By Jackson Gardner
The Chronicle
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer did not take kindly to a Republican lawmaker’s comments at a protest in Olympia on Sunday at which he referred to law enforcement officers as “goons” and called for a revolution in Washington.
The rally protesting Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order drew more than 2,000 demonstrators, according to The Seattle Times, including State Rep. Robert Sutherland, R-Granite Falls, who gave a speech to the protestors and made some controversial remarks.
“We’re starting a rebellion in Washington, we’re not listening to this governor, we’re taking our state back,” Sutherland, who represents the 39th Legislative District, said in his speech, according to The Seattle Times. “When we go fishing, they’re going to send their guys with guns, and they’re going to write us tickets. Governor, you send men with guns after us when we go fishing, we’ll see what a revolution looks like,” Sutherland said. ” … You send your goons with guns, we will defend ourselves.”
On the same day Sutherland made the aforementioned comments, Inslee released a statement urging Republican leaders to speak out against the rhetoric coming from their fellow legislative members at the rally.
Meyer, who issued a statement denouncing Sutherland’s comments on Tuesday, said he was not influenced by Inslee’s statement, rather he acted independently in response Sutherland’s statements, regardless of party affiliation.
“First, it neglects to acknowledge many of the fine officers who are sworn to uphold the law and protect us are women,” Meyer wrote in the press release. “More troubling is the fact you referred to law enforcement officers as ‘goons.’ … These ‘goons’ were present during your ‘speech,’ protecting your right to assemble and speak. Perhaps you may have heard one of your described ‘goons’ was murdered on March 24, 2020 in Lewis County protecting the people of this state, leaving a community and a family devastated.”
In a phone interview with Sutherland on Wednesday, the lawmaker told The Chronicle he regretted using the term “goons,” and said that he had not initially planned to speak that day, but gave an impromptu speech because he was asked to do so.
He said if the speech had been written beforehand, he wouldn’t have used the words “revolution,” “rebellion” and “goons,” and agreed with Meyer that they are “kind of inflammatory.”
Also, when Sutherland failed to acknowledge women law enforcement officers in his speech, he said he immediately thought in his mind, “Robert, you know there are women out there too, right?”
Additionally, Sutherland felt his comments regarding a revolution were taken out of context. He said the “revolution” he was speaking about was only related to a citizen’s right to go fishing and that in his mind, it is a “revolution of love,” and not any sort of armed rebellion.
However, Meyer, in his statement, also denounced any sort of confrontation between fishers and law enforcement officers.
“If (citizens) have an issue as to the constitutionality or lawfulness of the governor’s orders, the banks of the fishing spot is not the venue, nor is a law enforcement officer the audience, to which these points should be argued,” Meyer stated. “What is constitutional and lawful is an argument made in court, the venue designed to address these issues.”
In response to Meyer’s remarks regarding citizens revolting against law enforcements’ orders while fishing, Sutherland compared rebelling fishermen to Rosa Parks, saying Meyer would have been against her actions.
On Thursday, Meyer said, “If he wants to compare himself to Rosa Parks, I think he is undercutting the powerful impact Rosa Parks had on not only this county, but on the world, and to somehow try and compare himself to Rosa Parks, a black woman on a bus, to a guy out of Granite Falls who is at a rally protesting lockdown during the COVID situation, is perhaps more short-sided than his original statement at the rally.”
Sutherland was asked by The Chronicle if the “revolution of love” he referred to was consistent with his comment on Sunday where he told protestors, “You send your goons with guns, we will defend ourselves.”
Sutherland responded with: “Let me tell you what I was thinking, again, it was off the top of my head, and as I was speaking and looking at the crowd, thinking of the Governor and his actions, and the more I was speaking the more I was getting upset over the actions and so I got a little animated.”
