Braun: Violence is violence, no matter who commits it or why

Leaders of our state’s Democratic and Republican legislative caucuses responded to the June 14 shootings of two Minnesota state lawmakers with a joint statement condemning what had happened.

In it, the four of us declared we “stand together to condemn all violence that threatens the safety of Washingtonians.”

I was encouraged to see the emphasis on all violence, rather than political violence. Violence is violence, no matter how or why it’s committed.

Unfortunately, within hours after the news broke about the Minnesota shootings, there was violence in our state that threatened the safety of Washingtonians.

Employees of the federal Department of Homeland Security facility in south King County were essentially trapped in their workplace by protesters who had barricaded the exits.
When police responded to calls for help, around 25 of the agitators refused to disperse and instead assaulted officers with frozen water bottles, metal signs, rocks and more.

An independent journalist was also victimized at that protest, sprayed in the face with insecticide. Fortunately, she was back online soon afterward, with plenty to say about how state and local officials in our state seem to respond differently to violence, depending on who commits it and why.

She also offered a thought-provoking observation about the reaction to the Minnesota shootings: as the attacks were obviously related to politics, there was immediate speculation about the political leanings of the suspected shooter.

It was though each clue disclosed by investigators was viewed through a partisan lens — because after all, each side wanted the deranged killer to be a member of the other team, not theirs. The human angle of this tragedy, meaning lives lost or changed forever, was being lost to the political angle.

That’s a sad commentary on the state of our political discourse these days.

This kind of dehumanizing also shows up in the fact that the Minnesota lawmakers were attacked at their homes. Civil disagreement in public spaces is a core value of the First Amendment. But homes of elected officials should be absolutely off-limits to protests. And political violence is completely unacceptable anywhere.

This is not new, unfortunately. I remember when former state Sen. Jim Kastama’s home in Pierce County became the scene of a protest after he and two other Democrats courageously exhibited independence in 2012 to pass a common sense budget.

But violating the personal spaces of our public officials seems to have become more common. Former Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s address had been secret due to her previous job as a U.S. attorney — until five years ago, when it was leaked to Socialists who then showed up to protest.

In 2023, Congressman Adam Smith’s home in King County was hit by pro-Hamas vandals because of his stance on Israel. That same year a man was convicted of harassing U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal at her King County home.

And while the governor’s mansion in Olympia is public property, it’s also a home. When protesters breached the fence around the mansion on Jan. 6, 2021, I condemned that, saying it was unacceptable and that violence was not the path forward.

However, it’s one thing to condemn violence and another to take actions to prevent it. How far are the current leaders of our state willing to go to protect Washingtonians from the threats to their safety posed by political violence?

It’s a timely question because of the violence we’re seeing here and across the nation in reaction to decisions being made at the federal level.

In Tukwila, despite what the mayor called “dangerous and assaultive actions,” no arrests were made. Then again, he also defended the protest as largely peaceful — and referred to those who violently resisted officers as “determined individuals.” You have to wonder if he would describe all groups of protesters that way, or just those with certain beliefs.

Gov. Ferguson held a news conference the previous day, knowing an array of protests were planned for Flag Day across our state and nation.

In remarks clearly meant for demonstrators, he said speaking out “against a chaotic administration that repeatedly violates the law is critical to our democracy, but we of course must do that peacefully and lawfully.”

I appreciated his call for peaceful, lawful behavior. However, minutes later, he was asked about dealing with protesters intent on causing trouble. The governor should have unequivocally declared that anyone committing violence would be held accountable, but instead, he acknowledged “we do not completely control every individual who’s out there, and some folks may seek that violence.”

Firm warnings paired with decisive accountability are the only way to respond to violence and to prevent future violence.

Sure enough, professional-level agitators took to the streets at the DHS building in Tukwila the next day, dressed all in black with face masks.

Others beat another independent journalist so badly at the downtown-Seattle protest that he suffered a concussion, despite wearing a helmet. Will King County prosecutors hold these thugs accountable for assaulting someone who was undeniably exercising his First Amendment rights?

In a controversial domestic terrorism study published in 2022, then-attorney general Ferguson wrote that domestic violent extremism includes political violence like “threats, coercion and intimidation,” and the general spread of “anti-government ideologies.”

I’d say barricading workers inside a government building qualifies as intimidation, driven by an anti-government ideology — but again, no arrests were made.

It reminds me of the arson at the Seattle Police Department precinct building during the infamous, often-violent takeover of a large area of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, almost five years ago.

Protestors had attempted to bar a door at the building to prevent officers from leaving, then set the building on fire, hoping to kill those inside. The failure of the state and local leaders in charge then should never be forgotten.

Or, much more recently, of the violence against Jewish students at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus and the $1.2 million in damage caused when anti-Jewish extremists occupied a taxpayer-funded UW engineering building this past month.

Following the shootings in Minnesota, the state Senate’s director of security emailed senators and staff with reminders about home security. In response, a Democratic senator suggested a larger conversation is in order as he expects “the security situation to deteriorate for the foreseeable future.”

My colleague didn’t elaborate on that. But the security situation will continue to get worse as long as state and local governments selectively refuse to enforce the law and hold lawbreakers accountable. We need more courage on that front, especially when it comes to protecting the free-speech rights of people with whom they disagree politically.

Organizers of the Flag Day protests claimed they were meant to show the world what democracy really looks like.

By that definition, democracy in our state looked like projectiles hurled at law-enforcement officers, ignoring lawful orders from police, attempted arson, looting, vandalism and blocking traffic.

It’s appalling. Violence is violence, and common decency has been replaced by the disrespecting, vilifying and dehumanizing of those with differing opinions.

That’s how we end up at a place where someone feels justified in ambushing and murdering people they disagree with, like an elected official.

We must do better.

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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.