'I'll straighten out Seattle': Donald Trump threatens to take on the cop-free 'autonomous zone' himself, says he won't let the city be 'occupied by anarchists' and criticizes response from 'pathetic' mayor who said it was a 'block party'
President Donald Trump has said that his administration is 'not going to let Seattle be occupied by anarchists' after demonstrators took over a six-block section of the city, including a police precinct.
'If there were more toughness, you wouldn't have the kind of devastation that you had in Minneapolis and in Seattle. I mean, let's see what's going on in Seattle,' Trump told Fox News on Thursday. 'I will tell you, if they don't straighten that situation out, we're going to straighten it out.'
On Monday, police in Seattle abandoned the city's East Precinct after receiving threats that it would be burned down. The precinct and the surrounding blocks have since been taken over by George Floyd protesters, who have erected barricades, posted armed guards, and declared that police are not allowed inside.
Demonstrators have dubbed the freewheeling commune the 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone', or CHAZ. Police officials say that the lack of ability to operate from the precinct building has made 911 response times to violent crimes in progress, including rapes and robberies, three times longer.
Trump described Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's handling of the situation as 'pathetic,' and asked 'Has she ever done this before?' He also called on Washington Governor Jay Inslee to send in National Guard troops to restore order.
'He's got great National Guard troops so he can do it,' Trump said of Inslee. 'But one way or the other, it's going to get done. These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city.
'It is unconstitutional and illegal to send the military into Seattle,' Durkan, a first-term Democrat, told a press conference yesterday. 'There is no imminent threat of an invasion of Seattle.'
President Donald Trump has said that his administration is 'not going to let Seattle be occupied by anarchists' after demonstrators took over a six-block section of the city, including a police precinct
Artists fill in the letters of a 'Black Lives Matter' mural on E. Pine Street as protesters establish what they call an autonomous zone while protesting against racial inequality and calling for the defunding of Seattle police
Protesters listen to a speaker as they sit in front of the Seattle Police Department East Precinct building, which has been boarded up and abandoned Thursday inside what is being called the 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' in Seattle
People walk past barricades on a street near Cal Anderson Park, Thursday inside the CHAZ
A protester uses a scope on top of a barricade to look for police approaching the newly created CHAZ on Thursday
Seattle Police Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette and Assistant Chief Adrian Diaz are blocked by protesters from entering the newly created Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington on Thursday
In public statements, Inslee and Durkan have defended the CHAZ as 'largely peaceful' and 'like a block party,' indicating they believe a hands-off approach to the takeover is warranted.
Appearing on CNN, Durkan was asked how long the CHAZ would remain in the hands of protesters. She replied: 'I don't know. We could have the summer of love!'
However, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best disavowed the decision to abandon the East Precinct.
Best posted a video message to officers Thursday in which she said the decision to leave the Capitol Hill precinct wasn't hers and she was angry about it. She also reiterated that police had been harassed and assaulted during protests.
'Ultimately, the city had other plans for the building and relented to severe public pressure,' Best said.
At a Thursday news conference neither Best nor Durkan made it clear who decided that police should leave the precinct.
Best said at the press conference that police response times to priority calls of violent crimes in progress had tripled this week. Police sources say that responses to low-priority calls have been suspended.
'If that is your mother, your sister, your cousin, your neighbor's kid that is being raped, robbed assaulted (or) otherwise victimized you're not going to want to have to report that it took the police three times longer to get there to provide services to them,' Best said.
Durkan said regarding Trump's statements about Seattle that one of the things the president will never understand is that listening to community is not a weakness, but a strength.
'A real leader would see nationwide protest, the grief in so many communities of color, particularly our black communities, and the call to be an anti-racist society, as an opportunity for America. An opportunity to build a better nation,' she said.
Protesters have said they want to see the precinct turned into a community center or used for purposes other than law enforcement.
The word 'people' is spray painted over the word 'police' on the closed Seattle Police Department's East Precinct now surrounded by the area known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), in Seattle on Thursday
The words 'Black Lives Matter' are painted in the middle of East Pine Street in the newly created CHAZ
Jahtia B (left), who did not want to use last name, and Sheila Lambert, both of Seattle, cheer after the Ride for Justice ride to the newly created Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle on Thursday
The president has sparred before with Inslee and Durkan - both liberal Democrats. Inslee previously sought his party's presidential nomination.
Inslee tweeted Thursday that state officials will not allow threats of military violence from the White House. 'The U.S. military serves to protect Americans, not the fragility of an insecure president,' he tweeted.
The zone set up by protesters stretches a portion of Capitol Hill, where dozens of people show up to listen to speakers calling for police reform, racial justice and compensation for Native groups on whose land the city of Seattle was founded.
Signs proclaim 'You are entering free Capitol Hill' and 'No cop co-op' along sidewalks where people sell water and other wares.
The leadership situation inside the commune remained fluid and unclear on Thursday night.
Rapper Raz Simone, who had been patrolling the zone with armed men as an alleged 'warlord', came under fire on Thursday after an old post from his Twitter account surfaced expressing anti-gay sentiment.
Simone denied that the tweet was his doing, insisting that his account had been hacked and the 2010 tweet had been altered somehow.
Rapper Raz Simone (seen Tuesday), who had been patrolling the zone with armed men as an alleged 'warlord', came under fire after an old post from his Twitter account surfaced expressing anti-gay sentiment
A protester who did not want to be named appeared to be entering into negotiations with police on Thursday. The leadership situation in the CHAZ remained fluid and unclear on Thursday night
Simone also faced scrutiny after a video emerged showing him and his entourage confronting a tagger within the CHAZ, with someone in the entourage declaring 'we are the police in this community now' before the altercation became physical.
On Thursday, speakers used a microphone to discuss their demands and how to address the police presence after they visited the precinct during the day. Down the street, artists continued painting a block-long 'Black Lives Matter' mural on the street.
'The people that you see here have all come together because we see injustice in our system and we want to be part of the solution,' said Mark Henry Jr. of Black Lives Matter.
Henry said Trump's rant about the gathering was unfounded. 'Donald Trump can call us a terrorist if he likes to, but what you see out here is people coming together and loving each other,' he said.
Over the weekend, police were sharply criticized by City Council members and other elected leaders. Since officers dialed back their tactics, the demonstrations have largely been peaceful.
The protesters wrote Black Lives Matter in enormous lettering down one of the streets in the autonomous zone on Wednesday night
Artists have spray painted rainbow murals throughout the streets of the six-block zone
A 'no cop co-op' offering free snacks, water, food, soda, sunscreen and hand sanitizer
On Wednesday night, the protesters took a vote and watched Paris is Burning - the 1990s iconic LGBTQ movie. They watched an anti-slavery documentary the previous night
Police officials say they are looking to reopen the precinct. At a news conference Wednesday, Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette said the barriers were removed from the front of the building after it became a flashpoint between officers and protesters.
Nollette said the precinct has been boarded up because of credible threats that it would be vandalized or burned. She offered no details about the threats and no fires have been reported at the site.
She said protesters have set up their own barricades, which are intimidating some residents.
City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant disputed accounts of violence or intimidation by protesters within the area on Capitol Hill and said it was more like a street fair with political discussions and a drum circle.
'The right wing has been spreading rumors that there is some sort of lawlessness and crime taking place at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, but it is exactly the opposite of that,' said Sawant, a socialist and a critic of Durkan and the police.
Sawant said she wants the precinct to be 'converted into a public resource that will actually be helpful to society.'
'I'll straighten out Seattle': Donald Trump threatens to take on the cop-free 'autonomous zone' himself, says he won't let the city be 'occupied by anarchists' and criticizes response from 'pathetic' mayor who said it was a 'block party'
!['I'll straighten out Seattle': Donald Trump threatens to take on the cop-free 'autonomous zone' himself, says he won't let the city be 'occupied by anarchists' and criticizes response from 'pathetic' mayor who said it was a 'block party']()
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