Violence returned to Seattle this weekend, and that has police fuming about the city’s “naïve or deliberate” decision that made it inevitable.
Seattle police reported at least 23 arrests on Saturday at Cal Anderson Park during MayDayUSA’s “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” rally — and the pro-LGBTQ counter-protest. According to the Seattle Times, “Roughly 500 people attended the prayer rally” and “about as many turned out in protest.”
Police ordered the LGBTQ counter-protesters to “back away from officers and to stop throwing items at officers,” but instead, fighting broke out.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) said on X Saturday night that they don’t have “the proper staffing to handle any more of these demonstrations that turn into mass arrests.”
They also warned that “this city lacks the political will to allow police to use the necessary tools to hold back criminal mobs to protect life and property.”
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement that the city “is proud of our reputation as a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand with our trans neighbors when they face bigotry and injustice.”
“Today’s far-right rally was held here for this very reason – to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.”
Why, yes, that was a provocative location for a MayDayUSA rally — and entirely the city’s fault.
According to MayDayUSA’s Folake Kellogg, a Wenatchee-based pastor, the group applied to hold their event at Victor Steinbrueck Park, but the city denied that permit. Instead, Seattle Parks and Recreation required MayDayUSA to hold their rally at Cal Anderson in “the heart of ANTIFA land,” as SPOG put it.
What followed was as inevitable as the city’s rain and fog.
Mayor Harrell ordered Parks & Rec to review whether there were “legal location alternatives or other adjustments that could have been pursued” before issuing the permit. But since MayDayUSA originally requested Victor Steinbrueck Park — and held an entirely peaceful protest in New York City earlier this month — it sure looks to me like the provocation was deliberate.
My only question is whether Harrell knew of the decision in advance, or perhaps even put his thumb on the scale.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) says cops have had enough.
“What we are struggling to understand is why was this park chosen and authorized,” SPOG said. The organization has “no doubt that this city decision, as naïve or deliberate as it was, put police officers in an untenable predicament. Whether it’s our job or not, we were once again ordered to put ourselves into a political quagmire.”
More than 200 Seattle police officers quit or retired following the city’s mishandling of the BLM and Antifa riots of 2020 that included the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) — an actual secession movement. Today, Seattle PD has an authorized force size of 1,200 officers but fewer than 900 on duty.
Ominously, SPOG warned that “28% of the city’s remaining 847 deployable police officers (284) are eligible to retire,” and that if Saturday’s violence “is a precursor of future events,” then SPD may see another wave of officers leaving the force.
“Moving forward,” SPOG concluded, “the Seattle Police Department is hiring.”
Yes, but who would be crazy enough to apply?
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