Editor,
Alicia Crank’s “Letter to the Editor,” My Edmonds News, Jan. 26, alleging that threats have been made against women on the Edmonds’ City Council, should not be left as the last word on the issue.
The allegations made are serious and should be investigated. If threats were emailed to women on Council, the author(s) should be identified and punished. That kind of behavior is not acceptable in a democracy. One commenter pointed out that those in office have to “…be brave to put yourself out there politically. Some level of this comes with the territory sadly.” Agreed. However, actual threats rise to a different level and need to be investigated. It is important that Council release the emails and report whether the emails have been forwarded to the police.
Ms. Crank should be careful about putting such serious allegations in writing without providing any kind of evidence or additional information. She stated, “I know that women on *OUR* city council have received threatening emails…” How does she know? Ms. Crank said in her letter that, “… it can be difficult to separate professional from personal, but we must”. Without more information, her comments are personal and not professional. Her words sound more like gossip than fact. She couched her letter in language about “civility,” but it is not civil, nor is it responsible to make such serious allegations in an offhand manner.
Given the seriousness of the charges, it is not acceptable for a third-party (Ms. Crank) to raise these issues. That is hearsay. If Edmonds City Councilmembers have been threatened, it is their professional responsibility to come forward with those threats for proper prosecution.
It is unfortunate that in the world we live in today, disagreeing with someone’s political or policy ideas, even where supported with reasoned argument, can lead to a charge of making “threats.” Unless we see the emails, we cannot judge whether they were disagreement with policy or rose to the level of actual threats.
Lynne Chelius
Edmonds
Well said, Lynne, especially your last paragraph. It’s time we actually see the text of the threatening emails. Councilmembers can redact the names of the senders, if they wish. How can we work to make Edmonds a better place to live and work (and politic) if we can’t see evidence of the problem?
AFM has said that she filed a police report over the threats and My Edmonds News is obtaining a copy for a follow up. I would assume that there will be follow up on this.
There have been a lot of anger and hurt from the actions and statements from AFM and the Mayor, and instead of engagement with the public to work together on solutions, they basically stated to their constituents that “we are going to do whatever we want, and we don’t care what you think.’
Violence, or threats of violence are never a good answer to our problems. I think that there is a lot more room for civil dialogue on all sides.
AFM? Immigrants coming to the United States will need to carry a dictionary just for letters.
AFM stands for American Federation of Musicians. There are a couple other possibilities. Maybe we should write out the meaning once in the beginning, and then use the acronyms.
American Federation of Musicians is correct. People were disturbed by their tone.
On another note, it used to drive me crazy that people referred to My Edmonds News as MEN. But that’s how people describe us now and I’m fine with the shorthand. There are some recent examples in politics of people being referred to by their initials because their names are long. — Teresa
Great commentary Lynne, it had to be said, and you are very brave to say it. We seem to walk on eggshells at times in this community while “unverified” accusations are made, and we stand back afraid of being called a name (Nazi, Racists, white Supremacist). We will get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I would think that a woman who is thinking of running for a council seat in the future, would be more concerned with truth before accusations are made in public and accusations of threats not even made to her, but to her cronies. The “messenger” has not served the public well in this case. Thank goodness for our MEN and EPD.
I’m really glad to see this being discussed. I also appreciate the comment about referring to a council member by AFM. When I was new on MEN I didn’t understand why Adrienne was being referred to in that manner. It seemed disrespectful to me.
In terms of threats being made, I’ve witnessed other city council meetings where citizens were abusive in their comments. Even the Edmonds council meeting about Lawless, in my opinion, there were inappropriate comments. The former police chief used the word “sleazy” and several citizens said, “shame on you.” While those don’t rise to the level of threats, I think the city leaders get to point where they tune people out. How many of us could sit and allow people to berate us publicly for decisions we’ve made without being able to defend ourselves? On MEN, commenters come out swinging when they are challenged or accused and Councilmembers can’t do that. For me to be able to sit and endure rude comments, would require building internal walls, minimizing what is said and even going into denial. Once that happens, it can be easy to ignore comments that rise to levels of threat. There is a line between freedom of speech and threats, but you would have to be paying attention to see it. You would have to be allowing yourself to listen to insults and feeling the pain of letting them in.
If Adrienne filed a police report, good for her! Elected officials do not have to tolerate abuse or threats. We can be angry, disagree and speak freely without becoming abusive. That used to be common sense but it isn’t so common anymore!
Teresa,
Do you know if anyone has ever asked Adrienne how she feels about being referred to as AFM? Adrienne is only 5 more letters than AFM and English Second Language folks wouldn’t get confused if we actually typed her name.
I don’t know the answer to that question.
There were phone calls threatening gun violence made to the immigrant-owned nail salon here in town. Those receiving the threats were so afraid that they actually apologized to those making the threats and had to shut down their business for a while until the heat blew off. I don’t recollect a statement on this from AFM. I do remember I brought this up to Alicia in commentary [and I could be wrong], but remember her be critical of those who received the threats because they called the police.
https://myedmondsnews.com/2020/06/main-st-nails-spa-owners-apologize-after-calling-police-on-black-couple/
Like I’ve been saying… there’s a huge appetite for real threats and real violence.