It is alleged:
That on Tuesday, August 29th at 8:30 AM, a black Chevy Suburban SUV pulled up next to National Guardsman Alexander Powell, a black man, while he was walking on 138th toward a convenience store in Parkland WA. That the driver of the Chevy asked the National Guardsman "if he had seen action in Iraq." That the driver of this SUV and four other males, each wearing red hats, attacked Alexander Powell while one of the attackers, a white male, was armed with a handgun. The handgun was brandished but not fired during the attack. The men shouted "baby killer" at him, while they attacked him by kicking and punching him, according to Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. The driver wore a back tee shirt and jeans.

(Cobbled details from several AP story and KIRO TV accounts of the incident)

Problems:
Voter records do not reveal an Alexander Powell of this description: There is only one person in all of Washington State who is registered under that name, he lives in Spokane, and he is 47 years old. It is odd that a man would be a Washington State National Guardsman and not be registered to vote. Not impossible, but it also makes it VERY unlikely that I will ever be able to contact the man directly without going through the Guard.

The National Guard, in later versions of the story, has ordered the man not to discuss it. This is classic damage control - either to stuff a real story, or to spike a story which is false, and will spin out of control if it is allowed to be questioned. Getting to primary witnesses is key to any investigation, and we essentially cannot at this point.

FOLLOW-UP:
I don't have, but will request, the Pierce County Sheriff's Report of the incident.

I have informally asked a detective with OPD to see to it that the person in Pierce County who handles this case knows about Dave Lynn's "groundview" website, in case the Chevy Suburban is the same vehicle driven by John Brandt, one of the former NSM members. The photos on the groundview website should help the witness tell whether his attackers were known NSM members, but right now only the Pierce County Sheriff's Detectives can get to the witness / victim with that URL.

I will try to follow any further leads which come from those documents about secondary witnesses, etc - but I am not likely to get much more than first names, if I get any at all.

Meanwhile, I think that if the above details are spread (Black SUV, 8:30AM, White on Black incident, Other possible motives, etc) then the "damage" that this can do among our Soldier / War Resister allies will be minimized. Most soldiers want the same thing we do - their safe return.

Obviously, no one in the peace movement does stuff like this. Everyone knows that we only attack after 4pm, when the blood sugar drops... and besides - TEE SHIRTS AND JEANS? Come on! Everyone knows we're more into the UtiliKilts, right? On a more serious note, this smells like an "operation" if it happened at all. Maybe it's the NSM, maybe DOD, maybe someone else who wants to heat up the potential for someone to stop flying Israeli flags and praying for bulldozers, and start slinging lead at our heads when we're out in public.

Watch for follow-up attempts at the same kind of thing, but without the details that would involve law enforcement and the potential for real investigation; i.e. harrassment and namecalling and false signs, apparently pro-peace, which instead denigrate soldiers personally. Real antiwar people blame the leadership - false antiwar activists attack individual soldiers. And when that happens, it will get more coverage from the media than an ordinary harrassment campaign would. Or it will lead to soldier-on-protester attacks.

Any such thing should be reported immediately via the indymedias ( olympiaimc.org or Seattle.indymedia.org ) or to my cell at 360-870-3127.

Drew Hendricks
Olympia Copwatch
Port Militarization Resistance / Intel
360-870-3127