Letters: McClintock should be listening at town halls

Tread carefully, Rep. McClintock

Re “McClintock exits with police escort after raucous town hall meeting in Roseville” (Local, Feb. 5): Saturday’s rally at Rep. Tom McClintock’s town hall meeting should be circulated among our elected representatives as a primer for how not to comport oneself with one’s constituents.

At the conclusion of the town hall, McClintock essentially sneaked out the front door surrounded by police officers, further infuriating his waiting constituents who had been hoping for clarification and reassurance from him regarding his positions on such issues as the executive order regarding Muslims and repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Later that day, he gave interviews in which he referenced the “anarchist element” and “violence” at the protest rally. Those are gross misrepresentations/alternative facts – dare I use the word “lies”?

I am a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher, and the other protesters were vocal indeed, but there was no violence and nary an anarchist to be seen.

He created an adversarial situation that could have been entirely different had he deigned to engage with his constituents instead of turning tail and running and then creating a false narrative. Tread carefully, Rep. McClintock; 2018 is coming.

Constituents, not anarchists

Despite his claim, there were no anarchists at Rep. Tom McClintock’s town hall. There were more than a thousand professionals, families and retirees, eager to voice their fears about the Trump administration’s actions. The only thing approaching violence was McClintock’s late-arriving supporters trying to cut in line.

It’s disappointing that our representative chose to answer our legitimate questions with condescension, vague platitudes and what-about-ism, to see us as a threat and slink away under armed guard rather than stay and address his constituents’ concerns. I hope the congressman will remember that he represents all of us.

McClintock rally was not violent

I was at the rally outside Rep. Tom McClintock’s town hall. It was loud but entirely peaceful. At one point, I noticed two men, one with a red “Make America Great Again” cap, looking somewhat bemused in the middle of the crowd. Neither looked the least bit threatened.

The police told us it was McClintock’s staff that made the decision not to admit any further attendees. When McClintock exited the building, he was surrounded by protesters who chanted, held signs and shouted questions. Despite this, he probably had no need of the police escort as there was no one present who would do anything more violent than shout their chosen question at him.

By the way, the Roseville police did an excellent job while remaining polite and respectful of the peaceful demonstrations. The applause the protesters gave them was well deserved.

Cal still home of free speech

Re “Don’t let Milo Yiannopoulos taint message of free speech” (Editorial, Feb. 3): Using words such as “intolerant” and “hypocrisy,” letters to the editor are chastising UC Berkeley after the violent protests led to the cancellation of Milo Yiannopoulos’ scheduled speaking engagement. These descriptions are not reflective of the facts.

UC Berkeley, still the home of free speech, allowed Yiannopoulos to speak, and the UC Berkeley student protests were completely peaceful. The violence erupted only after masked agitators stormed the campus. Those agitators were violent, and were not students.

The students who protested were also exercising their free speech rights and did not cause the university to cancel Yiannopoulos’ talk. Police, not the university, determined that it was necessary to cancel the event for safety reasons.

So-called democracy?

President Trump tweets “so-called judge.” I say “so-called president.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 3:45 AM with the headline "Letters: McClintock should be listening at town halls."