It’s still sinking in that it actually happened. That the Green Party of Florida (GPFL) stood silent and paralyzed while Jeremy Griffin, a right-wing GPFL member and corporate consultant from the Tampa local, rampaged for two days on the GPFL Coordinating Council e-mail list, hurling obscene vilifications and making overt threats of physical violence against me. And the party leadership did nothing.
So it begins …
The background is that Griffin had proposed to the GPFL that the party support a crowd-funding Ponzi scheme to raise $10,000 to pay the filing fee for an unspecified senatorial candidate in 2016. I had been the main opponent of the plan, arguing that the GPFL needed to focus on the state legislature in 2016, that we lacked the organizational foundation for a senatorial run, and that a fundraising scheme on the scale of Griffin’s required work far beyond the party’s modest means. In the end, not a single one of the GPFL’s eight locals backed the Griffin plan and it was ignominiously dropped. But Griffin was bitter.
The result was his disjointed string of 22 e-mails on the Council e-list on January 25 and 26, right before the GPFL Coordinating Council’s monthly conference call. The barrage was preceded by a phone call from Griffin, screaming over how I had “accused” him of being and acting like a corporate consultant in his handling of the Fundraising Committee. The call ended with:
“You better keep my fucking name out of your fucking mouth, or the next time you see me you’re going to be sorry.”
Non-violent communication, 1930’s-style.
The following e-mail from Griffin of Sun 1/25/2015 1:58 PM got right to the point:
“Ya, thats right. Not everyone is afraid to tell someone to fuck off and to quit trashing their name all over the place … Fuck you Jeff. The vast majority of people ive met in the GPFL think you are a piece of shit … And again, for clarification, go fuck yourself.”
Etc., etc., etc. These get boring quickly. As for the threats, some were threats by implication (but threats nonetheless). The following (Mon 1/26/2015 5:08 AM) set the tone:
“I’m not sure how you guys are use [sic] to dealing with people who seem to be interesting in a constant taunting, but anyone whose grown up how I have and been through the shit like I have is used to simply punching them in the mouth until they shut the fuck up. … the reason I never went into the corporate world is because Id [sic] probably get an assault charge in the first week, because of having to deal with assholes like this, who are protected by rules and bureaucracy. …” [emphasis added]
Right before the conference call, on Mon 1/26/2015 7:44 PM, he worked his way up to calling for others to attack me:
“Like Ive [sic] said – and if you take this as a threat, well, toughen up because clearly this animal could care less about feelings- a wrecking ball needs a wrecking ball. Thats what I know. Thats where Im [sic] coming from. Welcome to real construction worker ways of dealing with dickheads. Fuck em.” [emphasis added]
[for complete string of Griffin’s e-mails 01/25/15 to 01/26/15, click here.]
And the good townspeople?
Party co-chairs Josh Pritchett from Hernando and Cathy Gilbert from Miami remained silent, with Gilbert refusing to exercise her e-list admin power to restrain Griffin. I was advised from all quarters to make no response (it was only words, after all) and I kept cool, advising my wife Rose to hold back as well, praying that someone else would intervene. Peter Harrell of Alachua did offer some support and Jim Howe took a strong stand against the abuse. Party Secretary DJ Chandler supported Griffin in his attacks. Most said nothing.
The January 26 conference call was a disaster, getting out of hand from the beginning.
[for complete minutes, see here.]
Henry Lawrence from Bay County tried to immediately prevent my speaking at all, shouting things like, “Go away, Jeff!” and “I’m not going to put up with this shit!” etc., throughout the call. Lawrence is a perennial Green Party candidate who is just coming off an unsuccessful run for State Representative District 6 (Panama City) and is planning a run this year for his county’s Soil and Water Board.
When Gilbert tried to call for some kind of order, Griffin continued his abuse of the entire Council: “You’ve [the Council] turned into such a bunch of fucking pussies!” Gilbert was powerless to maintain order. Her main concern was to shut down all the discussion about Griffin and violent abuse, and get on with the agenda as though nothing had happened in the previous days. She strove mightily to prevent me from bringing the abuse to the floor. She suggested we create a committee to deal with the problem and report back in one month. I stood firm, and after some wrangling, I was offered two minutes to make a statement:
“So I’m someone who’s also been on the street … Okay, the way that violent threats work is that you say something like ‘I’d really like to break your arms and legs. But I won’t do it.’ The result is that the threat is made, but seemingly negated, because the ‘but I won’t do it’ makes it not actionable in a court of law. But there is this concept of law called ‘fighting words.’ [I quote] ‘Fighting words are written or spoken words, generally expressed to incite hatred or violence from their target. Specific definitions, freedoms, and limitations of fighting words vary by jurisdiction. It is also used in a general sense of words that when uttered tend to create (deliberately or not) a verbal or physical confrontation by their mere usage.’ In other words, fighting words are not just rude. They’re illegal in certain jurisdictions, I don’t know about Florida. Physical threats such as have been delivered, which I have a list of but will not go into, simply should not be tolerated. Zero. So if you’re moderating, Cathy, and see anything hinting of smacking someone’s face. Or [saying that] other real people will take care of you. Or you’ll be sorry if I ever see you, if you ever put my name in your mouth, you [as moderator] have to stop it immediately.
Then Gilbert cut me off. I replied, “[My wife] Rose is afraid now!” I was able to get in an illustration of the mechanics of violent threats:
“I am afraid. I have thoughts about going to the State Meeting and wondering whether I should take a knife, in case somebody tries to assault me. Not that I would. I would never think of doing such a thing. See how it works?”
Jim Howe from Orange County then stepped in:
“I don’t think the Green Party should have a reputation of being a proto-fascist party that tolerates this kind of storm trooper rhetoric. It’s as simple as that, and we need to stand up to it. I know that Jeff has been abrasive to others in the past, but we all have to get over that and deal with what is going on now, and I haven’t seen anything from Jeremy that indicates what it is that Jeff did that gets his ire up. Other than the fact that he’s saying he’s got 15 or 20 people standing behind him that don’t like Jeff. That’s no reason to use the profanity or the sexist remarks and the violent rhetoric that’s been going on. It’s intolerable in any progressive party, and that’s something we need to deal with forthwith.”
Treasurer Harry Patterson from Alachua County wanted to shut down the whole discussion:
“I don’t think we can accomplish anything in 10 minutes. What you spoke pretty much deals with the parameters, I don’t think there’s any point in discussing it tonight.”
Coordinating Council call 01/26/15.
Gilbert then tried to postpone the discussion for one week, but Rose Roby would have none of it and was able to eke out two minutes:
“If we’re not allowed to address this at all, I can’t continue on this call … I’m not going to be subjected to what I’ve just been subjected to, and be told that I don’t get to say anything about it. … How frightened do I get to be during the course of that week. Before that call takes place, how frightened is it acceptable to be, how much fear is acceptable for me to have to experience. I’m not sure. Give me a number … I don’t want to see a repeat of what’s gone on the last couple days. I’m going to speak as a human. I know people hate for anyone to do that, it’s not polite political language. I am 22 years younger than my husband Jeff, and I have struggled for years to be able to take care of him. in spite of the fact that I have been victimized by a terrible economy that people like to make the butts of their jokes. It’s not as funny to me. I’ve worked my ass off, taking care of people, not to mention political issues day after day. I fear for my life when my husband is being threatened, that the stress of the situation is going to do things to him, and he’s too goddamn macho to understand the damage. I’m not going to put up with what I’ve put up with the past two days. With that said, if anyone’s thinking ‘yay, Rose is leaving the Green Party,’ that’s not what I meant. It means that this is not going to keep happening. Because if something happens to Jeff, something bad, I’m the one left alone. If somebody doesn’t like something I’ve said, if somebody doesn’t like something that Jeff said, you say, ‘I don’t like what you said.’ You [Griffin] don’t come in with threat after threat after threat while there’s people on this Council, people who claim to want a kinder and gentler environment, people in high positions, who cheer him on.”
The night’s originally planned agenda was finally itself put off for a week. Howe was then able to get an actual motion on the floor, seconded by Harrell:
“This kind of response is not something that can be tolerated by a progressive political party. I make a motion that the Council takes a strong statement now, that personal attacks, threats of violence, sexual discrimination and claims will not be tolerated. Period.”
Law of the Jungle.
Griffin responded with the Law of the Jungle:
“I would simply say that if you don’t want people to attack you, don’t attack them first. That’s pretty much how the majority of us live our lives. We treat other people how we want to be treated. So if people don’t like getting attacked and people find themselves being attacked a lot, maybe it’s time to look around. I’m fucking pissed. If you don’t want me to come at you, leave me the fuck alone.”
Griffin continued to rave on. GPFL Secretary DJ Chandler then expressed support for Griffin’s threats, based upon my having characterized Griffin’s fundraising proposal as akin to a late-night “Dare To Be Great” infomercial. My critique had angered Chandler and made Griffin’s countless threats “understandable.”
Howe’s motion was rejected out of hand..
The meeting ended with a desultory discussion of software forums, and upon adjournment, Alachua Delegate Shawna Doran shouted, “Good job, Cathy! Yaaaaay!!!” It was indeed a moment for the GPFL to be proud of.
Another bloody morning after.
Now Henry Lawrence uses the Green Party Issues and Discussion group to call for Rose and me to be REMOVED from the party, legally or not. He is backed by Griffin, who uses the GPUS Discussion page to urge Green Party local affiliates to make tough choices, “taking some tea party people and including them into the local. Because that is what real governing is like. A real tough task. Gotta deal with this stuff. Everyone simply staying in their corner is only delaying the inevitable.” Otherwise, “sociopaths [that’s Rose and I] run rampant.” GPFL co-chair Josh Pritchett “liked” that one.
Meanwhile, Jim Howe announced to the Council:
“I hereby immediately resign my positions as Alternate Delegate to the GPUS and Orange County representative to the GPFL CC. These resignations are a direct result of the Coordinating Council’s failure to take a stand against the threats of violence, abusive language, sexist language, ad-hominem attacks, guilt by association attacks, and character assassination that have been tolerated on the CC email list over the past few days.”
Gilbert is calling for mediation, being a staunch practitioner of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), which as practiced by Gilbert treats any harsh language as an act of violence; considering sarcasm and critique to be more destructive to a safe working environment than actual threats of physical violence.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Most people in the party treat all this as a matter of personalities. No. This is politics.
Rose and I are avowed socialists. We support Jill Stein’s Green New Deal and particularly her Economic Bill of Rights:
- quality health care
- tuition-free, quality public education
- living wage, a safe workplace, fair trade, and the right to organize a union
- accessible and affordable utilities
- fair taxation.
More conservative forces in the Florida party have been trying to move in on and disaffiliate the St. Pete local for years. A motley assortment of misfits has come at us on a regular basis, are repulsed, and quit in a huff. Now these misfits constitute the 15 to 20 “good Greens” that Griffin claims have been “driven from the party.” While pretending there is no political substance to any of this, Griffin asserts that if a certain number of “good Greens” dislike a particular member of the party, that constitutes grounds for sanction and expulsion. In essence, this is an assertion that a minority faction can blackball (as Henry Lawrence put it) any member of the party who has aroused their collective ire, and the majority must abide by their demands.
More disturbing than the behavior of these sorts, however, is the behavior of the “good townspeople” who mostly cowered behind their curtains while Griffin rampaged on. Not long ago, Rose and I were respected and even admired for our good work. Not long ago, had they been asked to state on a questionnaire whether they agreed:
“Is it acceptable to launch a stream of vulgarities and physical threats against someone you deem to have insulted you? Yes or No?”
the answer would have been a resounding no. Asked the same question a few weeks from now, the answer would have been the same. But if actions speak louder than words, well, you see, Griffin was really, really upset, and so …
“Good men” say nothing.
So it happened. The important question is how it happened. The supposed good townspeople have no cohesion. Issues are not considered political. Everything is either personal or administrative. So a bully-boy comes along with an empty, not even popular, proposal, but with elusive promises of easy riches, crowd-funding magic. He is backed by a semi-organized crew centered on the Tampa local. I oppose the get-rich-quick scheme. Griffin massively escalates, stunningly irrational and abusive (see listing of Griffin e-mails). In the face of his vulgarity and outright intimidation, the townspeople head for cover and it would take more courage than anyone but Jim Howe has to risk his ire.
If I resist, I am blamed for resisting, for inflaming Griffin. If I don’t speak up, my silence gives Griffin and his friends a “green light” to continue to escalate until he has over 20 posts poisoning the air. On the conference call, he could openly bully the chair, interrupt the facilitator, and is cheered on by enough of the Council members to silence all opposition except Jim Howe, Rose and myself. We three are cut off from communications, and they move on to contemplate how Rose and I are to be eliminated. Griffin’s schemes still have their snake-oil allure.
Thus the Council e-list is frozen. Moderator Cathy Gilbert has made clear that nothing critical will be allowed to go through, and even names are not to be mentioned. Griffin and Lawrence run wild on the GPUS Discussion page.
Not so long ago, and not so far away.
It evokes the days of Weimar Germany, in the years before the final Nazi takeover, when mobs ran through the streets, when Nazi students stalked the halls of the universities intimidating and even assaulting left-wing teachers, creating the “unsafe” environment for the final seizure of power. So it began.
So it begins in Florida, as the Tea Party is invited in for the dirty work. So it spreads.
A hot topic on the Green Party’s Discussion page is whether a socialist can be Green. Whether socialists can be removed from the party. The GPUS has no legal method for making such a move, and not even the desire. So how do these elements, under their flag of Green, expect to accomplish what they are openly calling for?
On Fri 1/23/2015 12:11 PM, Griffin unilaterally proclaimed: “I am going to switch the calls to Monday night and open them up nationally, as an overall discussion of fundraising and action creation techniques, and how to merge the two,“ adding on Sunday, “I would appreciate if you [me] stayed off of it.” Griffin is taking his show on the road, dissent is not allowed, and I suspect he will be welcomed.
So it ends …
If I might paraphrase T.S. Eliot:
This is the way the party ends
This is the way the party ends
This is the way the party ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
[UPDATE: Actually, it did end with a bang. See Now It’s a Purge! for the results of this article.]
