State of Jefferson Organizer Hosts Pre-Protest Meeting Before Black Lives Matter Protest
This is a modified article originally written on my personal Facebook on 03/07/20 as part of a process to migrate my articles here.
On 02 June 2020, in response to a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sonora the following day, David Titchenal, 62, hosted a pre-protest meeting at the WIllow Springs Clubhouse to discuss protecting local businesses and property from protesters.
The Black Lives Matter protest stirred concerns and fears in residents of Tuolumne County. Though there was no credible evidence to suggest violence should be expected, about 200 people attended the meeting at the Willow Springs Clubhouse. Members of Sonora Police Department and Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office were in attendance and addressed the crowd, including police chief Turu Sphere VanderWiel, 51, sheriff William James Pooley, 51, and sheriff’s lieutenant Jarrod Lee Pippin, 41.
The Union Democrat journalist, Guy McCarthy covered the meeting (archive) but his article left out crucial information effectively whitewashing the cries for violence and far-right rhetoric from the crowd.
David Titchenal, the organizer for Tuolumne County State of Jefferson, opened the discussion at 6:00pm, claiming that they were “here to back the blue, we’re not forming a militia,” though contradicted himself moments later while discussing long-term community protection where he advocated people join the State of Jefferson (archive), a movement to carve out a 51st state from Oregon and California; the Northern California Militia; the Three Percenters (archive) (stylized as III%er), a far-right paramilitary group known for agitating protests and committing violence; or the Oath Keepers (archive), another far-right paramilitary group whose membership largely consists of retired law enforcement officers and veterans.
Titchenal turned the meeting over to Joe William Bick, 48, who reeled off his background: 17 years in the military, member of the State of Jefferson movement, and an Oath Keeper. Getting to the heart of the issue, Bick states in his opening, “The thing that strikes me most about the current situation is that the definition of a nation-state determining the class of citizens are enemy combatants is a civil war. My time with the State of Jefferson, my time with the Oath Keepers has all been an attempt at preventing the conflict we are seeing happen now. So it’s my expectation that we continue to maintain the peace for as long as possible.” This would the first of many references and innuendo to violence from Joe Bick.
Before giving law enforcement the floor, Bick joked, “I know some of you probably think we’ll go out there and swing on ’em. If you say no, you’re a liar.” Between his reference to civil war, enemy combatants, and a joke about violence against protesters, Bick acknowledged that some of the meeting’s attendees showed up eager to commit and expecting violence the following day.
Sonora police chief Turu VanderWiel addressed the crowd after Bick, working to calm the fears of the attendees. VanderWeil referenced threats and rumors floating on social media, and assessed the situation by saying, “My gut tells me that tomorrow we’re not going to have much of a turn out from this resistance… from this opposition.” VanderWeil labeled the Black Lives Matter protesters as “resistance” and “opposition,” which would not be his last Us-Verses-Them reference.
VanderWeil confirmed contingencies were in place. Resources from Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office and Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office would be on standby, along with all fire resources. He encouraged people to show up in support of police stating “they would very much appreciate it,” asking people to be their eyes and ears .
Knowing it would be an issue, VanderWeil requested people to not open carry as to not draw away resources from “the real problem. And… and… and we want to know you from the bad guys, obviously. So let us do the apprehensions, let do the use of force.” Once again labeling the protesters at antagonists.
After VanderWiel, Tuolumne County Sheriff, WIlliam Pooley addressed the crowd. Pooley mentioned other protests happening in neighboring Calaveras and Stanislaus counties. He made reference to a rumor of outside agitators coming to Sonora, “In my assumption is that they’ll do their protest [in Oakdale] and then come up here,” a rumor which had no basis and never came to fruition the day of the event. Like VanderWiel, Pooley warned against bringing guns because “We’re not going to know all of you,” Pooley gestured to the crowd, “who we assume are the good guys, right? We’re not going to know you from the bad guys.”
Pooley turned the discussion over to Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant Jared Pippin who confirmed their presence was to ensure the Constitutional rights of all protesters. He encouraged the crowd to thank protesters for coming out, to tell the protesters “we stand with you” to calm the situation.
The discussion derailed when someone off camera, identified by Guy McCarthy as Lon Lacey, suggested moving the protest to WalMart because no one will care if that burns down. Someone in a red shirt and grey shorts chimed in asking that the law enforcement because “law enforcement that got us into this mess. At some point law enforcement take a more docile stance, and let we the people handle this problem.” The idea was met with applause from the crowd.
Bick regained control, asking veterans to hang back afterwards to discuss a five paragraph operation report.
One community member made the observation, “If we start the fight. If we cause them to fight here, they will bring it here. This will be their standoff because this is what they are looking for.” In response to the comment VanderWeil mentioned what made protests in Sonora unique, “you don’t see a bunch of armed officers with shields in riot gear.” Ironically, they did have riot officers waiting two blocks away from Courthouse Park the day of the event.
Community members asked VanderWiel a variety of questions demonstrating the anxiety of the community. Questions included what to do if people started throwing molotov cocktails, entered residential neighborhoods, came up and tried burning forests, or if residents felt threatened. Suggestions to these questions from other attendees was to “shoot them” which VanderWeil diplomatically responded with “If you feel threatened, if there’s an act of aggression against you, you have the right to defend yourself.”
An attendee asked the peculiar question, “Why are they coming up here? Because no one up here has killed a black man. At least intentionally. “ No one had a definitive answer, and the conversation turned to duration of the planned protest. David Titchenal suggested protesters may pull a “rope-a-dope and come back into town at 9 o’clock at night and start walking down the streets.”
A person in a dark grey cap, dark grey shirt, jeans, and black boots took the floor and suggested, “What else do we have? How many of y’all have big ass dogs,” which elicited laughter from the crowd, “Think of this. So we have what we call a counter celebration happen to fall on the same day as the protest called ‘Tuolumne County Dog Day Afternoon.’ Bring your fucking big ass dogs to town. A little hot and hungry because anybody visiting seeing snarling teeth coming from the side of the street is going to be a lot more polite, I’m thinking.”
Wrapping up the meeting, Joe Bick took the reigns again to discuss planning. He suggested people be stationed at all exits out of Sonora to note license plates and who are “running.” Bick made sure to note he’s “not tasking anything to anybody tonight,” though in the recording you can hear someone ask, “Are you sure?”
Bick made reference to the “rooftop Koreans,” a tense moment during the 1992 Los Angeles riots (archive) which has been whitewashed by conservative pro-gun activists. He suggested “roof rednecks” take to the roofs of local businesses if they allow it. Bick did warn not to follow or try to apprehend anyone without law enforcement permission. Drawing political lines, Bick provided attendees a pass “If you have a State of Jefferson flag or an American flag on your vehicle you’ll be assumed to be a local,” to which someone else added, “Or a Trump flag.” Serving as a segue Bick addressed the rumors of outside agitators, ridiculing an Oakland resident who allegedly claimed to be bringing 40 cars of people to the protest in Sonora. This never happened.
In another curious question, Bick asked the crowd, “How many here have killed a black man in Minnesota,” which elicited more laughter from the crowd. Ignoring law enforcement’s advice to effectively build bridges, Bick told the crowd, “We do not need to show solidarity with people of a designated terrorist organization,” but doesn’t specify which group, Black Lives Matter or anti-fascists. Trump had recently suggested designating anti-fascists as terrorists (archive), however, moments later Bick once again pushed the unsubstantiated rumor that 40 cars of Black Lives Matter outside agitators, so it’s unclear who he was labeling as terrorists. It should be noted the far-right has increasingly been conflating anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter as indistinguishable, ignoring the fact one’s an ideology and the other an organized movement.
Bick continued, “Say hello, shake their hand, disarm them, be nice, and in the event all hell breaks loose, sit on them,” ignoring that type of violence is the reason these protests are occuring. The goal according to Bick was to provide a visual deterrent for looters and rioters, which sounds like a politically correct way to say intimidate.
Another suggestion Bick floated to the gatherers was having people sit in folded chairs outside of businesses, something which did occur the day of the event.
An attendee asked what to do if protesters block or attack a vehicle, eliciting responses “they become a speed bump,” “run them over again,” “if I run them over and they are hanging on me, will y’all have my back right,” “anyone got a woodchipper,” and “we have mine pits.” Though not telling people exactly what to do if a vehicle is attacked, Bick advised it’s “highly recommended to not stay in that situation.” Moments later Bick made sure people were aware that “9mm bullets tend to bounce off of windshields 80% of the time, .45 goes all the way through” contradicting the advice of cops to not bring guns.
The whitewashing of far-right group references, numerous references to harming protesters, and “good guy” vs “bad guy” rhetoric from law enforcement by Guy McCarthy is concerning. More concerning though than the propaganda article were Sonora Police Department and Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office taking the stance that the protesters are “bad guys,” “resistance,” and “the opposition,” while completely ignoring the violent rhetoric that was being discussed by community members with them present. However, this tracked with the statements put out by both the Sonora Police Department (archive) and Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office (archive) regarding the protest. Neither statement mentioned the numerous threats of violence made against protesters, rather focusing on fear mongering potential looting and rioting.
Despite the fear mongering from speakers, law enforcement, and attendees, the Black Lives Matter protest proceeded without issue. A large counter-protester did form in front of the Veterans Museum across the street from Courthouse Park, businesses were boarded up, and people did station themselves on a few buildings overlooking the park.
[2020–06–02] Willow Springs, CA Meeting in Response to BLM Protest Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW36ekglwXBtNk-G13TeXvXasdtBYtVA4
