Friday August 6th, 10:50 AM – Tiesa took to her City Council page to post the following clarifications based on the already shifting narratives being perpetuated on the right in mostly local comment threads on the related posts on Facebook.
As many have seen the videos I posted on my personal Facebook page and from there they have been shared, by others, on many other platforms I am pretty certain you know what this post will be about and I would ask that you actually read through the entire thing before rushing to judgment.
On Wednesday, August, 4th I received a call from Hoquiam resident *name redacted* who was very distraught about a hateful, transphobic sign prominently displayed in a local business, where children visiting the shop could clearly see it. She sent me a picture of the sign and I was floored that this was anywhere near a place that is advertised as a family-friendly business, and above all, they focus on one of my favorite movie series, Star Wars.
My partner *name redacted* and I decided that we needed to verify whether this was the case and came up with a plan to simply go in, test the waters, get a photo of the sign, and get out. Unfortunately, because of many issues we also had to be prepared to record video as a form of defense if the shop owner decided to become aggressive. Had this been a false claim or the owner had a change of heart we were looking forward to getting something for our daughter’s upcoming birthday as she loves Chewbacca.
Julie went in first to determine how Mr. Sucher would treat a cis woman, and she was greeted with the usual welcome and everything is on sale and 50% off. I entered the shop and met up with her and that is when Mr. Sucher’s attitude changed dramatically.
As I made my way to the sign he wound around and got to it first and took it down and placed it behind him against a trunk. This is where the video footage started and Mr. Sucher responded to my simple question with a verbally abusive attack.
Since posting the videos there have been calls to rally and protest from many different groups, though I will say that I have not once asked anyone to do anything other than listen and watch. I would speak to everyone that is planning to come to Aberdeen and rally/protest/have a cheeseburger, please do so peaceably.
I do not wish any harm on anyone, including Mr. Sucher. Any rallies, please make them about peace, acceptance, and love for our community.
My partner and I have been overwhelmed with the support we have gotten from so many people! Your words of kindness have negated the hateful messages we have been getting one hundredfold.
Lastly, I would like to say that hate speech of this kind and discrimination of any form is unacceptable. I took an oath when I joined the council, I have taken oaths previously as an Eagle Scout and Taekwon-Do practitioner to stand up to injustice and fight against it. I will fight for our rights to exist and be who we are, but I will do so without violence and work toward making a more peaceful world.
Friday August 6th, 11:00 AM – Despite NOT having organized this protest, we had decided the previous night to do whatever we could to “cancel” this “protest” after King 5 announced LIVE ON AIR that there would be an action outside his shop at 10 AM on Saturday, August 7th, and that Don was assembling his supporters to counter. With that, the local group of trans supporters and families waving signs that was planned ballooned into some sort of antifa-commie-battle in the way-gone conspiracy laden minds of some on the right. This broadcast made its rounds and before long the right wing outrage machine had spun itself up into high gear taking the usual narrative and trying to flatten our complex local situation to fit their pre constructed narrative.
Friday, August 6th at 11:12 AM
Our public post cancelling the original call to action:
PROTEST POSTPONED. You are advised to AVOID THE AREA around the Star Wars Shop this Saturday if possible. We must protest this, but another day.
PLEASE SHARE.Because of the INTENSE amount of attention this protest has received, we as CRMAN are not comfortable encouraging people to attend this protest. The people who called for it originally have agreed this is best as well.After being announced live on air by king 5 this story blew up and is now ALL OVER the internet. There is already a counter protest planned and it doesn’t seem safe based on previous armed chud actions here in town.Other arrangements will be made for a safe place to chill on the day of for those who do come. CRMAN will still be there to inform people who DO show up what’s going on and try to keep people safe, but if you are not comfortable helping us do that PLEASE AVOID THE AREA.Obviously this doesn’t mean we don’t support a protest any other day, just not this day that has so much publicity. There are any number of days to protest this creep that dont endanger us. On terms we set.
Stay safe out there.
Friday August 6th, 2:00 PM – We quickly started receiving messages from all over about the potential for violence from the growing mass of angry and well-armed assholes. This new information was not contained to the hellscape of social media bots and trolls, this time they included many credible threats and stories of people planning to come in from halfway across the country. As mentioned above there had been alternative plans made to hold space off-site as a safe alternative but support for that was pulled around 3PM on Friday. We adapted our plan many times throughout the day on Friday and by the end were resigned to getting the word out as best we could to STAY AWAY if possible. We also realized that our unhoused neighbors do not have that luxury and live and congregate in that area. Our priority was keeping them any anyone else who still showed up as safe as we could.
Friday, August 6th, 3 PM – The story officially went national, appearing on MSN, the WA examiner, NY Post, and Steven Crowder ran the story along with many similar but smaller right wing outrage generators. What started as a local and peaceful dispute between two residents in this small town grew in the minds of some on the right to be another boogeyman. A reason to issue their call to arms in defense of this poor veteran’s endangered shop. The penultimate nod to how big of a trigger this was and the type of people being triggered was the stories appearance on the infamous white supremacist hate site Stormfront. Stormfront’s wikipedia can do a better job explaining what its all about for the unaware. The following screenshots are alarming and should be viewed with discretion but do a SHOCKINGLY good job of illustrating both the typical arguments from Don’s supporters as well as the typical audience for this sort of drivel. All from the internet’s most famous white supremacist hate site. Let’s look closer at that which is hard to view and be aware of where these arguments originate and fester the next time we hear it from the mouth of a fellow family member, church congregant, or friend. There is a reason why these avowed white supremacists latch onto and advance certain narratives.
CAUTIONÂ Â Â Â CAUTIONÂ Â Â Â CAUTIONÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â CLICK WITH CARE This link redirects to a page with screenshots of stormfront’s forum posts. it will not take you to the actual website
//CW// EXTREME Antisemitism and transphobia
Stormfront’s forum logs **UPDATE – While it was originally assumed to have ended up at Stormfront closer inspection shows that the neo nazis forum was one of the stories first stops outside of Grays Harbor County.
Friday August 6th, 4:05 PM
Our focus soon turned to emergency response, not that our small collective was prepared for that any more than we were prepared for anything else we’ve ever done. But we made a plan with what we had and aimed to be able to extract any individuals who found themselves in the harm’s way. Our hearts overflowed with what we did end up having though as it expanded to include many instances of regional and national solidarity. One comrade from Atlanta spent their free time doing some valuable internet sleuthing for us and also was able to shut down a group text that Don set up. His son also set up a GoFundMe…for funds I suppose. Never hurts to capitalize off of the situation.