Seattle police early Wednesday began finally clearing out the squatters village known as CHOP.
The Seattle Police Department, using bicycles, began clearing out the area formerly known as the Capitol Hill “autonomous zone,” which was later called the “occupied” protest zone. The acronym-challenged bunch running the place seems to be confused about what it all means, but they know one thing today: They’re going, going, gone.
Video from earlier this morning as @SeattlePD moved on #CHOP to end occupation. #Q13FOX pic.twitter.com/A9ucQRYBB0
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) July 1, 2020
The clearing out began in earnest at 5 a.m. Pacific Wednesday, about a day and a half after Mayor Jenny Durkan’s co-council member, Kshama Sawant, led a contingent of the screamers to her house. All of a sudden, things weren’t so bueno anymore.
Durkan responded by trying to get Sawant expelled from the council.
Seattle’s CHOP
Where do we begin with counting all the ironies?
The murder of George Floyd (remember him?) in Minneapolis prompted the Seattle group of professional protesters more than a week later to take over the area of the police department’s East Precinct after Durkan abandoned it, mirroring the blunder by the Minneapolis mayor.
Violent – yes, violent – Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters began squatting in that section of Seattle’s Capitol Hill on June 8, demanding that the police force be abolished “by any means necessary.”
Since then Durkan has indulged their every grievance and looked the other way as residents and businesses have begged her to clean out their neighborhood of this rabble, who have been terrifying the them and shaking them down for goods, services and money.
She joked on CNN that the encampment might usher in the “summer of love,” words she’s learned to regret after unprecedented violence in the area.
Durkan even trolled an upset President Trump that “Seattle is fine” and he should “not be so afraid.”
.@MayorJenny's tweet has aged well. pic.twitter.com/EzQpTup329
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 1, 2020
Seattle wasn’t fine.
And, appropriately, in the end, Durkan is afraid for her political life.
Seattle Social Workers
Durkan tried pleading with the violent protesters and they didn’t leave. She sent in social workers and black community members to talk to them and they didn’t leave. After shootings in which the police chief pleaded with the protesters to stop the violence, they didn’t leave.
There’s been more violence at CHOP since the protesters took over than there was all of last year in a larger area of Capitol Hill.
Seattle councilmembers say we should reject any claim #CHOP plays a role in the recent violence seen on Capitol Hill. Here's some perspective. @SeattlePD crime stats point to 2 homicides in Cap Hill in all of 2019. There have been 2 homicides in Cap Hill the past 10 days #Q13FOX pic.twitter.com/CbwIC6ir6y
— Simone Del Rosario (@SimoneReports) June 30, 2020
Protesters have run protection and shake-down rackets, committed rape, murdered two people and shot several more. In fact, the so called CHOP security people with Black Lives Matter and antifa have shot and killed more black men than the cops, certainly over the same period of time and probably longer.
Durkan’s folly is that she slashed the police budget on orders from the mob, intentionally blew off the recommendations of her police chief, who should have resigned to make the point, tried to replace cops with social workers, and then, in the end, used the police to clear out the protesters who never should have been allowed to camp out in the first place.
Seattle voters should clean house at city hall. This indulgence by the clueless mayor and her minions could have been avoided if she’d remembered first principles and the rule of law and treated everyone equally. Instead, those protesters were more equal than others. You’d think a former U.S. attorney would have known this. But she’s learned nothing.
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