The Capital Hill area of Seattle which was occupied by protesters since early June has been retaken:

Seattle police, under orders from Mayor Jenny Durkan, cleared demonstrators out of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest Zone (CHOP) on Wednesday, after a series of shootings marred the ongoing protest movement.

City officers on bikes and in riot gear — with help from FBI agents and police from nearby Bellevue — began dispersing the crowd at about 5 a.m., authorities said.

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best reiterated her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which drove the protests, but said of the weekslong occupation of public streets: “Enough is enough.”

“I support peaceful demonstrations. Black lives matter and I too want to help propel this movement forward toward meaningful exchange in our community and meaningful change in our community,” Best told reporters. “But enough is enough. Our job is to protect and to serve the community.”

None of the reports I have been able to find have been negative. They have been surprisingly, to me, factual. Here is another example:

Police in Seattle have cleared out the city’s ‘autonomous zone’ and arrested over 30 protesters following an executive order from Mayor Jenny Durkan. ABC News reports that the “occupied” zone, which has been dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, was cleared by police on Wednesday. The order from Durkan came after four shootings, two of which were fatal, occured in the area within the last month.

“Due to ongoing violence and public safety issues in the East Precinct/Cal Anderson Park area, Mayor Jenny Durkan has issued an executive order to vacate the area,” the Seattle Police Department wrote on Twitter. “Seattle police will be in the area this morning enforcing the Mayor’s order.”

And from Capital Hill Seattle:

UPDATE 9:30 AM: SPD now reports 31 arrests for “failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession.”

There were no significant injuries reported. Around 6:30 AM, SPD said that a woman was reported going into labor on the east side of Cal Anderson Park.

UPDATE 11:21 AM: More arrests and a large police presence was reported at Broadway and Pine after a clash between officers and protesters. Nearby Seattle Central announced its campus was locked down during the ongoing police activity.

Police said officers “enforcing today’s order” were wearing “a higher-level of protective gear.”

“Police are utilizing this equipment because individuals associated w/the CHOP are known to be armed and dangerous/may be associated with shootings, homicides, robberies, assaults & other violent crimes,” the update read.

SPD was also investigating reports of vehicles circling the area with officers reporting individuals “with firearms/armor” inside. The vehicles also did not have visible license plates, SPD reported.

The vandalism and mess are horrendous (from here):

From Joseph Suttner @josephsuttner:

I still think my original suggestion that letting them take over for a while was the correct decision. They didn’t disperse on their own like I thought they would. But digging in and getting into a violent confrontation on day one or even day five probably would leave us in a worse situation that what we have now.

The children demonstrated to the entire world and themselves they can’t get along without adult supervision. That lesson would not have been learned had the police gone in and immediately “kicked ass”. To the best of my knowledge there were no serious injuries during the retaking of the area. The videos I watched showed people passively resisting arrest but there weren’t any outbreaks of violence. Had the police gone in when emotions were high private citizens and police probably would have been injured and I can easily imagine there being tremendous property damage.

As I read somewhere a few days ago, paraphrasing, “This is your free sample of socialism.”

Last week T-Mobile tried to appease the terrorists.

This week new demands were made:

It makes me sad when people have to learn a lesson the hard way.

Never try to appease terrorists.

There are times when it’s difficult to believe this is not some sort of slow motion dystopian nightmare:

Hundreds of protesters camped outside City Hall are demanding that lawmakers slash the New York City police budget by $1billion.

The ‘Occupy City Hall’ encampment began forming Tuesday following weeks of street protests sparked by the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement.

The protesters are part of a national ‘defund the police’ movement seeking more spending on other needs like housing and education and say they won’t move until they see a budget cut.

It comes as violent crime in New York City skyrockets, with June now on track for the highest number of murders in a month since 1996.

…

These cities are rapidly becoming uninhabitable. It’s a mass insanity which I can only see ending by either the adults taking charge or a culling of the herd as they, in essence, volunteer en masse for Darwin awards by destroying their own habitat.

It’s all so surreal.

There is an insight to take from this. Places outside of ground zero of this insanity will likely soon need protection from the mobs. There’s going to be a lot of experienced cops looking for jobs. And I’ll bet they are going to be friendly to gun owners willing to back them up.

Via email from Jeremy N. we have this:

In the hours leading up to the violence Monday, protesters faced off with members of an armed group that calls itself the New Mexico Civil Guard and counterprotesters toting “All lives matter” signs.

One group sought to tear down a monument to Oñate, a 16th-century despot who massacred indigenous people. The other set out as self-designated protectors of the statue, creating a heavily armed presence at the park in Albuquerque’s historic Old Town. Aside from a few scuffles over signs near the monument, the protest had largely been peaceful, although tense at times.

Then a white man in a blue T-shirt appeared to rile the crowd, according to video obtained by KOB4. People erupted in shouts, and the man took a few steps back.

The man in the blue shirt, identified as Baca, seemed to be protecting the statue in a bystander’s video, police said in the criminal complaint. An undercover police detective saw protesters pursuing Baca, who used pepper spray on them, the complaint adds. “The group appeared to maliciously pursue” Baca, hitting him with their hands and legs, police state.

In the video obtained by KOB4, a masked protester swung what police identified as a longboard and struck Baca in the shoulder. The man backpedaled out of the crowd but continued to exchange shouts with protesters.

Someone in the video encouraged people to follow the man and get his license plate number. Several people followed him, and one tackled him to the ground.

According to the complaint, Williams – the gunshot victim, dressed in black – can be seen on bystander video retrieving the board and swinging it toward Baca’s upper body and head. Then, the complaint says, Baca fired several shots. The crowd scattered.

Baca was arrested. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and the governor said:

The shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,” Keller said in a statement. “Our diverse community will not be deterred by acts meant to divide or silence us. Our hearts go out [to] the victim, his family and witnesses whose lives were needlessly threatened tonight.”

State leaders have denounced the armed civilian group that gathered in the area. Some of its members were taken into custody, police said. The group says it is not affiliated with the shooting suspect.

“The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said in a statement. “To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry – with an implicit threat of violence – is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”

The article describes the person shot as the victim. I can find nothing in the article that indicates he was anything other than the perpetrator. Everything indicates Baca had a valid reason to fear for his life, used non-lethal force without success then as a last resort used lethal force. So why is he considered the bad guy?

If “protestors” can attack, maim, and potentially kill those who stand in the way of their destruction something other than peaceful solutions will be implemented.

This is insanity.

Update: I understand now. We are reliving The Gulag Archipelago. Criminals are the natural allies of the political left.

Read the whole thing. This is just how the terrorists won the last battle and created CHAZ.

A Shocking Eye-Witness Account Of What’s Really Happening During The Seattle Riots

SPD must have had some really good intelligence, or they were anticipating Antifa’s response from Durkan’s concessions. They installed permanent metal barriers at the intersection of 11th St and Pine St. A second line of barriers was also in place in between us and the initial barriers at the intersection. Everything kicked off per usual, with the “protesters” trying to provoke us with their words, umbrellas, and signs. This time, though, we didn’t give them an audience. We all stayed inside the East Precinct, as they did their normal agitation methods at the first barrier.

Suddenly, we were told the “protesters” began jumping the first barrier, heading towards us. We rushed out to the road and staged roughly 1/3 of the way up the block from the intersection of 11th St and Pine St, creating a large safety buffer between us and the “protesters” who had jumped the fencing. They were warned to return over the barrier, which they didn’t. They then began disassembling the barrier. They were warned not to disassemble the barrier, but they continued. They then walked towards us. They were warned to stop, but they didn’t. They continued walking towards us. They were warned again, but they continued. They reached the second barrier.

We later found out they brought a plasma cutter (blow torch) to cut through the barriers… (not that they are the provocateurs, or are planning to escalate, right?!)

They began cutting barriers so they could be used as weapons against us. They were warned about cutting the barriers, but they continued. They then picked up the second barriers and began walking towards us. They were warned again not to move the barriers, but they continued. They then jumped the last barrier. They were warned again to turn back, but they continued towards us. As they continued to approach, they were continuously warned. HOW MANY WARNINGS DOES IT TAKE?!

It started to get dark… The portable lights were turned on. The “protesters” then produced foil covered signs and were trying to blind the Officers and Guardsman. They were warned again, but they continued. They then threw a glass bottle at a Guardsman, the glass bottle shattering on a riot shield. They were warned again, but they just booed at us. They continued to walk slowly towards the Officers until they were within 2-3 feet. They then started using their umbrella’s and other objects, putting them in the face of the Officers. They were warned again to not do that.

As expected, objects were then thrown at us. They amplified things, this time. Instead of throwing glass bottles containing urine and other bodily fluids, they began throwing glass bottles full of gasoline. They then lit and threw fireworks at us, trying to light us on fire.

FINALLY the SPD Administration gave the green light and LESS LETHAL forms of riot control were deployed. As objects were continued to be thrown at us, SWAT finally deployed CS gas. The “protesters” proceeded to start vandalizing everything in the area. They smashed business windows, burned U.S. flags, lit dumpsters and other items on fire, and threw things on fire at us. We pushed them back in all directions about half a block but for some reason, we stopped pushing them back. They then regrouped and continued to vandalize the area with spray paint, breaking windows, and lighting things on fire. Around that time, the Guard was pulled back and we left East Precinct.

My big takeaway from this is also an observation made by, IIRC, the Bellevue Chief of Police after the Bellevue looting a couple weeks ago. The terrorists are well organized. This is not some impulsive, spontaneous, outburst of rage.

The organizers, in particular, must be tracked down and punished.

Via daughter Kim:

From my visit there this seems somewhat overstated. But not by much.