Antifa Thugs Descend on Tacoma, Start Fires and Trash Buildings
Residents of Portland, Oregon, and Seattle seem genuinely shocked that us crazies on the right think there’s anything amiss in the Pacific Northwest.
Riots? What post-inauguration riots caused by antifa-allied groups? Haven’t the events of the past few weeks driven home that the real threat is the far right? Antifa is fake. And anyway, if you’re anti-anti-fascist, what does that make you, hmm?
In fact, it became an in-joke on Twitter; when “Portland and Seattle” trended, it was mostly because of tweets like these:
Portland and Seattle looking for all the riots people were talking about in Portland and Seattle. pic.twitter.com/KgamwjENH7
— Charles Jessie (@Joe_McFly) January 21, 2021
My backyard this morning in Seattle. There is nothing going on in Portland and Seattle right now, turn off your TV. pic.twitter.com/iNYOaH6K5U
— Kelly Boyker (@KMenacing) January 21, 2021
Apparently, if you find yourself in the pleasant position where you live at a dignified remove from unrest by the far left in Washington state, the only unrest you have to pay attention to is unrest by the far right in Washington, D.C. For those who aren’t so lucky, it’s a bit more of a bother.
On Sunday, it wasn’t Portland or Seattle feeling the brunt of the riots, but instead the city of Tacoma, roughly 30 miles southwest of Seattle. According to KIRO-TV, a police officer there was caught on video Saturday driving a vehicle through a crowd after being called to break up illegal street racers. A group of people surrounded the vehicle and were banging on its windows and doors. After trying to back up, the officer felt threatened enough to drive forward, hitting one person.
[firefly_poll]
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Tacoma News Tribune said the demonstration “began peacefully but rose to a level that included scattered property damage.”
Perchance you have a different definition of “scattered property damage” or we’ve become inured to rioting over the past year, but here’s what “scattered” apparently looks like:
Windows are being smashed in downtown Tacoma tonight as the crowd moves through the streets #Tacoma #TacomaProtests #Washington pic.twitter.com/g3aRPxbeQl
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
Trash is lit ablaze to shut down an intersection in Tacoma, Washington this Sunday night #Tacoma #tacomaprotests #Washington pic.twitter.com/LKeBuuyLaI
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
Fires burning in the streets of downtown Tacoma tonight #Tacoma #TacomaProtests #Washington pic.twitter.com/8uD7PNzoQ2
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
A bail bonds office has their windows smashed in Tacoma #Tacoma #TacomaProtests #TacomaPolice #Washington pic.twitter.com/mlMEyYVKm0
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
On attacking a bail bondsman’s office: It’s probably not great form to vandalize a service you might well need in the immediate future.
Perhaps some sympathy was extended to the Tacoma antifa-ites because they were smashing up the courthouse, jails, sheriff’s vehicles and other property that belonged to the city, leading to some buildings being evacuated. This is in spite of the fact that Tacoma — much like Portland and Seattle — isn’t exactly known for being an easy place for a Republican to get elected, appointed or hired.
Scenes near courthouse: crowd smashing and moving quickly. #Tacoma pic.twitter.com/HN5zo72MoZ
— Joshua Bessex (@Bessex_Joshua) January 25, 2021
Sheriff’s officers’ car windows are smashed outside the jailhouse in Tacoma #Tacoma #Tacomaprotests #Washington pic.twitter.com/V2woLYiHmy
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
More windows smashed at Pierce County Corrections in Tacoma #Tacoma #Tacomaprotests #Washington pic.twitter.com/3kyrWXQhwX
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
Residents might not have been as sympathetic, considering they were told to get “out of your homes, into the streets” by demonstrators marching through their neighborhood.
“Out of your homes, into the streets!” chants as the group marches through Tacoma on this Sunday night #Tacoma #TacomaProtests #Washington pic.twitter.com/YVJs5Qq3O6
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
“No cops, no prisons, total abolition!” chants from the crowd as they shine lights into apartment buildings along the march route #Tacoma #TacomaProtests #Washington pic.twitter.com/UfKHjcl5nS
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) January 25, 2021
Small-business owner Alexander Schelhammer, 32, pointed out the obvious to the News Tribune when he said the “protest isn’t being led by people on a megaphone from Tacoma.”
“The trash cans were brought out, I get it, build that barricade,” Schelhammer said.
9th and Commerce at 7:45pm. #Tacomaprotest pic.twitter.com/vUzFEY9J7e
— Joshua Bessex (@Bessex_Joshua) January 25, 2021
“Somebody started lighting it on fire and I asked them, ‘Yo, are you from here? Are you from Tacoma?’ He said, ‘No,’ and I was like, ‘As someone who is from here, who has been resisting the city, who has been resisting the police, who has been resisting the Northwest Detention Center, who has been resisting the Liquid Natural Gas plant, as someone who is born and raised here who is very passionate and wants the best for everyone around me, lighting a trashcan on fire in my city is not OK.’ I asked them to stop.
“The citizens of Tacoma are here too,” Schelhammer continued. “But as someone who has been working for years to make this city a more habitable place, more equitable place for everyone, I didn’t like that being on fire. No one from Tacoma lit that on fire.”
Yes, but watch the gatekeepers enable them.
The News Tribune’s line about how the protests “began peacefully but rose to a level that included scattered property damage” is an example, but hardly the worst. Antifa-related violence was barely touched upon by the establishment media when it peaked last summer, and the riots in Portland and Seattle on Inauguration Day were barely covered.
When they were, it was with a kind of mystification these folks were still at it now that Joe Biden was now president, not that antifa members were carrying signs like this:
If you drench the coverage in carefully constructed euphemism, it hardly seems newsworthy at all. Everything is just fine.
SIGN: “We Want Revenge! [Assault Rifle]”
HEADLINE: ‘Protestors Call for More Radical Change’
*Moral Clarity* https://t.co/I5d0xD7I5T
— Kmele (@kmele) January 21, 2021
Fiery but mostly peaceful rhetoric there.
In Tacoma, again, this wasn’t just about a police officer who was surrounded by protesters and drove into one. The antifa rioters smashed up small businesses, called for prisoners to be released from jail (one would presume at least some of them deserve to be there) and intimidated residents who presumably had nothing to do with it.
In addition, there were two arrests made before the riot involving people, dressed in all black and wearing riot gear, who were trying to pick a lock on the secure area of an apartment building. One allegedly had a handgun, the other double-bladed knives and batons. It’s unclear whether the arrests were related, although it’s not a good look.
It took days for the White House to formally condemn the antifa riots in Portland and Seattle; originally, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she hadn’t even talked to the president about the violence. Now we can all stop talking about this, thank you very much. Don’t you remember the Capitol incursion? Let’s talk about that, and please let’s use the words “sedition” and “complicity” a lot.
This kind of violence isn’t a new phenomenon, and it didn’t start with George Floyd. It wasn’t about Donald Trump and it wasn’t about fighting fascists.
These are hooligans; pretending otherwise because they’re leftist hooligans is enabling them.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
