Seattle protesters storm City Hall, demand mayor resign after driving police out of area, declaring autonomous zone
By: Vandana Rambaran (Fox News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The group is also calling for the mayor to resign.
Hundreds of protesters, aided by a sympathetic City Council member, stormed Seattle's City Hall Tuesday night to demand the mayor's resignation, just days after seizing a six-block downtown zone that includes a shuttered police precinct.
Demonstrators remained peaceful, without reports of violence or injuries, but are pushing Mayor Jenny Durkan to step down if she refuses to defund the city's police department.
The protesters continued to camp out in a self-declared "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ)-- a region spanning six blocks and encompassing the precinct-- which has effectively been abandoned by law enforcement after the Seattle Police Department closed the East Precinct on Monday.
For more than two weeks following the death of George Floyd -- an unarmed black man who died in police custody after a former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes -- hundreds of demonstrators all over the country took to the streets to condemn police brutality.
In some cities, like Seattle, pockets of violence erupted as a result of clashes with law enforcement.
Rodney Maine displays his new "Black Lives Matter" tattoo after asking a passerby to take his photo in front of a plywood-covered and fenced-off Seattle police precinct Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
On Sunday night, a protester in Capitol Hill was shot and wounded and in another incident, a man drove his car through a throng of protesters and opened fire when a demonstrator approached the car window, police said.
After nearly two weeks of sparring -- during which protesters threw glass bottles, rocks, and other items at police, and officers deployed pepper spray and tear gas to break up crowds -- the police department made efforts to roll back aggressive policing tactics in an effort to quell the violence.
Since the police cleared out two nights ago, the area has remained relatively peaceful, despite the ongoing demonstrations.
Demonstrator Keith Brown, right, talks with Seattle Fire Dept. Assistant Chief Willie Barrington as they plan to remove makeshift barricades protesters had put up in the streets next to a Seattle police precinct Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Police said they will be responding to the area only if there is a 911 call for an emergency.
On Friday, Durkan banned the use of tear gas by police, but protesters say it's far from enough in a climate fraught with tension and distrust for law enforcement.
Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant met protesters inside City Hall on Tuesday night-- even though the building is usually closed at night-- Komo News reported.
In response to Tuesday night's protests, Durkan's office said in a statement that she remains committed to making "actual steps on policing" and other measures of reform.
"As the person who originally investigated the Seattle Police Department for the unconstitutional use of force, Mayor Durkan believes that SPD can lead the nation on continued reforms and accountability, but knows this week has eroded trust at a time when trust is most crucial," the statement said.
Vandana Rambaran is a reporter covering news and politics at foxnews.com.
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They stormed the city hall "peacefully"/s
Black Lives Matter continues to target American cities as it devours progressive mayors. The powerful group demands defunding of police departments.
Trump is off topic
I was thinking the exact same thing. You can't storm anything peacefully. I am sure the mayor appreciated their up close and personal opinion making.
Lol and ISIS is taking notes.
Think BLM will start a black caliphate in Seattle?
Why not? All bow before them!
de Blasio is naming a street for them in each of the 5 boroughs!
I was on Amazon this morning and they are pledging solidarity with the hate filled movement!
"University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers and dozens of other academics are leading a massive effort to have an senior faculty member at the University of Chicago removed from his position at the world's preeminent economics journal -- all because he criticized Black Lives Matter's push to defund police departments."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio knuckled under to protesters Sunday and promised to cut funding to “New York’s Finest.”
According to the standards of NT THEY ARE!
Who?
Apparently …… "Peaceful Points" really do kill !
“so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”..Alice in Wonderland
I beg to differ. We know that because of the enormous amount of black on black violence & murder that these mayors don't care about.
Give 'em the city. Let's see how well they do running it.
Check out this article from Toronto in 2016:
Toronto's legendary Pride Parade is a festival of inclusiveness – a good-natured rainbow coalition that embraces every letter of the LGBTQ alphabet. It's so inclusive that even straight people march in it. Its message is: Loud, proud and unbowed. Nobody can bully us any more.
Well, almost nobody. The new bully on the block is Black Lives Matter , a tiny group of noisy activists who borrow their branding and their belligerence from the United States. They've proved they can bully just about anyone, including city hall, the mayor and the provincial Premier. The Pride Parade was a pushover.
Black Lives Matter was this year's guest of honour at the Pride Parade. They graciously returned the favour by accusing their hosts of "anti-blackness," and halting the parade until their demands were met.
"We are under attack," shouted Alexandria Williams, one of the Toronto group's co-founders. "Pride Toronto, we are calling you out!" Ms. Williams said, as reported by the Toronto Star. She accused Pride of "a historical and current culture of anti-blackness" that is "deeply embedded in the festival."
You'd think, just weeks after the slaughter in Orlando, that they might have chosen to cede the spotlight to the dead and wounded, who really were under attack. But no. The Black Lives Matter activists are firmly convinced that they are at the very top of the pyramid of oppression. Only after the parade's executives meekly agreed to all of their demands (basically, more money for their projects) did they allow the show to go on.
Interesting, isn't it?
Let the "Whose the lessor minority" battle begin.
I'm sure they got pointers watching armed right wingers storm their state capitals last month.
You need to learn the definition of "stormed".
How many politicians were threatened physically, how many were confronted, how much property damage was done during those "right wing" protests?
Also, the end the shut down protest in Lansing was hardly right wing. Unless you consider small business owners, lawn care workers, and barbers right wing?
The left seems to be all in on mob rule, hope they like the results,
NT's resident alt-right need to learn a lot of definitions. As I pointed out per the seeded article -
hmmm..
These guys at Lansing don't look like lefties!
I don’t remember any public buildings and property being taken over by force in Lansing. Do you a have link that shows that? Of course you don’t because it doesn’t exist. It didn’t happen and you have no cogent point to make.
Time to put some of that urban combat and CQB experience to work.
It’ll be a walk in the park Kazansky