SEATTLE, WA – Call it a win for the good guys…finally. We have seen our brothers and sisters in Seattle take a beating for the past couple of months…both physically from a criminal mob, and legally from their own city council.
On the same day that the Seattle city council eviscerated the police department budget, forcing Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to throw up her arms and announce her retirement, a federal judge provided some welcome relief.
On August 10th, Federal Judge Richard Jones denied a motion which was seeking an outright ban on the use of crowd control weapons by the Seattle Police Department’s officers, KUOW reported.
Judge denies Seattle "protest tax" plaintiffs a temporary restraining order https://t.co/eFYiwF8uOe via @SCC_Insight
— WPC Olympia Watch (@OlympiaWatch) August 11, 2020
The lawsuit was actually so absurd as to be comical. The claim was that protesters were being “priced out of their constitutional rights” because of special protective gear they needed to wear to participate in ongoing riots.
Oh, they didn’t call them riots…they called them “protests.” But as we have seen not only in Seattle, but also in Portland, Chicago, New York, and others, these are anything but peaceful “protests.”
The lawsuit alleged that the Seattle Police Department’s repeated use of tear gas and other crowd control measures against “demonstrators” was a violation of their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble [emphasis added]. That argument has been repeatedly used as those engaging in the “protests” have been trying to reduce the department’s use of “less than lethal” crowd control weapons.
The lawsuit contended that the City of Seattle had in essence implemented a “de facto protest tax,” because demonstrators were required to “purchase cost-prohibitive gear to withstand munitions,” thereby infringing on their right to equal protection under the law. In text lingo, ROFLMAO. “Protest tax?”
The attorney representing the plaintiffs, Talitha Hazleton said:
“You shouldn’t have to be rich to be able to air your grievances via your First Amendment rights.”
Jones thankfully wasn’t buying that load of horse manure, banning the motion to institute a blanket prohibition on the department’s use of crowd control measures, writing that the plaintiffs had “failed to meet their burden to show that the balance of equities tips in their favor.” Jones also affirmed the city’s contention that the petitioners had not adequately asserted their equal protection claim.
In his ruling, Jones referenced a separate case he had ruled on in the matter of a joint lawsuit filed by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and the ACLU of Washington, whereby he had issued a preliminary injunction extending a ban on the department’s use of less lethal chemical and projectile weapons against “peaceful” protesters through the end of September.
Today, Federal Judge Richard Jones issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on SPD’s use of less-lethal crowd management tactics. SPD supports and will comply with the judge’s order which is in effect for 14 days.
For more information: https://t.co/Vu6yBTtb89
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) June 12, 2020
However, in that case, the temporary order does permit officers to take “necessary, reasonable, proportional and targeted action” in response to a “specific and imminent threat.”
Despite that ruling, Seattle police have continued to use chemical and incendiary crowd control weapons, and have also been using them “indiscriminately without clear warning,” some of the social warriors have complained.
They allege that protesters, journalists, and legal observers have been allegedly injured by rubber bullets, tear gas and flashbang grenades in the midst of the violent demonstrations against alleged racism and police violence.
Hazleton whined:
“We’re talking about sworn officers entrusted with following the letter of the law, including applicable orders to them, who are disregarding it and using weapons against residents.”
Hazleton didn’t say anything about violent protesters “following the letter of the law.”
Monday morning, the City of Seattle agreed that it would not use the declaration of a riot to allow police to utilize crowd control agents, much as what had occurred on July 25 during a violent clash between police and violent protesters.
ALERT: Police investigate weapons and explosives left behind in a
van during July 25th riot in Seattle – Global Pandemic News | #Coronavirus #COVID19 #Protests – https://t.co/vCiT11qTqU pic.twitter.com/QKYNWKlWFe— GlobalPandemic.NET (@GlobalPandemics) July 30, 2020
The agreement came about as part of an agreement relative to the lawsuit BLM and ACLU had filed, and clarifies that any individuals who are identified as medics, journalists and legal observers may not be targeted so long as they are “acting lawfully and in a capacity such that the city knows or reasonably should know their status.”
On June 15, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd control weapons by the Seattle PD, after receiving public pressure to demilitarize police officers and restrict their use of force.
The ordinance, which had been scheduled to go into effect on July 26, was temporarily suspended by another federal judge, when both city and U.S. Department of Justice officials said that the ordinance would unduly interfere with a federal consent decree, entered in 2012, which has governed the department’s use of force practices and procedures.
Hazleton complained:
“Unless and until those weapons are removed, like the city has already legislated, we don’t believe that the protesters on the streets will be safe,”
That ruling came on the same day that the gutless Seattle City Council approved proposals which will reduce the department by around 100 officers, achieved through attrition or layoffs. The layoffs would amount to a 7% reduction in the department’s manpower, where Black Lives Matter protesters were looking for a 50% cut.
That of course would make their mission to totally overrun the city, and turn it into a Marxist paradise that much easier. The City Council also cut the salary of Police Chief Carmen Best and other top leaders in the department.
As a result of the budget and staffing cuts, Chief Best announced her retirement, effective September 2. In a bitter case of irony, Best, the city’s first black police chief is a victim of the “anti-racism” claptrap that has taken hold since George Floyd died while in police custody.
I QUIT: Seattle Police Chief Resigns after City Council Slashes Budget, Cuts 100 Officers from Payroll https://t.co/CMeJ7h5rqw
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 12, 2020
On August 11th, in response to a question by a reporter if her resignation was spurred by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month, or the decision by the city council to cut her salary, she responded that it “is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators,” Fox News reported.
Best said:
“I mean, be real, I have a lot thicker skin than that,”
She went on to say:
“It really is about the overarching lack of respect for the officers, the men and women who work so hard, day in and day out.”
She continued:
“The idea that we’ve worked so incredibly hard to make sure our department was divers, that [it] reflects the community that we serve, to just turn that all on a dime and hack it off, without having a plan in place to move forward, is highly distressful for me.”
Best joined the department in 1992, after having served in the military. She worked a wide variety of roles, ascending to the role of chief in July 2018 after having served as interim chief.
So, the “systemic racism” narrative claimed a victim…a successful, African American woman who was in command of one of the largest police agencies in the country.
Who exactly are the racists?
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