OVERREACTION HITS WHITTIER AS PEOPLE DEMAND WHITTIER COUNCILMEMBER RESIGN FOR ATTENDING RALLY IN DC

Extremist groups are demanding the removal of Whittier City Councilmember because she attended a peaceful pro Trump rally in the nation's capital on Wednesday the same day that rioters occupied the Capital building.

The whole situation started when Whittier Councilmember Henry Bouchot broadbrushed Councilmember Jessica Martinez and called for her to be "censured" from council meetings. He openly accused Martinez of being part of the attack on the Capital building and participating in terrorism without providing any evidence to back up his accusations.

Whittier residents generally believe nearly everything that members of the Council tell them so Bouchot's post got a lot Whittier residents pissed off at Martinez and demanding that she resign or be recalled immediately without benefit of an investigation or fair trial. This has led to quite a bit of inflammatory rhetoric against Martinez. Some people have even responded with threats of violence against the conservative councilmember, including one where the individual threatened to gather his "homies together and put a bullet into the back of her head." A since removed comment reported to both Facebook and law enforcement. People have been accusing Martinez of terrorism without any evidence just because she attended the rally at the White House.

A video on her twitter account appears to show her at the rally being held in front of the White House but in the video she is just standing there and not doing or saying anything. She's just there.

Despite claims she was at the Capital building participating in the siege, an FBI source said they currently have no evidence in any of the videos they have reviewed that Martinez was there during the attack. But he also said they are still reviewing surveillance video and social media posts and that if Martinez was at the Capital building she might show up in images posted by other people who were at the Capital building.

One person who posted to Martinez Facebook page said she should resign because she didn't look like him, a reference to his belief that Martinez doesn't look Mexican enough. Other people made similar racist comments on the page that have since been removed.

Others said Martinez should be removed for being a Republican and a conservative.

So far most of the calls for Martinez removal have been based on unproven and meritless accusations. Many of the unproven accusations actually open the people making them to being sued for libel and slander, which at the moment, Martinez is likely to win if she chose to file a lawsuit against those who have been spreading the apparently deliberate and malicious falsehoods.

For her part, Martinez said she was never at the Capital building and condemned the violence that occurred there on Wednesday.

But the statement was not enough for some people who want Martinez to resign because of who she voted for and because of her party affiliation.

Others are more concerned that Martinez went and attended a rally with thousands of unmasked people who were not social distancing and could have brought a more dangerous version of the SARS COV 2 virus back to Whittier. It is not known if Martinez was wearing a Facemask during her attendance at the peaceful event. COVID surges followed other protests in 2020, including the peaceful social justice protests were followed by COVID surges. Health experts say that as the participants of the DC protests and insurrection return to their hometowns we can expect to see a greater surge of COVID 19 than what we have seen so far. The surge is likely to break the healthcare system. People concerned about COVID 19 say they don't care what happened in Washington, they just want Martinez to be required to stay home for the next two weeks and not leave her home for any reason during that time period. It has been suggested that Martinez be recalled if she doesn't home quarantine for the entirety of the next two weeks.

Of the two reasons people are talking about a recall, Martinez breaking travel quarantine requirements is seen as the more realistic and only justifiable reason for recalling her at this time, until there is actual evidence of the accusations that have so far made been made with out any kind of evidence.

Some of the people on both Facebook and Twitter took to accusing Martinez of terrorism and sedition just for participating in a peaceful protest:

But Bouchot himself is coming under fire for his attack on Martinez:

While Martinez has been accused of racism in the past, people were accusing Bouchot of being racist himself. One person asserted that Bouchot had personally attacked him with a racially sensitive epithet.

The attacks have already led to threats against Martinez' life or physical safety. This comment was screenshotted from Martinez' Facebook page. In light of recent events, it could be seen as a terrorist threat to commit violence.

There is already a recall effort going around Whittier that is falsely and directly calling Martinez a terrorist without even trying to prove she participated in violence or sedition. The flyer being circulated by the petitioners directly calls Martinez a terrorist but provides no evidence to support the accusation but is written in an inflammatory manner designed to get people riled up over something that likely didn't happen.

In the meantime most of Whittier is more concerned that Martinez ignored the pandemic and might violate the travel quarantine mandate that all LA County residents have to follow.

Here are two samples of the posts from people concerned about Martinez attending a rally where no one wore masks and no one social distanced.

While this is happening in Whittier, it appears that many Republicans have had enough. The states of Pennsylvania, Texas, and Tennessee are set to introduce bills into their current legislative session that if passed would start them on the process toward seceding from the United States. But those bills must first pass their respective committees but the fact that state legislatures are now talking about secession is a big game changer and one that we at Whittier 360 have been warning about for a while now. Too bad no one listened.