Riots broke out again in the Democratic-controlled city of Seattle on Saturday night, leading to more than a dozen people being arrested for a litany of alleged crimes.
Photos taken by the Seattle Police Department showed graffiti spray painted on various buildings calling for police officers to be murdered.
Law enforcement officials “arrested 16 individuals after various acts of property destruction, assault, and vandalism” that occurred during the riot, according to the police department. “A group of protestors left Cal Anderson Park shortly after 9 PM Saturday heading North. A few members of the group were seen committing acts of vandalism and property damage along the way. The group slowly made their way to the 1600 block of East Olive Way where they shattered windows and threw explosives into a coffee shop.”
The police department said that arrests were also made for failure to disperse and rendering criminal assistance after the rioters attacked police officers with what officials said was an “explosive.”
WATCH:
Antifa rioters in Seattle smashed up a Starbucks and threw an explosive inside tonight. Video by @KatieDaviscourt. #AntifaRiots https://t.co/fvvjafLptv
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 4, 2020
Antifa black bloc militants in Seattle riot and smash up businesses. They form a shield line to block police. #AntifaRiots pic.twitter.com/IZ0XZFZHfX
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 4, 2020
Seattle has seen its fair share of anti-police riots this summer and, in response to the city’s Democratic leaders not responding in a strong manner to the violence, the U.S. Department of Justice has designated the city an “anarchist jurisdiction.”
The DOJ released the following criteria for evaluating whether a U.S. city is an “anarchist jurisdiction”:
- Whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction.
- Whether a jurisdiction has withdrawn law enforcement protection from a geographical area or structure that law enforcement officers are lawfully entitled to access but have been officially prevented from accessing or permitted to access only in exceptional circumstances, except when law enforcement officers are briefly withheld as a tactical decision intended to resolve safely and expeditiously a specific and ongoing unlawful incident posing an imminent threat to the safety of individuals or law enforcement officers.
- Whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.
- Whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the Federal Government.
- Any other related factors the Attorney General deems appropriate.
For the city of Seattle, the DOJ stated the following:
- For nearly a month, starting in June, the City of Seattle permitted anarchists and activists to seize six square blocks of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, naming their new enclave the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) and then the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP).
- Law enforcement and fire fighters were precluded from entering the territory. The Seattle Police Department was ordered to abandon their precinct within the CHOP.
- Person-related crime in the CHOP increased 525% from the same period of time in the same area the year before, including by Mayor Durkan’s own count “two additional homicides, 6 additional robberies, and 16 additional aggravated assaults (to include 2 additional non-fatal shootings).”
- The CHOP was allowed to stand for nearly a month, during which time two teenagers were shot and killed in the zone.
- The Seattle City Council, Mayor Durkan, and Washington Governor Jay Inslee publicly rejected federal involvement in law enforcement activities within the city of Seattle.
