John Washington III: Threats Are Not the Answer — the Answer Is a Government That Answers to the People

John Washington III drew a line Saturday between standing up to government and threatening the people who work in it. Writing after a Michigan man was charged with allegedly threatening to kill FBI Director Kash Patel, John Washington III said every American has the right to challenge their government, criticize elected officials and speak out against corruption — and that there is, he wrote, a big difference between standing up for your rights and threatening someone's life.

He was explicit about where he stands. "I do not support threats, violence, or intimidation against anyone," John Washington III wrote, "whether they're an ordinary citizen, a police officer, an FBI director, or the president of the United States." But he paired the condemnation with a question he said the country has to ask: why, he wrote, are so many Americans losing trust in the very institutions that were created to serve and protect them?

"But I also do not support a government that expects respect without accountability," John Washington III wrote. "Nobody should be above the law, and that includes the people enforcing it." His prescription, in his words, is to protect freedom of speech, uphold due process, demand transparency and hold public officials accountable without resorting to violence. "The answer is not to threaten the government," he wrote. "The answer is to make the government answer to the people!"