Keep your COVID protests and your bullying away from Tri-City homes | Editorial

Being mad about the latest COVID restrictions is understandable, but amassing in front of people’s homes and calling them out over a megaphone is no way to channel that anger.

Yet that strategy was recently used by a group of Tri-Citians led by Joey Gibson, founder of the controversial political activist group Patriot Prayer.

Gibson of Vancouver, Wash., is known for leading protests in Portland, where exchanges have turned violent. Realizing he now has the Tri-Cities on his radar is unsettling. Our community is not used to having such in-your-face confrontations.

People here protest when they feel passionate about something, and sometimes they become emotional. But until now Tri-Cities protests and demonstrations were always conducted along city streets and in public parks — not residential areas.

That changed after Gibson’s arrival.

He and his Tri-City followers congregated last Sunday in front of the home of a Tri-Cities liquor license officer and spent more than 13 minutes loudly chastising the man for doing his job.

Tri-City business owners were just emerging from the first COVID shutdown when Gov. Jay Inslee ordered them to pull back a couple of weeks ago. The disease is running rampant and the governor is trying to keep our state’s hospitals from being overwhelmed.

Restaurants can still offer takeout and outdoor seating, but indoor dining is supposed to be closed. The restrictions have many upset, and some are refusing to comply.

Owners of a bar and three restaurants in the Tri-Cities were served with written warnings that they must follow the updated rules or risk a fine or loss of their liquor license.

Instead of focusing only on the state mandate, protesters chose to also target the state employee charged with enforcing it.

The tactic is an attention-getter, but it is not an effective way to encourage real change.

The liquor control officer has no real power over the situation. Sure, he could look the other way and not cite businesses for ignoring a state order — which is what Gibson encouraged.

But what does that accomplish? State officials simply would replace him with another officer to do the job.

Protesting in front of homes is misguided and crosses a line. While it has become a common stunt elsewhere in the country, most people find it off-putting.

If protesters want to attract people to their cause and get public opinion on their side, invading a residential neighborhood undermines the effort.

Demonstrating outside of public buildings makes the most sense.

It wasn’t as alarming when the Benton/Franklin Let Us Work organization rallied 150 people, including Gibson, in front of the Franklin County Courthouse last Tuesday to protest the governor’s mandates.

That’s the kind of demonstration Tri-Citians are used to.

But then many in the group went to the home of Franklin County Commissioner Brad Peck because he has voted against illegal efforts to open up the county. Peck is rightly concerned business owners could face legal action from the state if they defy Inslee’s orders.

Again, the protest would have been more effective if people had kept it on the courthouse steps. Taking it to someone’s home — even of an elected official — blurs the line between protesting and intimidating.

Many Tri-Citians have heard about protesters going to the private homes of elected officials in bigger cities like Seattle and Portland, and have felt relieved that we live in a community where those extreme, threatening methods are not used. Sadly, we can’t say that any more.

Gibson and his Tri-City supporters are wrong to think scare tactics will win people over to their cause.

Nobody likes a bully.

This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 12:45 PM.