Someone is Going to Get Hurt Or Worse

Update December 28, 2020: Mrs. Allard has hidden or deleted the Facebook post related to the information below.

What's happening in our city right now is terrifying. Assembly members receive threats regularly for no reason other than doing their jobs. Residents who do not subscribe to the far-right's conspiratorial agenda also receive threats. Tonight's incident involving Dustin Darden isn't the first time we've seen people go off the rails.

In August, the Alaska Landmine posted two videos of a "mob" that created a tense and potentially dangerous situation in the parking lot outside the Assembly chambers. In the video, homophobic comments were slung at Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. The mob body blocked vehicles from leaving the parking lot, and Dustin Darden was seen on a bicycle weaving between people and cars.

None of this would be concerning if there weren't a lot of "violent" dog-whistling across social media and on Allard's Facebook page, where one person wrote, "What will they do when 1000 armed citizens show up?" The comment was made in response to a post about the Assembly's removal of Mr. Dustin Darden. The statement remains on Allard's Facebook page some three days later.

Comments that could easily be construed as threats or might conceivably incite violence didn't just pop up on this particular evening - they are seemingly everywhere on Alaska social media and primarily associated with anti-mask, anti-covid social media accounts, groups, and pages.

Other comments made to Allard's Facebook page indicate a desire by some to protest outside the homes of other Assembly members. One person wrote that it was time to "rattle the Save Anchorage crowd." The same individual even went so far as to post a link to a WND article detailing how to demonstrate "armed."

If I sat here all night and recounted each post, comment, and picture from Save Anchorage and other individuals, many of which could be construed at a minimum -- as a veiled incitement to violence -- well, not even I have that amount of free time.

Must Read Alaska, the far-right blog, posted a graphic today with a definition taken from the Urban Dictionary to allege that Anchorage Assemblyman Pete Peterson inferred that Dustin Darden "needs to be killed."

The definition of 86'd, when taken from an actual dictionary, means:

1. eject or bar (someone) from a restaurant, bar, etc.

But they know this, and Assemblyman Peterson did not ever suggest such a thing. It's time for the gaslighting to end.