Is ANTIFA Running A Protection Racket in Seattle?
During the lifespan of the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, there were persistent reports of individuals and businesses in the area being shaken down for protection money. The self-appointed radical “leaders” of the new “nation” allegedly demanded payment in return for allowing individuals to continue to conduct business on “their” soil. The CHAZ is no more, but there are some indications that the art of the shakedown may still be alive and well amongst the “comrades” on the streets of Seattle.
On July 22, 2020, Antifa rioters gathered on the streets of Capital Hill in Seattle, not far from the area previously known as the CHAZ. They then marched through the streets of Seattle moving methodically from business to business working off a list that had been compiled and disseminated earlier. They did not randomly attack every business they encountered nor engage in random destruction. They systematically attacked a select group of businesses including a local marijuana distributorship called “Uncle Ike’s”, “Rove,” a vintage clothing store owned by the wife of a Seattle police officer, two banks and a local Whole Foods. At “Uncle Ike’s” anarchists smashed in windows, threw in an incendiary device and then set the business on fire. At “Rove” after the rioters smashed their way in they dragged merchandise out into the street and torched it. During the attacks, lasers were used to blind security cameras and obscure the identities of the perpetrators. In advance of the attacks, local residents received flyers stuck in the windshields of their cars advertising the riot as a protest/event. Facebook pages linked to Antifa also promoted the riots and provided a list of businesses deemed enemies by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and associated Marxist groups in Seattle. While at this point virtually any free-market enterprise could be characterized as being “an enemy of the people” by our homegrown Maoists, there are some strong indications that these attacks may have had a more prosaic and traditional motivation. Money.
A coalition of leftist organizations known as King County Equity Now (KCEN) has been pushing for some time the “Pay the Fee” initiative in Seattle. According to KCEN, which is also one of the key groups seeking the defunding of the Seattle Police Department, all businesses which operate in underprivileged or minority areas of the city of Seattle should have to pay a fee to the “people” for the privilege of doing business in those areas. Only a few weeks before the attack on “Uncle Ike’s” there was, in fact, a rally sponsored by KCEN in front of the business. That rally was advertised widely under the headline “Pay the Fee.” According to the owner of “Uncle Ike’s,” Ian Eisenberg, prior to the attack on his business, he was told directly on many occasions that he needed to “donate” money if he wanted to avoid trouble. “We were told that if we didn’t ‘Pay The Fee’ we would be forced out of the CD by any means necessary and that night we had an arson,” Eisenberg said. In addition to defunding the police and requiring business owners to “Pay the Fee”, KCEN also wants an end to what it calls “gentrification,” an end to the assignment of Seattle Police Department officers to public schools and the dismissal of all charges against “protestors” arrested in recent events in Seattle. Graffiti spray-painted on the businesses attacked on July 22, 2020, specifically included the tag “Gentrifier.”
http://andmagazine.com/talk/2020/07/27/is-antifa-running-a-protection-racket-in-seattle/
https://twitter.com/FernandoAmandi/status/1271175575823056896
https://twitter.com/izzyvibezzz/status/1285306866206076928
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https://twitter.com/AnotherLevell/status/1284355277236523009
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https://twitter.com/FernandoAmandi/status/1271175575823056896