Left Coast Right Watch has been covering right wing extremism from the hyper-local to national level for over a year.
And now I want to go further.
North.
To Seattle.
On January 5th.
Why? Well, there's a bunch of crazy shit going on up there that I haven't been able to cover and desperately want to.
HERE'S SOME OF WHAT I WANT TO REPORT ON:
- A militia organization whose leader is on a school board
- Also the same militia org bringing guns to a library parking lot to protest a Drag Queen Story Time event for children
- An anti-houseless group whose members conspired with the aforementioned militia group to tow RVs people were living in and leave them in front of city councilmembers' homes
- An anti-trans hate group that filmed people in a womens bathroom at a youth event
- Don't get me started on the local Proud Boys
Why January 5th? Well, a bunch of people I'm planning on covering are converging for a rally. I can get a BUNCH done all at once and it'll be an important event in and of itself.
I'm planning on doing a big written story, live-tweet the event and spending a couple extra days in the area interviewing local activists for my upcoming podcast FASHISTAN.
WHAT I NEED MONEY FOR:
I'd like to raise about $350 for travel. Here's how I'm breaking it down/what I'll use the fundraising money for in order:
- Fuel–$150. The round trip is about 900 miles and my car gets hella good mileage. Not bad!
- Meals–$100. One day driving there from California, three days in Seattle, one day driving back. I figure I'll spend about $10 per meal and my metabolism is hella slow so I only really eat twice a day and like a smoothie for breakfast lol.
- Misc. expenses–$100. There's a few things I'd like to get for the trip. Mainly I need an external hard drive because I anticipate getting HELLA footage, documents, etc. from sources while I'm up there. I also need a handheld mic for my audio work. Cutting into those expenses would really go a long ways for me.
- Overflow–$???. If folks are hella generous I'll just take the overflow as money I don't gotta earn to live next month and spend the time the donations free up on producing the podcast, reporting further, etc. My goal is to do this work full-time after all and I'm sure if you're donating you want to get results sooner!
WHAT I HAVE ALREADY:
I've been talking to local activists for months now, have a huge log of resources and stuff to go through to prepare for this reporting trip. I'll have people lined up to interview. I ain't just parachuting in here!
I have pro recording gear and will produce professional-quality media from this trip. I've got almost three years experience doing this stuff. It's gonna look good, sound good and be solid af reporting when I'm done!
I've got friends to stay with as I travel so that's cutting down on my expenses and I've taken other steps to cut down on what I spend. I'm not gonna try to bullshit anyone here and ask for more than what I need!
WHAT YOU'LL GET OUT OF IT:
Donors who request it will get a shoutout in the podcast episode naturally. I'll of course also write everyone I can a thank you note. But in general here's what you can expect me to produce:
- Live-tweeted coverage of the event itself
- An in-depth article with an account of the event and background on the various actors involved
- A two to three-part documentary podcast on all the wild shit in the Seattle area I've been covering.
- If I'm able, I might have time to gather material for a BONUS PODCAST EPISODE about family oral histories of PNW militias.
LCRW is a labor of love and I do most of this work on my own time when I'm not working for the man. If you can, please consider giving. You'll help me provide critical coverage of extremism and hate in an area that's not getting enough attention. Thanks!!
