WATCH: Seattle besieged by armed radicals claiming city property, declaring sovereignty in ‘autonomous zone’

Seattle is under siege, literally. But first, let’s set the table at which the mostly peaceful protesters are now dining.

So, what is the best way to get the public to agree with you that the police should be defunded or abolished? I’m not sure what the best way is (and, for the record, as a retired cop, I’m against that), but I sure know a way to ensure the public is not on your side: Wreak exactly the kind of destruction Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and other mostly peaceful protesters (which is said so often, I think the mainstream media must have copyrighted this phrase so they make money every time a journalist or leftwing activist utters it) have done to some of America’s major cities. Give people a demonstration of exactly why people need the police.

This entire surreal epoch will go down in the annals of history as one full of ironies and contradictions. The first contradiction is the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of police brutality victim George Floyd’s funeral. The occasion was even adorned with an image of Mr. Floyd with angel wings and a halo. Murder victim, yes; saint, not quite. He was a convicted felon imprisoned for his part in a home invasion robbery where he threatened a woman with a gun, pressing the muzzle into a woman’s abdomen in which a fetus was comfortably cocooned.

On the other hand, there was no similar blanket coverage of the funeral for retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn. In fact, CNN and MSNBC had zero coverage of the hero. Captain Dorn, also a black man who was murdered, was a true angel. He died trying to prevent the looting of a friend’s store. Looting by people ostensibly protesting Mr. Floyd’s death. Captain Dorn was a real hero who served his community honorably his entire adult life, putting away criminals who prey on peaceful people.

An opportunistic mostly peaceful protester thug shot Captain Dorn in the streets. The video showing this brave police officer’s last moments on earth, dying in a puddle of his own blood, is gut-wrenching. Mr. Floyd did not deserve to die the way he did, but neither did Captain Dorn. I guess some black lives matter more than others—is that right CNN and MSNBC?

As for other contradictions and ironies, people who oppose the Second Amendment and want to defund or abolish the police are now wreaking such havoc in our communities that gun stores cannot keep up with the demand of people who want guns for self protection. People who have never considered owning a gun in their lives are buying guns. A gun store I go to in the next town over has had a line out the door every single day for several weeks.

These mostly peaceful protesters want little or no police. But their actions have put such fear into the average person, even people in suburbs and some rural areas are also afraid. Why are they afraid? Because violent leftwing radicals and seditionists (otherwise known as mostly peaceful protesters) are destroying business districts with almost no opposition from police because there aren’t enough cops as it is. People want more police, not fewer. A recent poll showed 80 percent of Americans do not want to defund or abolish the police. Nice try, BLM and Antifa.

And now there is an irony occurring in Seattle, springing out of one of the most humiliating exercises in appeasement I have ever witnessed. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best decided the best way to deal with mostly peaceful protesters is to hand them a police station. How woke is that?

This affects me personally because they handed over the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) East Precinct, my home away from home for over two decades. I wrote reports, investigated crimes, brought prisoners to the holding cells before booking them into jail, screened arrests with supervisors, protected it during riots, and met some of the best people I’ve ever known in my life. People who I trusted with my life and who trusted me with theirs. People I will be friends with for the rest of our lives.

The East Precinct also houses (or formerly housed) the police department’s memorial wall. This Wall of Honor was a large wall in the precinct break room where hung the framed images of every SPD officer killed in the line of duty since 1881. Each of the 59 officers’ deaths tells a story of Service, Pride, and Dedication (SPD-get it?) to the city of Seattle.

Seattle was/is one of the most political protest-prone places in America, and the SPD East Precinct is one of the city’s most protest prone. It has been since as far back as I can remember. My first riots at the precinct were in the 90s when mostly peaceful protesters once rolled a flaming Dumpster toward the precinct’s front door while communist youths were planning to access the precinct through the roof.

By the premature end of my career (I’d have stayed 10 years longer, if only they’d have let us do our jobs) it was unusual to not have at least one demonstration per week. I remember standing on a riot line in front of the precinct, shortly before I retired, while a block away mostly peaceful protesters jumped on people’s cars.

Our command staff, at the bidding of city leaders, had ordered us not to intervene while Seattleites were threatened by violent mobs. This also became routine. However, it never occurred to any of us that the city or department leadership would ever surrender our precinct to criminals. In fact, I never knew that was a thing.

Flash forward to circa 2020, Seattle, Washington. Mayor Durkan and Chief Best have abandoned the SPD East Precinct, surrendering it to Marxist radicals (otherwise known as mostly peaceful protesters) and with it also surrendering the rule of law. The mayor and chief put on their rose-colored glasses and came up with a nifty plan. Hey, rather than let the mostly peaceful protesters destroy the precinct, let’s just move out and give it to them. Their plan: “Meet Peace with Peace.” Gag!

Sounds more like meet threats of violence with appeasement and capitulation. I’m trying to find the “peace” in the equation. If you give something to someone to prevent them from taking it by force, how is that “peace”?

Regardless, that is what Seattle’s “leadership” did, and here we are back to more of the irony I mentioned. The police left the area, removed barricades and opened the streets the mostly peaceful protesters had demanded they open. Then, the mostly peaceful protesters closed the streets and now occupy some seven blocks surrounding the precinct. Yes, they created borders.

These radical leftist seditionists have set up a quasi-nation state, an “autonomous zone” jurisdictionally separate from Seattle, King County, Washington—or the United States. They’ve named their entity Free Capitol Hill (located in central Seattle). Once they created their quasi-nation state and created borders, they put up barricades, and then manned them with armed sentries. That’s right; you heard me correctly. These leftist radicals who call for abolishing law enforcement (including ICE) established a border, have built a wall, and are keeping people from entering their self-assumed “country.”

Despite the humor of the ironies and contradictions, it breaks my heart to see what is happening to my police department and precinct. By abandoning the rule of law, they have allowed lawbreakers to set the terms—which they have done.

Now, Antifa has submitted a list of ludicrous “demands” that are drenched in socialist/Marxist drivel. The demands include “reparations for victims of police brutality,” abolish the Seattle Police Department, and between now and the “dismantlement of the Seattle Police Department, we demand that the use of armed force be banned entirely.” Well, I just bet they do.

These are demands from petulant mostly peaceful protesters that no competent city leadership would ever give in to. But there’s the problem—that competence part. Does Seattle have competent leadership? All the evidence over the last couple of weeks (actually years/decades) says No!