Memo of the Week

Petition to Fort Bragg, CA Local Elected Officials to Immediately Denounce and Take Action Regarding 121 Right-Wing Insurrectionists, Their Supporters, and President Donald Trump

Prepared by the Mendocino Coast Progressive Action Network (1/10/21)

”Progressive leadership anywhere benefits everyone and everything... everywhere.”

We, the people of Fort Bragg, CA, have had enough. Conspiracy theories like QAnon, right-wing/racist extremists such as the Proud Boys, extremist factions of the Republican Party and the high-ranking GOP support and/or inaction against those factions, and President Donald J. Trump are tearing apart our country, our political discourse, and our Democracy. The unconscionable 121 Right-Wing Insurrection didn’t arise out of nowhere. It is the unsurprising result of years of increasing fanaticism and extremism in the Republican party and on the Right. 

Our local elected officials can no longer remain silent. Silence has done nothing to stem the growth of this extremism. Instead, it enables it. The 121 Right-Wing Insurrectionists were not from DC. We need to acknowledge how easily they could have come from Fort Bragg(1).

Therefore, we are calling upon our local elected bodies to take a stand and declare that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated, locally or anywhere.

We respectfully demand that the Fort Bragg City Council, FBUSD Board of Trustees, and Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, as well as any and all other elected bodies in Mendocino County, in votes, resolutions, and letters:

1. Condemn and denounce President Trump, call for his immediate removal, and insist charges are brought against him for inciting an attack on the seat of our Democracy. 

2. Condemn and denounce QAnon, conspiracy theories, and fanaticism in any and all its forms, including baseless claims that Trump won the election and/or that the election was "rigged" or subject to widespread and outcome-altering fraud. Commit to demanding a culture of evidence, truth, and honesty locally.

3. Condemn and denounce the Republican Party for its inaction against and tacit/active support for extremism and call for the removal of the high-ranking members of the Republican Party who have enabled this to come to an insurrection on America’s own Capitol. Call for the removal of members of Congress who actively supported this insurrection.

4. Open inquiries into any Mendocino law enforcement, government employees, and elected officials who express support for the insurrectionists or their extremist views (including baseless claims of widespread fraud and a Trump win). Assess whether they are fit to fulfill their duties to the community in a rational, ethical, and safe manner.

5. Acknowledge and condemn the disparate reaction of law enforcement at the Capitol to peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters versus the armed, mostly white, right-wing extremist DC Insurrectionists, resulting in the unconscionable placement of our highest-level elected officials in harm’s way.

6. Demand the firing and arrest of any and all Capitol Police who enabled the insurrectionists to breach the Capitol and/or to walk away after doing so. Prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

7. Demand the arrest of all the DC insurrectionists and their punishment to the fullest extent of the law.

We also respectfully demand that these resolutions be sent, as letters, to our State and Federal representatives, as well as other Counties in California, representing us to our country as well as demanding that they, too, take a similar stand against this assault on our democracy. 

Footnotes:

(1) A CHP officer residing in Fort Bragg, captured 1/6/21 on Facebook: “It’s about time they fight back..! it’s [sic] shameful this election fraud is allowed to stand! I’ll be fighting with these people….”

NOTE: By signing this petition you agree to future announcements, action-alerts, and other communications from the Mendocino Coast Progressive Action Network. For more information write: scott.m.menzies, at Gmail

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ED NOTE:

For pure delusion, arrogance division, it's hard to beat this small group of Fort Bragg illiberals calling themselves MC-BIPOC (Mendocino Coast Black Indigenous and Other People of Color) but now revived as the “Mendocino Coast Progressive Action Network.”

Fresh off their failed Winter campaign to vilify Sheriff Kendall, the sanctimonious seaside secret society is circulating a fresh petition “respectfully demanding” that the Fort City Council, Fort Bragg School Board, the County Supervisors “as well as any other and all other elected bodies” denounce Trump, Trumpians, suspected Trumpians, closet Trumpians, latent Trumpians.....  Or… Or what? Or we'll stamp our little feet?

What's cowardly about these illiberal liberals is that they don't step up to argue publicly while they make wild claims implying that Mendocino County, and its police authorities especially, is teeming with racists. They, whoever the “they” are who wrote the Respectfully Demanding petition, close the petition with, “A CHP officer residing in Fort Bragg, captured 1/6/21 on Facebook: “It's about time they fight back...! it's shameful this election fraud is allowed to stand! I'll be fighting with these people.” 

This CHP guy, assuming there is a “this CHP guy,” has an absolute right to his opinion, no matter how offensive it is to the Coast illiberals. Millions of dummies have bought Trump's Big Lie that the election was rigged, but anonymously dooming people on the basis of their opinions is, well, awfully Trumpian, isn't it BIPOC?

Sandra Sawyer, apparently a Coast Bipocian, writing on Facebook last week: “I would appreciate hearing from the Sheriff that bigotry will not be tolerated in practice or in hiring of local law enforcement. There are white supremacists in our county. That’s why sensitivity and clearly stated policy about racism and bigotry are so important.” Names, Sandra, names!

To reasonable people, it is already evident everywhere in the land that racism and bigotry aren't tolerated in police forces. Are there still racists and bigots in police forces? Of course. Are they dominant? No. Are there racists and bigots in BIPOC? Absolutely. As I've said before, and please excuse me for quoting my pollyannish self, race relations have never been better in this country. Everywhere you look in our imploding nation, even in Redding (that's a joke; one can't ever be clear enough), there are millions of loyal, affectionate, color blind relationships where sixty years ago there were virtually none. Race relations is one area of American life where we've made real progress.

Let's give the American Library Association the last word: ”There is no legal definition of ‘hate speech’ under U.S. law, just as there is no legal definition for evil ideas, rudeness, unpatriotic speech, or any other kind of speech that people might condemn. Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color, sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin. In the United States, hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. Courts extend this protection on the grounds that the First Amendment requires the government to strictly protect robust debate on matters of public concern even when such debate devolves into distasteful, offensive, or hateful speech that causes others to feel grief, anger, or fear. (The Supreme Court's decision in Snyder v. Phelps provides an example of this legal reasoning.) Under current First Amendment jurisprudence, hate speech can only be criminalized when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group.”