Bellevue has seen many peaceful protests since Mr. Floyd’s death, and we welcome them all. But the criminals who engaged in the violence are on notice; they won’t get away with it. We have dedicated extensive resources to investigate these crimes and will take as long as necessary to identify and arrest those responsible. I cannot emphasize it enough, the criminal behavior leading to these arrests has absolutely nothing to do with people raising their voices in opposition to Mr. Floyd’s death or demands to end systemic racism.
Steve Mylett
Bellevue Washington Chief of Police
Residents’ video clips lead to looting arrests
[Also from the same post:
Bellevue police have arrested 23 people connected with the looting and destruction in downtown Bellevue and have recovered more than $50,000 in merchandise. Detectives have also identified nearly a hundred other suspects and are continuing those investigations.
…
Last Friday, Bellevue police served a warrant on a looting suspect in Renton. A 26-year-old man, seen driving the red truck in the video, was arrested on charges of Burglary 2nd, Possession of Stolen Property, Possession of Methamphetamine, and Dangerous Weapons. Investigators recovered $19,000 worth of suspected stolen merchandise, alcohol, and tobacco products. Detectives also confiscated an AK-47, a 10 mm Glock, stockpiles of ammunition, drugs, and cash.
…
We are just beginning to make arrests in these cases. The public has shared at least 10-thousand pieces of video and photographic evidence of the looting and violence. The public’s assistance has been a tremendous help. We will continue to work with our regional and federal partners to hold these individuals accountable.
Barb read the blog post to me over dinner. She has a very high opinion of the Bellevue police. This is especially true when compared to her opinion of the Seattle police department (“They don’t do anything.”). The blog post quoted above further bolstered her opinion of Bellevue.
It’s a good start. I hope they are able to follow through to convictions and non-trivial sentences for the guilty. These people need to pay a heavy price for their crimes.—Joe]
In other words, rich liberals are fine with poor blacks and entitled and ignorant white activists burning down and looting in poor and black neighborhoods, but have ZERO! TOLERANCE! for it in their own back yard, and that’s different because reasons. How very kind of them to support BLM in other places.
Well, not all of Bellevue is as affluent as many believe. My daughter and her family wanted to live in Bellevue due to it being close to where her husband worked. The areas where they could afford to rent were not where I was content for them to live and I told them so. And, by the way, I am not some wealthy snobby person so don’t even go there. I was bothered enough that I allowed them to live with my wife and me so they could save enough money for a down payment on a home which took two years. Stereotypes do not serve anyone. Not sure how the Bellevue police enforcing the rule of law equates to the population of Bellevue supporting rioting elsewhere.
Not seeing where the OP said anything about ” poor blacks and entitled and ignorant white activists “… anything? Separating protestors from rioters with statements like “arrests has absolutely nothing to do with people raising their voices in opposition to Mr. Floyd’s death or demands to end systemic racism.” seems to me like something we should all do.
And, if you haven’t been to a pro freedom protest lately let me remind everyone that we always gather the first Friday of Session on the Capitol steps to rally for our RKBA. See you there 😉
Generally speaking, most of Bellevue is politically pretty liberal. https://www.bestplaces.net/voting/city/washington/bellevue .
Yes, there are exceptions, and there are still some lower rent districts.
Yes, I agree that the Bellevue police should enforce the rule of law there. As should the police in Seattle and elsewhere. It’s the hypocrisy and double standards that so many (both left and right, but right now HUGELY apparent on the left/radical-left) that I object to.
Bellevue has proven that they have, at least in some part, the right people in office to perform the conditio sine qua non of their offices: to protect the lives, property and liberty of their constituents.
That’s a problem, however. As Seattle has proven, the wrong people in office will do everything except their essential duty.
To paraphrase Milton Friedman, your life, liberty and property are not protected when the right people are elected to office to do the right thing. Your life, liberty and property are safe when the wrong people are elected, but cannot avoid doing the right thing.
The law is badly formed at this time because there are more and more restrictive law that bear on the citizen, and less and less constrains on those that exercise the publicly authorized powers. This needs to be inverted: the laws bearing on the individual need to be reduced, also reducing and constraining the scope of government. Laws concerning malum in se should be as clear and uncontrovertible as possible. Laws of the malum prohibitum type should be reduced to the minimum scope possible, and none should be felonies.
At the same time, the constraints on how, when and what manner an individual can wield a public power should be quite constrained, and severe penalties for misuse, abuse or use in private interest, and those restrictions vigorously enforced.
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Unfortunately the police investigators are focusing on bringing just the useful idiots to justice for the lawlessness and not the puppet masters.
There will always be useful idiots to manipulate, and if they are the only ones that pay a price for civil unrest then the cycle will continue. The puppet masters don’t care how many of their minions get hammered, in fact they are very happy to use them as cannon fodder for propaganda purposes. Playing their game by their rules is a lose/lose situation for those who love Liberty.