Chief Steve Watson expresses concern I am concerned about "some very hostile and threatening speech directed at HACHR" and doxing

I just posted the following message on a Facebook page created to protest HACHR. I'm not sure if the moderator will actually publish my post so I share it with you here. A post on their page called for people to come protest HACHR's community picnic tomorrow generating concerns about the peace and safety of the event:

Everyone, I feel the need to post the following so please pay attention. I too am concerned about needle litter, open drug use, and many of our other shared issues and concerns. I understand how you feel. I hear you. I support you health, safety and happiness and have given over 24 years of my life doing so. However, there are time, place and manner limits to free speech and there are more constructive ways to air grievances, protest issues, and empower change. Choose the wrong way and a group loses support and does more harm than good to their cause. I've witnessed this time after time.

I am concerned about some very hostile and threatening speech directed at HACHR and others that I am seeing and hearing about on social media including the posting of personal home address and phone number information. This needs to stop. It is not helping and it may be illegal.

For those not aware, "Penal Code 653.2 PC is California's law against posting harmful material on the internet. It is sometimes referred to as “indirect electronic harassment” or “indirect cyber-harassment.” This is because the comments invite or encourage someone other than the person making them to harass or threaten the subject." Penal Codes 653m, 646.9, and 422 may also apply to certain conduct (cyber-harassment/bullying/stalking/intimidation). No one is truly anonymous on the web. When the line is crossed into criminal conduct, law enforcement can obtain search warrants and subpoenas for user accounts.

HACHR's planned community picnic is NOT the time or place to try to gather a large angry group and spark a confrontation. There may well be family and children present at the event and they have the same right to a peaceful gathering as you and I do. Furthermore, while Sequoia Park is a public space maintained by the City of Eureka, HACHR applied for and were granted a permit to hold their event at the group picnic area. (This permit does not include distributing needles or drug use kits.) Their application describes the event as a "yearly picnic for staff, volunteers, supporters & funders; there will be food, games & prizes; face painting;cotton candy making;team building games."

Because they are the permit holder, per the Community Services/Parks and Rec Director they have exclusive rights to this area and have the ability to ask uninvited people to leave. This applies to just the picnic area. The general public can stand across the road in the lawn area, by the gazebo, use the restrooms, etc. as those areas have not be rented.

EPD will be present and per my orders will not allow anyone to disturb the peace, threaten, harass, intimidate, trespass, assault or otherwise unlawfully disrupt the event. I understand this may upset some people who may want a face-to-face confrontation (hopefully none of you) but the badge and oath we uphold applies to ALL people regardless of their beliefs. We would do the same for you.

Tomorrow will be a beautiful, sunny late spring day. There will be other children and families trying to enjoy a peaceful day at the park. Please be considerate of their peace and enjoyment.

I am asking for calm heads to prevail and for people not to put our officers in a difficult position stuck in the middle. Time, place, and manner matters. Find another more appropriate opportunity to have your voices heard. Look for opportunities to actually do something POSITIVE that makes Eureka and our broader community incrementally better. Volunteer, participate in clean-ups like the Trash Bash, donate to organizations like the Betty Chinn Foundation and Eureka Rescue Mission who are literally changing lives and not enabling adverse behavior. Petition your elected state and federal officials to change bad laws and enact good ones that make our communities more safe not less. Ask them to provide underfunded counties like our with more resources to effectively address homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness. If they won't, vote them out and vote better ones into office. (Fixing these causal issues will eliminate the argument supporting the need for syringe exchange programs). If you feel you must gather and be heard, then do so at a respectful distance and avoid shouting, confrontations or angry and intimidating speech. I would chose a different time and path.

All the best,

Chief Watson