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Lawless in Seattle
Sleepless in Seattle has morphed into Lawless in Seattle. From the City Journal:
Seattle’s hard-Left secessionist movement has claimed its first territory: six blocks in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
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.”
An exercise in trust and de-escalation did not work too well. There may be some police officers that should be removed from police work, and Chief Carmen Best should be one of them. Seattle now has their very own Warlord running the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
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.
Businesses in Capitol Hill are being strong-armed for a $500 fee, payable in cash or Bitcoin to support the revolution. One business owner is hoping that it’s a one-time charge.
A second coup was attempted at city hall.
Politically, the Seattle City Council has already begun to champion the protesters’ demands. Socialist Alternative councilwoman Kshama Sawant declared the takeover a “victory” against “the militarized police force of the political establishment and the capitalist state.” Three councilmembers have signaled support for a 50 percent reduction in the police budget, with additional councilmembers likely to support a similar policy in the coming weeks. Sawant also opened Seattle’s City Hall—which had been closed by the mayor—to protesters, who immediately occupied the building.
Left unsaid was that Kshama Sawant unlocked city hall that was closed due to Covid-19 to allow protestors to occupy it and demand the Mayor resign. Not that I have any empathy for the Mayor. She is a socialist as well, but she was elected by the voters of Seattle, as dim as they might be.
I don’t expect Governor Inslee to be much help in this situation. He and Senator Patty Murray are competing, and in a dead heat for the title of, Dumbest Person in the State of Washington.
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Thanks for nothing.
This is not of a kind with state pensions and public debt. This is the “domestic” part of “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
In a war there will unfortunately always be collateral damage and casualties when trying to dislodge an enemy from territory the enemy has taken over. The question is whether whether the collateral damage and casualties are greater by leaving the area to the enemy for at least a while (in the expectation that the enemy will eventually fail), or by the bombs and gunfire that would be used to try to dislodge the enemy by active means.
It might be soon anyway, if their new rulers decree that they must take in others who need shelter. Especially if they are otherwise unable to pay the “tribute” via bitcoin.
To me that sounds like the Seattle mayor and city council, perhaps the Washington state legislature and governor…
That might even be my best suggestion, actually. Local authorities have first responsibility to deal with these issues. Rather than sending federal troops to deal directly with the bottom-end criminals, better to arrest-and-whatever the state and local officials who aren’t doing their duties as mandated by law.
I’m also inclined to let them stew in their own juices.
What about the people who live there? Odds are very high that a significant majority of them are leftists of some stripe or other. This is what they vote for. This is what they agitate for. They can now get it, good and hard. As for any non-leftists in the area, they can take it up with their leftist friends and family. Not my problem.
I keep thinking of a couple that we used to know. The woman was a pretty good friend of my wife. They packed up and moved from Dallas to Seattle back in the naughts because they just “couldn’t stand to live in the state that George Bush was from anymore.” I wonder how they’re enjoying their progressive utopia, and what rationalizations they’ve come up with for how this is all the fault of conservatives/Republicans/Trump.
They are not doing it.
If you mean the feds aren’t doing anything, so far, that’s true. My point is that, if/when they do start taking some action, rather than go directly for the… street-level malefactors… they should go after the mayor, city council, etc who are letting it happen.
In the previously-given example of desegregating schools in the south, I believe the governors themselves were subject to arrest, not just the National Guard troops who may have been posted at the schools.
Which goes to my original comment on this, My question about the governor and mayor being involved in a criminal conspiracy to deprive citizens of their civil liberties and failing to ensure a representative form of government.
Which you very carefully failed to address.
I’ve seen this (CHAZ) on twitter and I don’t know how serious or meaningful it is. I think it looks bad, I think it makes the governor and mayor look bad. But I don’t know the extent to which they “control” the CHAZ.
But as someone stuck in Michigan I am just shocked at how the media excuses this when people lost their freaking (also probably little?) minds when some dudes showed up with guns at the MI capital building. The freakout was so disingenuous. Also, while I’m generally supportive of law enforcement/LEOs, I think it should be clear now that things can go really wrong quickly and when things go really really wrong we should be prepared to be on our own, and people who propose gun bans/registries either have a religious commitment to the policy or don’t have our best interests at heart.
I did? Go back and look at #34 again.
How much does Seattle have to spend to ransom the businesses and residents held hostage to these thugs?
We fought a civil war to help clarify what the limits of federalism and states’ rights are.
Oddly enough, lefty MSM media is not celebrating the people’s liberation of Seattle. CNN’s website has a small item at the bottom of the page in the “Republicans pounce” genre. MSNBC also has a tiny item about the Seattle police opening an HQ somewhere new.
I think there is a perception that this is not a good look for the left and a big political loser. Instead, the big story is a reported surge in COVID cases in states with bad (GOP) Governors who dared to re-open. What a joke.
But please don’t move to a red state and try and turn it blue. I feel so fortunate to live in a bedroom community in a mid-sized Southern city.
This situation might not be as serious as it seems, unless the perpetrators get desperate and take hostages. Some local people (for their own amusement) have advertised to the homeless that they had free food, and apparently a bunch of homeless people came and took most of their food, so now the perpetrators are asking people to give them food. Essentially, they’re being beseiged by homeless people. Expect people to start leaving the area soon.
You mean more Hitler – he’s been Hitler since the very second he was he was sworn in.
Since the US military can take them any day of the week and twice on Sunday, I reckon Trump is best served by splitting the difference; point out how pathetic the leadership is until they eventually beg for his help and then go through there like a hot knife through snowflakes.
These morons think they’re re-enacting the barricades in Les Misérables . If the authorities engage them with weapons it will create martyrs. If this is allowed to stand, it has undermined the country. This is outrageous.
Presumably they can just walk out. Not sure how much they would be permitted to take with them by their new overlords.
Yes, well, maybe it’s time to rethink things a bit. Seriously, as things are going I don’t see how we can stay together as a country unless the insistence on on-size-fits-all governance is relaxed quite a bit. Engineers know that structures can’t be too rigid — you need expansion joints in the bridge or it’ll collapse. The more polarized we get, the more elbow room we’re going to need in order to not break apart completely.
Seattle can celebrate leftist loons taking over their capitol and Texas can legalize full-auto weapons if we want. I’ll take that deal.
I’m inclined to let them fail without military intervention. If the military does go in and puts it down, that community project gets martyred and we have to hear about how glorious it was and how it was nipped it in the bud. Left to its own moronic devices, I suspect it will fail due to infighting or the supply of meat substitutes (theft from homeless population?).
The military should have been called in to aid the police and Nat Guard to defend the area. The militants are extorting business owners for protection money like the mafia does and for that reason alone, we now have to see if Trump will make good on his tweeted threat to do something and simply bring in the military and demonstrate that the government will not allow militants to extort fellow citizens.
The citizens of Chaz can rethink their position on prisons from inside of one.
Molon Labe.I have a present for them.
Those living in the zone need to organize for self defense.
I have the means to arm a bunch of my neighbors.
Has Inslee even acknowledged the situation yet? Yesterday he seemed blissfully unaware that it was happening, and laughed it off. The mayor doesn’t seem to give a crap, and the city council sounds like they’re aiding and abetting.
A bunch of ranchers in the middle of nowhere take over some of that nowhere in a land dispute, and it’s national news, and they send in the troops to take em out.
But several city blocks get taken over by terrorists who declare themselves an independent country, and Washington gives them a little pat on the head like they’re bright young things who just proudly scribbled a crayon drawing.
Maybe if there were videos of the revolutionaries using plastic straws and dead-naming Caitlin Jenner, the Governor would be moved to intervene.
We created this in the ’60s when we let college students commit crimes on campus and it became a rite of passage for maturity-challenged
wannabeelitists.I watched the 25 minute presser with the Seattle Mayor and police chief. According to them since there have been no police reports re: paying of tributes, violence, etc. it’s, apparently, not occurring. So let’s all take a stress pill and think things over.
If a murder victim falls in a forest and no police are there to hear about it, did a crime even occur?
I suppose one might think that they’re treating the situation just like parents might let a child “tantrum it out.” Except I doubt they’re that introspective.