Olympia, WA (7-12-20) — A patriotic group of good samaritans try to shepherd cars past BLM & ANTIFA protestors blocking the intersection in front of Olympia City Hall. Suddenly, the street thugs attack the bald man in the light green shirt and red suspenders who was helping shepherd drivers through the blocked intersection with what looked like a steel baton seen lying on the pavement and the man’s head wounds. The police did nothing to prevent the violence and the side arms carried by some of the samaritans did nothing to prevent harm from coming to the hospitalized member of their group with his head split open. The Olympia police, as usual, took a report but made no arrests and appeared to have the names of no suspects.
Two people were arrested Sunday after a man was assaulted during a protest near Olympia City Hall.
About 3:45 p.m. Sunday, protesters who had gathered outside of City Hall moved into the intersection on Fourth Avenue and Cherry Street to block cars headed east. Counter protesters led by Peter Diaz, who had gathered in the Meineke Car Care Center parking lot across from City Hall, tried to shepherd the cars rerouting them through the lot and onto Cherry to free the drivers from the blockade. BLM-ANTIFA protestors attempted to interfere by blocking the drivers exiting from Meineke’s.
As the two groups got closer, yelling at one another, shouting insults and curses, a man from the group at the Meineke property was pepper sprayed in the face, according to Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower. The man was then chased and viciously assaulted by three BLM-ANTIFA protesters. The man was beaten on the head with an extendable steel baton, bloodying him, then punched multiple times by a second protester and hit with a cardboard sign by yet a third protester, Lower said. The victim lost consciousness and was hospitalized
The police finally arrived from inside the PD portion of the adjacent Olympia City Hall seen in the background, then protectively barricaded the man while volunteers gave him medical attention. He was taken by ambulance to Providence St. Peter Hospital.
Peter Diaz, who organized the counter-protest, said he’s a friend of the victim, but said the man “is not as tactful” as some in the counter-protest group. The victim is seen in a video recorded by Diaz shouting at some of the BLM-ANTIFA group’s protesters.
Diaz said Monday his friend has been released from the hospital but has a busted lip and now has to use a straw to eat.
Two people were arrested in connection with the assault and the police are currently looking for a third, whom they have identified.
A 20-year-old man with Olympia residence was arrested on second-degree assault charges for allegedly using the extendable steel baton on the man. The police found the suspect in an alleyway near City Hall, changing his clothes after he had dumped the baton in a trash bin, Lower said.
A juvenile also was arrested on misdemeanor fourth degree assault charges, Lower said.
As is so often the case, ANTIFA’s criminal street tactics have special appeal to the violent mentally unstable, cognitively challenged, and sex offenders who are easily manipulated to do the group’s dirty work.
Sex Offender Registers As Transient in Thurston County
A 19-year-old level 1 sex offender recently registered as transient in Thurston County, the sheriff’s office announced. Shaelyn A. Reed, on Sept. 11, 2017, pleaded guilty in Thurston County Juvenile Court to one count of second-degree rape of a child. He was sentenced to 80 to 100 weeks commitment to the custody of the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration. The conviction stems from Reed, at the age of 17, sexually assaulting a known 13-year-old girl.
Reed recently registered as transient with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. He will be residing in the Thurston County area. He’s described as a white male, standing 6 feet, weighing 260 pounds and with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with questions about Reed, or with sex offender registration in Thurston County, may call 360-754-2894 or by logging on to www.co.thurston.wa.us/sheriff/.
Shaelyn A. Reed is the convicted sex offender believed to have been arrested for beating the victim on the head with a steel baton show in the video clip above.
Lacey Halleck (37) and Katie Schilling assault (threaten), bully, and intimidate elderly journalist photographing children at play in Tumwater Historical Park until he moves to defend himself, whereupon they morph into their full Karen mode screaming “Pedophile!” as they vainly try to organize an impromptu lynch mob until the police arrive.
The Tumwater Police do explain the journalist’s 1st Amendment rights (photography is not a crime; children have no more right to privacy in public than adults) but quietly indicate common cause with the assailants and refuse to refer the journalist’s criminal complaint against the perpetrators to the prosecuting attorney, Lacey Halleck can be heard screaming and shouting smashing the camera strapped to the journalist’s neck isn’t “violence”, but admits her assault and violation of his civil rights on camera–and then publishes it on her FaceBook page in an ongoing campaign of criminal harassment to “make you famous,” she says.
Lacey’s true intent, demonstrably, is to organize a virtual lynch mob online to continue the criminal harassment until the journalist is murdered or frightened into submission to her will–the very essence of coercion and terrorism increasingly common on our streets often directed at journalists.
The Karens clearly understand what they are doing as they continue to organize their online lynch mob now circulating amongs thousands of hysterical drama queens and kings:
BEFORE YOU KILL A DOG, FIRST YOU CALL IT “PEDOPHILE”!
It worked, in principle, on Emmet Till. ANTIFA finds it equally useful using the term “Nazi” to justify attacking their street victims.
All one need do is slander the victim’s character to diminish their stature to sub-human proportions–your basic war propaganda strategy. Prosecuting attorneys successfully and routinely use this tactic when they don’t have sufficient evidence to convict.
Because of the lethal potential of the Karen’s ongoing online campaign of criminal harassment, an unusual condition will be applied to this post/video. Comments were closed, at least on Youtube, because the most scurrilous are difficult or impossible to remove there. but not here.
Rational non-threatening posts accompanied by responsible identities will be accepted here and regular updates will be posted, as litigation (including criminal prosecution of the Karens) winds its way through the courts seeking a rather large sum from the defendants which looks like it will include FaceBook. Stay tuned. Constructive suggestions are appreciated.
Mason County officials accused of illegal actions related to proposed gravel mine
by Christopher Dunagan
Belfair, WA (7-3-20) —
In a class-action lawsuit filed against Mason County, a dozen North Mason property owners claim that County Commissioner Randy Neatherlin and other county officials illegally benefitted a private gravel company in violation of county zoning laws.
“On June 30, 2017, Mason County and the named individual defendants gifted a private company, Grump Ventures, LLC, with a valuable right to operate a 66.5-acre surface mine in a residential zone where mining is prohibited,” the lawsuit alleges.
The civil-rights case, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, goes on to say that Neatherlin tried to cover up the “unlawful and unconstitutional” acts by “hiding” county documents at his house.
A lawsuit demanding the missing records led to a $30,000 settlement, with a payment from Mason County government going to North Mason resident Brad Carey, who filed a separate lawsuit under the state’s Open Public Records Act.
In a telephone interview, Neatherlin said he couldn’t talk about the substance of the case until after he discusses the matter with legal advisers. Tim Whitehead, chief deputy prosecutor for Mason County, said he plans to meet with Neatherlin and others next week.
Neatherlin, who is running for his third term as county commissioner, said he had been working hard to “put the pieces together” and find a way to make the gravel mine work for everyone, including residents of the area. “I help everybody,” he said. “If people ask for my help, I give it.”
The lawsuit filed Monday asks the court to vacate the county’s improper endorsement of the 66.5-acre gravel mine being planned on a hillside above Hood Canal, some 4.5 miles from Belfair on North Shore Road.
The county’s approval of the gravel operation was expressed in “Form SM-6,” a document signed by David Windom, director of Mason County Community Services. His signature came as a result of improper pressure from Neatherlin, according to the lawsuit. The approval was then submitted to the Washington Department of Natural Resources, which must issue the permits needed for surface-mining operations.
This past January, the county rescinded its SM-6 approval, but Grump Ventures appealed the rescission to the county hearing examiner. A hearing on that appeal is pending. That’s why the property owners moved ahead with the class-action lawsuit on behalf of everyone who would be adversely affected by the gravel mine, said attorney Dave Bricklin, who filed the lawsuit.
Bruce Carter, one of the landowners bringing the case, said the lawsuit was the result of a “grassroots uprising” against the gravel pit and a county process that has been corrupted.
“The effects of the traffic with 100 dump trucks a day, water pollution, air pollution and noise would totally infringe on the lifestyle we have on the north side of the canal,” Carter said.
The SM-6 approval was needed to ensure that the project complied with county zoning laws. The application submitted by Grump Ventures and approved by Windom specified that 66.5-acres met the zoning regulations. That approval, however, went against the advice of county planner Michael MacSems, who had urged Windom in a memo not to sign “until the acreage is changed to 1.87 acres.”
Although the land is currently zoned residential, a gravel mine is allowed to continue as a “non-conforming use,” provided that it stays within its historical boundaries, according to MacSems, who calculated the historical area as 1.87 acres. He said larger parcels owned by Grump should not be counted as part of the original gravel mine area.
According to the lawsuit, Neatherlin not only pressured Windom to sign the SM-6 document but he also pressured MacSems to withdraw his written objection to the larger area. “Commissioner Neatherlin became a persistent advocate for Grump’s mining application, telling staff at least five times, “How do we get to yes?’ …,” the legal complaint says.
In support of the mining operation, Neatherlin provided the planners with an aerial photo taken in 1963 and given to him by Jack Johnson, another gravel mine operator who was assisting Grump with permitting issues. Grump and its registered agent Russell Scott were named in the lawsuit as other defendants (“necessary parties,” as described in the complaint).
Neatherlin reported to the planners that the aerial photo showed evidence of mining activity, according to the lawsuit, and Windom then signed off on the SM-6 approval. But area property owners insist that the photo shows no evidence of mining, only open areas caused by trees blown down during a windstorm — the historic “Columbus Day Storm” of 1962.
Johnson contends that the historical evidence supports the gravel mine operating on 25 acres of the Grump property, and legal doctrine supports the use of the full continuous 66.5 acres. Neatherlin, he said, is an “upstanding person” who was not trying to take sides but only to reach the right conclusion.
Filing the lawsuit so close to an election is clearly an effort to “assassinate Randy’s character,” Johnson said. “He is a good man, and he has done a lot for Belfair.”
After Form SM-6 was signed, Neatherlin allegedly took home the aerial photo and MacSems’ memo along with other documents. Thus county officials failed to produce all the records in the case when a formal request was made, leading to the $30,000 legal settlement paid by the county.
By granting the SM-6 approval for the 66.5-acre gravel mine in an area not zoned for such, the county essentially “gifted” a property right to Grump Ventures, the lawsuit says. Carter, one of plaintiffs, reported that Neatherlin told him that he was supporting the Grump application because Johnson asked him to support it, according to the pleadings.
In permitting issues, such as the Grump proposal, Neatherlin and the county commissioners do not play a direct role in decisions, since the issues are decided by planning staff and the county hearing examiner.
The lawsuit raises questions about Neatherlin’s relationship with Johnson and whether Neatherlin failed to meet an “appearance-of-fairness” standard when he visited Ireland with a group that included Johnson and others at a time when the SM-6 application was pending.
Brian Petersen, a Belfair chiropractor who helped organize the trip, said it was somewhat accidental that both Neatherlin and Johnson ended up joining Rob Drexler, co-owner of John L. Scott Realty in Belfair, and Drexler’s son-in-law Chad Harrison. Petersen said they had each heard about the “guys’ trip” and wanted to go to Ireland with the group. Neatherlin traveled separately. Petersen backed out of the trip when another chiropractor was unable to fill in at his practice.
Johnson also denied any impropriety in the trip. And he said he was surprised to see the lawsuit because there is so much more permitting left to be done by state agencies. Johnson said his company, Peninsula Topsoil, is interested in the sand and gravel that could be extracted on the Grump site, which is why he is assisting with the permitting.
Johnson stressed that when the permitting process — including an environmental review — is complete, the project will include mitigation measures to avoid the type of damage that appears to concern residents of the area.
The civil-rights complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, alleges that, as a result of actions by county officials, area property owners were “deprived of rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and federal laws” and “deprived of property rights without due process of law.”
Listed plaintiffs in the case are Dale and Barbara Brown, Brian and Wendy Comfort, Patrick Yates and Linda Hebish, Earl Iddings, Joel and Angie Kramer, Michael Kovar, Pat McCullough, and William Anspach. Others eligible for the class-action lawsuit are “several hundred property owners” who would be affected by the gravel mine or have had to spend money fighting the allegedly unlawful project.
Should the internet/social media have a real/virtual wall erected barring all adults save those accompanied by a child? Lacey Halleck, Ashley Yiannatji, Katie Schilling, et ux would have you believe so. Lacey is actually circulating a petition to that affect for all public children’s playgrounds.
RE: BEFORE YOU KILL A DOG, FIRST YOU CALL IT ‘PEDOPHILE’! TO: Pete Kmet, Mayor (360)754-4120 fax:(360)754-4138
Tumwater City Council & Manager (360)754-4120 fax:(754-4138 Melody Valiant, City Clerk (360)252-5488/(360)754-5855 x-238 Police Chief Jon Weiks (360)754-4200 fax:(360)754-4198 Police Commander Jay Mason (360)754-4200 fax:(360)754-4198 Patrol Sergeant Chuck Liska. (360)754-4200 Officer Brandt Baker, #31 Officer Stacy Brown, #24 Officer Friedrich Jaeger, #30 Officer Oran Thompson, #16 Laura Wohl, Police Admin Mngr (360)754-4213/(360)704-2740 City of Tumwater 555 Israel Rd, SW, Tumwater, WA 98501
All of you above, but particularly officers Baker, Brown, Jaeger, Thompson, and Chief Weiks (who I asked to speak to days ago) should take notice I take exception to key elements in your report of the above referenced incident because of what you mischaracterized in it, but even more for what you omitted to gratify your own biases, gender prejudices, and baseless suspicions in the face of a clear instance of now continuing criminal harassment that includes organizing a virtual lynch mob that the Tumwater PD effectively aided and abetted as seen in the evidence I’ve accumulated from my own criminal investigation of the assault and criminal harassment that occurred and was reported very shortly thereafter.
My assailant has publicly admitted she made true threats of violence against me while only a foot from my person, but argues it was lawful since she only threatened to smash the camera I had strapped around my neck into the ground for taking pictures of a park playground filled with children playing in it. My assailant also admits/claims she frightened my wife who left when Lacey Halleck approached me in a menacing manner and then threatened me. To make matters worse, a second party present with her at the time has joined her in circulating the claim I am a pedophile based on the tone, language, confidential information furnished, and demeanor the officers displayed while in her presence out of earshot.
Accordingly, I am file attaching Lacey Halleck’s public declaration of that exchange to confront the responding officers with to ask if it’s a true representation either in whole or in part.
I sincerely advise your officers to be transparent and truthful with me because Sergeant Chuck Liska was not when I called to file a criminal complaint I insisted be referred to the prosecuting attorney for Tumwater or Thurston District Court. He refused to do so, disassembling that “no crime had been committed” because, he averred, Lacey Halleck had not succeeded in stopping me from photographing the playground…which is not true and I said so.
Liska then went into his intimidating detective mode by lying to me insisting your department had received NUMEROUS complaints about ME engaging in photographing children there in the past. While that is hardly a crime, I immediately challenged Liska because I knew he was lying. I’ve never photographed children in the Tumwater park in my life except on one occasion ~10 years ago involving my own daughter and grand daughter. If this be a crime, make the most of it.
I’d welcome the opportunity to expose yet another lying cop trying to intimidate a citizen.
I’m well aware case law permits police to lie to the public/suspects, but not vice versa. Still, the majority of the public isn’t even faintly conscious of this fact when they place their trust in the integrity of LEO’s truthfullness and exercising good judgment.
Liska neatly segued into “Well, we’ve gotten a lot of complaints about photographers taking pictures of children,” to brush off being caught in such a brazen allegation against me. He repeatedly refused to refer my criminal complaint to the prosecuting attorney and sneered I’d have difficulty finding a judge to sign an order referring it under current virus sequestration.
This attitude from a 26 year veeteran police officer is cut from the same typical cop arrogance as, “Yeah, you may beat the rap–but you won’t beat the ride!”
Current events reveal the public is fed up with this kind of arrogance and double standard. As well, Karens are obviously confident they can leverage their white gender privilege against minorities and men in general. As the ANTIFA street thugs scream “Nazi” before bloodying their victims it would appear your officers are inclined to merely substitute the term “pedophile” toward the same baseless end! Shame on it.
Every one of you should know the woman officer who spoke with me for several minutes at the scene excused the Karens who had threatened me by opining she had been on the sex offender squad for 7 years and that SOME MEN took pictures of children at parks, then took the photos home and masturbated to them.
In the flush of the moment, I hardly knew what to say other than, “Well, I can’t speak for all the perverts out there. I really don’t understand them.” I went on to explain how vital journalists were to our nation (reflecting on being near the eve of the 4th of July) but were under increasing physical attack, as here, from almost every quarter with the police often turning a blind eye to it if not actually deliberately engaged in it.
Looking back on it now, I recognize the approach this woman officer took was designed to distract, embarrass, and intimidate me.
Lacey Halleck had screamed a series of hostile questions at me I’d refused to answer except one. She asked me if I liked children. I volunteered I had my own, and yes, I did like children. Was I supposed to say I hated them? Lacey chose that as a pretext to start screaming “Pedophile! This man is a pedophile,” (as can be heard in the video clips) to all within earshot to organize a mob.
May I remind the Tumwater PD a mob is tantamount to a deadly weapon. Lacey failed ONLY because there were insufficient numbers of adults to manifest as a mob. Police cannot pretend to be ignorant of the danger mobs pose. They’re fully aware of it. Moreover, these officers were advised I had been attacked by a large mob (an anarchists convention held at TESC in the spring 2013) for having a camera while trying to cover it since it was advertised as a free public event.
I did not tell your officers I have a serious heart condition, diabetes, and am on blood thinners for the rest of my life. If I am punched, I may well hemorrhage internally and bleed to death. i.e. be murdered.
Now, as a direct result of the confidential encouragement my assailant received at the hands of your officers, my photo and the video Lacey Halleck took has been circulated among thousands of internet recipients who have copied it and openly brag about the mayhem, or worse, they wish to visit upon me. I’ve included the same as file attachments for you to examine at your leisure. Inasmuch as your officers kicking the can down the road amounted to a dereliction of duty under the totality of circumstances,
How do you propose you are going to remedy this? Yeah–some things aren’t remedial, are they?–like death!
These officers are inadequately trained. I asked they explain where the boundaries of the law were and discourage the Karens from violating the civil rights of journalists. They did not do so. Instead, your officers covertly kicked the coals into the grass and fanned the flames. It has now sparked a forest fire on the internet…or, as they say, gone viral.
Did your officer run the plates of a vehicle I don’t own as Lacey Halleck claims in her online statement?–and then share the results of that with her? Did one of your officers tell Lacey Halleck I was being investigated so they could ‘do something about me’? If so, just what do you plan on doing?–making photography or failure to yield to drama queens a crime?
I want a meeting with the mayor and the Chief–in a public venue. That same park would be ideal. I want a written explanation of the misconduct I’m reporting and an admission or denial of Lacey Halleck’s claims as to what she was told by these officers furnished to me IN WRITING!
I also want to take this occasion to request a copy of any notes officers made in writing or recorded of their conversation(s) with Lacey Halleck by any means including their body cams, if any, et ux.
I’d also be interested in Liska’s explanation for lying to me rather than cooperating with my criminal complaint request.
I do hope you understand this is a watershed moment in how this matter devolves. Any further deception or lack of transparency by your staff/officers will be at the City’s own peril including referral to the U.S. Dept. of Justice and a civil rights complaint.
The evidence I’m file attaching was posted online by Lacey Halleck and Katie Schilling on their respective Facebook pages. Accordingly, I’m requesting a copy of any materials or recordings you may have stemming from their recent involvement with me or the Tumwater Police. I am currently still waiting for the audio recordings ASAP by the 911 Dispatcher called in that day of 6-30-20.
Ashley Yiannatji (31) (DOB: 12-30-88) fka: Ashley Nicole Monroe & Michael James Monroe 306 SE N ST, Tumwater, WA / 2446 Arnold St, Dupont, WA 98327 / 991 W. Lakeside Dr, Shelton 98584 3027 Gardenia Lane, SW, #8-304, Tumwater, WA 98512-6059 1601 16th Ct, SE, #B, Lacey, WA 98503 Lucas Michael Yiannatji (34) (DOB: 10-21-85) LucasYiannatji@gmail.com
The following photos are a few pictures of the dissembling Ashley Yiannatji Karen’s children she publicly distributes while simultaneously asserting photographer’s who might take pictures of them in a public park are somehow ‘dirty’ old men or ‘pedophiles’:
Rachel SiresWow what a weirdo!!!! Thank you for sharing! What ended up happening once the cops showed up? Did they make him delete the pictures? “Yes, I was taking pictures of the Scenery well and the kids”. To do what with you sick ass?!?!?!2
Lacey HalleckRachel Sires legally he was able to keep the pics. He was purposely watching the zip line because the wind would sometimes blow up some of the kids’ shirts a little and expose their tummies. Such a sicko.11
Lacey HalleckTosha Lynn Greene the ONLY reason I didn’t was because I was a juror on a case where someone’s belongings were ruined and the guy got jail time. I didn’t want to go to jail.
Sarah MastenLacey Halleck I’m proud of you for showing restraint. It couldn’t have been easy. Pisses me off how easy they make it for creeps like him to prey on kids.2
Rena SicklesWhat a pig. Why are there not laws on this? 800,000 kids go missing a year in the U.S., most likely into sex trafficking rings, and some old perv is just allowed to sit at a public playground (when he doesn’t even have kids of his own with him) and tak… See More9
Latricia KnoxEverybody needs to share this somebody should figure out who this sick disgusting pervert is I am so glad you called him out on it because maybe it will hinder any thoughts in his little pea brain because he knows that he’s on record and the police of already been called on him what a creep I’m sorry you had to go through that I can’t imagine the adrenaline rush and anxiety involved our laws are so backwards2
Patricia CornLacey I just seen this sweetheart and what an ass, I have no idea why the police didn’t take his camera. I detest abusers like this who get away with this and I am so mad he got pictures of your sweet little girl I wish Chris would of been there with you when this happened. Makes it so mothers can’t take their children to parks or playgrounds there are to many perverts out and about. Giving you a warm hug and glad you got into this jerks face and stayed with it. Unbelieveable…. 7
Julie Chadbourne ElderDid the cop go thru his camera? I’m shocked they didn’t make him delete the ones of your daughter, Shame on them if they didn’t. Who know what kind of pics are on there. What a sicko!2
Lacey HalleckJulie Chadbourne Elder nope. They can’t without a search warrant and with all the riots and antipolice stuff, they are all afraid to do anything remotely outside of the law right now. I don’t blame them.1
Candy WatsonIt done came down to this when you can’t take your kids out for a walk in the park and the policeman don’t do a thing about sick peoples watching and taking pictures of Mother’s and children, what they wait until something happens before they made a move to take action, wow this is bull, I am proud of the kind of mother you are to protect your baby girl and others children, I wish I was there with you, I would have put the fear of God in him, and I will show this to others that’s not on Facebook to be watching for him and others that might be out there in case, thanks for sharing this. I am glad you all ok.3
Lacey HalleckSandy DeFeo he had ZERO fear of the 3 dads there and one was a very large man. The only person he was intimidated by was me and I believe its because I was loud and obviously angry. The men were standing behind me the whole time while this happened.5
Shauna Chambers-WashingtonWhat baffles me is they tell you that you need permission to take a photo of someone else’s child and I get it’s in public so he can say he’s taking pictures of trees or what the heck ever but seriously, they couldn’t do anything such as banning him from that park or anything? I don’t get it and makes me frustrated that there’s people like this and no person should have their kids leave a park because of people like this instead they should be stopped and prevented. Did they at leas take a police report?3
This is so sick!! And so sad, that our precious children are no longer even safe at a friggin park?!!! Urge!!!! Gosh this makes me literally sick to my stomach! This man was not!! Held accountable for being g an OPEN!!! Pedo!!!!!!!! We need to spread awareness to this y’all!! Oh my gosh this poor mother was literally!!! Telling the cops everything and this man even admitted to taking pictures of little kids?!!!!! What in God’s name is happening to our world?! I wanna move!!!
Ummm Yalls might want to read RCW 9.41.270 which addresses brandishing an object used to intimidate another. This is a Gross Misdemeanor. I would have told the Man, with all due respect, in a non threatening manner, “Sir I will shove that baton up your A**e”
When Anastasia was a year old, I had an old man approach us as we were picking blueberries at a blueberry farm and ask if he could take a photo of her. I was still pretty ignorant about beasts like these and allowed him to. I’ve learned a lot since then that old men who want to take photos of strangers children are not so innocent in their reasons why.
Another one.. After talking to someone who had known this guy, I don’t believe this guy is a pedo.. BUT, he enjoys harrassing woman.. he is known for doing as such.. I won’t stop reposting, until he stops!! If he wants to push the envelope.. well sir, you’ve got an entire community who will go at no lengths for our children!!Show Attachment
Take notes parents and smash the effing camera- check the comments to see he had already done it previously. He walks away with your child’s image and then what? You want to change something? Change the laws that benefit creeps like this
Unfortunately it is legal to take pictures of someone who is in a public place. There is no expectation of privacy at a park. Which also means his photo and video can be circulated. That doesn’t means he’s not a sick fuck though. And the baton is brandishing a weapon and threatening idiot harm. That’s a fine line. Just remember, of you fear for your life or your kids life, you can defend yourself. Growing up I heard, never throw the first punch but make damn sure you throw the last.Show Attachment
This is disturbing and our laws need to change if this man was taking pictures and video’s of kids and the police couldn’t look at the pictures or delete them then that’s just so wrong and yet another reason I want to move out if this state
This guy has been caught multiple times taking inappropriate pictures of young women and children! This incident was at Tumwater Falls Historical Park, let’s all keep an eye out for creepers, and if something feels wrong it probably is! Be careful and watch your babies close
Restaurant workers, already living “tip to mouth,” face more hardship in shutdown
I do not own the copyright to this excellent well polished Docuvideo about the desperately poor restaurant servers who depend entirely on the tips and largesse of their customers rather than their employers.The copyright is owned by CBSN who generously made this enlightening production available to the public of a fee/subscription, though not in the public domain They consistently offer quality investigatory journalism, an increasingly rare occurrence in mainstream journalism. Viewers who appreciate as much will be well served by subscribing to the CBSN channel. I rate this production as excellent in pacing, video quality, interviewer manner, and an intimate gritty street level familiarity adding to its 100% realism. There is nothing staged in this production. It is REAL news.This video is about the daily grind and desperation of restaurant workers in 17 states that allow them to be paid as little as $2.13/hr. These employees and their families literally eat or go hungry depending on the tips they receive…or not, even having to pay out of their own pockets for the meals of some customers who leave no tip at all.
Restaurant servers who rely on customers’ tips to make ends meet have seen their livelihoods vanish virtually overnight. The restaurant industry is reeling from the financial impact of coronavirus shutdowns, and so are the workers who kept it running.
John deBary, the co-founder of Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, is concerned for the estimated 13.5 million restaurant workers nationwide affected by coronavirus closures. “On a good day, about 40% of restaurant workerslive in poverty. That number is about to go way higher, and even the ones that don’t live in poverty are really living on the edge,” he said.
For some, those tough financial straits have roots in the separate, lower federal minimum wage for tip-earning employees. Since 1991, the federal minimum wage for tipped wage earners has been frozen at $2.13 per hour, compared to $7.25 for other workers. Federal law requires restaurants to ensure all employees receive the full minimum wage and make up the difference when tips fall short, but it’s been challenging to enforce. Between 2010 to 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated over 9,000 restaurants and found 84% violated wage and hour laws.
Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food and Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, described food servers — waiters and waitresses — as living “tip to mouth.” “Literally the tips you get that night, you’re using to feed your kids the next day. If you can’t go back and get more tips, you’re done. It’s overwhelming,” she said.
The restaurant industry “is always on every list of the top fastest-growing industries in America, yet it continues to be the absolute lowest-paying employer in the United States,” Jayaraman added. The U.S. Department of Labor puts out data on occupational employment and wage estimates, and “the seven lowest [median wage earners] are all in one industry, in the restaurant industry,” she explained. Some states and cities have taken action and raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum, but only eight states require paying tipped wage earners the regular minimum wage. A report released by the Economic Policy Institute found states with a higher tipped minimum wage had much lower poverty rates for tipped workers.
DeBary was fortunate to bartend in high-end bars and restaurants in New York City, but has seen the economic fragility of his community even before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Restaurant workers, he said, “are one or two bad days away from a financial catastrophe, and most of them don’t have health insurance benefits from their employer [or] any kind of sick leave.”
Nikki Books, a single mother, was working as a waitress in Kokomo, Indiana, before the birth of her son caused health complications. Even when she was healthy and working, Books was barely making enough to survive as a waitress in a national chain restaurant and sought out ways to supplement her income.
Nikki Books waited tables for a national chain restaurant in Indiana.
“I used to donate plasma, but I’ve had surgeries in the past six months, so I can’t donate plasma anymore,” she said. Books and her infant son were able to enroll in the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), a state health coverage program for those ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare. Still, she’s unable to apply for sick leave because she wasn’t clocking in full-time hours as a food server. She doesn’t qualify for disability benefits either, as her health condition is classified as reversible.
DeBary said the structural issues of the restaurant industry are becoming acutely apparent and impossible to ignore. “Since restaurants work on such thin [profit] margins, they want to keep hours as low as possible” for the workers, he said. He acknowledged that small, independent restaurants and larger corporate groups face different issues, but doesn’t think solutions can rely on individual businesses just deciding to do the right thing. “It really does require a legislative response,” he said.
On March 18, with the nation facing widespread layoffs and business closures, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law. It provides funds to expand paid sick leave and unemployment benefits. Still, under normal circumstances, nearly a quarter of U.S. workers don’t have access to paid sick leave, including most food servers.
Even for those with access to such benefits, Jayaraman warned, “Paid sick leave is, in most states, at maximum three to nine days. It’s not going to last us through this crisis.” And the expansion of unemployment benefits also may not be enough. Jayaraman explained food servers, bartenders and others earning a tipped minimum wage have their unemployment benefits based on a sub-minimum wage plus a rough and often inaccurate calculation of their tips.
“In a functional society, if something like this happens and you have to lay off people, you need a safety net like unemployment insurance. But when unemployment insurance is based on a $2.13 wage, it screams at why we should have ever had a $2.13 wage to begin with,” she said.
Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food and Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founder of the nonprofit One Fair Wage.
When Nikki Books was asked about unemployment benefits, she replied, “Even if I got it, it wouldn’t be much because servers’ wages are so low.” Books is surviving off modest but rapidly dwindling savings and has maxed out her credit cards. “If I have to buy formula and that’s all I have money for, then I’ll live off cereal.”
One Fair Wage, co-founded by Jayaraman, is a nonprofit that advocates for an end to the federal sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. It recently launched an emergency relief fund that received 10,000 requests for assistance in the first 24 hours. According to Jayaraman, many are pleading for help to feed children and make rent. The entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s nonprofit, Humanity Forward, is also partnering with One Fair Wage to help struggling families.
John deBary is concerned that the people who need the most help are the ones least able to access it, and he encouraged community members to reach out to help. “[People] who may not have proficiency with the English language, who may not have access to the web, walk them through the resources that are available for assistance.” He added, “There are people who are very desperate.”
When the worst of the crisis is over and restaurants reopen, he believes there will be no going back to business as usual. “It’s not impossible, and it’s a matter of people being able to think about their role in making a just society.”
Six people have been shot in Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone in 10 days, prompting officials to look at dismantling it A 16-year-old is dead and a 14-year-old is in critical condition in the latest of a series of shootings inside Seattle’s self-proclaimed police-free zone, known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP/CHAZ).
Initially home to hundreds of sometimes peaceful protesters, in the last 10 days, four other people were shot in the area, including a 19-year-old man who was killed.
The violence has left some officials seriously questioning the safety of the encampment and looking to take steps to dismantle it.
Officers said in a police blog that at about 3am on Monday, a white Jeep Cherokee SUV was reported near a Chop concrete barrier that surrounds the protest area. Several unidentified people then fired shots into the vehicle. “Two injured individuals, presumably the occupants of the Jeep”, were then taken to Harborview Trauma Center, according to the police blog.
One was transported by a private vehicle, while the other was taken by medics.
Police are investigating the shooting.
Chop, originally named the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or “CHAZ”, was founded about three weeks ago after a series of dangerous clashes between protesters and law enforcement during protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
The clashes culminated in police abandoning their east precinct building in the area. A number of peaceful protesters filled the area with free food and community gardens, and held speeches, movie nights and teach-ins. Others assaulted, bullied, threatened, intimidated and even robbed journalists. Police were not allowed to accompany City medics to recover/rescue victims of gun battles prompting the medics to refuse to enter the barricaded zone.
Across the main road in the encampment, some people painted “Black Lives Matter” in large, colorful letters. But recently, with the barrage of nighttime gun violence, the numbers of demonstrators have dwindled dramatically.
During a press conference at the occupied zone on Monday, Carmen Best, the police chief, said the situation at Chop was “not safe for anybody” and said protesters should move out of the area.
“As an African American woman with uncles and brothers, I wouldn’t want them to be in this area,” she said. But Best did not provide additional details about when officials would begin dismantling the zone.
Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s mayor, had previously said during a meeting with protesters Friday that the concrete barricades surrounding the protest zone would be removed on Sunday, and those directly outside the police’s east precinct would be left, according to Converge Media, the only news organization allowed in the meeting. But no crews arrived Sunday to remove them, and as of 3pm Monday, the barricades were still up.
A large group of Seattle department of transportation crews had tried to remove the barriers early Friday morning, but were stopped by several people sitting or lying on the ground in front of the equipment. In recent days, some people at Chop have moved their tents away from Cal Anderson Park, so they are closer to the police precinct. But many still remain in the park.
Questions remain about how protesters will respond to the city attempting to remove barricades, and what will happen to those still in the park.
Hours after the shooting, an African American woman was reportedly pushed by the Fox News reporter Dan Springer, according to Derrick Drungo, an activist at Chop who witnessed the incident.
Drungo said Springer then got in his truck and protesters surrounded it, asking for an apology. One woman briefly climbed on top of the truck. Activists said the reporter’s personal security detail came out and tried to pepper spray them, and the group moved a concrete barrier in front of the truck to stop him from leaving. The reporter later got out of the car and another man with Fox tried to move the truck.
While driving very slowly, Drungo said the man hit him. “I got back in front of the car and the driver kept driving,” Drungo told the Guardian. “My hands were up in the air, and he hit me six times. I told him to stop,” He added.
In a statement, Nancy Harmeyer, the vice-president of domestic bureaus and the LA bureau chief at Fox News, said:
“While covering the news just outside of Seattle’s Chop zone this morning, a protester confronted Fox News Channel correspondent Dan Springer and his crew after overhearing him cancel a live report due to ‘filthy language’ in the background. The protester started yelling at him and threw a cup of coffee in his face and on his jacket.
Attempting to de-escalate the situation, the crew returned to their vehicle, which was then surrounded by protestors. Unable to drive away, the crew turned the car off and walked away from the scene.
At no point during the situation did the Fox News crew ever physically instigate or retaliate in any way against the protesters.”
In a tweet early Monday, Donald Trump said, “Seattle Looters, Agitators, Anarchists and ‘Protestors’, are now refusing to leave the ‘CHOP’ Zone. They have ZERO respect for Government, or the Mayor of Seattle or Governor of Washington State! Not good!”
Chief implores BLM supporters to stop the carnage, go home…says crime scene and murder evidence was tampered with, no suspects or arrests, cites refusals to cooperate with police investigation.
King5 possibly owns the copyright to this critical footage but the 4th estate cannot be trusted to preserve the record and make it irrevocably available to the public.
The Chief maintains poise and dignity almost effortlessly in the face of CHAZ denizens’ attempt to drown out her interview with the press–a class act all the way.
The 4th Estate has failed to report the details inn the following footage. The 5th estate has. Today, WE are the media!
Barricades being dismantled down in Seattle’s CHOP/CHAZ zone
Raw Gunshots & Tampered White Death Car w/2 Black Teen Victims
Why I left Antifa | Gabriel Nadales
“By their works ye shall know them.” -MATTHEW 7:20 KJV-
An apologist explains The Philosophy of Antifa
Original CHAZ/CHOP shooting Footage & Report 6/28-29
Street Demonstrators Record Police Violence,Targeted Reporters
A Quick History of ANTIFA, Its Genesis in Leon Trotsky
The communist movement known as Antifa (short for Anti-Fascist Action) has sparked violence across the nation. In the wake of their battling despicable white supremacist in Charlottesville, Antifa has begun to gain mainstream popularity.
But unbeknownst to much of the public, the vast majority of Antifa violence isn’t targeted at genuine fascists, but mainstream conservatives and civilians. With help from those who have encountered Antifa, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, Lauren Southern, Jack Posobiec, and Steve Deace, conservative author Trevor Loudon guides us through the history and ideas behind the Antifa movement, starting with Leon Trotsky and going all the way through the events in Berkeley, CA and Charlottesville, VA.
“Antifa” is the third episode in the “America Under Siege” documentary web-series from Dangerous Documentaries (a project of the Capital Research Center) and Cohesion Films. Each episode profiles the influence of radical Marxists on various segments of American society.
DangeousDocumentaries.com CapitalResearch.org
Jerrad Johnson 2 years ago says:
I’ve seen Antifa in person, I was at the battle of Berkeley. They throw explosives and bricks and glass bottles at us and called us nazis, just because we support free speech.
I’m a slightly left of center libertarian native-American who is married to a hispanic girl that is the daughter of a mexican immigrant. I adopted my wife’s 2 hispanic nephews because their mom is a crack head and CPS took them away. I couldn’t be further from a nazi by their identity politics standards yet they call me one for supporting free speech (including theirs ironically).
These people are animals, I assure you. This is a spot on documentary.
Social media was abuzz Saturday evening with chatter that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen had made a surprise appearance during a conservative rally in downtown Olympia earlier in the day.
Tim Eyman (running for governor) was at the event.
reported by Rolf Boone
Olympia, WA. (6-27-20) — Social media was abuzz Saturday evening with chatter that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen made a surprise appearance during a conservative rally in downtown Olympia earlier in the day.
The rally, which was billed as “March for Our Rights 3,” took place at Heritage Park for most of the afternoon. About 500 people attended the rally, according to Washington State Patrol troopers at the scene.
Videos on Twitter appear to show a man in costume, similar to something Cohen might wear, singing a satirical song that poked fun at political beliefs.
Yelm City Councilman, James Blair, thinks it was the comedian, according to his own Facebook post.
“Sacha Baron Cohen pulled a bullshit stunt at the March For Our Rights 3 event,” Blair says in his post.
“He came on stage disguised as the lead singer of the last band, singing a bunch of racist, hateful, disgusting bullshit,” Blair writes. “His security blocked event organizers from getting him off the stage, or pulling power from the generator. After the crowd realized what he was saying, and turned on him, his security then rushed the stage and evacuated them to a waiting private ambulance that was contracted to be their escape transport.”
Blair could not be reached by email Saturday evening.
Three Magnets @3MagBrewing@SachaBaronCohen, thanks for what you did today! Free beer and food for you and your crew if you’re still in downtown Oly. Open until 9pm. Ask for Tasha and she’ll hook y’all up!
Cohen most recently is known for a cable TV show called, “Who is America?” That show, like a lot of Cohen’s humor, lures unsuspecting public figures into awkward situations. On the big screen, he is known for his “Borat” and “Bruno,” characters.
Despite the rumors of Cohen making an appearance, others attended the rally for more serious reasons, such as Alan Swinney of central Texas, who makes a point of going to such rallies.
He also had “proud boy” tattooed on one arm.
“I swore an oath to the Constitution,” he said, “and people’s constitutional rights get violated at conservative rallies. I just make sure that doesn’t happen.”
by Masha Gessen (June 24, 2020)
Until recently, ideas such as defunding the police fell outside of what news outlets found suitable to publish. Now those boundaries are being redrawn.What’s so terrible about moral clarity? A future historian of June of 2020—a year that, historians have joked, will spawn narrow chronological specialties—will have to answer this question. The phrase has become central to a debate about the media and about the possibility of debate itself.
The journalist Wesley Lowery, who won a Pulitzer in 2016, for reporting on the systematic nature of police killings of black people, used the phrase in a tweet earlier this month; he was responding to a decision by the New York Times to run an opinion piece by Senator Tom Cotton that advocated the use of military force to quell protests against racism and police brutality. Lowery wrote, “American view-from-nowhere, ‘objectivity’-obsessed, both-sides journalism is a failed experiment. We need to fundamentally reset the norms of our field. The old way must go. We need to rebuild our industry as one that operates from a place of moral clarity.” Four days later, the Times’ media columnist, Ben Smith, picked up the tweet, cementing the oppositional pair: objectivity versus moral clarity, old white male journalists versus young journalists of color, tradition versus an unknown new world.
After Smith, Andrew Sullivan wrote a column for New York magazine under the headline “Is there still room for debate?” The notion that American society is systemically, foundationally racist is tantamount to a totalitarian ideology, according to Sullivan and others. (The Soviet-born Izabella Tabarovsky made the same argument in a piece for Tablet.) Sullivan leads with a reference to Václav Havel’s essay “The Power of the Powerless,” a classic of totalitarianism literature and a piece I have used extensively in my own work. Sullivan seems to think that this is an essay about the use of tanks and terror to enforce compliance with totalitarian opinion. In fact, as its title indicates, it’s an essay about the surprising power of noncompliance, of refusing to “live within the lie,” in Havel’s words.
In what Havel calls “post-totalitarian” society, and in what I would call late-stage-totalitarian society—a society that remembers state terror but no longer uses it—people obey the rules out of habit. Havel conjures the hypothetical character of a greengrocer who puts a Communist sign in his store window, as everyone does:
People ignore his slogan, but they do so because such slogans are also found in other shop windows, on lampposts, bulletin boards, in apartment windows, and on buildings; they are everywhere, in fact. They form part of the panorama of everyday life. . . . The greengrocer and the office worker have both adapted to the conditions in which they live, but in doing so, they help to create those conditions. They do what is done, what is to be done, what must be done, but at the same time—by that very token—they confirm that it must be done in fact. They conform to a particular requirement and in so doing they themselves perpetuate that requirement.
The greengrocer, under totalitarianism, doesn’t and can’t have an opinion; the putting up of the sign doesn’t appear to be subject to debate. But, Havel argues, if the greengrocer were to take the sign down, or not put it up, he would claim a kind of power that is distinct from the regime’s and will never be equal to it but nonetheless constitutes a threat to it: the power of the powerless.
To compare the changing of the ideological tide in the United States to totalitarian ideology is to fail to take account of the power differential. Totalitarian ideology had the power of the state behind it. The enforcers of totalitarian ideology—be they Central Committee members, Writers’ Union leaders, or the distributors of store-window signs—had the power of state institutions behind them. Protesters in the streets of American cities and the journalists who support them are not backed by state or institutional power, but just the opposite: in every instance, they are in confrontation with it. One of the questions they are asking is, How does a vastly powerful institution such as the Times use its power? Does it amplify the state in its most brutal expression, as it did in publishing the Tom Cotton piece? Or does it raise up voices that have been marginalized throughout history? If the paper opts to do both, should it try to compensate for the power imbalance, and give the marginalized voices more room and the state less? In his own Op-Ed for the Times, Lowery talks about black journalists, historically few and powerless, raising their own voices in the newsroom. Here a comparison to the greengrocer may finally be appropriate: black journalists within mainstream publications are finally suggesting that they should have a say in how journalism is practiced.
In making editorial decisions, the Times defines what it sees as the sphere of legitimate controversy, a term coined by the historian Daniel Hallin to describe what news outlets find suitable to publish. Until recently, ideas such as defunding or abolishing the police fell outside the sphere of legitimate controversy—in Hallin’s terminology, they fell into the sphere of deviance, which meant that the papers did not amplify or even acknowledge them. But the idea of using the military to crush protests used to seem deviant, too. American mainstream media are actively redrawing the boundaries of the sphere of legitimate controversy, and the location of that boundary is, itself, a subject of legitimate controversy.
So what is moral clarity? The philosopher Susan Neiman, who wrote a book on the subject, says that it is not, in fact, a statically defined concept: it can be found only on a case-by-case basis. “Moral clarity, however, is about looking at each particular case, looking at all the facts, looking at all the context, and working out your answers,” she stated in a lecture. It should not be confused with moral simplicity: we may have clearly defined moral values, but the quest for the actual position of moral clarity is always complicated and specific to the circumstances. For Lowery, moral clarity is, he wrote, “first and foremost, about objective facts. Nazis are bad—objective fact. Black lives matter—objective fact. Climate change is real—objective fact. President Trump is a liar—objective fact.” In his Times Op-Ed, Lowery added that moral clarity involves naming what we observe without resorting to euphemisms, which includes labelling the President a racist. Moral clarity can also describe the journalist’s own position in relationship to the subject matter. “So often the questions that get the best/most insightful answers are posed from a place of moral clarity,” Lowery tweeted. “Questioning someone powerful from a place of ‘neutrality’ often, in practice, results in journalism that is inappropriately soft in its framing.”
Klickitat County Sheriff Defies Governor Inslee’s COVID-19 Orders
[Where do the limits of individual rights begin & end in a nation of 360 million with a COVID-19 infection rate among the highest in the world and no end in sight? The Klickitat County Sheriff argues the U.S. Constitution defines those limits. But does it?Our U.S. Supreme Court justices have opined the Constitution is not the repository or definition of human rights, but rather a definition dedicated to the limits of government. Clarifying, they observed, the rights of the people are as innumerable as the stars in the heavens. Or, as John F. Kennedy said during his inaugural address to Congress, the rights of man do not flow from the largesse of government, but are endowed upon us by our Creator. i.e. We are born with them! They are inseparable and inalienable from the human condition . We need not ask/plead for what is rightfully ours. We can (and should) TAKE it, for we will lose those rights we do not exercise.HOWEVER, we are not entitled to gratuitously risk the lives of others in the face of a common enemy such as COVID-19, a flood, hurricane, war, earthquake, or other disaster/calamity. We owe each other respect for the right of each individual to the pursuit of happiness and, indeed, life itself. Thus, the Klickitat County Sheriff errs when he fatuously wraps himself in the Constitution at the expense of those natural rights derived from a higher law. And, in the words of our more radical Declaration of Independence, they are truths which we hold are “self evident”!]
In other words, moral clarity is a quest, guided by clear values and informed by facts and context, and clearly aligned with the original concept of journalistic objectivity. In the early twentieth century, some visionary reformers of American journalism imagined that reporting could strive to emulate science, with every article an experiment of sorts: the writer could lay out all of his evidence and the circumstances under which it was collected before drawing his conclusion—or, better yet, letting readers draw their own. Like a scientific paper, a news article could be written in such a way that if someone else decided to replicate the experiment—go to all the same places and ask all the same people the same questions that the original author did—he would likely draw the same conclusions.
Over time, the assumptions underpinning the ideal of journalistic objectivity faded away. Conventions in approach and tone took over. Objectivity in journalism came to mean presenting both sides of an argument from a position of neutrality. But not every argument has two sides: some have more, and some statements should not be the subject of argument. There cannot be arguments about facts. Whether disinfectant should be used to treat the coronavirus, for example, cannot be portrayed as a matter of debate; we do not argue about whether murder should be allowed, unless we are talking about murder committed by the state.
Just a few years ago, the question of whether couples of the same sex should have the right to marry was up for discussion. Today, there would probably be an outcry if the Times decided to stage a pro-and-con debate on the issue, because the Supreme Court has ruled that marriage is a constitutionally protected right and because public opinion has shifted. Whether Americans should have access to universal, taxpayer-funded health care is currently subject to debate; with any luck, in ten years, it will not be.
Essentially, Sullivan and other opinion writers decrying what they see as a new orthodoxy are arguing that everything should be subject to debate, that the sphere of legitimate controversy ought to be boundless. Part of the bedrock of this argument is the absolute belief in the value of debate unto itself. This is where the spectre of totalitarianism appears. These writers fear that what they see as an emerging new political consensus challenges the primacy of traditional liberal values that should never be debated: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other individual rights.
Sullivan identifies what he sees as the core beliefs of the new consensus: that “America is systemically racist, and a white-supremacist project from the start,” and that “all the ideals about individual liberty, religious freedom, limited government, and the equality of all human beings were always a falsehood to cover for and justify and entrench the enslavement of human beings under the fiction of race. . . . The liberal system is itself a form of white supremacy—which is why racial inequality endures and why liberalism’s core values and institutions cannot be reformed and can only be dismantled.” He sees this reading of history as reductive and a rejection of America’s aspiration for justice and equality.
“This view of the world certainly has ‘moral clarity,’ ” Sullivan wrote. “What it lacks is moral complexity. No country can be so reduced to one single prism and damned because of it.” At the same time, no country should be seen solely through the prism of its achievements. He seems willing to allow a discussion of racism as an amendment, perhaps a footnote, to the narrative of America as a nation of freedom and justice. But he rejects the idea that this society’s sins are great enough to warrant a reappraisal of its entire character. If the story of the United States is told primarily as one of a nation of immigrants, the story of a society that, over time, enfranchised an ever great number of its members, and where the arc of history has bent toward justice, then the legacy of slavery and the apparently intractable nature of structural racism is obscured. Indeed, the heroic narrative of America is part of why structural racism is so immovable. But Sullivan and others don’t appear to see two competing historical narratives; rather, they see a challenge not to a story but to the truth, an eternal certainty, a natural state of things that the protests are threatening to destroy.
This is not only a shortsighted view but also an outdated one. Donald Trump has already dislodged the story of this country as a nation of immigrants on an inexorable path toward justice and equality, guaranteed by a commitment to individual liberties. For future historians of June, 2020, here is my hypothesis: the reason we seem to be witnessing the emergence of a new political consensus is that the old consensus had already withered. The new story, being shaped right now, is neither dogmatic nor simplistic. It is, however, based on a different set of assumptions than the old story—and this is a good thing, and a necessary thing, as is moral clarity.
