Effort to recall Supervisor Kevin Crye turns contentious with claims of threats made
REDDING, Calif. — The attempted recall of Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye has quickly turned contentious and expensive.
"If you want to recall Kevin Crye, I want to stand behind Kevin Crye but I'm going to do it in front of your house," said the owner of Whiskeytown Barbeque Company off of Eureka Way, Tim Gibbons, on camera while taking issue with a group of supporters of a recall of District One Supervisor Kevin Crye, who had set up a pop-up near his business.
"Okay good. I'll hope you'll stay 100 feet away," one of the supporters of the recall replied.
"You can't make me stay away," Gibbons retorted. "I can set a table up, and chairs, right here, and do as I please. Right here. I can, and I'm going to, and so is a whole bunch of people that support Kevin Crye. So, get used to it."
On Thursday, recall supporters say Gibbons came out of his restaurant three times threatening them to the point the police were called.
"The third time he [Gibbons] came out, he was really storming, even at a greater intensity, and he took all of our pictures and he threatened us," claims Dana Silberstein with the committee to recall Kevin Crye. "He said, 'We're going to find out who you are, we're going to come to your homes and we're going to 'take care of you.' And he said, 'We're not finished with you,' and it was absolutely the most bizarre, disconnected, unhinged kind of situation I've ever, maybe, been in."
"The problem I have, with them, is they put a camera in my face and said, 'Oh, lookit, this is Tim Gibbons. He's going to be famous. He supports Kevin Crye. Watch how fast his business shuts down.' That's when you poke the bear," Gibbons explained to KRCR on Friday. "I got boisterous with them, I expressed my displeasure with them, and I took pictures of all of them and I said I'm going to find out who every one of them are and I'm going to do the same thing in front of their house, with my legal rights. I'm going to support Kevin Crye in front of peoples' homes."
Gibbons says the supporters have been threatening his business and his beliefs. However, they say he threatened them.
"When you come into my neighborhood and you start telling me my business is going to suffer because I support a man, that's hypocritical, that's not what they're supposed to be doing," Gibbons said. "They're wanting to get rid of Kevin Crye, for reasons, I want to support Kevin Crye, for my reasons, and I'm not going to let people like that push me around in my own neighborhood."
"He mentioned he was very close to Kevin Crye, that he was, really, a supporter of Mr. Crye's, and that that was a lot of his business. And, somehow, us being sitting, here, is going to interfere with his business, even though we're not in front of his restaurant," Silberstein said. "In any case, he was clearly very, very close to Kevin Crye and he was going to go get those friends and supporters and come to our houses, and it felt like a direct threat to us."
Money is also coming into both opponents and proponents of the recall attempt.
This was just filed Thursday, $50,000 from "Northway Management Company": a company with ties to Connecticut Billionaire Reverge Anselmo to the "Water Users Committee" which is paying for commercials on television. A separate group, "Stop Newsom: No on Crye Recall," is running ads on local radio.
Organizers from the committee to recall Kevin Crye told KRCR, as of Friday, they have raised $59,000 from some 190 separate donors.
--
To report errors or issues with this article please email the editorial team.
