his teeth, making excuses for himself, then chastising the PTPD for their lack of action on his behalf, ever the victim:
“So I laid down on the ground and they stepped on me and stuff like that, but I didn’t do anything wrong.
I was a little upset by the response from the Port Townsend Police Department, I’m not gonna lie — they weren’t really havin’ my back at all. Not that I wanted them to have my back, but I just wanted them to look out for me… I didn’t do anything anybody else wasn’t doing. All I did was sit there, and sit there, ya know…
I have a lot of PTSD and I’ve always been scared of the police. Like every time I talk to you guys it’s really upsetting… like when you guys pulled me over the other day… I was chill, you know, I usually have a panic attack after I talk to the police…”
In this four-minute video from Aug. 15th (“Protester Shows His Instability”), French tells one of the women he’d just assaulted and robbed that he’s a local and talks to the cops “all the time.” Mm hmmm.
Beginning at around 3 minutes in that video, you can watch what French calls “just sitting there” as the women’s press conference begins — the video quality is poor, but does prove unequivocally that the young man has no tether to honesty. In a turbulent frenzy, he slithers, spins and tumbles wildly on the pavement around Sousa, the first speaker.
Following his spinning and writhing display, French started to work his way at ground level among other people who were trying to protect speakers and equipment. In this 2-minute video below, French can be seen sitting on the ground bumping his head into organizer Amy Sousa’s backside — pausing to lower his mask and yowl at the top of his lungs — as his young lieutenant pokes Sousa with his cardboard sign.
Click on image to play.
French’s last act was one of attempting to push back and reach between the legs of one of the guardians, head ground into his crotch, to unplug the sound system. It was at that point that police finally intervened. Officer Kamal Sharif makes his presence known in bottom right photo.
At the point French was confronted by police, another agitator grabbed Sharif’s vest to prevent French from being nabbed. That distraction allowed him to slip the officer’s grip and he ran off.
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Official Police Report
Officer Sharif filed an incident report/probable cause statement on August 17th. The following are excerpts from that report.
“Upon my arrival, I noted that there was a crowd of approximately 250-300 people gathered in the area. Among the crowd were multiple subjects who were wearing dark clothing with their faces concealed with large backpacks. I am familiar with these types of attire based on my several years of working the May Day protest/demonstrations in Seattle as a bicycle officer. Officer Titterness and I patrolled the area on foot.”
This body cam video shows the officers shadowing a pair that they’d identified as carrying a baton and a knife, and they suspected a gun.
Sharif describes being contacted by Julie Jaman’s daughter, who told them that Jaman was being assaulted by people who were constantly bashing into her. He recommended that if they didn’t feel safe in the crowd, they should remove themselves from it. Then he describes approaching the speakers, where he caught French in the act of assault.
“Alexander was on the ground with his hands and feet backing into people backward intentionally. From my viewpoint, he was not able to see who or what he was backing himself into. I saw him back into Julie while on all fours almost knocking her off balance, but she did not fall. I also saw him, shoulder-checking people, but was not sure if that was the group that he was with no one came up to use [sic] to report it. Of note, there were a lot of people in the crowd, and it would not have been safe to enter the crowd at the time. Julie ran out and contacted us again. She reported that someone was going to get hurt if we did not do something…
We began getting more reports of assaults occurring in the crowd. We formed a team and went into the crowd to detain and speak with Alexander. We entered the crowd, to contact Alexander. As we approached the southeast corner of the building where all the commotion was occurring, I saw Alexander who appeared to be disabling the sound system that Julie was using along with the other speakers. There was a small group of elderly men trying to keep Alexander from disabling the system by attempting to block him from it. Alexander was crouched down pulling between their feet. I reach for him with the intention of escorting him out of the crowd. It was at this point that the suspect in the assault 3rd-degree case, later identified as Ryan S. Harris DOB: 04/08/1978 physically prevented me from detaining Alexander by grabbing me from the left side of my body on my vest causing me to use my left hand to physically get him off me.
This deliberate act to interfere and obstruct my lawful duty to detain Alexander for assault 4th degree allowed him to escape custody at the time. Officer Stanton and Officer Titterness were able to detain Harris who was subsequently booked on assault 3 on me.
Based on my observations and the statements from the victim, there is probable cause that Alexander Z French DOB: 12/09/1997 violated RCW 9A.36.041 assault in the 4th degree when he “bashed” himself into Julie Jaman’s ankle causing her to almost lose her balance.”
In later conversations about that night, many of us asked, “Who are these people? Are they from Seattle? Portland? I didn’t recognize any of the agitators…” Ryan Harris, the fellow who prevented Sharif from grabbing French, lives on Hastings Avenue. The tattooed thug who body-slammed me and so many others, and knocked Rachelle Burt Merle to the bricks, also lives in Port Townsend, as it happens. Just the kind of neighbors I’ve always dreamed of…
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Meet Sam Feinson.
Law partner of the self-avowed “pervert” mayor of Port Townsend, David Faber. Legal counsel for Alexander Zachary French.
Sam Feinson, FaberFeinson PLLC
At French’s arraignment, Feinson denied that his client behaved in a way that disturbed a lawful gathering, insisting that nothing French did at that event rose to the actionable legal premise of probable cause for his arrest, saying:
“What we don’t know is if he disrupted anything at all.”
Prosecutor Chris Ashcraft shook his head and shot back, prefacing his remark by acknowledging that he generally finds Feinson reasonable to work with, but he found this defense “disingenuous”.
“I’m shocked he would make that statement,” Ashcraft said. “Everyone knows what went on that day…” He proceeded to list items from the probable cause affidavit that was before the judge.
Feinson repeated that his client “did not disrupt a lawful gathering,” adding that people were “speculating, talking about one person among 250-300 people” — as if it were impossible for a single individual to impact an event.
The pro tem judge ruled in favor of the prosecution, agreeing that there is probable cause and ordered that the case go forward. A pre-trial status hearing is scheduled for January 18th, 2023, and a jury trial is tentatively set for February 9th.
Though Sam Feinson isn’t known for social media posts about having sex with chickens and dogs, like his partner David Faber, he did get some attention for this tweet to women’s rights activist, Mattie Watkins, insisting that the biological male Julie Jaman encountered in the locker room on July 26th was really a woman, because — he said so:
@bald-barrister, “…Your strange obsession with her genetalia” [sic]… meaning “her” penis.
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The Arrest
Officer Sharif decided not to pursue French at the moment the perpetrator escaped his grip and fled on August 15th, choosing instead to investigate the multiple reports he’d received from victims and witnesses that night. Social media posts seen days after the event claimed French was seen in various places on Whidbey Island. There doesn’t appear to be a 4952 Ravenridge in zip code 98368. In this shocking 59-page incident report prepared by Officer Titterness, French is also listed at 441 Van Buren (p. 12), 4952 Ravenridge Drive, Freeland (p. 23) in addition to being referred to as “transient”(p. 1). Perhaps that’s not even his real name. The report includes numerous first-hand accounts of injurious assault, robbery and theft. Why he is not being pursued by prosecution for all that is a mystery.
On September 3rd, a rally organized by members of Washington Three Percenters and the Proud Boys, ostensibly in support of the women and men who were verbally and physically attacked there by the hateful mob a couple of weeks earlier, drew a large crowd of pro-trans opponents as well as roughly 50 law enforcement officers from the city, county and state. As fate would have it, Alexander French could not resist the call of the wild, his chance to be “victimized” once again.
On the lookout, PTPD Officer Chase Stanton spotted him entering the public restroom in the Cotton Building. According to his Supplemental Report filed on Sept. 4th, he contacted his team, and entered the bathroom with two JCSO deputies. The arrest was filmed by law enforcement body cams, the footage of which was acquired through public records requests by Crystal Cox, one of the many women who were assaulted on August 15th.
Handcuffing
French was clearly stunned to be nabbed by police, so successfully had he convinced himself of his own innocence. Not long after he was led outside, he began vomiting into a nearby planter.
Not feeling so hot now
He was eventually asked to sit down on the planter edge, and in no time at all uttered what was surely yet another falsehood.
“I shouldn’t a come down here. I just came down to use the bathroom, then I was gonna go home.”
After French was searched prior to crawling into the Sheriff’s van for his ride to the jail, his phone, wallet and car keys were handed off to a female friend.
Into the JCSO van
She was at the August 15th event, too. When the officer asked who he should give his possessions to, French pointed and said “that girl.” He then called to her to ask, “Would you call my dad?”
Cell phone screen shot of French’s booking.
French’s booking included 1 count of assault, 2 counts of theft and 2 counts of robbery.
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On September 5th, this GoFundMe (GFM) fundraiser was created by Tom French:
Tom French was asking for donations to his legal fund to “Free Alex French.” Relationship between the two is undetermined.
The text is rife with errors — in fact, nothing within it is accurate, including the date of the arrest. The campaign garnered $340 before it was halted by the organizer. Did the anonymous $200 donation come from a local attorney known to support the trans agenda? Did that same attorney approach French to offer his service — perhaps pro bono — of representation? We don’t know, but we’d like to. We do know that French was not screened for a public defender, which is a bit odd for someone whose legal aid had just been the subject of a GFM fund-raising campaign.
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More incongruities, evidence from August 15
In this body cam video, Officer Marc Titterness is moving away from the crowd, and approaches other PTPD members. Officer J. Stuart says to him “at some point Jason wants me and Chase to go inside, so will you guys kinda hang out over here [aiming his thumb in the direction of the front steps of City Hall] and not get involved in that?”
Titterness responds that he’s “keeping an eye out for a big guy with a metal can [a string of unintelligible words] and that’s felony assault, that’s why I’m keeping my eye on him. That’s what I’m watching.”
The men are then approached by three women and a man insisting that they come over to aid and prevent harm coming to the speakers. They’re told that it is not the role of the police to prevent harm, only to respond if it occurs.
One of the officers expresses concern that an assault may occur, but the police are redirected to monitor the City Hall entrance instead. By that time, only a small overflow from a filled council chamber was milling about while, upstairs, a woke city council was heralding Port Townsend’s new trans rights proclamation. It made no sense that law enforcement should retreat from ‘keeping the peace’ to what was clearly a safe, inactive position where they couldn’t even see what was going on in the theater of strife.
This is from the PTPD webpage:
We strive to be fair, courteous, and respectful to whom we serve and come into contact with. We genuinely desire to partner with our community to reduce crime and the fear of crime, promote all aspects of safety, and strive to protect and serve the community in which you live, work, and play.
As Chief, I believe in strong leadership, transparency, and accountability from every member of the Department. My priorities include being responsive to our citizens, conducting thorough criminal investigations and enforcing traffic laws to improve the quality of life within our city. I recognize our ability to serve and maintain public trust is predicated largely upon our actions. Therefore, we shall strive to earn your trust every day we serve.
Some of the police seemed concerned to leave the Sousa/Jaman event given what they viewed as the potential for violence. Mayor Faber pronounced that evening “beautiful.” Something’s not adding up.
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“I have a question for you. When you were a little boy,
is this the man you dreamed of becoming?”*
From the looks of things, Alexander French has zero experience with taking personal responsibility for his actions. If Sam Feinson has his way, that won’t happen this time, either. Restorative justice might advocate for French having to sit down and watch the videos taken on the afternoon/evening of August 15th, followed by all of the filmed denials of everything he’d done that day, and his subsequent defense and disavowal of it.
What chance does this young man have to live an authentic, fulfilling life when the adults in his circle support his lies and misdemeanors with more lies and protection from accountability?
It has been said that “every perpetrator was a victim.”
What has happened in his young life that encouraged the sort of behavior displayed on August 15th? Why did so many of the people in that crowd support it?
How was he convinced that he must go to these lengths to ensure that males can enter female spaces? Or is that not his mission at all? Is he on pharmaceuticals known to contribute to aggression, belligerence, the inability to consider consequences, thus always on the lookout for opportunities to go rogue?
At this juncture we can only guess. Alex French is certainly a victim of these culture wars — as are his peers — born into a degenerate system that was waiting for them with open arms and closed minds. When I imagine the future 25 years from now through the lens we were given that day, it appears very bleak indeed.
* Author Michael LaRocca
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Special thanks to Crystal Cox for her diligent investigative work and sharing of public records acquisitions.
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See our previous in-depth coverage of this topic:
Women Seeking Civil Rights Stand Up to Mob Hatred and Intimidation in Port Townsend
Reporting from the Frontlines of the Woke Battlefield
Came to Listen, Sickened by Mob Violence and Hypocrisy
City Officials Lead Hate Campaign Against Women
by Ana Wolpin | Nov 30, 2022 | General
The photo above shows the skeletal remains of a streatery tent in front of Alchemy Steak & Seafood (aka Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar), where according to their website “A New Culinary Adventure Begins.” The photograph accompanied an email to the Port Townsend City Council from Harvey Windle on November 25th.
Windle is not the only one raising concerns about the shredded — and on closer inspection, mold-ridden — structure, he is just the most vocal among neighboring businesses. Numerous people had commented to us about the trashed and unused eyesore fronting prime real estate, a blight in our historic downtown.
This filthy and tattered mess is the legacy of a policy that, despite near-unanimous opposition from business owners and residents alike, continues to scar Port Townsend’s commercial landscape.
The Road Getting Here
To help out restaurant owners during the pandemic — while assuring the rest of the business community that it would only be a temporary measure — the city created an emergency program allowing outdoor dining to be set up in parking spaces edging downtown and uptown commercial streets. As the emergency wound down, prior to any public process, it was announced that an ordinance to make the program permanent was in the works.
The public backlash over this bait-and-switch was immediate and intense. Over the months we covered this controversy (see our extensive coverage below), it became clear that both staff who had developed the policy and a majority of the council were loathe to give up their pet project: tables and tents sitting in high-traffic streets, with vehicles driving next to them and diners breathing in exhaust fumes, for the stated purpose of adding “vitality” to shopping areas. Statements from our mayor and other city councilors revealed that the intended permanent streateries program was driven by an agenda inching towards eliminating vehicles from our commercial districts.
Unable to ignore the overwhelming resistance from downtown businesses to a scheme that offered a giveaway of precious public parking spaces for the benefit of a few select restaurateurs, the City Council grudgingly rejected establishing permanent streateries downtown in May of this year. But despite an unambiguous public directive to remove what residents had begun calling gutter dining — and get rid of it now — our electeds nonetheless unanimously approved extending the downtown streateries for nearly eight months, until the end of 2022.
As we reported, public sentiment couldn’t have been clearer. Over the course of several meetings, hours of public testimony amassed. All of it was in opposition except one notable proponent: restaurateur Kris Nelson.
Nelson, whose streatery at The Old Whiskey Mill was benefitting from usurping not only all the parking in front of her restaurant on Water Street, but obstructing the frontage of Quimper Sound and another adjacent business, explained that she had a vision to create a “special and magical” space. And despite fellow business owners’ objections, including a letter to the city from Quimper Sound’s owner upset over harm the tent blocking his storefront was causing his business, Nelson maintained that she knew what was best to improve downtown. Every other public commenter at the city council meetings and all but a single two-sentence note (“Hooray for the streeteries”) among many dozens of sometimes deeply-researched and often passionate letters submitted to council opposed the scheme.
But public be damned. Initially Libby Wennstrom tried to persuade fellow councilors that, like Nelson, she possessed insight — that the community at large lacked — into what was best for this town. Her former hometown of Ithaca, New York had eliminated street parking in three blocks of a shopping district despite a similar outcry fifty years ago, she said, and it turned out to be a rousing success. There had been “huge screaming from all the surrounding businesses” with similar objections to those “we’ve heard here tonight… but in that case it didn’t pan out,” she asserted. A Free Press contributor then discovered that three parking garages had been developed to offset those losses, one garage for each lost block of street parking.
When that misdirect was revealed, Wennstrom asked with exasperation, “Can’t we just try something different?” And countering criticism from many business owners that a giveaway of public parking space for the benefit of select restaurants was unfair, she then proposed a free-for-all lottery: allow ALL businesses who wanted to put their wares in the streets to participate. As it turned out, it wasn’t so much about creating streateries, it was about eliminating vehicles in our commercial cores.
At another meeting Wennstrom resorted to an emotional plea for her elderly mother. If immediate removal of the five existing streateries were to be enacted per public request, she complained, “We are essentially telling residents and visitors that you are not welcome to eat in Port Townsend. As someone with an 82-year-old mother, I’m disappointed because I was hoping this summer she’d be allowed to eat outside.”
The absurdity of these five sites being the salvation for people still afraid of dining indoors was belied by a list from one citizen who had catalogued all the outdoor dining options in Port Townsend — al fresco settings that were not in the city streets, did not encroach on other businesses, and did not eliminate parking spaces. There were already more than forty such places, including sidewalk tables at Kris Nelson’s The Old Whiskey Mill. The few streateries that did eliminate parking to the detriment of surrounding businesses that Wennstrom and her colleagues appeared so anxious to preserve were irrelevant in providing outdoor dining given the dozens of options already existing.
When a motion from Ben Thomas to table the policy nearly found purchase at one meeting, the distress from Aislinn Diamenti was palpable. Thomas walked back the motion, causing Wennstrom to lean over to Diamenti with comforting words: “The bad thing didn’t happen,” she said.
At the final meeting on May 16 council was tasked to approve an ordinance bundling an extension of downtown streatery use until 2023 with a program to allow permanent streateries in uptown and other business districts. Again public feedback was entirely negative.
Mayor David Faber had earlier pressured his fellow councillors to move forward with the program because “it’s frustrating when… we task staff with something and then we pull back.” Before the final vote, the mix of statements from councilors revealed the pressure they felt to affirm all of staff’s hard work, as well as their misgivings about faulty public process and concerns over future problems that an extension would cause.
Deputy Mayor Amy Howard stressed she supported a long-term streatery plan, but registered opposition to the extension of the temporary use permits. She didn’t want to “leave the ugly tents up longer.” She was surprised to learn that the decision to extend had already been made at the previous meeting. Generally when staff is directed to prepare legislation for approval at the next meeting, revisions can still be made before a vote. The date for the extension was in the ordinance. Couldn’t that be changed?, Howard asked. No, it was too late, she was told: “the temporary use permit was already extended.”
Howard’s frustration was echoed by Ben Thomas:
“We end up with a pretty imperfect position right now. We wouldn’t have created this particular thing from scratch, I don’t think. It feels kinda weird to be charging forward with this… [but] we’ve already done all this work…”
In his final statement before the vote, Faber explained why — contrary to public sentiment — he thought public parking should be given away for street dining, but sidewalk cafes should not be encouraged. He summarized his underlying ideology with this word salad:
“Preferring to use sidewalk space for other use than a right-of-way instead of a parking space is prioritizing disrupting the flow of pedestrian traffic in favor of allowing the storage of personal property on the street. It’s a car-centric model that I don’t think makes much sense.”
“December is gonna be here before we know it,” councilor Monica MickHager said cheerfully just before making the motion which passed unanimously.
After joining in the vote to approve the ordinance, Thomas later said he didn’t realize the vote had included the permanent policy. The confusion among council members about what had transpired and where they’d ended up was striking.
Chickens Come Home to Roost
Why was the extension for the downtown streateries such a big deal?
Among the many objections citizens brought to council last spring was degrading aesthetics. Even then, the existing installations were raising significant concerns about being a visual blight. Uptown and downtown commercial areas are, after all, on the National Historic Register, our picturesque Victorian seaport the bread and butter of Port Townsend’s appeal.
Which brings us back to Alchemy.
Along with Amy Howard repeatedly voicing her worry that the “ugly tents” would sour the public on future support of streateries, Monica MickHager noted the even-then-tatty Alchemy tent was not being used. She asked for confirmation that if a streatery had been abandoned for 60 days, the city could ask for removal. At that point, according to neighboring businesses, Alchemy’s street tent had been mostly abandoned for five months.
Public Works Director Steve King answered her: “I’ve already contacted the new owner of the Alchemy and he’s gonna re-apply.” Whatever that meant. Nobody asked further questions.
In Faber’s comments prior to the vote, he agreed that “the other major concern I heard repeatedly is that they [current streateries] were dilapidated.” He, too, noted the “unsightly weathering” of the Alchemy tent, saying the ordinance they were passing with “this code does not allow that level of dilapidation to even exist in the streateries.”
The discussion about dilapidation, “unsightly weathering” and abandonment took place seven months ago regarding the Alchemy tent. At that time it looked like this:
That is what council members called dilapidated last spring. A tacky assembly detracting from a handsome downtown building. But at least it was intact. Here is what it looks like now:
Black mold grows on what remaining material hasn’t been wrecked by the elements. Does the Health Department consider it safe to eat in this environment?
This frankly disgusting ruin has removed 3-5 parking spaces from service for more than a year now in a downtown plagued by parking shortages. It has created bad blood between one business and many others.
In his November 25 letter to the city, Harvey Windle, just down the block from Alchemy, wrote:
“A neighboring business my manager spoke with is very irate over the Alchemy tent as most all who see it are. The pissed off neighboring business folk park all day in public space damaging all business access as so many do. Seems they only see what they want to as does the Council of Shame.
They spoke to Mari Mullen of City controlled Main Street Association that assisted in tweaking negative public input. She said something to the effect that it was allowed until January, and that would be here before you know it. Sounds like what Monica MickHager said when community input pushed back against the special interest parking losses…
I did have black spray paint in hand at one point and was going to call the police and notify them I was going to tag the structure with warnings about the toxic mold. I chose this course instead.”
This structure sits right at the entry to one of our most photographed city landmarks, Haller Fountain Plaza, a stone’s throw from the iconic fountain, the historic stairs to Uptown, and the site of the annual Christmas Treelighting Celebration. This photo is from Port Townsend Main Street Program’s “Holidays in Port Townsend” page on their website, announcing this year’s tree lighting on December 3rd.
The scene below, in the process of being festooned in Christmas finery on November 30, shows the proximity of the Alchemy tent to the fountain (just left of the pole):
Alchemy’s building flanks the fountain plaza. City Hall is just down Washington Street, three blocks east.
Again, from Main Street’s website for this year’s tree lighting, here is their photo featuring the entrance to Alchemy during the holiday season:
Here, this year, is the reality:
Larger Questions Loom
What happened to the 60-day rule that MickHager asked about that the city was supposed to enforce? Why no enforcement action for seven months? The unacceptable state of Alchemy’s tent had already been roundly noted before the May vote to extend the downtown streateries. How could the city then turn a blind eye?
On November 28, I emailed city Public Works Director Steve King that we were publishing an update on the streateries story and asked him what was going on:
“Why hasn’t the city required removal of this downtown eyesore which has been unused for the better part of a year, continues to degrade, and eliminates valuable parking spaces?”
King responded:
“I’ve reached out several times to Alchemy asking their intent for removal. I haven’t heard back. All streateries are to be removed by the end of the year. We plan on issuing a reminder notice.”
That any business would show this level of disregard for its neighbors is alarming. But most disturbing is why the city is not able to take decisive action given the concerns City Council expressed back in May about disallowing this kind of degradation. How can a business owner repeatedly ignoring inquiries be allowed continuance of this level of violation?
Where is our Historic Preservation Committee?
How is Main Street — the organization’s purpose being “Enhancing the Historic Districts,” “committed to protecting our small town charm” — able to ignore this? Their enthusiastic tree-lighting promotion tells us that on December 3rd:
“Santa is coming to town!… At 4:30pm, Santa will leave the Flagship Landing area on the Kiwanis Choo Choo and head over to the Haller Fountain to light the Community Tree.”
Perhaps it will be dark enough that no one will notice the alchemy brewing in plain sight. Or just crop the scene tightly and maybe it will disappear…
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All photos of the Alchemy tent in its current condition taken during the lunch hour by Harvey Windle on Nov. 27 and Nov. 30, 2022.
A future article will cover the other streateries remaining since the extension was granted (including additional questions posed to Steve King and his responses).
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Previous Streatery articles:
Strangulation by Streateries?
Public Streets and Public Process Subverted
Who is City Council Serving in Their Push for Streateries?
Council Backs Off From Downtown Streateries, Contrary to Leader Misreporting
Uptown Streateries: A Reality Check
by the Editors | Nov 17, 2022 | General
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