As RedState reported last Wednesday, the sad trombone could be heard off in the distance as city workers proceeded with a planned leveling of the so-called “Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden” that was created during the Seattle CHAZ/CHOP takeover of several city blocks in 2020 in the midst of the George Floyd riots.
As we also noted, the crews arrived in the early morning hours complete with heavy machinery, and used it to take down what had over the last three-plus years become what city officials said was a haven for drug activity, violent crime, disease, and homeless issues.
Because workers got there so early, well before the sun rose, left-wing agitators were unable to mobilize enough people to roll out of bed to get there and try and stop them, which meant all they could do once they got there well after daybreak was watch and try to make general nuisances of themselves in other ways.
Several of them attempted to dismantle the fencing put around the perimeter of the site, which prior to that looked like an attempted reforming of the original encampment. They found out after repeated warnings by security to stop that their antics were not going to be tolerated:
Fencing was then set up to keep people out of the area while turf restoration efforts begin.
The removal work was relatively peaceful, although several hours later a small group tried to disassemble the fencing and were pepper sprayed by security officers who stayed behind to tend the site.
Here’s a video of one of them, far-left activist Aidan Carroll, getting blasted in the face – though one of his comrades tries to rescue him:
🧵EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) December 29, 2023
Why does radicalism always go back to @UW?
Yesterday, while Seattle crews were clearing a drug & rat infested encampment, despite multiple warnings activists got pepper sprayed for disassembling a fence that was erected for repairs @ Cal Anderson Park pic.twitter.com/Moqv37MIuI
According to Hoffman, Carroll fits the profile of exactly the type of person you’d expect to be doing this, noting he was a “regular at protests who attended @UW and is passionate about ‘affordable housing, climate action, decolonization, ecological rewilding and horizontally organizing with consensus-based voting.'”
Unfortunately, as local independent journalist Jonathan Choe documented, they are back at it again, taking down some of the fencing Monday and daring police to come after them:
#BREAKING: Monday morning, FAR-LEFT activists at Cal Anderson Park tore down fencing around the former BLM Garden. The so called mutual-aid groups have maintained a vigil nearby and have been harassing security guards on site. Making matters worse, the kid who got peppered sprayed in the face the other day is also back annoying the guards. Just in the past few days, Seattle Police officers have responded to the park multiple times. I’m being told the activists are now being forced to remove their Commie/Marxist/Socialist banners.
#BREAKING: Monday morning, FAR-LEFT activists at Cal Anderson Park tore down fencing around the former BLM Garden. The so called mutual-aid groups have maintained a vigil nearby and have been harassing security guards on site. Making matters worse, the kid who got peppered… pic.twitter.com/ZjxpEwzcBZ
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) January 1, 2024
Unfortunately, Seattle is reaping what it sowed in the summer of 2020 when it allowed so-called “occupiers” free reign of several uptown blocks, which among other things caused businesses to close, crime to rise, and violence to escalate, with at least one person getting shot and killed.
As to the on-and-off standoffs between protesters and security/police, we’ll keep you posted on what develops.
