FORKS — Residents and businesses are trying to make amends to a Spokane family who left Forks two weeks ago terrorized and feeling driven out of town.
An ad will run Thursday in the Forks Forum signed by more than 335 individuals, families, businesses and organizations announcing ‘The Greater Forks Community Stands Against Violence” in response to the family’s “intolerable treatment” during their June 3 visit.
“We pledge our support of a thorough investigation and commit to addressing issues of racism and violence in our communities through education and communication,” it says.
The same ad ran Sunday in The Seattle Times with fewer names, ad organizer Michelle Simpson of Sappho said Tuesday.
After the family of four arrived in town in their converted school bus, they were blocked from leaving two parking lots, grilled repeatedly about their politics, followed to their U.S. Forest Service campsite, intentionally sprayed with gravel by off-road vehicle riders, and had their exit blocked by felled trees, family member Shannon Lowe told Peninsula Daily News on Friday.
The Spokane family, which came to the city as tourists, were repeatedly asked if they were members of antifa, a movement that confronts white supremacists and neo-Nazis and which was falsely rumored on the internet to be sending busloads of members to disrupt rural communities.
The multiracial family called 9-1-1 before being escorted out of town nine hours later by law enforcement officers after a deputy told them it was unsafe for them to remain in Clallam County, Lowe said.
While the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office continues its investigation into the incidents, Forks residents are pooling their efforts to pledge they won’t tolerate such behavior and vow to address.
Simpson said fundraising for the ads was coordinated by Simpson, former longtime Forks resident Sandra Kint and Kint’s daughter, Sara Ironhill, who grew up in Forks.
The effort was spearheaded on the Facebook page “Forks Area Ad Addressing Violence Through Education,” which had 433 members as of Tuesday, about one-eighth the population of Forks.
Money left over from the advertising effort will fund a “community education plan” that will address inclusivity, racism, accountability, including making books available for elementary school students about inclusivity, Simpson said.
A second prong of the effort involves a voter registration drive to hold accountable the Forks City Council, which has issued an apology to the family.
“We are reaching out to others to condemn this behavior,” Simpson said. “The treatment of the family was inexcusable.
“I don’t believe it was racially motivated but I believe it was motivated by prejudice and ignorance.
“There are links with prejudice and racism that are the same kind thinking that creates these types of scenarios.”
Businesses are making efforts to provide travel packages to have the family return to Forks for a more enjoyable experience, said Simpson and Forks City Council member Jeff Gingell, who signed the ad.
What happened to the family “was pretty awful,” Gingell said.
“I’m unhappy also with some of the ways other people on the council are being portrayed and the mayor [Tim Fletcher] and whatnot,” he added.
Gingell said there were many more people who told him they wanted to sign the ad who found out about it too late.
They had come to Forks to tour the renowned setting for the Twilight series of books and movies.
“People were acting on fear,” Gingell said. “It’s pretty much opposite what our tourism community is about.
“We are welcoming people.”
Some people in the parking lot were being protective of Forks “from what they perceived to be a threat from domestic terrorism,” Gingell said.
Warren and Donna Blakeslee, owners of Blakeslee’s Bar & Grill, also are listed in the ad and helped purchase it.
“Everything got twisted, that we are all racist up here, and we’re not,” Donna Blakeslee said, upset over how the family were treated.
“I want to make sure everyone knows we are welcoming here, and we won’t tolerate it.”
Blakeslee did not like the way the family was confronted in the parking lot.
“I don’t have a problem asking anybody anything, but the way they went about it was wrong,” she said.
Kint was impressed by the breadth of support for the ad, which came from “across the political spectrum,” she said.
“For me, the real work begins now, how are people going to be able to sit together and talk about the next step.”
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incidents, focusing on the tree-cutting, which was a felony, said Brian King, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office chief criminal deputy.
“We have identified a number of people, a number of individuals, that were present around the trees that were cut,” he said Tuesday.
“We have not identified the specific actors responsible for it.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
