Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Questions for Kevin Ranker

A couple of weeks ago I received this document in an email from a friend. At first glance it is a rather critical letter that appears to offer many details and specific charges against Kevin Ranker. I know at least one reporter received this information and decided it was not newsworthy after fact checking the accusations included in it. It would be nice to get confirmation from those in the media responsible for publicly vetting our candidates that they have indeed looked in to these allegations and share publicly why or why not they deemed them irrelevant.

Of the several charges leveled at Kevin Ranker in the previous document there are two specifically that I think potentially hold some weight and deserve further attention. I trust that there are some good explanations for them and believe Kevin Ranker deserves a chance to defend himself and speak up against them.

In 1995, Kevin Ranker was arrested and charged with Resisting Arrest and Interfering with a public event.
Check out these official police report documents [1], [2], [3] for more information.

As I understand it, at the time Kevin Ranker was attending Evergreen State College. He and two others illegally entered a parade via a side route and began disrupting it with signs and politically themed chanting. They basically were protesting for the release or re-trial of Black Panther organizer (and convicted cop killer) Mumia Abu-Jamal. Kevin Ranker eventually got the resisting arrest charge dropped (although if you read the police report it sounds like it was warranted) and plead guilty and paid a 50 dollar fine for the disorderly conduct charge.

Some questions I have for Kevin Ranker surrounding this event are:

1. What group was he participating with when he committed the disorderly conduct/resisting arrest incidents at the Lake Fair parade?

2. Does he regret his actions or still stand by them today? Would he repeat those same actions today?

3. Why did he feel so strongly about Mumia Abu-Jamal that he was willing to break the law in support of him?

Kevin Ranker's Mysterious Australian Restaurant

I believe that Kevin Ranker's website used to explicitly mention the fact that he owned a restaurant in Australia. I can't find that reference any more, but he does still claim to have "private sector experience" mentioned here which I'm assuming is referring to this restaurant endeavor. If he has other private sector experience, it would be nice if he could explicitly cite what it is. The restaurant is mentioned specifically in this Bellingham Herald article as well as other articles on Kevin Ranker and apparently at some of his campaign events.

I would like to know more details about this restaurant endeavor specifically:

1. What was the name of this restaurant or bar in Australia and where was it located?

2. What business functions did you perform at the establishment?

3. Is this restaurant still operating today?

4. Is this the only source he has for his "private sector" experience?

I believe these matters deserve to be openly looked in to by the voting public and media for full disclosure and refuted and or explained by the candidate who wants to represent us.

Update:
Kevin Ranker's arrest was documented in the Olympian.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there, my name is Jennifer Rigg and I just wanted to thank you for your efforts to expose the truth about Kevin Ranker. He is one of the most dishonest and disrespectful individuals I have ever known and I can't understand why people are falling for him.

Anonymous said...

Yes- this guy is a complete POS personally. I agree with his politics- but Jesus I don't know anyone that has less character.