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On the BLM-Antifa Nation, Seattle
Christopher Rufo just published an excellent piece in City Paper on the failed city of Seattle’s capitulation to a thousand rioting thugs in Capitol Hill. For a little background, I will refer you to the tourism page for Capitol Hill here. The title is “The vibrant center of Seattle’s LGBTQ community offers endless entertainment, morning till night.” and, naturally, pushes the vacation destination angle with overpriced food, overpriced shops, and overpriced lodging situated in a dank and rainy climate.
By this point, I doubt many tourists were caught in the occupation. Only fools would be vacationing in Blue cities at this point. Rufo sets the stage for us:
For the past week, Black Lives Matter and Antifa-affiliated activists have engaged in a pitched battle with Seattle police officers and National Guard soldiers in the neighborhood, with the heaviest conflict occurring at the intersection of 11th and Pike, where law enforcement had constructed a barricade to defend the Seattle Police East Precinct building. Hoping to break through the barricade, protesters attacked officers with bricks, bottles, rocks, and improvised explosive devices, sending some officers to the hospital. At the same time, activists circulated videos of the conflict and accused the police of brutality, demanding that the city cease using teargas and other anti-riot techniques.
Then, in a stunning turn of events, the City of Seattle made the decision to abandon the East Precinct and surrender the neighborhood to the protesters. “This is an exercise in trust and de-escalation,” explained Chief Carmen Best. Officers and National Guardsmen emptied out the facility, boarded it up, and retreated. Immediately afterward, Black Lives Matter protesters, Antifa black shirts, and armed members of the hard-Left John Brown Gun Club seized control of the neighborhood, moved the barricades into a defensive position, and declared it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone—even putting up a cardboard sign at the barricades declaring “you are now leaving the USA.”
On the new rebel state’s first night, the atmosphere was festive and triumphant. Hooded men spray-painted the police station with slogans and anarchist symbols, renaming it the “Seattle People’s Department East Precinct.” Raz Simone, a local rapper with an AK-47 slung from his shoulder and a pistol attached to his hip, screamed, “This is war!” into a white-and-red megaphone and instructed armed paramilitaries to guard the barricades in shifts. Later in the night, Simone was filmed allegedly assaulting multiple protestors who disobeyed his orders, informing them that he was the “police” now, sparking fears that he was becoming the de facto warlord of the autonomous zone. A homeless man with a baseball bat wandered along the borderline and two unofficial medics in medieval-style chain mail stood ready for action.
This is war? Clearly, their target was chosen for the lush accommodations and the fine restaurants. This is summer camp for traitors and gangsters. This is nothing that would give the Screaming Eagles a moment’s difficulty. They know the Hamas playbook cold already, and these guys are not even a Hamas-level A-team. This is about a mayor, Jenny Durkan, who somehow thinks her surrender here will be remembered as Trump’s America when voters vote in less than five months.
…
[A] coalition of black activists associated with the autonomous zone released a more specific list of demands, including the total abolition of the Seattle Police Department, the retrial of all racial minorities serving prison time for violent crimes, and the replacement of the police with autonomous “restorative/transformative accountability programs.” Activists pledged to maintain control of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone until their demands are met—setting the stage for a long-term occupation and the establishment of a parallel political authority.
The city government has not developed a strategic response to the takeover of Capitol Hill. According to one Seattle police officer with knowledge of internal deliberations, the city’s “leadership is in chaos” and “the mayor has made the decision to let a mob of 1,000 people dictate public safety policy for a city of 750,000.” The officer said that Chief Best had dispatched high-ranking police officials to the autonomous zone to establish a line of communication, but the officials were immediately sent away by armed paramilitaries at the barricades. “The tide of public opinion is on the side of the activists and they’re pushing the envelope as far as they can,” said the officer. “It’s not hyperbolic to say the endgame is anarchy.”
Seattle is getting the government they deserve, good and hard.
Published in Policing
I would traverse that twice a day, to and from work. Thanks for the memories. I think.
The Post isn’t too far around the corner from those buildings in the background. I wondered if the Posties walked around the devastation on their way to the metro.
They probably continued on one stop to Farragut Square and walked back to avoid the contamination.
Didn’t they have to set up “no rape” tents too? Or was that a different “gathering”.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry for the autonomous zone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone
This is where I am at. While we joke about these thugs’ inability to think past their noses, they still are capable of cracking open our skulls with their favorite technique…a blind shot from behind with brass knuckles. They still manage to acquire and detonate Molotov cocktail-like explosives that ruin people’s lives and livelihoods. The short response, they aren’t funny, they are dangerous criminals. They aren’t cute little teenagers testing their adulthood, they are vicious and evil destructors of anything of value. I would love to see a national coordinated roundup, even if Amazon gets sued for hundreds of billions for breach of contract on facial recognition, Put an end to this rioting the sooner the better. Peaceful protests in the daytime are fine. Burning property at night absolutely not allowed.
It’s a serious issue, especially if the radicals decided they can do this not just in Seattle, but in every deep Blue city in a deep Blue state in the country, because the mayors and governors are too feckless to act. The ‘fun’ part is watching how this plays out, because now that Trump has come out and issued a warning to officials to take care of the CHAZ problem or he’ll send in federal troops, the Pavlovian reaction to oppose Trump has set in, resulting in this absurd Twitter thread, where the mayor of Seattle and the Washington State governor are supporting the leader of the occupiers:
Why is this occupation being treated any differently than it would be if the occupying force were agents of a foreign government? By declaring the area not part of the United States of America, the occupiers have declared that they are enemies of the United States intent on hostile action against the citizens of the United States who are trapped inside the occupied zone.
What Trump was responding to was probably this:
This post should be renamed “A Mayor’s Treason.”
Except they are patrolling the perimeter with “assault” rifles.
Funny you should mention that. Project Veritas’ latest video has dropped, and it’s about where the money comes from.
Andy Zee’s “ResistFa” is an offshoot of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Jeff Bezos is willing to risk your life and property to make himself feel good.
I wonder if many people have really looked at BLM manifesto. It is possible to say black lives matter, as an inarguable point, but supporting Black Lives Matter as in what their manifesto is, seems unwise. I couldn’t do that. It is anti family, etc. and radical. It seems to be asking for chaos and instability more than anything, at least for those of us with jobs and families and who lead pretty low keyed normal lives.
I don’t know why saying all lives matter is a bad thing, it is much more inclusive and tolerant to me.
As did Iraq when ISIS began taking their cities and turning them into a “Caliphate”.
It did not bode well for Iraq, until they let the coalition help them restore order.
The important thing is that you were able to bring the fascists to the negotiating table.
Send drones.
Police should respond to deadly force with deadly force. Warn them repeatedly via loudspeaker. Fire warning shots, perhaps. But never tolerate violence.
Some would say that escalates the situation. Well, look where a defensive posture has led.
The same principles are true of group defense as of individual defense. Self-defense is not vengeance. It is not an attempt at punishment or retributive justice. It is removing an imminent threat to survival by eliminating the danger, crippling it, or scaring it away.
Predators should — predators must — fear a just government. The moment a police department was under siege, the FBI and National Guard should have been mobilized with live ammunition.
According to reports at Fox News and in the Daily Wire, the thugs who claim to have set up the “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone” and declared it to be not a part of the USA, are making many demands on the governments of Seattle and of the United States, many of the demands claiming rights as United States citizens. But I fail to see the basis for claiming rights as United States citizens since they have renounced being part of the United States.
Has anyone seen “Viridiana” by Bunuel? I could swear this was
I think we could end this whole thing by sending hamburgers. McDonalds, if one exists in Seattle. Just open the happy meal boxes and let the smell waft over the barricades.
It’s not real, at least in terms of the general population in the Puget Sound region. I just read Thursday’s Tacoma News Tribune. There hasn’t been one syllable about the takeover in that paper.
Completely agree.
In fact, I offer myself and my consulting company to be appointed as ambassador to CHAZ to set about establishing diplomatic ties to the fascist government there.
First we need to set the rate of compensation for the expropriated property within the area and the specific individuals who should be held liable for paying the compensation.
Then we need to establish the rates for utility services in to the area probably based on per capita.
We need to establish a treaty for extradition and repatriation.
we need to agree on some form of common currency by which they can pay their bills to the United States.
Much like the Cook islands rely upon New Zealand for their foreign diplomacy and external affairs we need to establish some sort of arrangement for the same with the Chaz.
Treat them seriously and stick it to them hard it’s the way international diplomacy works.
If we are really vicious we can give them recognition in the UN and set them up with the international monetary fund.
I like your malicious thinking. Though I think I’d reverse the order of the first and second events. And cut off utilities during the negotiations to improve negotiation leverage for both the rates for utility services and property compensation.
I had been more thinking of the irony that this group that claims to want out of the USA nonetheless want to claim rights as USA citizens.
That is another thing. I would use my embassy to permit those members to surrender their American citizenship. If (when) CHAZ fails spectacularly, I would then deport all those former citizens to refugee camps in Syria.
Another thing, setting up a new country is an expensive thing and there are bound to be people within CHAZ who wish to remain citizens of the USA and be compensated for their property that has been expropriated by CHAZ. So, I would as the President to order the seizure of all of the supporters of CHAZ (as determined by their donations to the country) to be used to recompense those residents in CHAZ who no longer enjoy the privileges and immunities of being in the USA.
Since CHAZ is going to improve lives tremendously, the compensation negotiations should start at 5X the Pre-CHAZ value, to be paid from the seized assets.
There are vacancies at Guantanamo.
I agree with you. I am thinking about something that Douglas Murray brought up towards the end of Ben Shapiro’s Sunday Special a few weeks ago. He mentioned that conservatives and liberals speak on different levels: when liberals talk about resentment and envy, the right goes on about tax loopholes, etc. The emotional chords and tenor are not the same at all. Think of why Obama won in 2008- the whole thing was about hope. There was nothing that McCain could counter that with (well not after picking Sarah Palin). Murray’s suggestion is to counter resentment and envy with aspiration, despair or hope.
This brings me to my question and concern: where is Trump? Where are the Republican lawmakers? Since Cotton’s op-ed piece, it’s been a long silence. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve heard Tucker Carlson every night excoriating the left-wing posturing, but nothing from the right. Trump has held meetings with black community leaders- that’s fine. But what else has he got? The narrative of the left has to be countered and it feels like there is a void at the top with no one who seems to want to do the heavy lifting, not since Cotton’s op-ed.
We get to hear BLM and their activist friends using a full array of angry emotional language and there is no counter attack and defense of the country’s values. I really do think Trump has to stand up and say something much more forcefully and soberly about what he’s actually going to do about countering all of this- and not in a tweet. The last time we heard from him publicly, he made the speech in the Rose Garden and then walked to the church. All fine. But it’s been too long now- he’s approaching Obama-like levels of dormancy. Thoughts?
Do we even prosecute for treason anymore? We should.
I keep thinking there might be something to the idea of forcing them to live out their North Korean juche fantasies. Isolate them, leave them alone, don’t intervene and don’t assist, wait, then punish. I think a loss of citizenship for participants is in order after that. As for the leaders, hmmmm……
As for anyone associated with them – asset forfeiture and held in escrow until claims against it are satisfied.
Treason is one of only three crimes detailed in the US constitution. While their behavior is treasonous, in accordance with the common dictionary definition, it does not meet the definition of Treason in the US constitution.
Take a look at the wikipedia entry – most people convicted treason in the US are eventually pardoned. In our nation, Treason is practically a dead letter crime.
To our shame. Many of the convictions should have been carried through to the just conclusion, but haven’t.
The Mayor as well.
except all the stupid people would not get the joke.