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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: A “King”-ly Lesson in Fact-Checking and Local Activism Written by Thomas R. Eddlem One of the more famous one-liners attributed to Winston Churchill is that “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.” But when an exaggerated story that town officials in King, North Carolina were responsible for an anti-gun “state of emergency” began to circulate over the internet last week, local activists of the John Birch Society mobilized to get to the root of the issue. The King story is a “how to” as well as a “how not to” engage in effective civic activism. The story of the “state of emergency” in King, North Carolina — where bearing firearms and the sale of alcohol was banned during the term of the “emergency” — had created an internet sensation and generated some 1,200 angry email messages to town officials from across the nation. “We had two chapters who jumped on this,” said Jim Capo, the John Birch Society’s staff coordinator for the Carolinas. He added that local JBS members in the Winston-Salem area near King had convened an informal meeting with some elected officials in King just days after the story broke. “That connection was made because the chapter leader was active and knew what was going on in the community,” Capo stressed. Local John Birch Society members discovered in meetings with town officials that the town of less than 6,000 had declared the “state of emergency” only after the county had already declared an emergency, the latter triggering a state law that banned both sales of alcohol and the bearing of arms outside of homes. In other words, the town “state of emergency” didn't invoke any new prohibitions and was declared primarily to qualify for federal disaster assistance. Moreover, Capo and his fellow John Birchers discovered that King Chief of Police Paula May and other local officials were strong supporters of the Second Amendment. “They weren't running around enforcing what went on,” Scott Lowerre, the local John Birch Society chapter leader reported. “The Stokes News said there were no arrests made or anything like that.” “We definitely feel that open lines of communication with the state legislatures, the mayor and the city council, and the police chief is the way to approach these things rather than just flying off the handle,” Lowerre said. He attends the same church as a member of the town council and used that connection to convene a meeting about the “state of emergency.” Nevertheless, Lowerre heartily agrees that “when a state of emergency is declared, it is not a good thing.” The difference between the town and the county “state of emergency” is that the Town of King “police chief just made copies of the state statutes,” Capo said. Lowerre sees a silver lining from his meeting with local officials. “When the city printed up part of the law that was on the books, they accidentally tipped off activists to what most people didn't know was on the books.” This may have started a statewide movement to get this law repealed. “I'm going to do a little bit more research,” Lowerre says. “We'll probably try to follow up with our state representatives to get a clarification on what the state statutes are. And we may look at going to the state level and get them to look at repeal.... There ought to be some way of getting some federal funding back without having to declare a full state of emergency.” Capo explains that there's an important lesson in effective activism to be learned from the King incident. “It doesn't help to write an angry email to someone else across the country. That doesn't help you,” he said, noting that most elected officials don't care much about letters that don't originate from their constituents. More effective activism is based upon connecting with local officials that represent you, as was the case in King. “This is how activism works,” Capo says, who is seconded by his staff supervisor, JBS Regional Director Lionel Terzi. “We don't need 1,200 emails into the Chief of Police's office from all of the country,” Terzi noted. While the angry emails drew disgust from local officials, as well as a criminal investigation for those deemed to be threatening, Lowerre noted that his strategy of community engagement combined with strict constitutionalism has borne fruit from the meeting he convened with local officials. “A couple of guys took applications [for JBS membership] from the meeting” Lowerre said.
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