Following a decisive court ruling, Seattle has until March 3rd to reimburse business owners and residents its leaders abandoned to the whims of a George Floyd-inspired protest that turned violent.
More than a dozen business owners and residents of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood filed a lawsuit against the city for letting activists occupy and vandalize the densely populated residential area and form the ill-advised, police-free Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
As Fox Business reports:
The city announced the settlement totals $3.65 million, which includes $600,000 in penalties for the deletion of thousands of texts by city leaders, including former Mayor Jenny Durkan, The Seattle Times reported.
Protesters converged on the area in June of 2020, took over the police department's east precinct and prevented law enforcement officers from entering the area. The incident came about as protests and riots formed in cities across the country following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which ushered in renewed calls from activists to defund police departments.
Among the activists' demands were uncompromising requests to slash the city's police budget by 50%, abolish imprisonment and guarantee that none of the participants be charged with a crime.
After multiple shootings, including one resulting in the death of a 16-year-old boy, the situation became untenable for Mayor Durkan.
It was a violent end to what Dukran had called the “summer of love.”
The protest zone ended July 1, 2020, when police cleared the area.
Yet city elders still needed to learn their lesson.
Seattle Police Department Chief Carmen Best resigned less than two months later after the city council voted to downsize the department.
Eventually, Republican-turned-moderate Democrat Ann Davison defeated police abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in Seattle's 2021 city attorney's race.
Even with half-hearted attempts at moderation, Thomas-Kennedy's Twitter account contained some of the most hateful bile spewed at police by a politician.
Her defeat showed that even in the most insular liberal enclaves, law and order can still defeat anarchy.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The Seattle residents who installed these leftist politicians should have no complaints against their taxes being used to compensate the victims for their losses, but $3.65 million seems a pittance compared to the value of actual lost business and property suffered. The politicians who were complicit in the destruction by banning the police from doing their duty should all face civil litigation as a result. Bankrupt a few of these lefties to send a message to other leftist city officials who join the rioters.
I seriously doubt that even one thin dime came out of Jenny’s personal pocket. Until the people who allow such egregious actions to occur are hit with personal accountability nothing will change.
Why cant these Autonomous Zones hit DC too & MA Marthas Vineyard
etc too & Oakland CA
Durkan and Kennedy should both be charged with murder