12-13-2025 - Tumwater WA - Initiative Signature Gathering

What happened on Saturday at Michael T Simmons Elementary School?

How many right-wingers came up from Oregon to sign WA petitions?

WTH did Carleen Johnson post? - How did the city of Tumwater respond?

Initiatives: IL26-638 + IL26-001 + IL26-126 + others?

Drones? - This and more. Long post.

Our Saturday morning started very average, checking national and local news via news aggregator sites. One very high-ranking headline quickly caught our attention: "FBI, Tumwater police warn of possible antifa attack at weekend Let's Go WA event" - from "The Chronicle" - Oh my!

Somehow despite everything we were not aware of all these scary things.

After ingesting what amounted to grok generated garbage from "The Chronicle" we were informed the city of Tumwater did a News Release that appears to refute Carleen Johnson's claims: "To dispel a rumor circulating in the region, we have received no specific, actionable threat reporting from the FBI related to the event." and "we do not share specifics of our preparations".

So off we went to see for ourselves, but not before printing Carleen Johnson's article and Tumwater news release.

When we arrived we spotted a large traffic control trailer sign reading "No Weapons Allowed" and "Gun Free Zone" outside. Hmm.

We were surprised this event was inside the school, in a gym. We assumed it'd be outside. Near an entry a WSP officer was checking bags and we had no problems there. According to him, he was the only WSP officer at the event. We arrived a little late but not a lot of people were inside.

After taking some nothing-special photos and footage that amounts to b-roll we were confronted by who we believe was Darren Littell, the campaign manager for Let's Go Washington (LGW).

Darren asked us who we were and we told him. Darren informed us that he didn't want us taking photos. Darren's reasoning was vague. Darren seemed to imply his reasoning was due to sensitivity, however at that exact moment a right-wing live streamer was right next to us and without a doubt filming everything. Darren didn't really have a response when we highlighted this.

A very short convo took place about press badging but that didn't last because it had absolutely nothing to do with Darren's decision. Darren then asked us to leave. We let Darren know that we're OK skipping out for now but planned on returning. We then went back outside.

Once outside we ran into the only counter protester we'd seen so far and let them know what happened.

A couple minutes later a person who looked somewhat familiar came up and asked a few general questions. We learned this person is a right-wing streamer. During conversation this person told us they were from Portland, and they'd just signed a petition inside. We suggested they shouldn't have signed a WA petition if they're not from WA. We gave them an opportunity to clarify (by suggesting that maybe they weren't actually from Portland, but instead Vancouver) - this person then firmly responded saying they are from Portland, not Washington state. When we pushed again about signing a WA petition while being from OR, they said they just didn't care. If there was any doubt about this person signing a petition while there, we later realized they're in one of our photos, signing a petition.

This raises important questions: How many right-wingers came up from Oregon to sign petitions in Tumwater? - and what happens when these signatures aren't invalidated?

At this point we went to the counter-protest area, and was surprised at how confrontational things already were. Right-wingers were already there creating as much conflict as they could. There were one or two scuffles but we didn't see anything too serious. Moments later we spotted right-wing grift-king, Jonathan Choe. Looking more disheveled than usual, as if he could barely be bothered to put pants on.

From our perspective at peak levels of conflict, LE was not really present in that particular area, compared to later on. Counter-protesters firmly held ground amongst almost constant yelling.

After a while we decided to go back inside, stopping at the lone WSP officer as we checked back in. We joked with the lone WSP officer (us): "just like J6, on the Olympia Capitol campus" it's a serious joke that's mildly entertaining to float by WSP officers while asking them where they were on J6. Anyways, this time it was a lot more crowded inside the gym and speakers were at the podium.

We only got a few minutes of photos and video in before we were approached by security and asked to leave.

Snippets of convo w/Tumwater Officer (TPO): "I just have to say it out-loud right, private event staff has asked that you not come back to the event, and they have indicated to us that for people that do return they are interested in pursuing criminal charges for trespassing, that does not really seem like what we're doing here, so I do appreciate you helping us keep everyone safe and being calm about it, it's unfortunate, your interactions with staff" - (us): "they keep coming up to me, i'm not interacting with anyone at all" (TPO): "if the event staff contacts us again about returning.. you may be subject to criminal prosecution of trespass" (us): "as a journalist in a public school?" (TPO): "private event" (us): "gotta be some money involved - that's really weird and awkward" (TPO): "i agree" - (us): "i'll be around but i will not be re-entering - i don't get it though to be honest" (TPO): "me neither"

After this we had another (general) convo for about 15min with a right-wing signature gatherer/event supporter, who didn't necessarily support us getting removed: (them): "nobody should fuck with you, regardless of what side you're on" - this person then insisted on showing us video footage from their phone of a recent interaction with a Lacey police officer. (them): "Lacey Police, i just stood them down at the new Trader Joe's" - among other things, this person recorded a police officers computer screen inside their patrol vehicle while it was unoccupied, displaying a full screen of some type of information. This person reflected upon their "plain view" right to record.

We returned to the counter-protest area which was just about to start closing out. MAGAs continued their grift-screams (trademark) but there was less of them and eventually almost all the counter protesters left with the exception of about 2-3 people. We didn't catch it at the time, but one of the counter protesters with a megaphone was talking about how the people behind these initiatives have been importing a lot of signature gatherers from other states. This is something we can confirm as at least 5 of the 6 or 7 signature gatherers we've spoken to told us they are not from Washington. If you speak with a signature gatherer, ask where they are from.

It was getting a bit tiresome hearing the non-stop buzzing of drones. We witnessed 2 drones and started asking Tumwater and then Thurston County who's operating the drones. Tumwater PD indicated they were not operating any drones, but speculated there was up to 5 drones. Thurston county confirmed operating one drone, but said they've seen 3. When we commented on the number of drones flying simultaneously, the (active) Thurston County drone operator said "it hasn't been enjoyable" and "they're not on transponders". At least two officers indicated hired event "security" was flying at least one drone. When we commented on the lack of legality of drones being flown we pretty much got a confirmation nod from Thurston County. For those that aren't aware, there's quite a few regulations when it comes to flying drones under these conditions.

During our conversations about drones and since we'd brought "The Chronicle" and Tumwater news release with us, we decided to start showing Tumwater, Thurston County and WSP the "antifa attack" headline and article, along with highlighted areas of the Tumwater city response. Several agreed when we emphasized articles like this do nothing more than make things worse for everyone. We've had this conversation a few times, and one of the first red-flag responses are those who pretend they don't read anything, are somehow unaware, or the general "i don't know" response. We made it clear our encounter with this article wasn't because we were looking for it, or because we read "The Chronicle", but instead because a popular news aggregator site carried it as a high-ranking headline. Some of the responses we received were reflections of inaccuracies. We validated legitimacy and lived experiences, but made sure we didn't head down the media generalizations path. It's critical actual details start getting discussed. We could tell a few weren't hot on the topic but they were also the least engaged, go figure.

After the conversations on drones and Carleen Johnson's article, we hung around to listen to protester/counter-protester discussions. That's about it. One thing we've consistently noticed is the longer you stick around the more likely you'll witness different sides generally having calm discussions.

When we returned from this event and browsed social media posts, we discovered right-wingers posting media of exactly what Darren Littell seemed to imply his concerns were with us. To be clear, when Darren Littell asked us who we were, along with others who asked, we told them. On the topic of sensitivity of those signing, signatures and personal information, we discovered a high-resolution photo by a right-winger with thousands of followers that clearly reveals names, signatures and other information such as the full home addresses of those signing.

Make SURE to check out our prior signature gathering related post on 09-27-2025 @ #LaceyWA

Carleen Johnson article: https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_3b01a46f-51b6-4971-9ae3-81403144e4bc.html

Tumwater Release: https://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/Home/Components/News/News/9608/554

#Tumwater #TumwaterWA #ThurstonCounty #Olympia #OlympiaWA #OlyWA #LaceyWA #Initiative #Voting

09-27-2025 - #LaceyWA - #Walmart signature gatherers.

Recently there's been multiple reports of aggressive, unwanted, signature gatherers. They are gathering signatures for Initiatives IL26-638 and IL26-001.

We witnessed many people, possibly most, signing IL26-638 purely based on the bathroom "pitch" seen in the (attached) video, without reading anything.

Also in the video, when a person asked for details on an Initiative, a signature gatherer appeared to utilize AI inputs and then play AI replies to answer questions.

The most aggressive signature gatherer went by "Brandon". Shoppers and Walmart employees witnessed "Brandon" hurling personal insults extensively. "Brandon" likes to show off, and showed us a company he operates that goes by Terra Whales Investment Group (as pictured, "Brandon" showing us on his phone) - This may be Brandon Reece. In another act, "Brandon" pulled out cash from a pocket to show us how he apparently has 500 something dollars on him.

Brandon also parked his California-plate, red Hyundai Santa Fe in a front-most disabled parking space without authorization. We were informed Walmart was unable to enforce this parking violation. We believe parking in this space may have been utilized as a tactic.

Where the truth begins or ends with this group is quite the rabbit hole. They both claimed to be from California and anything beyond that is safely up for scrutiny. When we arrived a female police officer was leaving the scene. A gatherer then claimed a female police officer signed one of their initiates, but later a Walmart employee firmly represented that not being true.

These signature gatherers demonstrated an above-and-beyond level of willingness to say or claim anything without any boundaries whatsoever. They have zero respect for the communities they are in.

Follow us on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/iNFoPiG2/

Follow us on Bluesky @ https://bsky.app/profile/iNFoPiG2.bsky.social

(pictures below in thread)

#OlympiaWA #OlyWA #Initiative #Voting

Hey anyone that cares!
We're having a United 95 Class Reunion tonight for anyone from Timberline, River Ridge, or North Thurston! I've been thinking about this for the last few years, that we should just have a reunion for the entire district. Especially as things got a bit mixed up when we all shuffled in Junior year.

Saturday 8/23 - 6:30pm
Hops On The Hill

There's a Facebook Event, if that's where you're at.

#ClassOf95 #Olympia #OlyWA #LaceyWA #WashingtonState

07-19-2025 - Highway 507 fire - Yelm WA

Structure fire lasts for hours.

An aggressive house fire caused a multi-agency response in Yelm WA. Many local firefighters from surrounding areas initially had to take defensive positions. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was also called to the scene. Firefighters took turns addressing the ongoing blaze with some receiving medical treatment then returning to the fire. Lacey Incident Response showed with much needed supplies. Despite a heavy response the fire kept reigniting. We spoke with a family member who indicated the house was only around 12 years old and is now a total loss.

** The video is too large for Mastodon, we've posted it on Bluesky and Instagram:

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/p/DMWF9QFS0Ls/

Bluesky @ https://bsky.app/profile/iNFoPiG2.bsky.social

#ThurstonCounty #YelmWA #LaceyWA #LocalNews

02-16-2024: #OlympiaWA + #LaceyWA

Protesters gathered today at what is being referred to as Lacey's own #CopCity

A Local activist flyer on social media requested an "Urgent call to defend the forest!" at Saint Martin's, "to demand that construction cease"

When we arrived, we observed a Lacey Police officer flying a drone near the corner of Abbey Way SE and Baran Drive Southeast. When we inquired its purpose, the officer stated it was "to keep a lookout". We do not know the direction the drone was being flown.

Despite sparse attendance close to certain forest areas, we noted some officers "hanging out" on a paved walking area that runs somewhat parallel to the South side of Abbey Way SE. St Martin's also had their own security present on Abbey Way SE. officers were also on the north side of Abbey Way SE, east of Baran Drive Southeast. Overall many police officers were present in these areas.

We spent time witnessing these forest areas being destroyed, and then spoke with (2) Forma employees on the scene. We asked them to confirm the size (acreage) of the project, and they reflected roughly (7) acres, but specifically less than (10). We inquired about the (dollar) value of the Forma contract and they did not seem to recall. We asked what they think an #Indigenous perspective would be while watching these trees being cut down, they did not want to comment. We asked if they would speak to an Indigenous person if they came, they did not want to comment, and said they would refer them to the city of Lacey. The Forma employees also said they were worried to speak due to something they say being used against them.

After walking trails and photographing certain forest areas, we noticed machinery appeared to have stopped, and we attempted to return to the primary Lacey Timberland Library, Lacey Police Dept area. Upon attempting to return, we were stopped by an officer and informed an agency (WSP) had requested an investigation into a "device". We were directed to walk around. However, after a couple minutes of waiting we were allowed to return.

Upon returning to the Lacey Timberland Library area, we noted a large Washington State Patrol Bomb Squad truck had arrived. In our opinion, we found it somewhat strange they'd arrived so quickly given we'd just been in that same area, it seemed the truck didn't have to travel very far, and we noted the truck still had snow on it. At around the same time, photographed but not pictured here, an officer carrying away a white semi-clear garbage bag that seemed to have clothing or other items in it, along with what may be a backpack. We are not sure if this was related to the WSP response. We noted several areas where items such as clothing, coolers, garbage, chairs or otherwise belongings had been discarded. This is unfortunately common. Also, although we don't know for sure, we do not believe the Lacey Timberland Library was evacuated, despite the truck being essentially right in front of it.

Google Earth photo, we've roughly circled in red the area of construction, and the lines in blue are available walking or trail areas. Note body of water between red and blue lines. We believe without a doubt the body of water between the red and blue lines will be permanently negatively impacted. Construction appears to be roughly 120-130ft away from this nearest body of water. In our opinion, this project is also likely to negatively impact water areas seen to the East/Southeast.

#StopCopCity

🏴

https://pugetsoundanarchists.org/lacey-police-station-contractors-unveiled

Update: There has been a slight change to the meeting location, see updated first image.

#StopCopCity #LaceyWa #ACAB #LaceyCopCity #PNW