The following letter was published today in the Daily News in Longview, WA:
Two ILWU members were struck by an SUV. The driver was an employee of EGT. When law enforcement was called, a union member was arrested. Before you say anything about the person arrested, consider this: how would you act if you just got hit by a car?
Law enforcement, mainly the Cowlitz County sheriff, let the driver walk.
To get justice, those ILWU members had to hire their own attorney to prosecute the driver. I have to ask you: if your son was walking in the Safeway parking lot and was ran over by someone intentionally, would that person have to hire an attorney to help prosecute the driver? Would law enforcement answer his calls for help? If he were an ILWU member, the answer would be, “Get your own attorney. We have no intentions of answering your call.”
The sheriff department has misrepresented what has happened many times, including saying they were maced by ILWU members when in fact they missed and maced each other. You cannot believe Mark Nelson’s department. I partially blame the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Department for the explosion at the port. If they handled the situation correctly and fairly, the level of frustration would not have reached that point.
This is just one example of the appalling way our law enforcement is treating the tax-paying union members in this dispute. I believe it is time an investigation is done on Mark Nelson’s department and Mark Nelson is held accountable for his biased practices and his appalling handling of this matter.
Krista Kay
Longview