Port Townsend leadership endorsed and encouraged violence against Julie Jaman and her supporters on Aug. 15th in an shocking example of systematic oppression against Women.
Late in the evening on August 19th the women who gathered in Pope Marine Park in Port Townsend to support Julie Jaman, the 80 year old woman who was banned from her local Y, received upsetting news.
Police, who had already been criticized for their inaction during the permitted gathering of women, had let these women down in an more profound way than they already knew. As stated in a press release by Amy Sousa, the woman who organized the event, Port Townsend Police had advanced knowledge of “out of town agitators who were there with the intent to victimize.
You can read the whole press release Sousa's Twitter though the linked tweet below.
If the Twitter format is not something you are accustomed to, the press release reads as follows.
Thanks for reading Mattie Is My Real Name ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Port Townsend, Washington - August 19, 2022: The Port Townsend Police Department refused to protect women’s rights activists gathered at a Washington free speech event on Monday, despite having advance intelligence that their lives were at risk from “out of town agitators who were there with the intent to victimize.”
Event organizers were told by a Port Townsend police officer this week that his “...highest priority was concern for the loss of life.” When asked if the agitators among the estimated 350 protesters had guns, he said, “Yes. They had batons, pepper spray and appeared to be carrying concealed firearms.” The officer, who helped RevFoxx Co-Founder Jennifer Thomas file assault charges against one of the main agitators wishes to remain unnamed. He confirmed that several felony assault charges have been laid.
He added that attendees of the Let Julie Swim press conference had “absolutely done everything correctly” in holding up their promise to peacefully assemble in objection of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA’s policy of assigning males to supervise the intimate care of girls attending the facility’s day camp, as well as allowing males to use the women’s facilities in violation of women’s sex-based rights.
Despite pre-event assurances from Port Townsend Police Chief, Tom Olson that the group comprised primarily of seniors and sexual assault survivors would be kept apart from protesters, he watched from across the street while the women were repeatedly assaulted by men who had penterated a human chain they had formed to protect event speakers, even forcing their way between women’s legs.
Video footage shows Chief Olson smiling among a group of his officers when asked to intervene on active assaults. One officer said “Please let the folks there know that if they don’t feel safe being there, they’re free to leave.” (Footage available.) Despite the presence of three law enforcement agencies on the scene, and multiple 911 calls, they did not intervene until the last quarter of the event.
“I organized the Let Julie Swim event to create opportunities for women to express their safeguarding concerns about men in women’s intimate spaces at the YMCA. I scheduled my event one hour before the City Council’s meeting regarding Mayor Faber’s proclamation to ensure we would have time to attend both events. Between local law enforcement’s unwillingness to keep our volunteers safe from the hundreds of protesters in line outside of City Hall, and Mayor Faber’s lack of respect for due process, none of us were able to have our say. We call for an emergency City Council meeting that will permit Juile Jaman and myself to offer comment, as well as publicly address the fact that Mayor Faber has openly supported Antifa, who he emboldened with dehumanizing and misogynistic language, and a hyperbolic claims that his own life was being threatened by the very women who were assaulted by men, encouraged and cheered on by the crowd.” - Amy E. Sousa, Co-Founder of RevFoxx, lead organizer of Let Julie Swim.
The press conference was held in support of Julie Jaman, an 80-year-old Port Townsend resident permanently banned from the YMCA for objecting to a male in a woman’s bathing suit who she observed watching young girls take off their swimsuits to use the toilet in the facility’s combined shower/locker/washroom area where she was showering.
Jaman was called “discriminatory” and “transphobic” by employees who informed her the male was a staff member. Employees tried to prevent her from leaving the facility, threatening her with the police. The facility has since stated that the senior, who has used the YMCA pool for 35 years, was banned as a result of multiple uses of vulgar language and obscene gestures with staff. The facility has refused to provide any documentation to support these allegations.
The event took place prior to a City Council meeting taking public comment on a “Transgender Proclomation” issued by Mayor David J. Faber in support of the YMCA, which is co-operated by the City of Port Townsend.
Prior to the event, Faber tweeted “I’ll probably get assassinated on Monday evening by a TERF or a moral panic-stricken right-wing nut job. ‘TERF’ stands for ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’. It is used to diminish the credibility of women who believe biological sex should be protected against sweeping policy changes carried out in support of gender ideology without public debate. Feminist groups have cautioned for years that the use of this slur creates public acceptance of male violence against women.
Faber also follows and has tweeted support of School Board Bloc, a Washington-based organization that describes itself as “Antifascist,” and that recruited agitators to attend the Let Julie Swim rally. On the eve of the event, they tweeted “It would be a shame if something happened to that sound system” moments before the sound and live feed were temporarily disabled.
This contradicts video evidence that shows City Council happily discussing the fact Let Julie Swim speakers were unable to get into the event due to the lengthy lineups that had formed outside of City Hall during the press conference, which was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to allow speakers to participate in public comments at the council meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m..
Since the Let Julie Swim event, multiple supporters, including Julie Jaman, have filed assault reports and plan to pursue legal action against The City of Port Townsend and the Port Townsend Police Department. RevFoxx’s next speakers event will be held in Pittsburgh on September 4, 2022. Location TBD.
Live stream footage of the protest can be found here:
And here:
We also offer on request digital download access to photographs and pre-clipped video footage of event speakers, protestors, counter-protestors and multiple assaults.
For more information about the event, or to arrange interviews with Julie Jaman or Amy Sousa, please contact:
Annettte Huenke reported on the police inaction for the Port Townsend Free Press. Including shocking video of officer Kamal Sharif responding to calls for help with callous indifference. “Please let the folks there know that if you don’t feel safe being there, you’re free leave.”
Police Cheif Tom Olsen is clearly seen in the background smirking as people approach him and his officers to ask for help.
The “folks” were the women who were under attack during their own permitted event.
Today, Police Chief Olson was practically handed an out in this piece on State legislative candidate Brian Pruitt. He could have blamed it on restrictive legislation on police in Washington state but instead chose to say they were simply unprepared.
Pruiett said he’d seen video of the event and that elderly women were being assaulted. He blamed the lack of a police response on state legislation curtailing police powers.
But Port Townsend Police Chief Thomas Olson disagreed that legislative restraints had any impact on the police response to the protests, instead citing inadequate preparation time.
Being unprepared would be a possible excuse for a sloppy response, but is is unacceptable for no response at all.
Even More Faber Shananigans
Mayor David Faber claimed to “condemn” the violence on twitter, while simultaneously lying trough his teeth
Don’t know what “dealt with” means. Unless your deal was to allow women to be assaulted while you look on smugly”
The protest did not run at the same time as Jaman’s press conference. The permit filled through the city was only until 6:30 as the women planned to attend the city council meeting. However, the women could not safely wait in line and were denied police assistance to do so.
During a 5 min recess Faber and his fellow city council members were caught on video discussing the women’s inability to access the city council meeting.
Faber is also falsely stating that he is just the victim on a “right-wing-moral panic” despite the well reported fact that Julie Jaman is a Democrat, as are the majority of the 35 women attacked on Aug 15th.
But I don’t really care and my community is based, so it seems like things are actually alright”. - David Faber, somehow a man in his 30’s but with the emotional range of a teenage boy.
Port Townsend’s local government conspired against these women’s constitutional rights and their safety. They were denied their right to assemble peacefully, their right to free speech, and their right to due process.
I was there on Aug 15th. David Faber and the Port Townsend police knowingly and willfully created a dangerous situation and to say I am pissed, is an understatement.
