The police response to the attempted anarchist revolution which emerged out of the 2020 riots in Seattle was haphazard and directionless throughout the entire sorry episode. Behind the scenes, however, the city’s response to the infamous Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) was even worse than what the public could see at the time. The Seattle Times has now revealed that city officials were planning to do something even worse than what we saw actually unfold.
City officials failed to prevent violence
The negligent response to CHOP led to a tragedy in which two teenagers were shot and killed in the protest zone before the city finally restored order.
Even before the killings, CHOP was a volatile and dangerous mess of shootings and other criminal activities which terrorized locals and turned part of the city into a far-left commune.
The Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct was at the center of the protests and was the target of much of the anti-police sentiment.
Under pressure from the rioters, the police department decided to temporarily evacuate the East Precinct; the evacuation itself was poorly managed and rioters were allowed to take control of the building.
The East Precinct was never officially abandoned and the department ultimately reoccupied the building after CHOP became an embarrassment for the city and the protesters were cleared out.
Even before they had finished their temporary evacuation, however, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office was hold serious discussions about the possibility of officially transferring ownership of the building to the BLM protesters.
Seattle considered giving precinct to BLM
City officials exchanged emails about the idea and even went so far as to draft legislation which would see the property formally transferred to Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County in less than a month.
Then-Mayor Durkan did not come up with the idea, which was first suggested by the protesters themselves, who claimed that they would turn the building into a “community care” center.
Seattle Police Department officials claim that they were not included in any of these discussions and were not aware that the mayor’s office was making plans to officially abandon the East Precinct.
The former deputy mayor said in a deposition that it was the protesters who decided against the plan, rather than the city. The Seattle BLM organization apparently decided that it was not interested in formally owning (and becoming responsible for) the structure.
Former Mayor Durkan appears to have been directly involved in discussions about the fate of the East Precinct; she prompted the initial evacuation when she ordered that barricades keeping protesters away be removed.
Durkan now faces a major lawsuit from local businesses and residents for giving free reign to the rioters and letting CHOP entrench itself in their community.
