From Mike Thomas-El Dorado Jefferson Committee

Comment: I was told this morning that Tuesday night the highway patrol blocked off Fair Lane, at the bottom of the road near the freeway. Fair Lane was so congested they blocked traffic to keep people from going to the State of Jefferson Presentation at BOS meeting . Traffic to the shopping center was being directed to the entrance off of Placerville Drive. We were expecting about a 1,000 people that night and had asked the BOS to move the meeting to a location that would accommodate a large crowd, but our request was denied. If we would have had a larger facility I am sure our audience would have been between 1,000 – 2,000 people.

The was printed in the Mountain Democrat newspaper in Placerville.

Public comment weighted toward State of Jefferson

by Chris Daley

Two opposing groups — proponents of the State of Jefferson movement and opponents represented by the relatively new organization called Keep It California — presented their platforms and after each presentation it was the public’s turn at the microphone.
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Chairman Brian Veerkamp said the board’s general guidelines, calling for civility and dignified conduct, were, for the most part, followed.
Following KIC’s Cindy Ellsmore’s presentation at the beginning of the meeting, one of the first responders was a young local man of high school or early college age. Laake Gennai tested Veerkamp’s cautions right out of the gate by saying his experience in State of Jefferson country, rural northern California, suggested to him that the SOJ supporters are “mean people” who looked “more like a motorcycle club than a political party… with a few bad apples.”
The comments drew an audible hum of disapproval from the mostly green-shirted crowd. Many SOJ proponents wear a green T-shirt with a bright yellow and black logo with State of Jefferson and Don’t Tread on Me printed in front. Gennai said he couldn’t believe they would want to “leave the seventh largest economy in the world” and later apologized for his remarks that may have given offense.
Placerville resident Chuck Brazil gave what were perhaps the most intense comments of the evening. Brazil spoke to “the raw emotion that is drawing our movement.” He said he no longer feels safe and said he won’t let his wife go anywhere in Sacramento County except to Folsom. The rest of the neighboring county is a place of complete “chaos,” he said. Brazil also blamed Gov. Jerry Brown who he said, “opened his arms to anyone who wants to come into our state,” a reference to illegal immigration.
“We’re not happy with what’s going on in our state. We have no voice, no vote and whatever Sacramento shovels, we eat,” Brazil said. “People believe they have less liberty than Patrick Henry (the Revolutionary War patriot who famously declared, “Give me liberty or give me death”).”
Citing Los Angeles (and southern California whose high population, some say, controls the state legislature), Brazil continued, “We want like-minded people (in state government), people like us. L.A. is a totally different family.”
Local teenager Karen Barb took particular exception to Gennai’s remarks, saying the county’s “Youth are not represented by this young man.”
With few exceptions, the theme represented by the large majority of speakers leaned heavily toward what Brazil called “eating what Sacramento shovels.” People said they are not heard nor represented at the Capitol, that state and federal regulations have hampered their ability to live and prosper.
Chad from Coloma said, “We’re not asking for secession, but we have no liberty and no freedom. Corporations buy our politicians.”
Second Amendment activist Ken Greenwood said, “We cannot buy a gun. Our Constitutional right to bear arms (has been restricted).”
Shingle Springs farmer and Food Sovereignty leader Patti Chelseth called the SOJ movement a “beacon of freedom.”
Calling California a “debt ship that is sinking,” SOJ spokesman Mark Baird quoted the “fighting words of the evening.” Baird said he once heard former state Assembly leader Willie Brown say more or less, “People in the urban areas will be the voice (of California), and those in the rural areas must obey.”
Briefly explaining SOJ’s intention to follow all laws relevant to formally seceding from California, Baird, a reserve deputy sheriff in Siskiyou County, noted, “I’m not a fan of anarchy.”

Chris Daley | August 14, 2015

Breitbart.com

Aug. 12, 2015

SACRAMENTO, California — Hundreds of Northern Californians packed the El Dorado County Supervisor’s chambers in Placerville on Tuesday afternoon to petition in support of what would be America’s 51st state, “Jefferson.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/12/state-of-jefferson-picks-up-support-in-norcal/

Jefferson Tide Still Rising: Overflow at El Dorado Presentation

by Red Smith · August 12, 2015

 The Shasta Lantern