Going to the homes of local leaders and elected officials has been a recurring tactic used by Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement. In Seattle, the rioters have appeared outside the homes of Mayor Jenny Durkan as well as two members of the Seattle City Council who have urged their fellow councilors to exercise caution when considering the proposal to slash the SPD's budget by half.
Their homes were targeted despite the fact that the seven other members of the Seattle City Council – a veto-proof majority – have already expressed their support for defunding the police, showing that even considering any policy that does not sit well with the Black Lives Matter movement will provoke an intimidating response.
Best is no different, as she believes her home outside of Seattle was targeted because of her opposition to defunding the SPD. She has spoken out on multiple occasions against the plan to defund her department, stating that the people of Seattle “will be much less safe” if it pushes through. (Related: Seattle police union leader says Seattle will be “lawless wasteland” if police are defunded.)
Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how the communist People's Republic of China has been trafficking illegal firearms into the United States in order to arm the Black Lives Matter movement, with the goal of causing enough chaos to start a Second American Civil War.
Residents living in the neighborhood of Best's home in Snohomish County blocked the roads to the police chief's house with a truck. The demonstrators have alleged that they stayed on the road and never once stepped foot on private property and that several of the residents pointed guns at them in order to get them to leave.
Best's open letter, which was published on Monday, August, 3, stated that her neighbors were concerned by the size of the group and that their vigilance prevented the would-be rioters from engaging in illegal activities “despite repeated attempts to do so.”
Several of Best's neighbors were even forced to wield their firearms in order to properly deter the violent mob from continuing further into the neighborhood.
One of Best's neighbors, Jamie Roulstone, said that the crowd was not peaceful. “They were here to intimidate. Scare people. Scare children. There were children out there and they were asking them what schools they went to. They were yelling the most horrible things you've ever heard in your entire life.”
Adam Fortney, sheriff of Snohomish County, said that most of the demonstrators had already dispersed by the time his deputies arrived to deal with the incident. He also said that he spoke with Best over the phone to reassure her that the sheriff's office will use all resources necessary to protect her, her family and her property.
“The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office has been supportive and accommodating to all peaceful protests that have occurred in our jurisdiction,” Fortney said in a statement. “With that said, protesters targeting one individual's house is a bullying tactic that will certainly require an extra patrol response to ensure every resident in Snohomish County can feel safe in their own home, with their loved ones, no matter what they choose to do to make a living.”
Many of the demonstrators who participated in the march on Best's home have tried to rebuke the police chief and her neighbors' accounts of what occurred. They claim that their march was entirely peaceful, and that they were in fact threatened by Best's neighbors with firearms.
Several local politicians have even tried to express their support for the Black Lives Matter movement's actions in order to gain more clout. Nikkita Oliver, a former mayoral candidate for Seattle, tried to paint Best's neighbors as the aggressive and violent group in the incident.
“Understand that white vigilantes and police are two sides of the same coin when it comes to state-sanctioned violence against Black peoples,” Oliver wrote in a tweet attacking Best's narrative.
https://twitter.com/NikkitaOliver/status/1290305316760850433
Robert Cruickshank, a local progressive leader, went further and accused Best and the SPD of trying to change the conversation ahead of an expected vote on whether or not the Seattle City Council would approve a motion to defund her department. He alleges that Best hopes that people would rather “talk about a protest at someone's house” to show that Seattle needs its police department.
Even members of the Seattle City Council who are in favor of defunding the police have expressed their opposition to the way Best has portrayed the mob. Councilwoman Tammy Morales, who represents Seattle's second district, said that she takes exception with Best's response, who she alleges is celebrating the fact that “her neighbors met these young people with guns.”
However, what Morales fails to point out is that these events have made matters very personal to the police chief, as Best now believes that the Antifa and Black Lives Matter mob is out to attack her rather than to protest for racial justice.
“It really does seem like a mob mentality, and bullying, to intimidate a public official,” she said.
The tactics employed by Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement are evolving. Learn more about the recent attacks conducted by these radical left-wing extremist groups at Rioting.news.
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