SEATTLE, WA – According to reports, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department initially denied the permit for an event that was organized by the nonprofit CHOP Art, which was scheduled to start Friday, June 11th at Cal Anderson Park.
ACLU threatens lawsuit after Seattle denies permit to CHOP anniversary / Juneteenth celebration at Cal Anderson Park.
City: event would be "disturbing or even traumatic" after CHOP violence last year
ACLU: that's unconstitutional
Chop Art: Event is still happening this weekend pic.twitter.com/0UNfZKCtby
— Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) June 11, 2021
The event, which was put together to commemorate CHOP and celebrate black culture, was initially denied because the city stated it was concerned that the events celebrating or commemorating CHOP would be traumatic to the community.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington and the Public Defender Association claimed that what the city denying the permit is unconstitutional. Event organizer and president of CHOP Art, Mark Anthony, said that the event is not a protest but a celebration.
He said:
“I want people to come out and celebrate the freedom of African Americans, celebrate freedom for all and celebrate black culture.”
Anthony was one of the leaders during the CHOP protest during the summer of 2020. He said the City of Seattle reached out to him at the end of 2020 to help reactivate Cal Anderson Park.
Anthony said:
“They reached out to me so I could provide positive programming centered around art that would promote diversity. It seemed like a great opportunity for us to hold our first event live and in person.”
After submitting the paperwork for a CHOP anniversary and a Juneteenth celebration, the city denied the permit three days before the scheduled event, which Anthony said was a “complete shock.”
In a statement, Seattle Parks and Recreation cited the acts of violence during the CHOP during the summer of 2020, which included two fatal shootings.
The statement said, in part:
“We will not be issuing a permit for this event as we have heard from community members expressing concerns that any events celebrating or commemorating the events that occurred at Cal Anderson in summer 2020 would be disturbing or even traumatic to the community.”
City reverses course, issues permit for CHOP Art Juneteenth Celebration in Cal Anderson https://t.co/ZWGt7KKlOI pic.twitter.com/wEtxlEu663
— CHSfeed (@CHSfeed) June 12, 2021
Anthony stated that as soon as he received the reasoning he believed that his freedom of speech was being violated.
He added:
“The idea that any number of concerned citizens could take away my rights is absolutely crazy to me.”
In their statement, the city added:
“In sensitivity to these concerns, and with caution because of the acts of violence that occurred at the park and the surrounding area last summer and fall, as well as the significant restoration and cleanup efforts that were needed to restore the park, SPR is using higher-than-usual safety and security standards to evaluate all permit requests at Cal Anderson.”
In response to the city denying the permit, Lisa Nowlin, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Washington, said in a statement:
“It’s such a clear violation of the first amendment that I was pretty shocked. You can’t deny a permit based on the content of the event.”
In a joint letter to the city, the ACLU and Public Defender Association called the permit denial “unconstitutional” and asked the city to reverse their decision. The letter reportedly made it clear that if the reversal did not happed, the group would take “emergency legal action.”
The ACLU and Public Defenders Association have warned Seattle that its refusal to issue a permit to an art group that wants to celebrate the CHOP protests and Juneteenth likely violates the First Amendment. #FreedomOfSpeech #BLMhttps://t.co/IP6zsiBbxU
— Alison Holcomb (@acholcomb) June 11, 2021
Anthony stated that the event will have live music, food, and a lot of art. He added that there will be security and that people who intend on causing violence are not welcome.
On Friday, June 11th, the city sent out another statement saying:
“On April 2, the CHOP Art group submitted a park use permit application for a CHOP Block Part to Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), requesting a park use permit application and city funding for the event as well as a street closure permit.
For a variety of reasons, including that some of the permit applications were submitted too late, the permits were denied.
“The CHOP Art group never indicated that their event was a First Amendment/Rally/Protest permit, nor did they indicate their event was a First Amendment event until June 10, 2021. Instead, the CHOP Art group submitted a permit application for a general use parks event and requested event funding.”
The city added:
“To date, Seattle Parks and Recreation has not received a First Amendment permit application from the CHOP Art group. Yesterday, the ACLU and PDA reached out to Seattle Parks and recreation on behalf of the CHOP At group requesting that the event be permitted as a First Amendment event.
SPR has reached out to the CHOP Art group to provisionally grant a First Amendment event permit and is asking that they submit the appropriate application.”
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Seattle loses almost 20% of police force (and climbing) amid year of anti-cop violence and defunding of PD
May 20th, 2021
SEATTLE, WA – Budget cuts and months of anti-police protests and rioting have resulted in a “staffing crisis” as nearly 20 percent of the Seattle Police Department resigned in the past year and a half, according to the police chief.
Seattle PD Police Chief Adrian Diaz calls exodus “staffing crisis” https://t.co/5kMO04pMPH
— American Police Beat (@apbweb) May 11, 2021
More than 260 officers have quit the force since the beginning of last year.
Interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz said that stress on officers dealing with Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters has been compounded by city leaders’ decision to surrender a police precinct to rioters while allowing the mob, often armed, occupy and entire neighborhood for a month.
Officer Clayton Powell, a black officer, has served Seattle Police Department for 27 years. He had a goal of remaining with the department for 30 years, but had decided to retire early because of the situation in Seattle and other cities and towns across the nation:
“The support that we had in my generation of policing is no longer there.”
Gee, why wouldnt they want to stay and protect those who dont appreciate, value, support them?
Seattle Loses Almost 20 Percent of Police Officers Amid Anti-Police Sentiment https://t.co/vs6FOtgKHk
Download our app to read more at https://t.co/eHdzxWREMk
— Jason (@jcoutche) May 20, 2021
Officer Powell said that city leaders surrendered to the rioters, and police had to pay the daily price. He said officers, including himself, were targeted with rocks, bottles, cinder blocks, and other items thrown at them, and they had to “stand there and take it”:
“When you see businesses get destroyed and families lose their livelihood because of that destruction and we can’t do anything about it. We’re not allowed to intercede.”
Protests and riots led by Black Lives Matter and Antifa members erupted in Seattle following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day 2020. During the months of violent clashes between protesters and police, Seattle’s homicide rate exploded.
Seattle police warn of 'staffing crisis' after 66 more officers leave https://t.co/tTiR4o9a4F via @KING5Seattle
— Fred Burton (@fred_burton) April 29, 2021
According to end-of-year crime statistics released by the police department, 2020 experienced the highest homicide rate in over two decades. Crime data shows that 52 homicides occurred in 2020 compared to 35 in 2019, an increase of 48.57%.
Chief Diaz called the situation unacceptable:
“We cannot tolerate this level of violence. I’m not going to go into the multiple theories I’m aware of for why we and other cities had such a large one-year increase.
“There’s no one clear explanation. But I do know the department is working to decrease the violence.”
Chief Diaz said he had never seen the police department as undermanned as it is today:
“We are at record lows in the city right now, I have about 1,080 deployable officers. This is the lowest I’ve seen our department.”
More Than 200 Seattle Police Officers Quit Citing ‘Anti-Police’ Climate https://t.co/lA63mXpdDU
— Mateo Abogados (@Mateo_Abogados) May 9, 2021
The Chief called the situation a “staffing crisis’”
Exit interviews with departing officers show that many are leaving to work in other cities or for positions in the private sector. Other officers, like Powell, chose to take early retirement.
Officers in the interviews pointed blame at lack of support from city leaders, and a general anti-police sentiment in the city.
Adding to the department’s low morale is a looming budget cut. The Seattle City Council is considering a new cut of $2.8 million to the department’s budget, adding to a reduction in funding last year. Mayor Jenny Durkan warned council against the cuts in a statement issued from her office:
“Despite an increased focus on recruitment and retention, the Seattle Police Department continues to lose sworn officers at a record pace due to ongoing budget uncertainty,” a spokesperson for Mayor Jenny Durkan said Tuesday.
“Based on exit interviews, we know the Council’s threats of continued layoffs or cuts are having a direct impact on decisions to leave the department. Mayor Durkan continues to caution City Council against making additional one-time cuts without addressing hiring and retention of officers, especially diverse officers, to respond to the highest priority calls.”
+200 Seattle police officers quit in the last year due to anti-law enforcement, racial injustice protests and riots in the city. Many cited anti-police climate (including City Council) as reasons for moving on. Police Chief advised of "staffing crisis." Let the exodus begin. https://t.co/WRoMpIlZ0r
— TC (@Censorship__No) April 29, 2021
The Mayor’s Office issued a statement saying that residents’ safety relies on having the officers available to respond to emergencies:
“Community safety means that we have officers able to respond to 911 calls with more civilian responses, more crisis responses, and more alternatives. Based on exit interviews, we know the Council’s threats of continued layoffs or cuts are having a direct impact on decisions to leave the department.
“Mayor Durkan continues to caution City Council against making additional one-time cuts without addressing hiring and retention of officers, especially diverse officers, to respond to the highest priority calls.”
Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan said that council praised the Seattle Police Department until George Floyd’s death, and then “these same politicians couldn’t run away from us faster”:
“They (council) will decimate numbers to fill the uniforms to protect our citizens, and to what gain, if any? What’s the end game?
“I don’t see how that’s a recipe for our communities to feel protected.”
The staffing crisis in Seattle is being repeated across the nation as left-wing groups and Democratic leaders continue to express anti-police rhetoric.
Multiple police agencies say that they are in a severe staffing crisis including Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and multiple state police agencies.
Some police departments now offering sign-on bonuses up to $5000 to help recruitment! pic.twitter.com/yiLCkWFd2v— Private Officer (@privateofficer) May 3, 2021
Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the state’s largest police union, said law enforcement has become an undesirable job because of the rhetoric being spread:
“Every action has a reaction. When you vilify every police officer for every bad police officer’s decision, (people) don’t want to take this job anymore.
“It’s been a very trying and difficult time to put on the badge every day. There’s a recruiting crisis.”
Jack Rinchich, president of the 4,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police, said that veteran officers are taking retirement early rather than remain on the job without support:
“There’s no doubt in my mind that what’s transpiring in our nation today is contributing to the lack of retention and the difficulty in hiring new officers. A lot of cops right now in view of the environment are saying, ‘Hey, I’ve gone 20, 30 years without being sued, shot, or divorced. I’m going to get out while I have an opportunity.’”
Union president confirms: As of last week, 66 officers had left the Seattle Police Department so far this year.
Prior to 2020, SPD’s staffing numbers had already been shrinking, though not steadily and not nearly as drastically.https://t.co/7UjrstcuJz— Crime in NYC (@CrimeInNYC) May 2, 2021
Haverford Township Police Chief John Viola, who also serves as president of the Delaware County Police Chiefs Association in Pennsylvania, said departments are struggling to recruit new officers. He said some departments are paying for officers to attend the police academy, waiving application fees, and taking other steps to try to bring in new officers.
Chief Viola said that people do not want to be police officer’s in today’s environment:
”It’s something that all departments have recognized as something that’s getting harder and harder.
“People don’t want to be police anymore. It’s a good job, and good-paying job, but when you look at national news every day, people just don’t want to be officers.”
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The collapse of law enforcement will usher in the end of America as we know it
Editor note: Late last year, our National Spokesman Kyle Reyes launched an article about the challenges America is facing right now. It exploded. And it’s arguably even more relevant today than it was then.
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I, [name], do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Mortality.
It’s something that you don’t really consider when you’re young. You can do anything. You’re invincible.
But as we grow older, we start considering that mortality.
It’s time we start considering the mortality of America.
I spend a substantial amount of time working in two different arenas – the world of law enforcement and the business world.
By day, I run a marketing agency. Among the areas we work in, we do extensive work in the firearms industry. My travels take me across the country – often to some of the most rural parts of America.
By night, I am the National Spokesman for Law Enforcement Today. I’m not a police officer. I was tapped because I can do one thing cops can’t do. I can give them a voice. I can run my mouth and no agency can fire me.
That travel that I referenced – both in the business world and supporting the LE world – has afforded me countless opportunities to work side by side with some of the greatest patriots in America. My closest friends are either in law enforcement or either active or retired members of some of the most elite military forces in America. And from our greatest warriors to our everyday citizens… I can tell you the underlying fear that so many are thinking about – and that’s the seemingly inevitable collapse of society if we don’t make some monumental changes.
As a Christian, I believe we are in the middle of some serious spiritual warfare. But you don’t have to be a Christian to understand that the very soul of America is under attack right now. And the rapid erosion of the Thin Blue Line has us sitting on a powder keg.
Historically, if you look at the collapse of some of the greatest empires in the world, it happened from within. Simply put, it raises the distinct danger that America won’t be conquered by foreign enemies … but rather from domestic ones.
When historians say that an empire fell, it means that the central state no longer exercised its broad power. That happens either because the state itself ceased to exist or because the state’s power was reduced as parts of the empire became independent of its control.
It typically doesn’t happen because of a single cause, but rather a long process. The main factors that historically lead to imperial collapse are:
- Economic issues
- Social and cultural issues
- Environmental issues
- Political issues
Now none of these factors are causes in and of themselves, but rather are ways to categorize causes.
What that means is you wouldn’t make a determination that Rome fell because of politics, but rather you’d explore political factors to understand the collapse. And in those issues are warning signs for us as Americans.
That brings me to the threat we face today.
Have you ever heard of something called the Cloward-Piven strategy? It’s not exactly something the mainstream media talks about… but it’s something you need to be aware of, because it’s what we’re facing in America today.
American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven created the political strategy in 1966. The idea behind it is to overload the U.S. public welfare system to create a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a socialist system of “a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty”.
If that doesn’t describe what we’re seeing from Democrats who are running for POTUS right now, I don’t know what does. But it’s a much bigger threat than you might realize. That’s because it’s so incredibly pervasive. It’s poisoning the very roots of America.
And it calls to mind the words of Jefferson:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
We are seeing groups here in America demanding open borders. Demanding the decriminalization of crossing into our country illegally.
At the same time, across our great country, we are seeing the CRIMINALIZATION of law enforcement. It’s gotten so bad in states like the People’s Republic of California and Connecticut that we’re seeing the crash and burn of morale in law enforcement.
We’re seeing agencies desperate for officers, because as more and more retire (or count down the minutes to retirement), we see a deficit in the number of incoming recruits. After all, why would you want to live a life of service when you’re just going to be attacked for that service?
We see political activists masquerading as police chiefs. We see them working hand in hand with liberal politicians to not only attack the rights of law-abiding citizens, but also to destroy the morale of their own departments. We watch as they flat out disrespect the oath of office they took and put officers in no-win situations.
If I were to design a road map for how to collapse America, starting with law enforcement, here’s what it would look like.
Step one: Divide the protectors.
The refusal to allow rank and file patrol officers to cooperate with federal law enforcement to uphold the law. It’s a slap in the face to Americans and it’s a dereliction of duty. It’s also a clear and intentional move to create a divide between local, state and federal law enforcement. Divide the protectors… conquer a society.
Step two: Divide the supporters.
Force officers to choose between enforcing unconstitutional legislation like Red Flag laws, which deny citizens of their right to due process… and providing for their own family.
Make cops the bad guys. Take the people who have historically supported law enforcement and convince them that cops are now the enemy. Divide the supporters… conquer a society.
Step three: Remove their protection
Make cops afraid to be cops. Encourage disrespect on them like water bucket attacks. Don’t go after the criminals who attack them. When officers arrest criminals, let them back out on the street within hours because a liberal judge determined that the violent suspect with a lengthy criminal history isn’t actually a threat. Then threaten law enforcement officers that if they do their job, they’ll be investigated. That if they have to fight for their lives, they’ll end up being charged. Remove both their desire and their ability to police.
Step four: Flood America
By some estimates, one million people will make illegal entry into America this year.
There are fewer than 850,000 law enforcement officers in America. Do the math.
Now let criminals create havoc in society but instead of deporting them or actually cracking down on crime, let Americans know that the real problem is guns owned by law abiding citizens and pass legislation to take away their rights.
Step five: Destroy our homes
Own the media. Own Hollywood. Force feed Anti-American, socialist and communist policies into our homes and our education system. Convince our children that right is wrong and wrong is right. Take God out of society, destroy the family structure and teach everyone that the solution to your problems is in the form of pills, porn and the government.
Step Six: Bypass Congress for gun control
Have “private businesses” like Dicks and Walmart determine what you can and can’t buy. Allow Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn and snap determine what you can see and what you can say… because it’s not a violation of the 1st Amendment if it’s done by private enterprise.
Step Seven: Use “social justice” to vilify love of country
Take every patriotic American who wants to see a better country for their children and call them a racist, etc. if you don’t agree with them. Then mass report them on social media to make sure their accounts are cancelled and their voices are shut down.
Then say you think they’re a threat and have a judge determine that combat veterans and our nation’s greatest warriors need to be disarmed because of post-traumatic stress. Then force officers to go to war with their own brothers and sisters.
The Collapse
It’s happening right in front of our eyes. And it’s starting with a full onslaught against our law enforcement officers in every way, shape and form.
Want to save America? We need to start by understanding the enemy. And sometimes the biggest threat that an empire faces is the enemy within.
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We welcome with open arms companies that openly support law enforcement, and we are proud to offer them options to get their products to market.
We started noticing the problems a couple of years ago. Social media was scaling back the reach of content that it didn’t believe people should see.
Not that there was anything offensive about it. We’re talking about pro-police videos, stories about patriotic Americans and more.
And from our perspective, that created a huge problem. We have some of the greatest warriors in the world. Yet their voices and their stories were being buried.
The mainstream media, on the rare occasion that it would tell some of these stories, would give you only a piece of them. They’d cram as much as they could into a 90 second segment, slap their bias on it and that was it.
We needed to fix it. And so we are.
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Many of those in our focus groups dubbed it the “Netflix of the law enforcement community”. But the truth is, it’s so much more.
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On top of that, we’re opening up the platform to some well-known podcasters who are going to be joining the team with some incredible content soon.
We have a problem in society. Censorship has created an existential threat to democracy. But even worse is the risk we run that some of these incredible stories of patriotism, hope, faith and our Sheepdogs would be lost.
We’ve launched a series of content with Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) to share the stories of survivors. We will also be dropping a weekly law enforcement focused newscast that addresses some of the most important topics in the country… and helps bridge the gap between those who serve and those whom they serve.
On top of that, we’ll soon be rolling out a series of private discounts and special promotions to members only as a “thank you” for being a part of the family.
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We hope you’ll join us in this journey, knowing that your membership is going to give a voice to those who have been silenced for so long.
If you are one of the many companies out there that’s being censored – or you’re worried about what’s to come – don’t hesitate to reach out today. I can be reached at media@lawenforcementtoday.com.
We will not be silenced. You shouldn’t be either.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
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