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Page A—1 2 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, June 11, 2020
March: Law enforcement closely monitored Belfair march
continued from page A—1
This highlighting of black voices
emerged in a physical sense as Arm-
strong invited people of color to the
center of the group in front of Timber—
land Regional Library.
“We’re learning how to center people
of color,” Armstrong said, addressing
the group. “We’re learning how to shut
up, we’re trying to shut up and listen.
I’m not going to ask you to speak, I’m
just going to center you physically so
we can remind ourselves exactly what
we’re trying to do. I’m going to take it a
step further and I’m going to ask white
people to show a sign of humility — if
you’re able to do this simply go to a
knee.”
The kneeling group then began
chanting “thank you” until Armstrong
asked “and now friends, go live it.”
Belfair resident Justin Daniels ad-
dressed the crowd with a plea for unity.
“If someone saw me on the ground
fighting for my life, I would hope that
someone would join in and push them
off just to give me a fighting chance in-
stead of pulling out their phone hitting
that record button and then yelling at
the aggressor and posting it on Face-
book later saying ‘Black Lives Matter,”
said Daniels, who is black.
Daniels said he felt obligated to sup-
port the efl'ort, protect those partici-
pating and the local businesses in the
town that raised him.
“When I was young, probably 16,
17, I came to Belfair and immediately
I made a lot of friends, I never felt any
type of racial tension,” Daniels said.
“Everybody was just encouraging me
to do better, in football, soccer, no mat-
ter what I was in, I had people I didn’t
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even know, who would come and show
up for me.”
The march was symbolic to North
Mason’s solidarity with Black Lives
Matter and in respect to George Floyd,
who died of asphyxia after a Minneapo-
lis police officer knelt on his neck for 8
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Multiple signs in Belfair’s march
read “Black Lives Matter,” and Floyd’s
last words: “I can’t breathe.”
One percent of the population of
Mason County is black, according to
the 2010 census.
County Commissioner Randy Neat-
herlin attended the march, but said he
was there to “support both sides.”
According to Neatherlin, in addi-
tion to the peaceful marchers was a
group that was armed and prepared
to defend local businesses from poten-
tial looting or unrest and he convinced
them to march with the racial recon-
ciliation procession.
“Everybody was marching for some-
thing, not against, that was the differ-
ence in Belfair,” Neatherlin said. “For
the rights of each other, for the rights
of people of color to be treated with re-
spect, the right for everybody to stay
together as a town.”
Washington State Patrol and the
Mason County Sheriff’s Office worked
to protect the procession, monitoring
the vicinity of the march and later
blocking traffic at the intersection of
Clifton Lane and state Route 3, allow-
ing marchers to safely cross.
“I think this is one of the first times
since all the way back to 1991 with
Rodney King when a video showing
this type of action the brutality of this
use of force — misuse of authority was
available to everybody,” Spurling said.
“I can tell you there’s not a single law
enforcement officer "that I know that
condones what happened. That was
an atrocious misuse of authority and
it damages all of us. It tarnished all of
our reputations.”
In major cities, including Los An-
geles, Seattle and Atlanta, protest-
ers’ signs share messages like “cops
get great power with no responsibil-
ity,” and “ACAB [All Cops Are Bas-
tards].” In Belfair, the anti-police sen-
timent was not similarly central to the
message.
“All the deputies were smiling, were
kind, were helpful,” Neatherlin said.
U.S. News & World Report reported
that more than 1,000 unarmed people
died as a result of police brutality be-
tween 2013 and 2019, more than one-
third of those were black.
“In 2019 we had 24,132 calls for ser-
vice. We made a total of 625 arrests. Of
those arrests, 74 ended up with a use of
force, of those 74, 18 were in the jail,”
Spurling said. Based on those statis-
tics, 0.03% of MCSO’s contacts end in
use of force. .
In 2020, there has been one fatal po-
lice shooting in Mason County, result-
ing in the death of Kathryn R. Hale,
age 32.
A Mason County Sheriff’s Office
deputy went to Hale’s residence in re—
gard to multiple felony warrants and
fired shots at Hale after he was alleg-
edly struck by her vehicle.
The incident is still under investiga-
tion by Thurston County Sheriffs Of-
fice.
“Professionalism, integrity, account-
ability, respect and partnership. Our
five core values are written right on
our badge,” Spurling said. “In law en-
forcement you have 600 pages of policy
and not all of my officers can memorize
all 600 pages so what we try to make
sure they understand is if you filter
every decision through those five core
values you’re going to make the right
decision in almost every case.”
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Proposals must be received by 4:00 pm. on June 19, 2020 to be considered.
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Phone requests: 360—427-9670 Ext. 644
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