Editor:
Marko Liias has been a disaster for the 21st Legislative District and for the state overall.
Too often we focus on national news to the detriment of local civic government. I know I have. But our unique government was created to be close to the people, not overlords and not behemoths.
Case in point is Marko Liias as state senator for the 21st Legislative District. Who knew a single individual in a small geographic area could do so much damage to an entire state?
Locally we have experienced so much damage from lawlessness. Businesses have been destroyed and burned. A police station was taken over. People have walked into stores and stolen thousands of dollars for merchandise without being arrested. Drug-addicted squatters have turned our streets, parks, highways and freeways into garbage dumps and sewers.
And how has Marko Liias responded? How has he represented the people in his district? How has he effected law in our state overall?
While the police reform language was being clarified and debated in the short session this year, there was a chance to add and strengthen the penalties for “flash mob” robberies. Marko Liias was one of only three senators who voted not to approve increasing penalties. He said stores could just hire private security. I have family members who owned a grocery store in Seattle. They were robbed blind, paid for security out of their earnings, felt unsafe in their own business, and eventually gave up and sold their store. Our family business had to hire armed security for protection when Antifa rolled through in one of their “peaceful protests.” What about the businesses that are just barely holding on? What about the ones that can’t afford extra security? Does Sen. Liias know that government is instituted to protect citizens? Apparently not. Does he understand that our taxes pay for law enforcement and his salary?
No. He also refused to overturn the police pursuit policies that he supported in 2021 that has led to higher crime rates and has emboldened criminals. He effectively ties law enforcement’s hands behind their backs. He limits the size of magazines law-abiding citizens can buy in Washington state, while voting to stop police from their ability to apprehend dangerous criminals, who don’t follow his laws. His policies do not make us safer, in fact just the opposite. Over a dozen criminals have rammed police cars in our state since the laws he voted for passed, and because of the no-pursuit laws he favors, police must watch them drive off without the ability to chase them. How is this protecting the constituents he is supposed to serve? Is this being responsible with money extracted from taxpayers?
The bottom line is that we need our elected officials to support law enforcement and their ability to apprehend and prosecute criminals and enforce the laws. With our current senator and his anti-police/anti-public safety voting record, we no longer can feel safe in our now degraded communities or that our senator is looking out for our best interest. It’s time for better leadership in our District.
Tamara Nelson
Edmonds
This screams the author has an agenda. Not hard to figure out.
I think she wants those who have been elected to make sure law enforcement has the resources and tactics it needs to be able to protect people and maintain law and order for everyone.
Sounds reasonable to me. Is she wrong? Is Liias providing law enforcement what they need to protect people and keep law order?
I’m all for the ban on high capacity magazines so on that I do disagree. Look he is not the only legislature responsible for the rulings around policing. I didn’t infer she was right or wrong. I said it screams an agenda and it still does for me.
She is not running for office. So, what is her agenda? She does not like the new laws which favor criminals,
nor do I and I am actually running for the House of Representatives in this district against Lillian Ortiz-self. Who like Marko has voted for every bad law that hurts our community, endangers public safety and has created a mental health crisis in our public schools due to her bad laws and policies? She is a mental health counselor. She did not oppose the Covid lockdown, nor forced vaccines or lose your job for frontline doctors and law enforcement. Now is complaining there is a lack of teachers. No one wants to teach the garbage they are teaching in our schools since 2020. Just go on the OSPI website and look at the test scores. She voted like Marko that the police cannot pursue criminals unless they witness the event. This is resulting in tragic death, crime, and violence.
If you toss out the term “Antifa” you’re pretty much betraying your political frame of reference: FOX News.
There is no “Antifa”. Period. It’s a made-up term by right-wing interests trying to frighten and convince you that there’s amonolithic group out there hell-bent on destroying your neighborhoods and businesses.
“Antifa”, for the thousandth time, means “Anti-fascist”. You know, like your anti-fascist grandfathers who fought the Nazis (the fascists) in WWII, and who would, no doubt, proudly claim that title. “Antifa” is a an idea, a value, a worldview, held by millions of decent, pro-democracy Americans who abhor the authoritarian, anti-democracy trend in today’s America. It is NOT an organized group, like the Proud Boys, for example.
So let’s apply our words and terms with some context and consideration, okay?
Ms Nelson is spot on. Her letter simply addresses the fact that Senator Liias’ is a disaster and his policies, as stated, are harmful to our communities.
Mr. Lorah, if you believe what you wrote you may want to broaden your news intake.
Antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈænti(ˌ)fə/) is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. As a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups, antifa uses both nonviolent and violent direct action to achieve its aims. Much of antifa political activism is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also combat far-right extremists (such as neo-Nazis and white supremacists) and, at times, law enforcement, with tactics including digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage.
Individuals involved in the movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-state views, subscribing to a range of left-wing ideologies. A majority of individuals involved are anarchists, communists, and socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries, and have little allegiance to liberal democracy, although some social democrats also adhere to the antifa movement. The name antifa and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement. Dartmouth College historian Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, credits Anti-Racist Action (ARA) as the precursor of modern antifa groups in the United States.
Mr. Victor-
As you copied and pasted your response to me from Wikipedia I thought I’d add the part you neglected to include.
“There have been numerous efforts to discredit antifa by various right-wing groups and individuals.[20][21] Some have been done via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag operations originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter;[22][23][24] some hoaxes have been picked up and portrayed as fact by right-leaning media and politicians.[22][25][26][27] There were repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization[28] despite the fact that it is not an organization. Academics, legal experts, and others have argued such an action would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.[29][30][31] Several analyses, reports, and studies have concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk.[19][32]”
Of course Ms. Nelson has an agenda; she wants to have Marko Liias voted out of office and replaced by a competent, thoughtful, experienced person like Janelle Cass. Mr. Liias has spent his entire career in politics and has had no experience in the public arena, which he has been representing for years ( although, in my opinion rather poorly).
Janelle Cass stands head and shoulder above Liias and will represent us from the perspective of a person who is not an ideologue but actually understands the consequences of legislation on the [tax paying] voters who actually work for a living..
So yes, Ms. Nelson does have an agenda; one to which I strongly subscribe
You said “There is no “Antifa”. Period. It’s a made-up term by right-wing interests trying to frighten and convince you that there’s amonolithic group out there hell-bent on destroying your neighborhoods and businesses”.
Then you say “There have been numerous efforts to discredit antifa by various right-wing groups and individuals.” Later you state “Several analyses, reports, and studies have concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk.”
Thanks, you confirmed my point.
Ms. Nelson hits all of the familiar Fox News talking points and doesn’t seem to have an independent or well-informed opinion of her own. “Anitifa” is about as real as the boogeyman, and even if it happened to be a real thing, what’s wrong with being anti-fascist again? Speaking of boogeymen, Republicans have been using fear of crime to scare voters for decades. Convenient that people like Ms. Nelson never mention the role that relaxed gun laws play in crime or that the states with the most crime happen to be reliably Republican controlled states such as Arkansas, Alaska, and Louisiana. It’s also convenient that Republican opposition to funding crime-prevention measures like mental health and drug treatment centers never seems to come up.
What we get from people like Ms. Nelson is a lot of typical fearmongering, but very little in substance about what exactly the politicians that she endorses would actually do to solve issues. I think we already have enough evidence from Republican controlled states, the real disasters, about what Janelle Cass’ priorities would be if she were elected: flooding our streets with guns and further driving up crime, using tax dollars to investigate fake election fraud, and going after gay and trans children. No real issues will be solved, they would just get worse.
I agree completely, and I believe from my conversations with neighbors that Mr. Oliver’s view is the one most of this community holds. Let’s be clear: The 21st district that Sen. Liias represents does not include Seattle, which Ms. Nelson alludes to repeatedly.
If we are going to equate actions in one area with those in another, then lets talk about the shooting in Akron, the shooting in Highland Park, and all the other shootings and how loosening our gun control laws is really going to keep us so much safer.
So just so it’s clear, and especially after another mass shooting today in Illinois, Janelle Cass on Feb. 18th was quoted regarding the proposed high capacity magazine ban ““We’ve got raising crime because of all these other policies that Senator Liias has talked about, and supported, and voted for,” she added. “We’ve got crime creeping up and increasing in the 21st district and we need to be able to protect ourselves.” Umm yep, I guess you need 30 rounds to fend off the perps here in Edmonds.