A guy named Andy Zipser, a self-styled “geezer” and Staunton resident, wrote today to express his displeasure with my “exculpation” of the Staunton Police Department for its security plan at this past weekend’s protest rally at the Augusta County Courthouse.
Quick background, in case you missed it: back on April 5, police flubbed its response to two incidents at a protest rally at the courthouse, one involving a neo-Nazi tow-truck driver who drove recklessly a few feet from the large crowd, was pulled over by police, and let off with a warning, the second involving an unidentified second man in a different truck who brandished a gun at rally attendees.
ICYMI
- Staunton: Magistrate issues warrant in ‘rolling coal’ incident at April 5 protest
- Witness: ‘Agitated’ man in truck brandished gun at Staunton protest rally
- Staunton Police did what they should have done to keep rallygoers safe
I’ve been the only person in the local media to write about either incident – where are the legacy papers and local TV outlets when you need them? – and in the case of the tow-truck driver, my investigation into that one led to criminal charges being filed against the driver, Jeffrey Armentrout of Staunton.
Anyway, to the evisceration of my “exculpation” from Mr. Zipser:
Just read your exculpation of the Staunton Police Department’s closure of all the streets around the county courthouse on Saturday, and I must say I’m in complete disagreement with your conclusions. This sweeping response to a possible – let me stress, possible – threat to demonstrators is as over-the-top as the Trumpian deportation of anybody who might – might – be a criminal.
Or as Benjamin Franklin put it, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
By essentially cordoning off the protesters where they could be neither seen nor heard, the Staunton PD gave the MAGA jerks who disrupted the previous demonstration a huge win. The smoke-spewing, gun-brandishing whackos failed to shut down the demonstration they were protesting, but can pat themselves on the back for essentially doing so two weeks later. How’s that for a two-fer?
What remains unclear to me is whether the decision to isolate the protesters in this fashion was made by the police, or whether it was made by Staunton administrative officials. And it’s unclear whether protest organizers were consulted about this move beforehand and consented to it. If so, I have to say I’m disappointed. Back in the day (yes, I’m a geezer), this kind if response would have resulted in a march from the courthouse through downtown city streets, bringing the protest to the people who were otherwise excluded from it.
My question back to Mr. Zipser, and others who have raised issue with my column on the Staunton PD response on social media, is, what would you have done if you were in charge?
Keep in mind, this wasn’t a possible threat. A driver used the open streets on April 5 to make actual threats with his rolling two-ton weapon, on multiple occasions.
I know this personally; I was among those on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse when Armentrout drove his truck by us at a high rate of speed.
We’re all aware of the multiple instances of people using vehicles as weapons to menace people at political protests.
Just over the hill from us here, over in Charlottesville, we have the awful case of a neo-Nazi ramming his car through a crowd of counter-protestors at a high rate of speed at the Unite the Right rally in 2017, killing one protestor, Heather Heyer, and injuring 35 others.
Do we expect the city to just let those folks drive through the protest and hope that they don’t maim people?
The Staunton PD did the only thing it could do to guarantee the safety of people attending the protest rally.
Next, to the point about the security plan isolating the protestors, the plan shutting down the demonstration, and the need to bring the protest “to the people who were otherwise excluded from it.”
If we want to have impact, we don’t do a protest on a Saturday when it’s convenient for people to attend, but the local government is closed for business, but rather, we protest on a weekday, during business hours, when it’s not convenient for us, but we can take the protest straight to the local government.
And we probably don’t protest in center-left Staunton, either, but rather, in Augusta County, which voted 70 percent-plus for Trump in each of the last three election cycles, has a 7-0 MAGA majority on the Board of Supervisors, and has BOS elections in November, or in Waynesboro, which went 52 percent for Trump in November, and has a MAGA former vice mayor still on the City Council trying to bully the city into doing DOGE-like things with city government.
Or, alternatively, or even in addition, we don’t protest at one of the City Halls or the Augusta County Government Center, but instead where people actually are: in front of a well-trafficked shopping center, or one or both of the local city parks.
Third point I want to make here: if we think asking for permission, in the form of applying for a protest permit, gets in the way, then we don’t need to seek official sanction, but instead, just get together, peacefully, and do what we think is necessary, risking being arrested for our acts of disobedience – blocking city streets or highways, business at City Hall or the Government Center, ingress to a popular shopping center, in the process.
When we seek official approval for our exercise of our constitutional right to protest, we should expect officials to put curbs on our expressions of enthusiasm for our cause.
If you can’t tell, I studied the 1960s civil-rights movement, which teaches us, we’re not going to get things going by doing things within the rules of the system that we’re seeking to change.
If we want change, we’re going to have to be willing to get in people’s faces, maybe get run over by a redneck in a big white truck, maybe be willing to fill the jails because we’re mass-protesting, and we force the hands of local officials to take action, as a way of trying to get them to take notice.
Back to the Staunton PD shutting down the streets: they’re just trying to keep the city from getting sued if something bad happens.
That’s why I’m willing to cut the police some slack.
If we want people to see us, we’re going to need to be willing to step out from behind the barricades, is my point here.
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Chris Graham
