To Chief of Police Brian Stephens and his fellow officers present at the Hands Off Protest:

I am reaching out to you to extend my personal thanks and heartfelt appreciation for your de-escalation efforts at the Hands Off protest on April 5, 2025 in front of the Humboldt County Superior Courthouse in Eureka.

At the time of the incident when your team’s intervention was required, I was still on site, though positioned on the steps close to the courthouse doors, filming the band that was playing there. As I turned away from the band and looked down on the street, it was clear that there was a commotion affecting traffic, with civilians in the street and a truck stopped with the driver having exited his vehicle, prompting you and your fellow officers to respond to a developing disturbance.

As someone who studied domestic and international social movements in my undergraduate years, I felt keenly aware of the risk of quick escalation of physical conflict in an amassed crowd setting. I grabbed my younger sister and got us away from the area as quickly and safely as possible. But in reviewing footage and published local articles concerning the play-out and outcome of that incident the next day, I felt relieved to learn how you and your team managed to separate parties, redirected folks not in vehicles off of the street, and got traffic moving again.

The actions of yourself and your team, I personally interpret to be actions that valued our community’s safety while also safeguarding citizens’ rights to assemble and to exercise free speech.

As a mother of a six-year-old daughter, I feel obligated to take my physical safety seriously — more so than before I had a child who needs to grow up with her mother there for her. However, as a social worker, I feel a responsibility to use my right to free speech to express solidarity for marginalized folks’ rights, whether they are children and families I serve, my neighbors, or mine and my daughter’s for that matter. For that reason, I was at that protest along with the two previous protests in Eureka. I hope to continue to safely protest at more in the future.

How you and your team handled things on April 5th encouraged me to feel affirmed to pursue my values and exercise my rights while still having good odds of coming home to my little girl.

Thank you for your service to our community last Saturday.

Kind regards,

Elle Penner