In a PDN article Nov. 15 about a proposed trespass law affecting the Jefferson County courthouse and other county facilities, George Yount reported an anonymous claim that “he heard,” concerning disaffected south county residents planning to go “up” to the courthouse to “remove” elitists from Port Townsend and Seattle who have somehow captured the county’s third district.
He added that public officials “need protection.”
No one questions the right to live and work in safe, secure environments.
But no one needs a former Jefferson County Democratic Party chairman like Yount borrowing a page from President Donald Trump’s playbook to create a new bogeyman, south county residents.
If Yount heard a credible threat to county officials, then it’s more appropriate to report it to the sheriff’s office than to make public, unsubstantiated claims.
All Yount has done is unwittingly, or not, create an image of a local caravan of rural thugs and possible terrorists plodding their way north along U.S. Highway 101 to wreak havoc in Port Townsend.
We can’t say more, because claims like this cannot be taken at face value.
Legitimate claims demand convincing evidence.
Like President Trump’s baleful caravan of fear, smears and innuendo, Yount has failed to provide any proof.
This makes his claim both spurious and shameful.
If we cannot believe President Trump, why on God’s good earth should we believe George Yount?
Indeed, reading his comments, Mr. Yount ably illustrates why everyone ought to be rightly concerned with “the trajectory of discourse in Jefferson County.”
Bob Domin,
Port Ludlow