Bloglander

Some guy really, really, really hates Matt Shea

Back in January, after the Spokesman-Review wrote a story about his trip to visit the occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Shea claimed that he’d received multiple threatening messages. He said he had received a “death threat” sent to him on Jan. 12.

“Today, more threats have come in and my address was published on FB in association with them,” Shea wrote on Facebook on Jan 13.

Now that the records request has finally come in, here’s the text of that voicemail message. It does not appear to be an explicit death threat, but rather a threat of “armed occupation” of his office in Spokane.

Hey, Will. Uh, your office in Spokane is going to suffer an armed occupation and we’re going to take it over. You wanna chase around the sheriff’s wife and children there? Remember, we can do it here too. Matt Shea lives in our community. He’s a f—-in’ treasonous piece of shit, though. And you know what? I can’t wait until his f—-in’ ass comes back to Spokane. 

Because you know what? You don’t need to be supporting terrorists. You’re insane, you know that right? Absolutely f—-in’ insane.

It’s comin’ dude.  Don’t be threatening the rest of the community and your own government. There’s a lot of people like me that are not going to tolerate your bullshit anymore. All you f—-in’ Republicans. F—- you all!

You better get your ass out— I hope you told them to get your ass out of there. Your ass needs to get out of there too, motherf—-er.

F—- you! You represent me? You’re f—-in’ insane!

If you'd like to hear the message, you can do so here: 

The articles published yesterday by the Spokesman Review including the one published by the notoriously socialist and vile Shawn Vestal have incited these violent threats against me and my family

…

I demand a retraction and an apology of the Spokesman Review for putting me and my family in danger. I hope that makes it clear to everyone else why I don't interview with the Socialist Review.

(He did, curiously, give an interview to the not-all-that-conservative Seattle Stranger recently.)

Despite Shea’s claim that other threats had come in, when Washington State Patrol followed up with Shea’s office on Jan 19, Shea’s legislative aide Wil Rasavage confirmed that the only threat that had been received by Shea’s office was the voicemail message.

No other threats had come into the office. Sergeant Matt Wood checked Shea’s Facebook account for “negative statements related to the concerning statements” and found none. He also found nothing from a Spokesman-Review website comments that suggested it was connected to the call.

On Jan. 22, Wood closed the case. He’d followed up on some leads, but couldn’t determine if they were associated with the message.

“I do not believe that the phone call that was received alone rises to a criminal threat level because it only references an armed occupation of a public place, not actual harm to an individual,” Wood wrote.

In fact, Wood suggested that, as angry as the call is, is is protected by, well, the Constitution.

“At this time, without further information, I would consider this a free speech issue from a very irate person,” Wood wrote. 
Shea himself has been known to use fiery rhetoric in his speeches. At a July 4 rally in Marble, Washington last year, Shea drew stark lines between good and evil.

“If we believe that what we believe is really real, than why on earth aren’t there Patriots posting lists of grievances in every door of every county courthouse, and every state governor’s mansion in Washington state, Idaho and the rest of this county! We should tell them enough is enough!” Shea said, his volume rising, The people have had enough! We’re not going to take it anymore! And when we celebrate independence. it’s going to be be giving you notice, that we had enough. And if you don’t change, we the people — the government of this country — will change it for ya.”

He’s also been accused, by Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, of inciting death threats himself with his incendiary rhetoric.

Here’s the full text of Shea’s Jan. 13 Facebook message (Accessed through a cached copy because Shea has blocked me on Facebook)

UPDATE: Thank you for all of the support and prayers regarding the death threat I received late yesterday. Today, more threats have come in and my address was published on FB in association with them. The articles published yesterday by the Spokesman Review including the one published by the notoriously socialist and vile Shawn Vestal have incited these violent threats against me and my family. Shawn's obsession with a "Patriot Conspiracy" is ironic for being such an "anti-conspiracy theorist." He also is so rabid that he incites people to threats of violence - actual provable threats - something that he accuses Patriots of doing. Nice hypocrisy Shawn. Unsurprisingly, his article contains several demonstrably false statements and the same old tired character assassination. This appears to be the sum total of his intellect, merely parroting lines of an agenda and personal attacks. Therefore, I demand a retraction and an apology of the Spokesman Review for putting me and my family in danger. I hope that makes it clear to everyone else why I don't interview with the Socialist Review.

The people in rural America are sick and tired of a biased media lying to them and a government that daily tries to take more and more of their rights. That's what Mr. Vestal and the rest of the enemedia don't get... we in rural America love freedom and no matter how much you attack us, belittle us, or demean us in your comfortable office sipping your latte... you won't win.
Freedom is eternal.

Matt Shea