Take a stand before protests escalate

Today, we are issuing a call to action to all elected and appointed state and local officials to take a stand against the confrontational tactics of the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and COVID-19 deniers who are increasingly infecting our public meetings, our public discourse and our public life with an anger, irrationality and abuse which we fear will soon escalate into physical assaults and violence against elected and appointed public officials.

We have already seen evidence of such an escalation across America and right here in Connecticut.

It was less than a year ago when 13 militia members, angry with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer for her COVID-19 restrictions, plotted to kidnap and then “try” her in the woods of Wisconsin. More recently, since Hawaii announced its vaccine or weekly test mandate, anti-vaxxers gathered nightly outside the home of Lt. Gov. Josh Green to yell into bullhorns and shine strobe lights into his windows; others distributed flyers attacking him as a “Jew.” Teachers in Texas and California have been assaulted. Board of Education members across America have received death threats, followed out of school buildings and told “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you.” A Missouri hospital administrator was cornered in a parking garage by a person accusing him of “crimes against humanity.” Free masks handed out at public meetings have been set ablaze by antimaskers.

Here in Connecticut, we’ve seen Gov. Ned Lamont’s press conference on school health issues interrupted and shut down by anti-maskers who equated Connecticut with Nazi Germany and who followed the governor out to his vehicle, with one parent extending his middle finger to him. Police have been called to contentious public meetings. Some public officials are increasing the size of their security detail. Social media posts referencing legislators have been investigated by the police. One school board meeting was interrupted by protesters shouting through bullhorns, while others have been shut down by anti-mask protesters. A Black Lives Matter supporter was spit on by an anti-vaxxer at a rally at the state Capitol. In May, someone for some reason drove 20 miles from Southington to Hartford to fire six shots at the state Capitol. The lieutenant governor was recently accosted by a man flying vile flags on his pickup truck at a veterans’ event in Norwich.

Protesters in Connecticut are angry and on the edge, and they are getting angrier. In some instances, their words and actions have been praised by certain politicians. This needs to stop. It is only a matter of time until a small, angry group of individuals or one particularly disturbed person who is egged on with disinformation and partisan hubris escalates from spitting and hand gestures and screams of Nazism and criminal behavior to something much more dangerous. The time to prevent any future tragedy is now.

Like our U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” campaign, we are urging state and local elected and appointed officials to report all instances of harassment, threats, intimidation and violence to local police right away for their investigation and disposition. Be it an intimidating social media post, a threatening letter or phone call, a personal confrontation, a sign at a protest threatening retribution, an interrupted public meeting, or something else that your gut tells you is just not right, please report it right away to the proper authorities. Harassment and intimidation in the course of your public duties are not “part of the job”; they are potential crimes that should be reported to police.

Now is the time to take a stand against harassment and intimidation before it escalates into physical violence, injury and perhaps death.