SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich addressed calls from controversial state Rep. Matt Shea to protest for the reopening of Washington state’s economy.
The House Republican Caucus expelled Shea after an investigation revealed that he "participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States." He represents Washington’s 4th District, which includes the area surrounding Spokane Valley.
Shea posted to his Facebook page on Thursday that he and others are demanding Gov. Jay Inslee reopen Washington state’s economy. He added that there is a Patriots Day Rally planned for Sunday in Olympia, and rallies in each county on May 1 to demand re-opening county by county.
Gov. Jay Inslee affirmed this week that the current stay-at-home order will stay in place and left open the possibility it could go beyond May 4.
“We have a right to go back to work, and go to church, and open our businesses, and buy guns at the store,” Shea wrote on Facebook. “There is no reason Adam's [sic] county or any other rural county should be treated like King. The numbers don't support it. The numbers don't support it in Spokane County either.”
Knezovich responded to Shea's calls for protest during a briefing on Friday morning, saying Shea has not participated in any discussions about coronavirus response among local leaders.
“He’s brought nothing to this table. No solution, no thought process, nothing. But he wants to now spin you up and make it sound like no one cares about you,” Knezovich said.
He later denounced politicians who use “fear and hate” to relay their messages.
"Nobody like what's going on. No one wants to be locked down. No one wants to not go to work. And I can tell you as an elected official, no one likes making those type of calls," said Knezovich later in an interview with KREM. "Everything that's being done is to ensure that people live. To mitigate the death rate."
Though sympathizing with those losing patience, and saying he advocates for working people in every meeting, Knezovich says protests now are counter-productive, given the danger large crowds pose to public health and the fact that social distancing is not being currently enforced with arrests or even tickets.
"What's that going to accomplish? Nothing, other than maybe exposing more people to this virus," he told KREM. "What rights have you truly lost? You've been given recommendations of how to keep you and your family safe."
The sheriff is hopeful any protest in Spokane would be small in numbers, but said regardless deputies wouldn't attempt to stop it from happening.
"We're going to let him protest," he said. "We'll monitor it, make sure it stays peaceful, but we're going to let him protest. We're going to let people see exactly what Matt Shea is all about."
Knezovich also called for state leaders to come forward with a clear message about reopening Washington’s economy, citing an “economic pandemic” amid the coronavirus crisis.
“It is time for Olympia to give us a ray of hope. …Governor Inslee, I’m asking you to please give us the plan. There has to be a way out of this,” he said.
“We can’t be a slave to a thought process that is draconian,” Knezovich added later.
In the interview, he also said that Inslee's recent staunch critiques of President Trump's response are unhelpful.
"It's time for Governor Inslee to quit chest-bumping with President Trump and come up with a solution that gets us out of this, rather than diggings his heels in just to make a point," he said.
Earlier this week, Inslee signed a pact with governors Kate Brown of Oregon and Gavin Newsom of California on how to reopen the western states.
Inslee said Wednesday that he has been working with certain industries about conditions for opening before the stay-home measures are lifted.
"In construction, we're working with the industry, to try to figure out how ... we can do it in the safest way possible," he said.
Inslee said while the progress looks good, Washington state is not ready to transition away from the stay-at-home order.
"We ought to be confident in our efforts, we ought to be able to realize that we can control our own destiny, that we are not simply passive victims of this virus, there are things we can do to fight back successfully against it, but we have a lot more work to do until we get to this transition point," Inslee said.
