Chickaloon Tribal Police Chief "Happy" to Arrest School Librarians 👀
I had minimal expectations that last evening's town hall meeting at the Real Life Church in Palmer would produce anything of significant value or interest.
Boy, was I wrong.
Chickaloon Tribal Police Department Police Chief Donna Anthony and her sidekick, Officer Luke Howard, spoke at the event, which endeavored to raise awareness about human trafficking. Howard's involvement in the event was an immediate red flag.
In 2020, as the issue of police brutality took national center stage, Palmer residents organized a protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. As reported by Alaska Public Media, Howard, then a 40-year-old Republican candidate for the Alaska House of Representatives, took note of the planned event. He claimed that he saw threatening online comments by supporters and those who opposed the event. He recorded a video claiming that he had spoken to the Palmer Police Department and said he would be attending to provide added security.
In the video, Howard also shared his disdain for the Black Lives Matter movement, claiming that it had no place in Alaska as the state "has always had a great track record of equality for all."
Howard's statements are unsurprising, especially considering he ran the now defunct right-wing Facebook page '907 Freedom,' which was dedicated to disseminating information about 'freedom-based issues.' It was there that he encouraged his followers to come to the event carrying concealed weapons, setting off a firestorm of fear and uncertainty.
The Palmer Police Department said at the time that they never asked Howard or his group to provide security and that they "would never put citizens in that kind of capacity." Noteworthy is that in 2018, the Palmer Police put Officer Dwayne Shelton on paid leave after he wrote Facebook posts referring to Black Lives Matter as a "hate group."
10/10 Yikes
Chickaloon Tribal Police Department Police Chief Donna Anthony fielded questions from aspiring book-banning extremists at last evening's event—an inevitable outcome because, for anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theorists who run around baselessly vilifying librarians, educators, and LGBTQ people of being 'groomers' aka child abusers, there's not much separation between the issues.
The meeting, which was live-streamed by right-wing propagandist Politadick, captured Anthony's response to a question from an attendee who asked what needed to change so that certain books could be banned from library shelves.
Anthony suggested that 'concerned citizens' should get with Rep. Sarah Vance, who could "hopefully" help update state statutes. The result, of course, is that such action would effectively criminalize the possession of certain library books...LIBRARY BOOKS...by minors and potentially subject school librarians to arrest.
But wait, it gets worse. Much, much worse.
Responding to another question that asked what needed to be done so that school librarians could be arrested and books removed, Anthony again encouraged attendees to take the issue to legislators but then added this spicy bit:
"I'd be happy to go to any school that has something that's illegal in their school and the library and take those books out and arrest people for having those books in the school," Anthony stated, adding that law enforcement needed updated state statutes to be able to do so.
The fact that the head of the Chickaloon Tribal Police Department would coach attendees about how to lobby legislators to criminalize library books is rather breathtaking, but much less so than her expressing exuberance about arresting school librarians.
Anyway, Anthony thought last night's QAnon adjacent human trafficking awareness gathering went just swimmingly, posting to Facebook shortly after the event about the dangers of 'groomers'—a right-wing phrase slung by individuals such as Rep. Jamie Allard to vilify Alaska educators as child abusers and sexual predators.
Rep. Sarah Vance, whom Anthony recommended event attendees contact to help aid in their quest to imprison school librarians and ban books, even commented on her late-night Facebook post. 🥰
Police Chief Anthony's wild statements aren't all that surprising when one considers her long trail of right-wing social media posts and deep association with the now mostly defunct far-right Save Anchorage Facebook turd—a secret and hidden group that rose to prominence in 2020, quickly becoming a nesting ground for an alleged child pornographer, an alleged felonious stalker, a convicted January 6 insurrectionist, 3% militia members, a traveling massage therapist facing a shit ton of sexual assault charges, and of course, a broad range of conspiracy theorists.
In 2021, Anthony shared an online flyer for an anti-vaccine rally targeting healthcare workers at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and South Central Foundation. You might recall that this was a time when COVID-19 insanity was all the rage among the far-right. The rally stood in stark contrast to an event organized by Anchorage residents who took the unusual step of actually supporting our healthcare heroes.
The least surprising aspect of Anthony's social media activism is that she encouraged others to testify in support of a measure that would prohibit transgender girls from being able to play on school sports teams associated with their gender identity.
In 2021, Anthony interviewed John Guandolo on her Point Blank USA Podcast/YouTube channel. The subject? 'Who was behind Black Lives Matter and...wait for it, Antifa.' Guandolo, a discredited former FBI employee, has made a name and career out of his fearmongering about American Muslims by hosting “trainings” for law enforcement.
On November 4, 2020, as Joe Biden began pulling ahead of Donald Trump in the presidential election results, Anthony suggested in a Facebook post that Americans were witnessing a "live 'coupe' happening," spreading the baseless election fraud lies of the deranged orange indicted former president and his surrogates. Anthony's post was, of course, 'liked' by her counterpart, Officer Luke Howard of Palmer BLM fearmongering fame.
The following year, Anthony interviewed state Senator Mike Shower about whether election integrity should be a concern to Alaskans. Yes, election integrity is important, but let's not take Sen. Shower's right-wing fearmongering about the issue seriously.
In June of 2021, Anthony interviewed Dr. John Lott, who had been appointed senior adviser for research and statistics at the Office of Justice Programs within the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration. Lott later claimed there was voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and authored a paper claiming that such election fraud could be identified in the absentee ballots of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Political scientists at Stanford and Chicago Universities refuted Lott's paper, calling his voter fraud allegations "utterly baseless."
In April 2021, Anthony shared (and signed) a petition to ban the use of Dominion voting machines to tabulate Alaska's election results. A gentle reminder—Faux News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million in April to avoid a trial that would have revealed how Faux promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election.
In 2020, Anthony had joined the tirade of right-wing insanity directed at the Anchorage Assembly, writing that she did not trust them, suggesting that the use of force policy changes they proposed the Anchorage Police Department adopt was questionable, as the proposed policy derived from Black Lives Matter.
That Anthony trusts right-wing fabricator Jamie Allard, who has groomed her cult following with throngs of misinformation over the years, is unsurprising. Anthony was a listed cohost for Allard's September state House re-election fundraiser, and they have enjoyed taking and sharing the occasional joint selfie. 🥰
Allard isn't the only far-right politician Anthony keeps company with, naming election fraud conspiracy theorist and anti-LGBT demagogue Kelly Tshibaka in a Facebook post as a friend who shares her "Alaskan values."
Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Anthony also promoted a flyer in support of recalling members of the Palmer City Council. The flyer claimed that the three 'communist visionary' Council members, with Sabrena Combs serving as ringleader, wanted...wait for it...Black Lives Matter running the police department.
In all of this, we must remember that Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor is laser-focused on arresting librarians, evidenced by his chilling, threatening letter sent last month to public and school librarians. Taylor's non-binding guidance warned librarians to ensure a library’s collection of materials does not violate municipal, state, and federal education laws that prohibit the distribution of hardcore ‘P0Rn’ to minors.
And now, less than a month after Taylor sent his letter, Officers Donna Anthony and Luke Howard are speaking at a human trafficking awareness event, weighing in on school library books and strongly urging their right-wing audience to request legislators, such as Rep. Sarah Vance, support efforts to amend Alaska criminal statutes. Those changes would empower law enforcement to start apprehending librarians and charging them with crimes in response to a fabricated, manufactured, non-existent crisis aimed at erasing LGBT people.
It's all very on-brand for Alaska Republicans who blather incessantly that Democrats are coming to take their guns to openly advocate for the criminalization and banning of library books—a proposed act that represents a direct threat to every Alaskan's First Amendment rights.
It seems pretty clear that the Valley is just one match away from having an old-fashioned book burning and that librarians stand but a single authoritarian step from being handcuffed by law enforcement officers just aching to 'lock them up' and throw away the key.
Oh, and...I'll just leave this here. ⬇️
