MOB-MASTER IN CHIEF

Peter G. Bohmer, privileged TESC professor & r@dical @gainst the state

Professor says v@ndalism against Olympian photojournalist not his fault

BY BRANDI KRUSE  on June 15, 2011

[*Editor’s Note: Peter Bohmer has always had difficulty accepting 1st Amendment principles (“Fuck the Law!”) since his San Diego State College days, ~45 years ago, unless controlled in a way that suited/served his own viewpoint. He was fired from that college, not because, as he claims today, he was targeted by the FBI, but for intellectual dishonesty as an academic professor accused by one of his students of grading papers badly turned in by members of his class whose essays were inconsistent with Bohmer’s own radical political viewpoints. The college’s administration investigated the complaints, found merit in them, and booted Bohmer to prevent him from further abusing his position. Today, he urges his students to ‘smash the state’ (and capitalism) while admittedly holding a privileged position at a State institution of higher learning where he’s paid handsomely. Some things never change.]

In November 2007, a group of protestors, mainly students from Evergreen State College, gathered at the Port of Olympia to block shipments of military cargo to Fort Lewis. Tony Overman, a photographer for The Olympian, captured photos of both activists and police. At one point, he came so close to the action he was unintentionally pepper sprayed.

CLICK here for Brandi’s Interview

Tony Overman

Overman was a media regular at such demonstrations. His photos seemed to be fair. So why did protestors, as he puts it, suddenly turn on him?

“One of the protestors told the other protestors that I worked for the police and they need to stop me from taking photos,” Overman said. “From that point on, it was; this photographer from the newspaper is your enemy.”

That protestor, said Overman, was Peter Bohmer.

“I was involved in the protests,” said Bohmer, an economics professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. “I’m proud of that. I’ve nothing to hide.”

Bohmer also didn’t hide the fact that he did indeed say something to protestors about Overman that day.

“I knew he was a photographer for The Olympian,” he said, although he didn’t know Overman’s name at the time. Bohmer said protestors were cutting a lock or chain on a gate to the port when Overman started taking pictures.

“I did say he should not be photographing,” Bohmer said. “I didn’t think that he was working for the police. I said how the stuff could be used by the police.”

Overman said that’s when protestors backed him up against a fence and started to reach for his camera. He called 911.

Drew Hendricks is a well-known Olympia cop-watcher who monitors police. He was at the Port of Olympia that day gathering intelligence for the protestors on police and military movements.

“I saw Tony was agitated and he was on the phone with the police describing what had occurred,” Hendricks said.

Bohmer said Overman walked away from the group. “To me that was the end of it,” he said. “I’ve never had any other contact with him again.”

Since the Port of Olympia protests, however, Overman has been the target of vandalisms to his home, workplace and vehicle. He was even attacked at an anti-police brutality march by people who identified themselves as anarchists. Overman had been labeled a snitch and he blamed Peter Bohmer.

“He’s made no effort to tell me that he’s backed off on that claim,” Overman said. “Never apologized to me for saying that. Never admitted that it was wrong.”

But Bohmer said he didn’t know Overman blamed him.

“I don’t feel I threatened him,” he said. “I had zero to do with anything that’s happened to him since. You know while I may disagree with some of his actions, it’s not like I’m into targeting him personally.”

Bohmer has dedicated almost his entire life to radical social change. Before coming to Evergreen State College, he was known for his activism while an assistant professor at San Diego State University. He also played a major role in planning protests of the 1972 Republican National Convention.

“I began to see movements really having an effect,” he said. “I just got really committed.”

But his students at Evergreen say Bohmer has never forced his ideals onto them.

Miriam Calkins was involved in the 2007 Port of Olympia protests. She said they didn’t need Peter Bohmer to make them wary of having their pictures taken.

“Photographs are very powerful objects; they’re very powerful tools that people can use,” she said. “It’s very nerve-racking to have someone taking pictures of you when you don’t know their intentions.”

Calkins said they had good reason to believe there were anti-protestors taking pictures to share with police. But very few of Overman’s photographs were ever used to prosecute activists. The Olympia Police Department said only those that were published in the paper or online were used as evidence.

Hendricks, who is an anarchist, said he has no reason to suspect Tony Overman was working for the police. He also rejects reports that the recent string of vandalisms against Overman were done by anarchists.

“The fact that somebody’s trying to paint Tony as a snitch tells me the political author of this act isn’t thinking the way that we do as anarchists,” he said. “The idea of picking on Tony Overman, what is that going to achieve? It’s hard for me to wrap my head around.”

And while he encourages activism, Bohmer said targeting Overman isn’t the way to do it.

“I do think people need to really speak up, and stand up, but I don’t’ think targeting individuals is a way to build the kind of society we need and want.”

But Overman feels that’s exactly what Bohmer did.

Justin Justin with Peter G Bohmer, Elissa Goss, Andrew Meyer, Rick Fellows, Sonja R Wentz, John Harvey, Anees Mansour, Matt Velky, Matt Fu and Kristina Erickson, Zahid Chaudhry & Ann in Olympia, WA.

UPDATE:

Drew Hendrickson has taken it upon himself to take issue with this article in the comments section below. Due to the verbosity of the exchange, his arguments can best be summarized in the words of Donald Rumsfeldt, the Secretary of Defense during the Bush administration, in the following video:

By Jacob G. Hornberger June 12, 2013

Ever since I was a kid, I have heard Americans ask, “How could the German people have allowed the Nazi regime to commit its evil acts?”

Well, here’s the answer to that question: The German people had the same warped and distorted concept of patriotism that American statists have today.

The overwhelming majority of German citizens believed that it was their moral duty to come to the unconditional support of their government in time of crisis, especially when the nation went to war. The good citizen didn’t question whether his government was right or wrong. The good citizen placed his trust in the judgment and decisions of his government officials, especially during crisis and war.

That’s what patriotism meant to the German people during the 1930s and 1940s. The good citizen — the one who deferred to authority — was considered the patriot.

What about German citizens who refused to defer to authority, those who had an independent mindset — those who would examine government policies with a critical eye — those who would question, challenge, and object to wrongful government policies? They were considered bad citizens — traitors.

The best example of this phenomenon involves the story of the White Rose, an organization composed predominantly of German college students. If you haven’t seen the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, I highly recommend it. Sophie Scholl, along with her brother Hans, were members of the White Rose.

If you do see the movie, pay particular attention to the trial scene in which the presiding judge, Roland Freisler, comes down hard on the defendants Hans and Sophie Scholl. You’ll notice something apropos to today: Freisler’s mindset is the same as that of American statists today who are condemning Edward Snowden. In Freisler’s mind, the Scholl siblings were bad Germans. They were traitors. Their parents had raised them to be despicable creatures.

What had the Scholl siblings done? What was their “crime”? They had taken a critical look at their own government in the midst of World War II. They had concluded that their own government was in the wrong — that it was engaged in wrongful conduct. Knowing that they were risking their lives or liberty, they violated the law by secretly publishing and distributing a set of pamphlets called “The White Rose,” in which they exhorted the German people to rise up, stop the wrongdoing, and set Germany on a correct path.

They were caught, primarily owing to the Nazi regime’s extensive surveillance system over the German people. A college janitor saw them tossing White Rose pamphlets into the school courtyard and, being the good, little citizen he was, locked the doors and called the Gestapo. Hitler and his cohorts considered him a patriot.

Not surprisingly, Hans and Sophie Scholl were quickly convicted and executed at the guillotine for treason. After all, the law is the law and citizens are expected to obey the law, as American statists never cease to remind us in the case of Edward Snowden.

By the way, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the Scholl trial did not take place in the regular German courts. After the terrorist attack on the Reichstag, and after some of the accused in that terrorism case had been acquitted, Hitler established a special tribunal called “The People’s Court” to try terrorism cases and treason cases. Its purpose? To ensure that no more accused terrorists and traitors got acquitted.

Another interesting World War II movie is Downfall, which is about Hitler’s last days in his Berlin bunker. The movie revolves around his young secretary Traudl Junge. At the end of the movie, the real Traudl Junge is shown making a statement. She points out that when she accepted the job as Hitler’s secretary, the last thing on her mind was that she was doing anything wrong.

After all, Junge embraced the same concept of patriotism that most other Germans embraced — the same type that American statists today embrace. Her job, as a good German citizen, was to come to the support of her government, especially during crises and war.

But Junge pointed out in Downfall that when she learned about the Scholl siblings after the war, she realized that she should have been asking the same types of questions that Hans and Sophie Scholl had asked. When she learned about Hans and Sophie Scholl, her concept of patriotism changed.

Today, American statists are condemning Edward Snowden for breaking the law and violating his oath as a government subcontractor to keep secret from the American people the massive surveillance scheme that the national-security state has secretly imposed on Americans and on much of the rest of the world. Statists are saying that Snowden is a bad citizen and a bad person. They’re calling him a traitor. They saying that he needs to be put on trial, perhaps even before the national-security state’s special tribunal system at Guantanamo Bay.

Where does conscience play into the American statist’s concept of patriotism and treason? For the statist, conscience must be subordinated to the needs of the national-security state. All that matters to the statist is the undying loyalty that national-security state employees, contractors, and subcontractors (and American citizens) owe to the national-security state apparatus and to their oath to protect its secrets.

For the statist, the national-security state is everything. It is god. It is daddy. It is big brother. Everything else, including conscience, must be subordinated to “national security” and to the national-security state’s oaths, laws, rules, and regulations.

The battle lines are forming in the case of Edward Snowden.

On the one side are the statists, for whom patriotism means an unconditional pledge of allegiance to the national-security state and its deep and dark nefarious secrets involving grave infringements on liberty and privacy.

On the other side are the libertarians and a few liberals and conservatives, for whom conscience and freedom reign supreme.

Time will tell which side wins out. Time will tell which direction America heads in.

Fourteen-year-old Tremaine McMillian didn’t threaten police. He didn’t attack them. He wasn’t armed. All the black teenager did was appear threatening by shooting Miami-Dade police officers a few “dehumanizing stares,” and that was apparently enough for the officers to decide to slam him against the ground and put him in a choke-hold.

During Memorial Day weekend, McMillian was rough-housing with another teenager on the sand. Police approached the teen on an ATV and told him that wasn’t acceptable behavior. They asked him where his parents were, but MicMillian attempted to walk away. The officer jumped off the ATV, and tried to physically restrain the teen. According to CBS Miami, police say the 14-year-old kid gave them “‘dehumanizing stares,’ clenched his fists and appeared threatening.”

McMillian says he was carrying a six-week old puppy at the time and couldn’t have been clenching his fists because he was feeding the dog with a bottle. He claims that during the confrontation the dog’s front left paw was injured while officer forcibly separated him from the dog.

The officer then forced McMillian to the ground and put him in a choke hold.

The incident was caught on a cell phone video and obtained by CBS Miami.

Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta told CBS Miami that McMillian tried to pull away, so that constituted a “threat.” The teen was charged with a felony count of resisting arrest with violence and disorderly conduct. Zabaleta claims with a straight face that flailing one’s arms and clenching one’s fists constitutes a threat, and is not swayed by McMillian’s insistence that all he was doing with his arms was carrying a puppy.

“At that point we are not concerned with a puppy,” Zabaleta told the station. “We are concerned with the threat to the officer.”

The following pics may resemble violent (A)narchists known to/by you. Their true names, haunts, habits, vehicle descriptions, and addresses/homes/workplaces are sought as a community service for you and your neighbors. It’s vital you should know what is going on in the public venues around you. Additional entries from the Pacific NW will be considered.

These malefactors insist on using the shield of anonymity properly belonging to authors and publishers of pure speech as a weapon to assault photojournalists, police, citizens with differing viewpoints, vandalize/steal property, declare war against the state, society, and even civilization while proclaiming ‘rights’ do not exist, that “Each may do as they wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

This sword MUST be blunted. Their cloak of anonymity must be removed, the thugs must be exposed and held accountable for their actions. They are enemies of the people who have usurped our public venues/places. Help take back the streets. Only WE, the people, can take back the streets so we and our families may venture into our parks, thoroughfares, and public spaces without fear.

May Day 2013 “anti-capitalist march”, Seattle. Tim Outlander Pointer?

May Day 2013 “anti-capitalist march”, Seattle

Maj’r Anne Archy [Amanda Menlove?]

Travis Conquest

Hudson Williams-Eynon? [on right]

Kyle J Roetemeyer? [second from left] Jennifer Fox? [3rd from right]

Gen’ral Malaise without beard

Ian Finkenbinder, HIV+, Occupy Seattle, 2011

Welcome home party for Matt and Kteeo

Red and Black Cafe

NON-violent Taylor Niemy

Kyle Roetemeyer? w/Scott CrunkKrew Wray? [in the funny hat] in Cal Anderson Park, Seattle

Scott Davis? [Black Coffee Co-op, Seattle] w/Ian Finkenbinder aka: Brian J. Fisher?

Peter Pansy? (huh?)

Phillip Neel?

Rocco Sleigher? [left] arguing with Seattle “Super Heroes”

May Day 2013 “anti-capitalist march”, Seattle

Amanda Menlove, before she became “Maj’r Anne Arcky”

Chad Bylsma?

Seattle May Day anti-cap march

William Gillis?

Kerry Hall?

Brian Wiedeman early mug shot (Portland?)

Black Badgers

Ian Finkenbinder/Brian J Fisher?

Ian Finkenbinder/Brian J Fisher? in front

Seattle’s Super Hero, Phoenix Jones and Friend

bonecatferalbones – Real Name please?

Brandon Fitzsimmons? (center)

Chad Bylsma? [Glitur protest, Seattle 2012]

Cameron(?) w/p@ls @ 5-6-13 Seattle Co. Jail Courthouse plaza (red hair dreads)

Cameron(?) w/p@ls @ 5-6-13 Seattle Co. Jail Courtyard plaza (red hair dreads)

Cameron(?) @ 1:10, unemployed, identifying in photojournalist interview

Christina Purington [wearing unicorn hat]

Cody Lestelle?

Chad Bylsma? (on left)

Gen’ral Malaise, in one of his many disguises

Ian Finkenbinder/Brian J Fisher?

Jack Tierney ~ May Day 2012 arrest

Jesse Hadden?

[Above photos of: John Dunn, aka: Furst Lewtenant Gonzo, ‘Johnny Appleseed’; @ccused of being a serial r@pist by fellow (A)narchists.]

Violent Olympia (A)narchists Mob Good Samaritan Youths

Olympia – On August 22, 2011 @ ~2:00 a.m., an(A)narchist mob of 30-40 youth had set about trashing the City, working their way from a tavern on 4th Ave. up to the 5th Ave. bridge round-a-bout. Dispatch received calls from citizens complaining of the gang banging on area windows, destroying street signs, and littering the roadway with trash cans and newspaper vending machines.  Two young men saw the vandalism, were incensed, and after questioning the mob’s behavior, began to clean up the mess…whereupon they were viciously attacked, beaten to the ground, kicked, and injured. Police already on their way from earlier reports now received an emergency call to 911 for help from the two victims.

The two courageous young men were Joshua P. Penn (a 160#, 5′-11″ 25 yo) and 24 yo Austin G. Wattenberg, both of Olympia. Though their assailants were not, for whatever reason, convicted after denying involvement, they were arrested, booked, and referred for prosecution. Accordingly, their names, available photos, and other identifying information are given here to alert the community that may find itself in their presence of what to expect and hold the perpetrators of such violent assaults and property destruction accountable. It’s clear the police cannot adequately protect us or these youth would likely have received jail sentences. Only we, the people, can take back our streets, our parks, our public venues from these reprobates.

Oly May Day 2013 Stalker Hostile to Photojournalists

2013 Oly May Day Black Bloc Gunsels

2013 Oly May Day Black Bloc Provocateurs demanding anonymity

Anonymity Cloaks

Mike Coday, esq. & senior mentor of many radicals

James? – TESC student fond of Portland’s Red and Black

James?–unhappy camper hostile to photojournalists, as here, and government

Olympia’s Drew Hendricks, Counter-Intelligence (A)gent

Drew habitually files PDA requests, sifts through trash, and is the (A)narchists’ ‘Snitch Hunt’ Persecutor General. Though articulate, he bullies, intimidates, and harasses his targets.

Drew lists his home and Skype #’s as: (360) 870-3127 & (360) 464-1108, his e-mail as: drewhend98513@yahoo.com

???

aka: Robert Vincent, Sarg’nt Yell’r, Zechariah Childs,
 A.M. Khan, Ismail White,
 Zech Zelli

Robert Joe Childs as a CIRCA clown during protest

T@rgeted (A)lleged level-3 serial sex-offender & federal informant

Emmeline Mead

Emmeline Mead & son/whatever

Emmeline issued an online call to action to assault (spray paint) the photojournalist, later assaulted @ TESC’s ‘(A)narchists Convergence’ on 4-20-13 @ ~11:30 am. The male beside her is believed to have been involved. Emmeline immediately removed this photo from her FB page when queried about his identity. Emmeline refused to divulge what she knew of the incident despite being there at the time. Is she covering up for the male in the pic? His identity and whereabouts continue to be sought.

Gregory Lewis, Oly M@rtial (A)rtist [he makes a point of denying this, arguing Seattle is his domicile–see comments]

Gregory Lewis, Oly’s M@rtial (A)rtist

Gregory Lewis, Oly M@rtial (A)rtist

“Governments will use whatever technology is available to combat their primary enemy – their own population.” -Noam Chomsky-

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky has praised the Guardian’s revelations about the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency.

By Fiona Harvey in Bonn, Germany

The actions of the US government in spying on its and other countries’ citizens have been sharply criticised by Noam Chomsky, the prominent political thinker, as attacks on democracy and the people.

“Governments should not have this capacity. But governments will use whatever technology is available to them to combat their primary enemy – which is their own population,” he told the Guardian.

In his first public comment on the scandal that has enveloped the US, UK and other governments, as well as internet companies such as Google and Microsoft, Chomsky said he was not overly surprised technology and corporations were being used in this way.

“This is obviously something that should not be done. But it is a little difficult to be too surprised by it,” he said. “They [governments and corporations] take whatever is available, and in no time it is being used against us, the population. Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.”

Chomsky, who has strongly supported the Occupy movement and spoken out against the Obama administration‘s use of drones, warned that young people were much less shocked at being spied on and did not view it as such a problem.

“Polls in the US indicate there’s a generational issue here that someone ought to look into – my impression is that younger people are less offended by this than the older generation. It may have to do with the exhibitionist character of the internet culture, with Facebook and so on,” he said. “On the internet, you think everything is going to be public.”

Other technologies could also come to be used to spy more effectively on people, he added. “They don’t want people to know what they’re doing. They want to be able to use [new technology] against their own people.

“Take a look at drones, and what is developing. You will find new drone technology being used in 10 or 12 years from now. They are looking at [trying to make] tiny drones that can go in your living room, like a fly on the wall.”

He praised the Guardian’s revelations about the activities of the National Security Agency, and the whistleblower Ed Snowden, who has been taking refuge in Hong Kong. “We need this kind [of journalism],” he said. “We ought to know about it.”

Chomsky, a much-lauded academic and professor of linguistics, gained renown as a political critic when he vocally opposed the Vietnam war. Since then, he has written dozens of books on political power, capitalism and democracy and espoused a variety of activist campaigns, most recently the Occupy movement.

Olympian Photojournalist Loads 2A as 1A @ttacked

By Dave Workman – JUNE 13, 2011

Threats, harassment and intimidation by anarchist thugs against an Olympia photojournalist apparently hit the outer limits when Tony Overman revealed to MyNorthwest.com over the weekend that the most recent attack, at his residence, left him alarmed and armed.

Tony Overman

The story has been repeatedly reported Monday morning on KIRO-FM, which interviewed Overman during the 7 o’clock hour. There was no discussion about Overman’s earlier-reported reach for a shotgun, but here’s the MyNorthwest.comquote:

“I sat up all night with a 12-gauge shot gun by my side.”—Tony Overman, photojournalist for The Olympian newspaper.

Anarchists have been in and out of the news in Washington State since the WTO protests more than a decade ago. The protest then made a hero of former King County Sheriff Dave Reichert when he was caught on camera, unarmed, chasing some of the anarchist vandals down a Seattle street. Say what you will about Reichert, but at the moment he was in foot pursuit of those vandals, you didn’t want to be one of them if he caught you.

In Overman’s case, published reports say he has been wrongly identified by anarchists as a police photographer. It’s a smear that has caused him nothing but trouble, and now the vandals have tracked him down to his own home. He is getting universal support from other journalists, and from the press community at large.

The reason for the attack was apparently because Overman had dared to do his job–he took photos of the anarchists while they were marching in public, seeking attention… In both instances, the notion that these anarchists are using the same truth-suppressing, thuggish tactics that they supposedly despise seems to be lost on the fools.—Seattle Weekly

Washington State citizens enjoy, as this column has frequently noted, one of the best self-defense statutes in the country. Considering the high profile of Overman’s current troubles with anarchists, the likelihood of him ever being prosecuted for acting in self-defense seems remote.

The reports suggest that Overman has considerable backbone and is sticking to his guns, professionally and personally.

But what does it say of the anarchists who are harassing and trying to intimidate him?

Anarchists are evidently cowards who do not wish to be held accountable for their criminal actions. They wear masks. They demand anonymity. They believe they should be invisible from the press when they rampage. They skulk to someone’s home and vandalize it, and his vehicle. They are, as the Tacoma News Tribune observed editorially this morning, “domestic terrorists.”

Destruction that targeted The Olympian and Overman’s home were deliberate acts by self-described anarchists for the purposes of retaliation and intimidation. Retaliation for journalists’ exercise of their First Amendment rights and intimidation to make them hesitate to exercise those rights in the future.

That’s not vandalism; it’s domestic terrorism. And in a free society, it cannot be justified or tolerated. We trust that the authorities are treating this case in that light.—Tacoma News Tribune

Social protest is protected by the same First Amendment under which Overman photographs news events, and whatever else a violent protest happens to be, it is first, and foremost, news that the public has a right to know about.

Readers can follow Overman’s work in the pages of the Daily Olympian. They can follow anarchists by the trail of silvery slime they leave in their wake.

Grand Jury Resister and (A)rchenemy of the state, Maddy Pfeiffer of Olympia, has argued property is theft.

A funny thing happened on my way to Capitol Hill.

‘Maddy’ Pfeifer

Maddy

mom

Jordi Damiana pals

A family of Noses

Jordi Damiana & Dane

Dane & Jordi Damiana

Dane Brooks

‘Pax’ (aka: Bryan Michael Wiedeman, 25), p@l & confidante

Perhaps there really is a God, or at least poetic justice, because Maddy Pfeiffer’s significant other, Jordi Damiana, posted the following on a Tumblr account:

Help replace Maddy’s Laptop and Car Window

Maddy’s car was broken into* on Capitol Hill Saturday night (6:15 pm). ‘Their’ backpack and laptop were stolen and ‘their’ [Maddy’s] car window was broken out in the process. As some of you may know, Maddy recently spent some time in prison for defying a grand jury here in Seattle. Due to this, they’ve had a rough go of it and it’d be great if we could get a bit of money together to soften the financial blow.

***’We’ does not condemn this theft, any theft or crime in general. [They say.]

So there you have it: Why risk getting arrested while shoplifting or otherwise trying to survive when the dilettante (A)narchists have so much ‘stuff’? Remember, “property is theft“, so you’ll be doing them a favor if you can track down where ‘they’ live (or what they’re driving and where ‘they’ park) to relieve ‘them’ of it. Maddy’s pals (or parents, or the state) will get ‘them’ more soon enough. In this instance, ‘they’ sanctions theft/crime, or at least do not condemn it…more for you, more for ‘them’. Affirm Maddy’s thesis, support the revolution–STEAL! In fact, why not steal from the very folks who will thank you for doing so? E@t the Rich! Sn@ck on the (A)rrogant.

ps: A reward is being offered by this publication for the recovery of Maddy’s laptop–intact w/all data. Naturally the contents would need to be examined to insure it’s truly ‘theirs’! Don’t be shy–Maddy doesn’t mind. Property is against ‘their’ religion.

Seattle’s Westlake Park has been overrun by street urchins. This page was inspired by four of them: convicted felon Benjamin Padgett aka “Trash” (in the cover photo), Tiras Zennger, “Sanchez”, and convicted felon Troy D. Hunter.

Some of the photos (of miscreants, etc.) and textual excerpts used here are the intellectual property of the photojournalist who was assaulted. This site makes no claim to any commercial interest in those rights (copyright), but uses them here under fair use legal guidelines as a news article about the ongoing assault against photojournalists by violent street elements, sometimes using political pretexts such as (A)narchists.

It is hoped the fair use publication of these images and news accounts of the increasingly common assaults against photojournalists will serve as a call to action to citizens to take back their streets, their public spaces/venues, their liberties from those who would destroy them, make visiting parks a harrowing experience, and deny residents the public safety they have the right to expect along with the free exercise of all their Constitutional rights, especially those guaranteed in our 1st Amendment.

Marcel Davis, aka Marcel Lamar Davis, 21

Five protesters arrested during Seattle’s 2013 May Day’s “anti-capitalism” demonstration that turned violent made initial court appearances Thursday, with a King County District Court judge finding probable cause in each of the cases for crimes of rioting, assaulting Seattle police officers or both.

Four of the five men don’t live in Seattle, and the fifth is an unemployed 21-year-old with a lengthy juvenile criminal history, including a number of assaults in Spokane County, according to court records.

That man, Marcel Davis, was ordered held in lieu of $60,000 bail for investigation of second-degree assault and felony rioting. He is accused of passing out large rocks to other demonstrators and hurling rocks at police, one of which struck a female officer, injuring her left leg [breaking her kneecap], according to the probable-cause statement outlining the police case against him.

Benjamin Padgett, aka “Ben”, aka “Trash”

Convicted Felon, Ben Padgett, 23, is currently being prosecuted for multiple felony crimes in Port Orchard Superior Court, Kitsap County Superior Court and in Jefferson County, Washington.

The not at all innocent ‘street urchin’; rumored drug dealer, obvious thug, and convicted felon (see Kitsap County Superior Court case 12-1-00355-4) “Ben” aka “Trash” Padgett, who is known to harass, and intimidate residents trying to enjoy Seattle’s Westlake Park, may finally be getting a little well deserved justice after his long history of ongoing criminal activity. It has been clear all along that “Trash” is not all the “innocent” “child” that his mostly criminal cohorts have claimed since the inception of this Facebook page!

In Kitsap County he was charged with and convicted of felony burglary after the vacant house he burglarized burned to the ground. The case number is 12-1-00355-4 in the Kitsap County Superior Court. Padgett pleaded guilty to those felony charges before Judge Sally F. Olsen.

Benjamin Padgett then failed to show for subsequent post conviction hearings. The court has since issued a warrant for his arrest.

According to other court records and jail registries. Benjamin Padgett has also been arrested and booked into the King County Jail multiple times since late December 2012, but apparently, and inexplicably, made bail.

Ben Padgett, aka Benjamin Michael Padgett was arrested on 12/04/2012 under booking number 2Z0784504 for charges in Jefferson County, with a bail amount of $10,100.00. Padgett was arrested on 12/28/2012 under booking number 212033796 for felony charges in Port Orchard Superior Court. Padgett was previously arrested on 08/22/2012 under King County Jail booking number 20326801 for charges in Jefferson County, with a bail amount of $10,000.00.

(Rumors Ben may have been driven to his acts for reasons of being an orphan are denied by his family.)

These people claim they are upset about photography in Westlake Park. However, that didn’t seem to stop them from wanting to take a few photographs of their own! It seems pretty obvious that this “smartphone” wielding mob is not among the homeless or destitute. They also don’t seem to complain about or to the many corporations adjacent to Westlake Park whose surveillance video cameras record all their activities for posterity either. — at Westlake Park.

One of the types of responses generated by writing here about the anti-social crimes, violent crimes, and other unseemly activities, that occur in Westlake Park, (and throughout much of downtown Seattle’s core), has been threats of assault, stabbing, and even death, against the authors of these pages. Such threats seem like persuasive evidence that the people committing such crimes in Westlake Park don’t want attention brought to their criminal activities. This unseemly element has also made it clear that they have “friends” and “supporters”, who are willing to act as shills and mouthpieces for the sentiments of this unseemly element.

Instead of making the threats directly, some of these people have structured their threats in terms that other people would actually carry them out. For example, some character named Zac Crew posted a threatening comment which included claims that the subjects of these pages could track down the authors of these pages and kill them. His statement in that regard ended with the phrase, “… they could track you down and kill you within hours”. The entirety of his comment ended with the phrase, “… delete this page, before this page gets you deleted”, where the word “deleted” at the end was meant to be a clever euphemism for getting killed/murdered by the people who are the subjects of these pages. Another example of the many instances of these sorts of threats is available in the redacted screenshot of the epithet filled private message sent to one of these pages by a woman named Christianna Pearson. She ended her message with the odd third person phrase, “I hope she gets stabbed”. These misguided people seem to mistakenly believe that threats and intimidation are an effective method for expressing themselves. They are not. As a result though, the facebook page messaging feature has been disabled, screenshots are made of all threatening comments, all comments are deleted, and commenting privileges for all such people get disabled.

When the people with the cameras arrive in Westlake Park, the crack pipes and the weed blunts have a way of quickly disappearing. Otherwise, as most Seattle residents already know, as soon as the Seattle Police disappear around the corner, Seattle’s Westlake Park becomes a cloud of marijuana smoke that extends for a full block in every direction.

Troy D. Hunter (arrested 9-7-12)

Hunter has over a dozen previous misdemeanor convictions. Hunter has also been convicted of six felonies, mostly for drug crimes. The state legislature excluded drug felonies from the “three strikes” statute, but Hunter does already have two felony strikes against him. Just a few weeks after he committed his latest crime, this one in Westlake Park, Troy D. Hunter entered a guilty plea, and was convicted yet again. Hunter has been convicted so many times that it is difficult to keep track of them. Hunter remains in the King County Jail and will continue to reside there for the time being, serving his latest jail sentence.

This career criminal is just one example of the many dangers that lurk in Westlake Park, ready to strike at any time, with a robbery, assault, stabbing, or even shooting, on any random citizen who just happen to be passing through Westlake, Pine Street, or nearby Third Avenue. Just ask 69 year old David Fenwick about how bad the criminal activities are in the Westlake Park area. According to a Seattle Times article, last holiday season, David Fenwick was taking pictures of the Macy’s Christmas Star at Westlake Center, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Pine Street, when he was attacked by a group of marauding young ruffians who beat him, stole his iPhone, and left him on the Pine Street sidewalk, just across the street from Westlake Park and Westlake Center, with broken ribs, a black eye, and a concussion. The attack and robbery of David Fenwick last holiday is just one example of the regularly occurring violent crime that infests the Westlake Lake Pine Street geographical area.

Troy D. Hunter (arrested 9-7-12)

Troy D. Hunter (arrested 9-7-12)

Troy D. Hunter (arrested 9-7-12)

“Sanchez”

This is one of the group of street urchin miscreants whose criminal menacing activity became the inspiration for these facebook pages. As with the other menaces like him, sets of photographs, when viewed in sequence, provide cogent evidence of his criminal behavior in and around Westlake Park.

With that said, it seems relevant to state that not everyone who spends all day, nearly every day in Westlake Park is one of these miscreants. These few miscreants probably aren’t even representative of the group as a whole that loiters all day, daily in Westlake Park.

However, what is apparent, is that there are rotten apples in Westlake Park who spoil it for the rest of Seattle’s residents. Arrest and prosecution records provide irrefutable evidence of the existence of criminal activity in Westlake Park. Those same arrest and prosecution records provide evidence of the types of crimes being committed in Westlake Park. The documented criminal activity in Westlake Park ranges from harassment and menacing, to assault, robbery, solicitation of underage sex trafficking, and shootings and stabbings.

These crimes even occur despite the vigilant presence of the Seattle Police there, in uniform, and undercover. Sometimes the crimes occur right in front of the Seattle Police, which of course leads to immediate arrests. In spite of them though, Westlake Park’s crime problems persist.

Benjamin Padgett, aka Ben White

Ms. “Brooklyn Badazz” (fake facebook personal profile name)

Ms. “Brooklyn Badazz” (fake facebook personal profile name)

Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, 20

This photographic sequence shows twenty year old, musician wannabe, street urchin, Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, committing criminal menacing. Menacing is a gross misdemeanor, criminal, violation of Seattle Municipal Code, SMC 12A.06.030.

What is most important to observe when viewing this sequence of photographs, is Tiras Zennger’s location in each of them. Instead of looking at Tiras Zennger, look at his location in each of these photographs, which is revealed by the locations of the landmarks around him in them. At the beginning of this photographic series, Zennger was seated at the west edge of Westlake Park, by the water fountain. By the end of the photographic series, Tiras Zennger had menaced the photographer who took these pictures all the way to the corner of Pine Street and Fifth Avenue. Zennger continued his combination of verbal threats of assault, and physical bullying, all the way around the corner onto Fifth Avenue. The photographic series ended because the photographer’s memory card became full at just that moment, forcing the photographer to retreat into a nearby store, for personal safety, and to change memory cards.

Zennger’s location in this photographic series begins with him seated at the Westlake Park fountain near the west edge of the park, “flipping the bird” in the direction of the photographer. The photographer took the first, second, and third, of these photographs of Zennger and other people at the fountain, from the east side of the park, using a telephoto lens, while standing in front of the Sephora cosmetics store.

In the fourth photograph, Tiras Zennger had slipped unnoticed across the park to its east edge, startled the photographer, and began making threats of violence. He was too close to the photographer for the photographer to obtain focus, because the photographer was using a telephoto lens with a long minimum focus distance.

By the time the fifth photograph in this series was taken, the photographer had begun to move backwards, north toward Pine Street. By this time Tiras Zennger was continuing to make threats of violence if the photography continued. However, the photographer’s recreation was that taking photographs during those moments was the most important defensive action to take, so that the photographs could be used later as evidence of his crime.

The sixth photograph clearly shows Tiras Zennger walking forward while making verbal threats. The position of Zennger’s legs and feet show with out any doubt that he was walking forward when this sixth photograph was taken. He gave the impression that he thought he was being clever by not looking toward the camera. Indeed, a casual observer might mistakenly believe that he wasn’t paying any attention to the photographer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The seventh and eighth photographs of this sequence depict part of a series of aggressive gestures Tiras Zennger made in between his verbal threats of violence. In this instance, his aggressive gestures included slowly moving his baseball cap around on his head.

The background of the ninth photograph in this series clearly shows the traffic light at the corner of Fifth Avenue behind Tiras Zennger. At this point Tiras Zennger is no longer even in Westlake Park. The location of the traffic light and the concrete planters behind Tiras Zennger, provide irrefutable proof of his location, at the corner Fifth Avenue and Pine Street. This photograph was taken near the end of over half a block of verbal and physical threats, as the photographer continually moved backwards in order to maintain personal safety.

These types of criminal behaviors are not the actions of either “innocent” or “awesome kids”. Tiras Zennger is a twenty year old legal adult. He is an adult who doesn’t seem to understand the law. He is an adult with clearly violent tendencies. Tiras Zennger is part of one of the many criminal menaces that infest Westlake Park.

Westlake Park is currently plagued by many types of criminal infestation. Westlake Park has been invaded by pimps such as Michael Gaines and Bruce Brooks, trying to coax young women into prostitution, underage, child sex trafficking. Westlake Park is beset by violent felon drug dealers such as Troy Hunter, who are ready to commit assault and/or robbery upon anyone who might venture into it. The Westlake Park fountain is often covered with people loitering on it, like human barnacles, who harass and threaten random passers by, including Seattle residents and tourists just trying to walk to and from their hotels.

Tiras Zennger isn’t just some “innocent” homeless kid. Amazingly, many of the miscreants that loiter in Westlake Park, day in and day out, are employed. Some are community college students. Many bring and talk on their working cell phones and play on WiFi connected computer tablets they’ve brought with them. In fact, Tiras Zennger has internet access and he has a facebook account. The lie that these miscreant street urchins are just “innocent kids” is obviously just fraudulent propaganda, intended to fool the gullible.

Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, 20

Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, 20

Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, 20

Zennger Tiras aka Tiras Zennger, 20

Seattle Westlake Park LEO

Under United States law, anyone has the right to take photographs in a public place, including public parks such as Westlake Park.

— at Westlake Park.

Seattle Westlake Parl LEO’s

Because of the many criminal problems that exist in Westlake Park, the Seattle Police Department maintains a nearly constant vigil there, throughout most of every day.

Seattle’s Westlake Park

The Westlake Center and nearby Pike / Pine Third Avenue corridor’s infamous criminal reputation isn’t just a myth. Official Seattle Police incident reports and related criminal prosecutions prove that there isn’t a geographic or ethnic segregation between the crimes that occur on Third Avenue and the crimes that occur in the Westlake Park / Westlake Center area. The area’s extremely high crime rate is so bad that it has caused the Seattle Police to keep officers stationed at Westlake Park almost continously throughout each day.

In a Seattle Times news article by reporter Lynn Thompson from December 29, 2011, she wrote that a 69 year old man named David Fenwick was taking pictures of the newly lit Macy’s Christmas Star at Westlake Center just after Thanksgiving, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Pine Street when he was attacked by a group of youths (the article’s term) who beat him, stole his iPhone, and left him lying on Pine Street, across from Westlake Park and Westlake Center, with broken ribs, a black eye, and a concussion. Crimes like that one have built the reputation for dangerous thuggery that the Third Avenue and Westlake Park area has these days among most Seattle residents.

Reporter Lynn Thompson went on to provide additional examples, such as when a man was shot in broad daylight recently at the infamous intersection of Third Avenue and Pine Street, just a block from Westlake Park and within view of Westlake Park. On Second Avenue at Pine Street she reported that another man was robbed of his iPhone at gunpoint.

It doesn’t really come as much of a surprise that a six time convicted felon drug dealer like Troy D. Hunter swept into Westlake Park on September 7, 2012, and without so much as a word, committed a similar attack with assault and battery in the process of a similar attempted robbery at Westlake Park, right at the southest corner of the Fourth Avenue and Pine Street intersection. Although he may have no connection whatsoever to the people who have been spending most of all their days in Westlake Park recently, even they should realize that the so called “3rd streeters” don’t respect any geographic boundaries.

Anyone who spends their entire days, day after day, loitering in Westlake Park, will have an extremely difficult time overcoming the documented history of the area’s propensity for criminal activity. The area’s astoundingly bad reputation can’t be overcome by rhetoric or mere psychological denial. The Seattle Police now even have an online map based catalog of every crime that occurs at every location throughout the city, sort of like google maps, but specific devoted to mapping the city’s criminal activities. That database provides proof of both the number and the types of crimes that occur in Pike / Pine / Westlake area of downtown Seattle.

Ben White, aka Benjamin Padgett, aka “Trash”

Ben White, aka Benjamin Padgett, aka “Trash”

Westlake Park LEO explains the law–to no avail

Unknown suspicious Westlake Park character

The menacing ‘trash’, (Benjamin Michael Padgett/Ben White)

Let’s Make A Deal

Deal Time!

Show Time

Show Time

Show Time

Troy Hunter, Troy D. Hunter, Troy Daniel Hunter

Felon Troy Hunter’s first felony arrest and conviction occurred in 1994. According to court records, Hunter, who was born on August 20, 1971, was in a store called SportsMart when a salesperson approached him and accused him of wearing clothing he had not purchased and which belonged to the store. When the salesperson called for store security officers, Hunter went to another part of the store, picked up a metal baseball bat, and began threatening to harm store employees. The police were called and Troy Hunter was arrested. 

Troy Daniel Hunter was later charged with Second Degree Assault, with a deadly weapon, RCW 9A.36.021(1)(c), a Class B felony, for which a conviction should have resulted in significant prison time. The case number in Seattle’s King County Superior Court was 94-1-07770-4. Hunter charge bargained down to a lesser charge, entered a plea of guilty, and on March 21, 1995 was sentenced to nine (9) months in Seattle’s King County Jail.

Since then, Troy Hunter has been arrested and charged with five subsequent felony crimes, most of which have been drug trafficking offenses. Each time, Troy Hunter has entered a plea of guilty and has avoided hard prison time because in each instance, lenient judges have sentenced him to the shortest possible amount of jail or prison time allowed by the Washington State statutory sentencing range system. As a result, each time since 1994, the court system has put Troy Hunter back onto the streets of Seattle to continue his felonious career criminal violence and cocaine trafficking unimpeded.

A KING 5 News photographer covering the May Day march in downtown Seattle on Tuesday was assaulted by one of the marchers and ended up with a bloody cheek.

Richard Departee was covering the march as the participants made their way through downtown.

“I found myself in with a group (dressed in) black, kinda Gestapo-looking thugs – face masks and dark glasses – I think as soon as they saw me it was like ‘Hey get out of here, you know, scum,’ and started pushing me,” he said.

Departee said he backed off and then three or four of the people turned around and surrounded him and shoved him back.

“Then one guy took his one-inch dowel, a wooden pole with the red flag … he just took it back and popped me in the face,” said Departee.

He said he dropped his camera but then later decided to take pictures because there were about 20 people.

“The same thing happened,” said Departee. “They came swinging their poles again at me and that time I bolted.”

Departee has worked at KING TV for more than 30 years.

This is my daughter Caitlyn Bell, she has been missing since 05/31/13 out of Olympia. She has Pancreatic cancer, Mental Illness and Borderline Diabetes. She has not had any medication for two weeks and she has never run away like this before. No contact what so ever since 05/31/13. The media does not seem to be all that interested in helping us find her. So Please help!! —Ed Troyer-