Too close to home

Barb and I live in Bellevue. Several miles and the other side of a large lake (Lake Washington) from Seattle. Mob violence is almost common in Seattle and has been for at least 20 years.

We’ve never seen or heard of riots and looting in Bellevue. That changed yesterday:

Bellevue declared a civil emergency throughout the Eastside city and imposed a curfew Sunday evening for downtown in response to protests that began in the afternoon and turned violent after groups broke into the city’s high-end malls and started stealing items.

The crowds and looting prompted Mayor Lynne Robinson to request assistance from the National Guard for the first time in at least 30 years, and a warning from Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett that anyone caught not adhering to the curfew would “go to jail.”

The protests over police misconduct, triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, have seized larger metro cities, including Seattle, but surprised Bellevue, which, as a city of about 148,000 residents, traditionally sees fewer instances of street activism. Gov. Jay Inslee activated the National Guard in response to the request, with up to 200 unarmed troops to assist the city’s officers.

“They became a force, a force of destruction,” Mylett said at a news conference Sunday evening. “They were not there to protest the death of George Floyd, the tragedy of George Floyd. They were there to destroy.”

Several people broke into Bellevue Square and stole items from the mall’s stores, according to the police department. Neighboring businesses had windows smashed. Outside a New Balance store, empty red shoeboxes were strewn on the ground.

The Police Department called more than 200 law enforcement officials, including all its officers, along with police from the Kirkland and Redmond and Washington State Patrol troopers.

Yesterday I also received information there is another protest planned at a different Bellevue location. It is almost within rock throwing distance from the company where I work.

This is way too close to home.

I’m preparing in case they move out into the suburbs.

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14 thoughts on “Too close to home

  1. Yep, we’re prepping here too. This is starting to look like it could be the start of CW II.

    Fortunately, for now, we live outside of the Seattle-Tacoma metro area in the country. We’re still too close, but how far is far enough? We’re seeing unrest across the state. Will any place be safe? I suspect the answer is no.

  2. “preparing”? I would have thought that you were already “prepared.”

    • I assume “preparing” means loading more weapons and having more weapons in more locations so that something is always close to hand.

      • Not in this case.

        It means acting upon more specific information about the nature of the threat(s).

        I would rather not discuss specifics but here are some things to think about:

        1) What are the road conditions? Winter with icy roads versus wet versus dry. Are there slippery obstacles for you or the threat?
        2) What is the current state of the foliage and other concealment/cover?
        3) What is the current state of fences, walkways, and yards in the neighborhood?
        4) If you are targeted can you be flanked or do they have to approach head on?
        5) Given the probable resources available to the specific threat how can you defeat them?

  3. Happened in Spokane last night too, and in one of the Tri-Cities in SE WA State. NG were called out in both cases.

    So the nagging question in all of this, and for years now, is; why hasn’t Soros and his “network of associations” been shut down and the principles arrested? It’s a rhetorical question of course, because on-going, everlasting tolerance of sedition is, effectively, cooperation with sedition.

    So; “Street Activism” it is now, eh? The anti-American / anti-western civ types have been calling it “Direct Action” for some time. They are thus always trying to disassociate themselves from themselves. Whatever. So this means that a respectful, peaceable demonstration by anyone on the pro-American (pro-liberty) side will eventually be lumped in with this violent leftist sort (guilt by presumption of association), and treated as a terrorist act. That is to say; after we’ve lobbied successfully for it to happen to the other guys, it will be turned around and used against us. The first amendment is as much a target as the second.

    Also I am reminded that these “street activists” are of the same mindset that has been advocating for “Peace” for near sixty years now. As David Burn said; “Same As It Ever Was”. Their message has always been the same; burn your own city down and rob the innocent for “peace” and “justice”.

    Meanwhile, no one involved in this recent spate of “street activism” seems to understand that we have a legal justice system already working on this, already doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing. That’s because this isn’t about Floyd’s death, nor was it ever about peace, or justice, nor is it about “helping the little guy”, nor the environment or ending poverty, or any of the other rationalizations for wholesale crime.

    So a good policy, I believe, is to look past the rationalizations. See them as irrelevant (they practically always are), and instead consider where this is designed to lead us, or “nudge” us. For example, if the Floyd killing was a “trigger” then who and/or what built the gun, loaded it, flipped off the safety and took aim beforehand, and what can be done about him?

  4. Can you retire early and GTFO?

    In March of last year my wife and I decided urban centers were not where we wanted to be. We met with our planner and he said we were in good enough shape to get out early.

    We traveled two weeks in that spring, a month in Summer, a week in Fall and fell in love with SW Idaho.

    Our new home in Middleton closes tomorrow and I will be eternally grateful to have got out before Covid and the political violence started. My previous hometown is under curfew because the very same ‘heroes’ That beat up Trump supporters four years ago are now destroying the down town.

    Funny, how it’s okay to assault people(of the correct political affiliation), but you start tearing down the business interests of The Board of Supervisors, and City Hall and the cops are all over it.

    • I could work from home anywhere I have a good Internet connection so work isn’t tying me to this location. Barb owns the house we live in and we would like to protect it and our possessions here. That said, there is a “Plan B” option if things look too bad. But we aren’t expecting things to migrate this far from the dense downtown areas and big stores that are lightly defended and have lots of new merchandise susceptible to looting.

      My take on the general attitudes in Bellevue from the Police Chief to the “people next door” is that they aren’t going to tolerate any more crap. I don’t think it would require many “protest” events taking heavy casualties to cause the bad actors to look for softer targets. Of course, I didn’t expect them to attack downtown Bellevue either.

  5. Right; how bad does it need to get before you’ve decided it’s gotten too bad, and will it have been too late at that stage? Ask yourself whether you suffer from a kind of normalcy bias, and how you would even answer that question (the sufferer is typically the last to know).

    One of the problems we all have is that this recent episode, like all the others before it, will subside, and there will be a period of relative peace, until there isn’t. When the level of criminal insanity comes which is bad enough that you’ll decide to split, it will likely come so fast that there may not be time to split.

    The Bible has quite a lot to say on this matter, all throughout, by the way, but who reads THAT anymore? Anyway; I’m resigned to the fact that “it” is coming, and that I might not survive it if it should come before accident or “natural causes” get me. As for heading for the hills; meh. Maybe, and maybe not. One must meet one’s end either way, and so the point is to meet it well.

  6. Unarmed National Guard are just targets. Why do people sign up for this?

    • Barb and I were shaking our heads in astonishment about that this morning. I’d be inclined to give them truckloads of ammo and spare barrels for their M240s and M249s. With appropriate rules of engagement, of course.

  7. Wow,you would think the BATF trapped 60 black people in a building then burned it down or something.

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