From: Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney
To: Snohomish County Residents and Business Owners,
I just watched the Governor’s speech to Washingtonian’s regarding our approach to getting Washington back in business and I am left to wonder if he even has a plan? To be quite honest I wasn’t even sure what he was trying to say half of the time. He has no plan. He has no details. This simply is not good enough in times when we have taken such drastic measures as the suspension of constitutional rights. I wrote most of this about two weeks ago but I decided to wait out of respect for the Governor and my own misguided hope that each day he did a press conference he would say something with some specificity on getting Washington back to work. After what I witnessed tonight I can no longer stay silent as I’m not even sure he knows what he is doing or knows what struggles Washingtonian’s face right now.
I want to start by saying this virus is very real and sadly, it has taken 97 lives in Snohomish County. This is a very serious issue and the appropriate precautions need to be taken to protect our most vulnerable populations. However, our communities have already shown and continue to show they understand the severity of the situation and are doing all they can already to keep themselves, their families and neighbors safe and healthy.
I am worried about the economy and I am worried about Washingtonian’s that need to make a living for their family. As more data floods in week by week and day by day about this pandemic I think it is clear that the “models” have not been entirely accurate. While that is okay, we cannot continue down the same path we have been on if the government reaction does not fit the data or even worse, the same government reaction makes our situation worse.
As elected leaders I think we should be questioning the Governor when it makes sense to do so. Are pot shops really essential or did he allow them to stay in business because of the government taxes received from them? That seems like a reasonable question. If pot shops are essential, then why aren’t gun shops essential? Our Governor has told us that private building/construction must stop as it is not essential, but government construction is okay to continue. So let me get this right, according to the Governor if you are employed or contracted by the government to build government things you can still make a living for your family in spite of any health risk. If you are a construction worker in the private sector you cannot make a living and support your family because the health risk is too high. This contradiction is not okay and in my opinion is bordering on unethical.
As I arrive to work at the courthouse, I see landscapers show up each day to install new landscape and maintain our flowerbeds. How has Governor Inslee deemed this essential work? However, a father who owns a construction company and works alone while outdoors is not allowed to run his business to make a living to provide for his wife and children? How has Governor Inslee deemed thousands of Boeing employees who work inside a factory building airplanes essential? But building residential homes is not essential? If a factory with 20,000+ employees each day can implement safe practices to conduct normal business operations, I am entirely confident that our small business owners and independent contractors are more than capable of doing the same.
If this Coronavirus is so lethal and we have shut down our roaring economy to save lives, then it should be all or nothing. The government should not be picking winners or losers when it comes to being able to make an income for your family. If the virus is so lethal it shouldn’t matter whether you are building a school for the government, building a new housing development, restaurant owner, or you happen to be an independent contractor. To the contrary, if the virus is proving to not be as lethal as we thought, maybe it’s time for a balanced and reasonable approach to safely get our economy moving again and allowing small businesses to once again provide an income for their families and save their businesses. This is what I hoped for from the Governor tonight but he is not prepared or ready to make these decisions. If we are going to allow government contractors and pot shops to continue to make a living for their families, then it is time to open up this freedom for other small business owners who are comfortable operating in the current climate. This is the great thing about freedom. If you are worried about getting sick you have the freedom to choose to stay home. If you need to make a living for your family and are comfortable doing so, you should have the freedom to do so.
As I have previously stated, I have not carried out any enforcement for the current a stay-at-home order. As this order has continued on for well over a month now and a majority of our residents cannot return to work to provide for their families, I have received a lot of outreach from concerned members of our community asking if Governor Inslee’s order is a violation of our constitutional rights.
As your Snohomish County Sheriff, yes I believe that preventing business owners to operate their businesses and provide for their families intrudes on our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am greatly concerned for our small business owners and single-income families who have lost their primary source of income needed for survival.
As your elected Sheriff I will always put your constitutional rights above politics or popular opinion. We have the right to peaceably assemble. We have the right to keep and bear arms. We have the right to attend church service of any denomination. The impacts of COVID 19 no longer warrant the suspension of our constitutional rights.
Along with other elected Sheriffs around our state, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office will not be enforcing an order preventing religious freedoms or constitutional rights. I strongly encourage each of you to reach out and contact your councilmembers, local leaders and state representatives to demand we allow businesses to begin reopening and allow our residents, all of them, to return to work if they choose to do so.
The great thing about Snohomish County government is we have all worked very well together during this crisis. I’m not saying we agree all of the time, I’m saying we have the talent and ability to get this done for Snohomish County! This is not a time to blindly follow, this is a time to lead the way.
Thank you for posting this Gerard. There is definitely a serious push-back building in the North West. The US Forest Service and BLM offices here in the part of Idaho where we live is operating at what looks like 150% normal man power. WTF! Government at virtually any level is not an essential need. Give them a vacation without pay permanently.
ghostsniperApril 23, 2020, 7:24 PM
Terry sed: “Government at virtually any level is not an essential need.”
========
Troof.
Gov’t is an obstacle, a hindrance, a criminal entity, a destructor of freedom, a welfare function, a collection of unbalanced people that should all be rightly offloaded. In the absence of gov’t, it’s employees would have been killed, every last one, by their own hands or by the hands of normal people unable to accommodate them and their high maintenance. All of them petty tyrants deserving to be killed.
I’ve been almost embarrassingly generous about this whole thing, but now they’re banning sitting at park benches , and bolting lumber to them just to make sure.
In my neck of Lancaster County Pretzelvania, other than the kids being under house arrest, and I am the unpaid warden, I don’t see to much interference in life. People are out walking, all the kids come over and play outside, the stores are requiring masks, but no one says anything if you don’t happen to have one on, and for the most part, people are generally nice as usual.
In York County, a woman from a small town was arrested for going for a drive. A young mother with school age children, out for a scenic drive. Good grief.
Casey KlahnApril 23, 2020, 7:40 PM
Fearless editor Vanderluen: exactly the story that caught my eyes today. Good job.
Susan/Seattle. Great catch I was fascinated by that. Inslee is a 2 bit intellect in a stuffed suit. If we don’t elect out our dem govt. there will likely be blood in the streets. They promise it!
So, Snohomish County is not exactly a purple county – it lies tucked into King County’s hairline and is as Blue as Hefner’s balls. For their sheriff to take this stand is newsworthy for sure.
My observations:
After the Machiavellian/Orwellian institution of Red Flag laws, there began to be an upswell amongst (I never write “amongst,” so I am feeling some high dungeon here) the public and the county sheriffs in WA began to side with the people. Virginia is so remarkable that we all felt the beginning of a possible civil war happening. The action was: dems applying unconstitutional heavy handed anti-gun moves. The reaction was: public outcry and county-authorities responding in kind.
Same thing now in response to overreach by the dem governors and state and city authorities regarding the Chinese Virus event. It doesn’t matter that the virus is real and there are numinous dangers about – what matters is the state of our existence now under government dictate.
Money point: county sheriffs had better lawyer up and I mean like yesterday. There needs to be a national movement to establish some heavy duty legal geniuses to protect these stalwarts who are the front line in our new fight for liberty. After the Chinese Virus thing dissipates, what fucking dubious shit does our Marxist-wannabe government have lines up for us next?
Practicing my throat punches.
PA CatApril 23, 2020, 10:39 PM
Jewel– if it’s okay to ask, what part of Lancaster County do you call home? I grew up in Lancaster (many moons ago), and my dad’s younger brother lived in Leola. Glad to hear that the county still seems relatively sane. Unfortunately, the blue state where I’m currently stuck has a high level of COVID-19 cases (6,064 as of April 24, but I suspect the number has been goosed for political reasons) because of its proximity to New York, so there’s a correspondingly high level of anxiety. On top of which the governor is an Ivy-educated Cuomo wannabe; he extended the state lockdown to May 20. I don’t see many people walking around outside without masks; even the teenagers and dog walkers mostly cover their faces.
The local supermarket has signs posted on the doors stating that no one will be admitted without a mask, and the aisles all have arrows taped on the floor to make sure that everyone moves in one direction only, and other markers to make sure people maintain social distancing with their carts. The place looks like a outpatient clinic for zombies straight out of a Twilight Zone episode. I go as early as possible during “geezer hours” so that I can get home as quickly as possible– not because I’m afraid of catching the woo-woo flu but because the store is so visually depressing.
Annie RoseApril 24, 2020, 5:15 AM
Greetings comrades from the deep, deep blue state of Ill Annoy! Our Kommisar, Gov. Pritzker, just gave his diktat that we are still under house arrest until May 30th. Surveying online responses, most idjits in my state think this is smart. They are very angry at those who want to return to work. They will be the first to cry out when they see the destruction of local businesses. Idjits. Local villages are suing the county health department to force them to hand over the names and addresses of those who test positive for C-19. Why? So they can mark the houses with a red X? All good citizens must be masked in public. We saw a police drone slowly flying by the other night. My trigger finger felt itchy. There are arrows in grocery stores with workers stationed on aisles to yell at those who forget which direction to walk. Shelves are still empty or very sparsely populated of certain items-TP, paper towels, rice, pasta, frozen veggies, dried milk—and I fear soon, it will be meat and dairy. We joke about fattening up the cat. I have learned to make masks with filters to give to friends and family. I’ve learned to do my therapy with toddlers via telepractice. Only one of my client families feels up to doing sessions this way, so my income is way way down. I’ve taught my youngest the art of growing veggies from seeds that we were able to buy before our keepers took away that right. Fortunately I’ve always grown veggies in our garden. Next up: learning to give my family haircuts, as barber shops and salons are verboten—but you can get your dog groomed now. I won’t go into the frustrations of trying to get a decent pair of Wahl hair clippers locally or online where the price hasn’t been jacked up over 3 times the cost. I fully expect that we will be on lockdown through August or early September. My own business is almost completely shut down and will very likely go under by fall.
PA CatApril 24, 2020, 9:11 AM
Our Kommisar, Gov. Pritzker, just gave his diktat that we are still under house arrest until May 30th.
Interesting family, those Pritzkers. Your gov holds more private wealth than any other governor in U.S. history, and is second only to Bloomberg in being the wealthiest American politician ever to have held office. And then there’s his cousin Jennifer (born James), who is the world’s first transgender billionaire. Judging from their photos, both are remarkably porcine individuals– our host Gerard could have a field day with a creative revision of their portraits. And of course, those two feral hogs will never starve, no matter what happens to the rest of the state that once gave us Lincoln.
GoneWithTheWindApril 24, 2020, 9:18 AM
The intent of the shutdown/quarantine was to allow the hospitals to acquire the PPE they need AND to prevent a massive rush of covid-19 patients before the hospitals were able to deal with them. This goal has been reached. There is no “right” that the government has to keep citizens inside or to prevent them from being in public or private spaces. I would concede that the states (the governor not the cities and mayors) have the ability to require sick and infective people to quarantine. But I see no constitutional authority for the federal or state government to require healthy people to quarantine. In other words they cannot do it and any attempt to do so is unlawful.
Today a headline reads that Biden says Trump will try to postpone the election. That means Biden will try to postpone the election.
This is chess, my friends. Do not believe anything that you read; think for yourself. If a headline seems preposterous, it probably is. I’m watching Rambo Last Blood. The female supporting actress asks why a man did a thing. Rambo says, “because he’s evil!” Von Clausewitz called it clarity of thinking or presence of mind. Understand what is happening intuitively. Dems are evil; what else do you need to know?
“Trump wants you to drink bleach, now.” See the shit they pull?
The simplest answer is probably closer to true.
Robert Duvall (I like movie analogies I guess) meets a pox blanket rider on the trail. He stops him and kills him outright. All you need to know about how to act either comes from your granddad or mom, and the Code of the West. It don’t come from The View or Don Lemon.
ghostsniperApril 24, 2020, 7:12 PM
Casey sed: Robert Duvall (I like movie analogies I guess) meets a pox blanket rider on the trail. He stops him and kills him outright.
What movie?
pbirdApril 26, 2020, 3:07 PM
No wonder the drones on Nextdoor in town here, Snohomish County, were going on about what a bad sheriff he is! omg
pbirdApril 26, 2020, 3:09 PM
Rose, early on I was expecting this to go on until August or Sept, but I don’t think it will now. People are tired of playing this game.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
[Note: Pasting the whole of this here in case the ever more draconian Facebook Censorship Squad deletes it without warning: Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney – Posts]
![That Was the Whopper Weekend That Was [Illustrated]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/welcometohell-150x150.jpg "That Was the Whopper Weekend That Was [Illustrated]")
![Allen Ginsberg: The Interview, <strong> ➡ 1972 ⬅ </strong> [Republished by unpopular demand]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ginsbergnirvana-150x150.jpg "Allen Ginsberg: The Interview, <strong> ➡ 1972 ⬅ </strong> [Republished by unpopular demand]")
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
good catch Gerard
I sense a vast disturbance in the Force,
and not in favor of Kommissars Inslee of Inner Seattle and Nuisance of Kkkali…
Aaaaaaand the governor had a press conference last night. Here’s the gist:
https://mynorthwest.com/1830437/dori-gov-inslees-temper-tantrum-press-conference/
Thank you for posting this Gerard. There is definitely a serious push-back building in the North West. The US Forest Service and BLM offices here in the part of Idaho where we live is operating at what looks like 150% normal man power. WTF! Government at virtually any level is not an essential need. Give them a vacation without pay permanently.
Terry sed: “Government at virtually any level is not an essential need.”
========
Troof.
Gov’t is an obstacle, a hindrance, a criminal entity, a destructor of freedom, a welfare function, a collection of unbalanced people that should all be rightly offloaded. In the absence of gov’t, it’s employees would have been killed, every last one, by their own hands or by the hands of normal people unable to accommodate them and their high maintenance. All of them petty tyrants deserving to be killed.
I’ve been almost embarrassingly generous about this whole thing, but now they’re banning sitting at park benches , and bolting lumber to them just to make sure.
In my neck of Lancaster County Pretzelvania, other than the kids being under house arrest, and I am the unpaid warden, I don’t see to much interference in life. People are out walking, all the kids come over and play outside, the stores are requiring masks, but no one says anything if you don’t happen to have one on, and for the most part, people are generally nice as usual.
In York County, a woman from a small town was arrested for going for a drive. A young mother with school age children, out for a scenic drive. Good grief.
Fearless editor Vanderluen: exactly the story that caught my eyes today. Good job.
Susan/Seattle. Great catch I was fascinated by that. Inslee is a 2 bit intellect in a stuffed suit. If we don’t elect out our dem govt. there will likely be blood in the streets. They promise it!
So, Snohomish County is not exactly a purple county – it lies tucked into King County’s hairline and is as Blue as Hefner’s balls. For their sheriff to take this stand is newsworthy for sure.
My observations:
After the Machiavellian/Orwellian institution of Red Flag laws, there began to be an upswell amongst (I never write “amongst,” so I am feeling some high dungeon here) the public and the county sheriffs in WA began to side with the people. Virginia is so remarkable that we all felt the beginning of a possible civil war happening. The action was: dems applying unconstitutional heavy handed anti-gun moves. The reaction was: public outcry and county-authorities responding in kind.
Same thing now in response to overreach by the dem governors and state and city authorities regarding the Chinese Virus event. It doesn’t matter that the virus is real and there are numinous dangers about – what matters is the state of our existence now under government dictate.
Money point: county sheriffs had better lawyer up and I mean like yesterday. There needs to be a national movement to establish some heavy duty legal geniuses to protect these stalwarts who are the front line in our new fight for liberty. After the Chinese Virus thing dissipates, what fucking dubious shit does our Marxist-wannabe government have lines up for us next?
Practicing my throat punches.
Jewel– if it’s okay to ask, what part of Lancaster County do you call home? I grew up in Lancaster (many moons ago), and my dad’s younger brother lived in Leola. Glad to hear that the county still seems relatively sane. Unfortunately, the blue state where I’m currently stuck has a high level of COVID-19 cases (6,064 as of April 24, but I suspect the number has been goosed for political reasons) because of its proximity to New York, so there’s a correspondingly high level of anxiety. On top of which the governor is an Ivy-educated Cuomo wannabe; he extended the state lockdown to May 20. I don’t see many people walking around outside without masks; even the teenagers and dog walkers mostly cover their faces.
The local supermarket has signs posted on the doors stating that no one will be admitted without a mask, and the aisles all have arrows taped on the floor to make sure that everyone moves in one direction only, and other markers to make sure people maintain social distancing with their carts. The place looks like a outpatient clinic for zombies straight out of a Twilight Zone episode. I go as early as possible during “geezer hours” so that I can get home as quickly as possible– not because I’m afraid of catching the woo-woo flu but because the store is so visually depressing.
Greetings comrades from the deep, deep blue state of Ill Annoy! Our Kommisar, Gov. Pritzker, just gave his diktat that we are still under house arrest until May 30th. Surveying online responses, most idjits in my state think this is smart. They are very angry at those who want to return to work. They will be the first to cry out when they see the destruction of local businesses. Idjits. Local villages are suing the county health department to force them to hand over the names and addresses of those who test positive for C-19. Why? So they can mark the houses with a red X? All good citizens must be masked in public. We saw a police drone slowly flying by the other night. My trigger finger felt itchy. There are arrows in grocery stores with workers stationed on aisles to yell at those who forget which direction to walk. Shelves are still empty or very sparsely populated of certain items-TP, paper towels, rice, pasta, frozen veggies, dried milk—and I fear soon, it will be meat and dairy. We joke about fattening up the cat. I have learned to make masks with filters to give to friends and family. I’ve learned to do my therapy with toddlers via telepractice. Only one of my client families feels up to doing sessions this way, so my income is way way down. I’ve taught my youngest the art of growing veggies from seeds that we were able to buy before our keepers took away that right. Fortunately I’ve always grown veggies in our garden. Next up: learning to give my family haircuts, as barber shops and salons are verboten—but you can get your dog groomed now. I won’t go into the frustrations of trying to get a decent pair of Wahl hair clippers locally or online where the price hasn’t been jacked up over 3 times the cost. I fully expect that we will be on lockdown through August or early September. My own business is almost completely shut down and will very likely go under by fall.
Our Kommisar, Gov. Pritzker, just gave his diktat that we are still under house arrest until May 30th.
Interesting family, those Pritzkers. Your gov holds more private wealth than any other governor in U.S. history, and is second only to Bloomberg in being the wealthiest American politician ever to have held office. And then there’s his cousin Jennifer (born James), who is the world’s first transgender billionaire. Judging from their photos, both are remarkably porcine individuals– our host Gerard could have a field day with a creative revision of their portraits. And of course, those two feral hogs will never starve, no matter what happens to the rest of the state that once gave us Lincoln.
The intent of the shutdown/quarantine was to allow the hospitals to acquire the PPE they need AND to prevent a massive rush of covid-19 patients before the hospitals were able to deal with them. This goal has been reached. There is no “right” that the government has to keep citizens inside or to prevent them from being in public or private spaces. I would concede that the states (the governor not the cities and mayors) have the ability to require sick and infective people to quarantine. But I see no constitutional authority for the federal or state government to require healthy people to quarantine. In other words they cannot do it and any attempt to do so is unlawful.
Days ago I said that the scrub-wearing nurses counter protest was fake. Now someone has a video to that effect.
https://wrongthinkradio.com/watch-media-caught-faking-healthcare-worker-blocking-protester-photo/
Today a headline reads that Biden says Trump will try to postpone the election. That means Biden will try to postpone the election.
This is chess, my friends. Do not believe anything that you read; think for yourself. If a headline seems preposterous, it probably is. I’m watching Rambo Last Blood. The female supporting actress asks why a man did a thing. Rambo says, “because he’s evil!” Von Clausewitz called it clarity of thinking or presence of mind. Understand what is happening intuitively. Dems are evil; what else do you need to know?
“Trump wants you to drink bleach, now.” See the shit they pull?
The simplest answer is probably closer to true.
Robert Duvall (I like movie analogies I guess) meets a pox blanket rider on the trail. He stops him and kills him outright. All you need to know about how to act either comes from your granddad or mom, and the Code of the West. It don’t come from The View or Don Lemon.
Casey sed: Robert Duvall (I like movie analogies I guess) meets a pox blanket rider on the trail. He stops him and kills him outright.
What movie?
No wonder the drones on Nextdoor in town here, Snohomish County, were going on about what a bad sheriff he is! omg
Rose, early on I was expecting this to go on until August or Sept, but I don’t think it will now. People are tired of playing this game.