The Jan. 6 Committee hearings should be a reminder that there’s a fairly obvious reason that the Republican right has been so avidly portraying any kind of protest—including the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020—as violent “riots”: Primarily to provide justification and permission for their own serious political violence, the kind that tried to use a mob to overturn the results of an election.
The same mindset is at work when right-wing pundits and politicians react frenziedly to peaceful protests outside of Supreme Court justices’ homes or their dining spots, pretending these figures faced a lethal threat. But when an armed man shows up outside the home of a progressive congresswoman of color—in this case, Pramila Jayapal of Seattle—and threatens to kill her, there’s not only a collective media yawn, but right-wingers aggressively suggest she had it coming because her case was just like Kavanaugh’s.
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According to Sara Jean Green at the Seattle Times, the man turned up outside Jayapal’s home on Saturday night at around 11 p.m., driving past the home in his car three times, shouting at Jayapal. She reported him to Seattle Police, who showed up at 11:25 p.m., whereupon the man—who by that point was out of his car and in the street outside the home, put his hands up in the air and surrendered. He was carrying a .40-caliber handgun.
KOMO News identified him as Brett Allen Forsell, who turns 49 on July 18. Green reported that a man with that names lives about a half-mile from Jayapal in the same Seattle neighborhood.
Neighbors said they heard Forsell threaten Jayapal: “Go back to India, I’m going to kill you,” is how one of them described the epithets. He also was calling her a string of obscenities.
After police arrested him, he reportedly told them he wanted to pitch a tent on Jayapal’s property. He was charged Monday with malicious harassment, Washington state’s version of a hate crime. A judge ordered him held on $500,000 bail, but refused a request by prosecutors to issue an anti-harassment order to protect Jayapal.
“Congresswoman Jayapal confirms that incidents occurred at her Seattle home on Saturday night when she was present. The Congresswoman and her family are safe and appreciate the many calls and good wishes she is receiving from constituents,” spokesperson Siham Zniber said in a statement. “She is very grateful for the swift and professional response from the Seattle Police Department, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the FBI investigators who are working together diligently on the investigation and ensuring that she and her family stay safe.”
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