Jetty Etty honors Candice King, shares ideas for supporting protesters

Presenter: One year later, on the first anniversary of the death of Candice King, KEPW’s Legalize Survival spoke with Jetty Etty:

Jetty Etty: Today is Jan. 18, 2026 and Jan. 18, 2025 one of my best friends, a revolutionary Black woman who is one of the most brave, strong human beings I’ve ever met in my entire life passed away and it was crippling.

And it took me months and months and months to be able to even function as a human being after that. And today I feel good ’cause I’m surrounded by community.

Candice was brave. She lost her husband. She was a single mom of four children. She put up a battle against the system and decided to stop paying rent and went on a rent strike, which we occupied for 96 days.

And before that it was a couple months. She didn’t pay rent for like seven months. It was great. It was brave, and she was killed by the system and so she died.

And so yeah, we just have to remember that and and fight every single day against that system that failed her and not let her death be in vain. And right now, that’s what makes me get out every day and be loud, and not stop. 

Presenter: Here’s co-host Julie Lambert:

Julie Lambert: Yeah, she definitely is legendary in our community and I’m glad that folks were able to grieve together and also just to have some joyful memories to share. 

Presenter: Legalize Survival co-host Jana Thrift:

Jana Thrift (KEPW): One of the first things she did when she came to Eugene, her beautiful family came to KEPW and we were really blessed to have her as part of the radio station for a period of time there. And she was such a warrior, such an amazing woman. 

Jetty Etty: She loved both of you, you and Julie so much. When you guys first contacted me, I was like, ‘Candice, do I trust these people?’ And she was like, ‘Oh yeah, you do. They’re great. Get on there. Go talk to ’em.’ She loves you. 

Julie Lambert: I am honored.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): I miss her so much. What a loss our community had.

Paula: The complete interview with Jetty Etty airs tonight at 7 p m on KEPW’s Legalize Survival. Julie Lambert:

Julie Lambert: What first opened your eyes to what was happening in our community? Was there a moment when you just realized you could not stay silent anymore? ‘Cause you are not and this is good. 

Jetty Etty: I mean, I’ve been like this since I was probably born, is what my mom says. So I don’t know. I don’t know if anything’s ever really like, been like that breaking point, you know? It’s just like every time something bad happens, like, okay, here we go again, here’s the next battle. And that’s just how I’ve always been. It’s my nature. So I think like right now. We see the unhoused here and the insane amount of people who are experiencing surviving on the streets and trying to just like live there every day today and, and try to still function and identify as a human being and not a piece of trash.

And watching that was just not something I could do and go about my day. And so it doesn’t matter where I go in this town, I always run into somebody and I always stop and talk to ’em and check on ’em.

I just think that’s being a human being with like, you know, compassion and having humanity. That’s, I don’t know, I just think that’s how people should be. I don’t understand how you could not be that way.

And then, you know, we’re fighting ICE right now. I’m doing this really, really ridiculous, just being loud, I’m being a nuisance. I’m down at the old federal building. We’re just doing ‘Backpack Back’s. I don’t even know what you call it. It’s really silly.

My friend who is in recovery and currently getting off the streets and housed right now has found that writing music is really helping him. And so he wrote me this adorable song about getting my backpack back. I was detained by DHS in October because I set my medical bag down in the same spot we always set our supplies down every time we’re protesting, which is every Tuesday, if not more.

It’s never been an issue until this day. And then this day they decided to detain me. They compared me to the Oklahoma City bomber and to the attacks on the World Trade Centers for having a bag of medical supplies.

They gave me back my medical supplies in a garbage bag, but they kept my backpack, listen, it’s a good backpack. It’s waterproof. I wanted it back. They said, as soon as your charges are figured out, you can have it back. My charges were dropped and dismissed. I was found not guilty, and I’ve asked nicely to gimme my backpack back and they haven’t.

And so now I go out there and I blast this backpack song and I will continue to do so every day until I get my backpack back

(The Jetty Etty Backpack Back song)

Jetty Etty: It’s really annoying and they’re really upset with me. And we also have a restraining order against DHS here in Eugene, Oregon right now. So they cannot arrest us, detain us, cite us, talk to us about noise, loud or unusual noise. And so it’s kind of also like, I can play this song really loud and they can want to arrest me, but they can’t. They can want to do things, but they can’t. So I’m just being loud 

Jana Thrift (KEPW): it’s kind of totally necessary. You know, it’s like the diversity of tactics, and one of them is to make it very inconvenient to violate everybody’s constitutional rights and wrongly imprison and kidnap people, and.

Jetty Etty: Yeah. There’s this Indigenous woman in Portland, Oregon, and she’s been arrested and targeted multiple times by ICE, DHS, the Feds, local PD.

And one of the last times she was arrested by DHS, they cut her Indigenous ceremonial skirt off of her and they kept it as a trophy. And so part of my backpack thing is give cause of her skirt back. Stop taking our stuff and doing violent, gross, assaulty things to us, and then keeping our stuff like, you don’t get to do that.

Paula: Legalize Survival at 7 p.m. Wednesdays shares a community calendar of protest times. Jana Thrift:

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Mondays between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. is the Veterans for Peace, Chapter 159, protest.

On Tuesdays from 12 to 1 p.m., Interfaith Singing for Our Lives Vigil and Protest; 

1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Indivisible silent protest, and 2 to 5 p.m. Love and Rage, right?

And then Wednesdays noon to 1 p.m. is SURJ, Showing Up For Racial Justice’s protest. 12 to 4 p.m. is the 50501 protest where they say bring readings, songs, signs, or other art.

3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Planet versus Pentagon Protest there.

Thursdays 9 to 11 a.m., Indivisible Signs of Fascism Protest is there.

Fridays 12 to two. The Raging Grannies. (Probably catch Julie!)

And then last Tuesday of every month, 11 to 3 p.m., Lane County Immigrant Defense Network does a protest there. And I was just like, wow, this is as it should be.

Jetty Etty: And so yeah, there’s been a lot of work put into it. It’s been really beautiful to watch it grow. I’ve been out there since June, and the majority of the people they are kidnapping, they are people who have been working on getting asylum hearings, getting asylum in the country.

They go to the old federal building for an asylum check-in, and then they’re taking people from these check-ins. These people are going through the proper steps of what you have to do to get asylum here in the United States of America. They’re doing it. They’ve been doing it for years, and they just have a quota to fill.

And so they just take one here, take one here, take one here. They’re not taking criminals. Like 8% of the people they’ve taken have a criminal record and like it’s like real ridiculous stuff, like speeding. They’re lying to us.

DHS just released something saying that on Jan. 12 and 13, two people were arrested because of the violent protests by the rioters in Eugene, Oregon. Moments before the first man was arrested, I have a video of me playing the Dora the Explorer Backpack song and asking for my backpack back. I didn’t know there was a riot. I didn’t see any riot gear. Like, what?

Presenter: She said if you can’t attend the protests, there are many other ways to help. Jetty Etty:

Jetty Etty: There are ways for you to be helpful. The people who are on the ground, we desperately need body cameras. We desperately need cameras that we can record and have an SD card and we can change it out.

We need that protection. I don’t have a job. I’m out fighting the system, you know, so like people who can help there. We are often down there throughout the day and we don’t have water, we don’t have food, snacks, and we always need medical supplies. They pepper spray us. 

There are different ways to help. There are ways, even if you can’t financially support it, talk about it. Tell five people every day something else that you’ve seen or that you’ve heard or like tell them like, there are so many ways, and I think that’s so important for everyone to realize. 

Like even when you’re out on the streets protesting, watch for when they kidnap people. They just kidnapped a lady on Friday. They kidnapped a lady, a young mother, and people don’t know that because we’re not talking enough about it.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): I’m going to do some outreach about the bodycam thing. I might, maybe I can work on helping with that a little bit. That’s good to know. 

Jetty Etty: That would be really helpful because that’s been one of my biggest things, especially since my little drive-by shootup thing. I was down protesting at the old federal building, I’m going to say three weeks ago, a man drove past me and pulled a gun out of his window and shot at me, hit me multiple times with a less lethal weapon. 

Like, it’s already dangerous. I already know that that could have been a real ammunition and I could be completely changed right now, if not dead, and I still go back out there because it’s important, because, because we should all be out there! Like, this is crazy!

I don’t like to bring my phone out there because the feds are taking our phones, the people in Portland and Minneapolis, like they’re taking their phones and not giving them back.

And, and, you know, you’re, they’re using that stuff to try to deem us as, you know, domestic terrorists or whatever. And like, so I try not to take it down there, but that’s my, that is my weapon of choice is my camera. Like, that’s what keeps me safe. And so I feel really unprotected when I don’t have any way to film what’s happening down there. 

I think even if you’re a Republican, a Democrat, a whatever, I think we all need to remember that, like, why was the Constitution written? It was written to protect us against fascist dictators. 

And we are the people. We have the power. We should not be like submissive, and we should not forget that these people are elected by us. They’re public servants. They work for us. We fund their paychecks. They forgot that and a lot of people have forgotten that no matter who you are, we should all remember that and not forget that. Don’t let them divide us. 

Presenter: Wrapping up her visit to Legalize Survival with a success story, Jetty Etty:

Jetty Etty: I went and stayed out on the railroad tracks with the folks two Februarys ago now, and out of that camp, out of that,  there were 40 people in that camp. I have 15 people from that camp that are now housed and sober. (Woo-hoo!) Fifteen out of 40!

Jana Thrift (KEPW): You know, that’s what it’s all about because that’s what a little bit of love and support does for people you know? 

Sad Batman: Yeah. That helped me get out of being homeless and helped me get into rehab safely. 

Presenter: Local activist Jetty Etty joins Jana Thrift, Julie Lambert, and new co-host Sad Batman on Legalize Survival. You can hear Legalize Survival every Wednesday at 7 right here on KEPW 97.3 Eugene PeaceWorks Community Radio.