{"id":51273,"date":"2020-09-29T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-patriots-organizer-distances-group-from-counterprotest\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:55:27","slug":"update-patriots-organizer-distances-group-from-counterprotest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-patriots-organizer-distances-group-from-counterprotest\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Patriots organizer distances group from counterprotest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A counterprotester holds a torn Confederate flag and a Trump for President flag while confronting a marcher with the Walk for Justice and Peace. He asked repeatedly if she was \u201cgay\u201d for \u201cwearing a gay flag\u201d \u2013 a rainbow flag \u2013 around her shoulders.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Several people in a group that included members of the Montezuma County Patriots joined a counterprotest Saturday evening against the Walk for Justice and Peace, crossing Main Street and confronting walkers face to face during their weekly demonstration in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Cortez police officers were called to the scene.<\/p>\n

Justice and Peace walkers remained silent, holding signs and continuing to walk along Main Street as counterprotesters followed them, shouting \u201cGo home\u201d and \u201cYou don\u2019t belong in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

One counterprotester yelled, \u201cGo back to Boston, and if you come back, you will be in trouble,\u201d referring to Dawn Robertson, a co-organizer of the Walk for Justice and Peace. She recently moved to Cortez to work for AmeriCorps, a nonprofit organization that hires volunteers to fulfill community needs in fields such as health care and education.<\/p>\n

Pickup trucks with American, Trump for President, Don\u2019t Tread on Me, Thin Blue Line and Confederate flags were parked along Main Street.<\/p>\n

Raleigh Marmorstein, an organizer of the Walk for Justice, called a nonemergency dispatch number to alert the police as phrases from the counterprotesters turned threatening and included obscenities.<\/p>\n\n

Two Cortez police officers approached the counterprotesters and asked them to stop using swear words. Counterprotesters replied that they have First Amendment rights to speak on public property.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you guys start swearing obscenities, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n

A handful of counterprotesters then crossed Main Street to where members of the Walk for Justice and Peace stood, yelling \u201cAll lives matter\u201d and calling the Walk for Justice members holding Black Lives Matter signs \u201cpart of a terrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to run them out of town,\u201d one counterprotester said.<\/p>\n

Police officers stayed with the Walk for Justice marchers to monitor their safety as several counterprotesters targeted one woman with a rainbow flag draped over her shoulder. He confronted her, asking \u201cAre you gay? Are you gay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez police officers ask counterprotesters to not use obscenities in their chants to the Walk for Justice and Peace.<\/span>EMILY HAYES\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One woman holding an American flag bearing the words of the Second Amendment crossed the street and followed Robertson, a co-organizer of the walk, as she led marchers on Main Street toward St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, where the walk begins and ends each Saturday.<\/p>\n

Another counterprotester yelled that a Justice and Peace walker did not deserve to hold an American flag. Only a veteran should carry a flag, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a disabled Vietnam veteran,\u201d the walker, Jim Mischke, said. \u201cYelling \u2018go home\u2019 doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d because he\u2019s lived in Cortez for 41 years.<\/p>\n

Another confronted a Journal<\/em> reporter, saying \u201cYou\u2019re an uneducated (expletive deleted.)\u201d<\/p>\n

After the walk, counterprotesters drove by the church courtyard, continuing to yell \u201cgo home\u201d to the marchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI relish free speech,\u201d Mischke said, \u201cbut it doesn\u2019t need to be aggressive or intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marmorstein said she was proud of the Justice and Peace walkers for remaining calm and resilient.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Ghere, a co-organizer of the Montezuma County Patriot rides, confirmed during a phone interview with The Journal that she was at the counterprotest Saturday, but she added that it was not a Montezuma County Patriots event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a group of concerned citizens,\u201d Ghere said.<\/p>\n

One of the counterprotesters who crossed the street was a disabled veteran, Ghere said, but she did not answer a question about whether that condoned his language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe language people use is their own choice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ghere said the counterprotester, whom she did not identify, was frustrated that people filmed his actions on their phones.<\/p>\n

The Walk for Justice and Peace changed the time of its march on Sept. 19 to about 5 p.m., so that it did not coincide with the Patriot rides.<\/p>\n

Response from the city<\/div>\n

Late Saturday night, Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey told The Journal<\/em> the City Council \u201cneeds to get together to discuss this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several business owners contacted the mayor with complaints that the confrontation Saturday deterred customers from their restaurants and stores, which have been hit financially by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have the police there before something happens,\u201d Lavey said. \u201cWe need to avoid these confrontations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez Police Chief Vern Knuckles said Tuesday that he spoke with members of the Montezuma County Patriots on Monday, and they expressed concerns about how police handled the confrontation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were informed correctly that First Amendment rights end when the speech becomes disorderly or harassment,\u201d Knuckles said.<\/p>\n

People may assemble lawfully, but if the marchers or Patriots call the police, they will enforce the law, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done that for both the Patriots and the marchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lt. Andy Brock watches the morning Patriot rides and the evening Walk for Justice, Knuckles said. The Cortez Police Department assigned overtime pay to bike patrol officers to monitor safety on Main Street.<\/p>\n\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

officers intervene in Saturday protests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87932,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51273\/revisions\/87932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51273"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}