Tag: seattle

Seattle mayor rejects locking up repeat criminals during tense debate: ‘Maybe they’re hungry’

Seattle Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell said during a mayoral debate Thursday night he has “no desire” to put repeat criminal defenders in jail, and he doesn’t know how to answer the question on whether the city is “too lax” on repeat offenders.

“So, let me make something very clear. I was the one that sponsored the ‘Ban the Box’ legislation when everyone opposed it because the criminal system has had a disparate impact on Black and Brown communities, let me lead with that,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a mayoral debate Thursday night when asked a follow-up question about repeat offenders in the city.

Harrell’s “Ban the Box” proposal in 2013 prevented employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal history on applications up front. 

Harrell then said, “When this person is committing six or seven crimes, I don’t know his or her story. Maybe they were abused as a child. Maybe they’re hungry. But my remedy is to find their life story to see how we can help. First, I have no desire to put them in jail, but I need to protect you, and that’s the calibration that we have.

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Delusional Seattle Democrats Blame Trump While Ignoring Their Role In Homelessness Crisis

In a recent op-ed, radio host Jason Rantz argues that Seattle Democrats outraged by President Donald Trump’s new homelessness executive order are ignoring their own responsibility for the crisis.

Trump’s order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” dismantles “Housing First” and “Harm Reduction” strategies, which Rantz calls failed progressive experiments that worsened addiction, street crime, and homelessness. He says local leaders in cities like Seattle and Spokane are “predictably outraged” because the policy is “a direct rebuke to the failed progressive experiments that have crippled Seattle, Spokane, and other left-wing cities.”

Rantz writes that Washington Governor Bob Ferguson called the order “misguided and harmful,” while Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said it was impractical. Rantz counters that their criticisms are hypocritical, as these leaders presided over a surge in encampments, crime, and drug use.

He is particularly critical of “Harm Reduction” programs that distribute drug paraphernalia at taxpayer expense, claiming they enable addiction. “In less than five minutes, I walked away with glass pipes and other fentanyl smoking equipment, no questions asked,” he said of a recent visit to a Seattle facility.

Rantz also dismisses “Housing First” as ineffective, arguing it ignores root causes like mental illness and substance abuse. He claims the program “merely relocates the dysfunction indoors.”

Trump’s order ties federal funding to enforcement of laws against public camping, open drug use, and street crime, which Rantz says restores accountability. “When we stop normalizing drug addiction and homelessness, we offer real compassion — access to treatment, mental health services, and genuine rehabilitation programs,” he writes.

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Judge rules against Seattle employees fired for religious refusal of COVID vax

King County Superior Court Judge Tanya L. Thorp has ruled in favor of the City of Seattle in a high-profile lawsuit brought by dozens of former city employees who were terminated after refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Thorp ruled that none of them had sincerely held religious beliefs when they objected to the vaccine mandate. She said their beliefs are “secular cloaked in religious vernacular,” and that prayer is not a reasonable manner for decision making.

In her ruling, Thorp agreed with arguments presented by the city’s outside counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, granting a motion for summary judgment on most of the plaintiffs’ claims. The employees from City Light (SCL), the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), and the city’s Finance/Admin department (FAS) had alleged violations of Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, failure to accommodate religious beliefs and wrongful termination.

In court documents obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the City argued that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate a bona fide religious belief that conflicted with the vaccine mandate. Thorp said that their objections were “secular concerns cloaked in religious vernacular.”

The city further argued that prayer alone does not convert a personal decision into a protected religious belief, citing federal case law that distinguishes personal or medical objections from religious practices.

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Pro-Trump Reporter Jumped by Out-of-Control Antifa Mob While Covering ‘No Kings’ Riot in Seattle

A right-wing reporter was jumped and robbed by a mob of Antifa militants as he covered the “No Kings” riot in Seattle.

Journalist Cam Higby reported that police were not intervening in the violent riot and blamed it on Democrat Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Prior to the attack, Higby says he received a death threat from an alleged Antifa militant and posted screenshots of the conversation.

“Tyler Hahn threatened to kill me just weeks ago,” Higby wrote.

Higby claimed that it was Hahn and his “lackeys” who attacked him at the riot.

“While SPD was refusing to intervene with the riot tonight, militant Tyler Hahn and his lackeys JUMPED ME,” Higby wrote. “Dealing several blows to my head. I was able to deploy pepper spray and repel them, regaining the belongings they knocked out of my pockets.”

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FBI opens investigation into targeted violence against Christians in Seattle

Dan Bongino of the FBI announced on Tuesday that the agency has opened an investigation into “allegations of targetd violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert.” This follows an incident on Sunday in which Mayday USA, a Christian group, held a permitted concert in Cal Anderson Park which drew Antifa counter-protesters who then attacked the Christians.

Following the attack, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell condemned the Christian group who was attacked, claiming that they were “far-right” and had no business holding an event in the park due to its proximity to the locus of the LGBTQ+ community. 23 arrests were made among the militants who showed up to harass the Christian event.

“We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert. Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion,” Bongino said.

“Today’s far-right rally was held here for this very reason – to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood,” Harrell said following the event on Saturday.

“When the humanity of trans people and those who have been historically marginalized is questioned, we triumph by demonstrating our values through our words and peaceful protest – we lose our voice when this is disrupted by violence, chaos, and confusion,” Harrell went on. 

This led to calls for Harrell’s resignation and those calls turned into a protest on Tuesday where the Christian group protested Harrell and more Antifa and trans activists showed up to protest the Christians.

It was later revealed that, despite Harrell’s protestations against the Christian group and his complaints over the location of their event, city officials had previously suggested that the event happen in the park. Event organizers had suggested Pike Street, the location of the iconic Pike Place Market, but an official said that “other Seattle Parks locations” should be considered, including Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill where the event did go forward.

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Seattle’s Woke Problem: You Don’t Hate Antifa Or Leftist Politicians Enough

If you want to travel back in history and get a glimpse of the spread of violent Bolshevism across Europe in the early 20th Century, the west coast of the US in 2025 is a close parallel.  Seattle in particular has become a cesspool of extreme Antifa activism and apathetic local governance.  It’s a place where zero tolerance is displayed for differing political views and violence is considered an acceptable strategy to silence opponents.  Seattle is a glimpse back to the height of the woke era, and a warning of what could happen if the political left is ever allowed to gain real power again.

As we covered last week, Antifa groups organized and descended on a Christian event held by Mayday USA in Cal Anderson Park, within the same area that was once the “CHAZ autonomous zone” during the riots of 2020.  The reaction from the woke mob to the peaceful free speech event was vicious and at least 23 arrests were made by police.

What the local news does not mention, however, is the fact that these kinds of disruptive actions are a regular occurrence in the Seattle area.  Any visit from a conservative group or speaker in a public venue is immediately swarmed and attacked; people who attend the events are specifically targeted for harassment.  Antifa isn’t only seeking to intimidate the speakers or the organizers, they go after anyone who shows up to listen.  The establishment media will never show you most of these incidents.

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FBI Probing Allegations Of ‘Targeted Violence’ Against Religious Groups in Seattle: Official

The FBI is investigating after officials said a religious event in Seattle was disrupted by violence, a top FBI official said on May 27.

“We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert,” Dan Bongino, the FBI’s deputy director, said on social media platform X. “Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.”

The office of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Organizers said the May 24 event was held at Cal Anderson Park in support of “the sanctity of human life, the sacrality of biological gender, the importance of the nuclear family, and the right to freedom of speech and religion.”

They said the movement organizing the event stands against indoctrination of children “by a liberal, political, and sexual agenda that seeks to destroy their God-given identities.”

Counterprotesters, including the Freedom Socialist Party, said their demonstration was meant to “keep your bibles off our bodies.”

Clashes at the event resulted in 23 arrests, the Seattle Police Department said. One juvenile was released. The rest of those arrested were charged with assault and obstruction.

The White House Faith Office said in a statement on Tuesday that it condemned “the violent disruption of Seattle’s MayDay USA worship event.”

“We affirm the fundamental rights to free speech and religious freedom for all Americans, as protected by federal law. Public officials must protect the inalienable rights of all citizens, regardless of their faith or religious beliefs. We urge the City of Seattle to uphold these rights at all faith-based events, safeguarding the ability of people of faith to gather and express their beliefs without fear of harassment or violence,” the office said.

After the event, Harrell, a Democrat, called it a “far-right rally” that he said was meant “to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.”

He said that anarchists infiltrated counterprotesters and “inspired violence,” which led to officers making arrests and asking organizers to end the event early. The request was accepted.

Organizers said in a statement to news outlets that “under Mayor Harrell’s leadership, the city of Seattle has continued its spiral into lawlessness and dysfunction while the First Amendment rights of citizens to peacefully assemble has been disregarded.”

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When City Hall Chooses the Mob

In Seattle last weekend, violence broke out—not from the pulpit, but from the pavement.

Pastors and churchgoers, gathered for a permitted worship event in a city park, found themselves besieged by a black-clad mob who attempted to tear down fencing, rush the stage, and shout them down.

The attackers were not counter-protesters in any constitutional sense of the word. They were masked militants whose tactics have become a hallmark of Antifa: organized, aggressive, and aimed not at persuasion but suppression.

To their credit, the Seattle police intervened. Arrests were made. Barricades held. For a moment, law reasserted itself in a city too long governed by hesitation.

Then came the mayor.

Bruce Harrell, elected to lead but seemingly content to triangulate, did not respond with praise for law enforcement or a reaffirmation of Seattle’s civic obligations to neutrality and free expression.

Instead, he questioned the Christian group’s presence—why they had been issued a permit and why their event had not been relocated to a “less provocative” area.

Translated: The fault lies not with the mob—heaven forbid—but those who dared to speak within earshot of it.

This goes beyond appeasement or failed civic leadership. The mayor effectively signaled that the rule of law in Seattle is conditional—and that those who assault Christians may expect indulgence, while those who dare to preach in public may expect scrutiny.

Harrell’s statement is a masterclass in moral evasion. It nods toward “anarchists,” then downplays their aggression with sanitized language like “infiltrated” and “disrupted”—as if masked militants had simply wandered in with the breeze.

Rather than commend his officers or affirm the constitutional right of peaceful assembly, Harrell issued a statement directing the Parks Department to reexamine the permitting process and urging the police to produce an after-action report focused on crowd management tactics and the arrests themselves.

The subtext was unmistakable: those arrested may soon be recast as misunderstood protesters, and the officers who protected the event could find themselves under internal review.

In Seattle, even enforcing the law can become grounds for investigation—if you defend the wrong group.

The mayor then implies that the real danger lies in “far-right” speech held in a historically LGBTQ+ neighborhood. In other words, the public square is now zoned for ideology.

Speech rights may exist on paper but are conditional—revocable if your message strays from the orthodoxy or irritates Seattle’s cringeworthy Mayor LaTrivia, always eager with bureaucratic balm for the mob’s bruised feelings.

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Seattle mayor condemns Christian concert as ‘far-right rally’ after Antifa militants stage violent protest

A Christian rally and concert hosted by the conservative group MAYDAY USA in Cal Anderson Park on Saturday afternoon descended into chaos after Antifa militants showed up to clash with attendees, resulting in 23 arrests.

The event, branded by organizers as the “#DontMessWithOurKids” rally, began around 2 pm and drew the attention of the radicals for its mission, including defending the “sanctity of human life,” “biological gender,” and “freedom of religion.”

Antifa and left-wing counter-protesters showed up in park, the same location of 2020’s deadly Capitol Hill protest (CHOP), accusing MAYDAY USA of promoting “fascist family values” and holding the rally in a historically LGBTQ+ neighborhood to incite a reaction. Protesters, including members of Radical Women Seattle and the Freedom Socialist Party, chanted, sang, and waved signs bearing messages such as “Keep Your Bibles Off Our Bodies.”

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Christian Rally In Seattle Park Attacked By Violent Woke Mob

The year of 2020 was an unmitigated disaster for the US for numerous reasons.  With so many chaotic events happening simultaneously, one can be forgiven if they have completely forgotten about the bizarre CHAZ/CHOP takeover of a section of Seattle by woke activists for around a month.  The protest led to extensive violence and some deaths, but was widely supported by city officials.  It was also a wellspring of hilarious memes as ignorant protesters tried in vain to establish a self sustaining progressive community complete with socialist garden spaces.

Seattle is one of the few leftist enclaves in the US still clinging to the old days of BLM and covid mandates, and they are back in the news again.  This time because of an organized and violent mob attack on a peaceful Christian rally this week at Cal Anderson Park.  The rally, held by a group called Mayday USA, spoke on pro-life issues and against transgender hormones and surgeries for children. 

A group called “Radical Women Seattle” explained their protest of the event:

“Aimed to counter the well-funded anti-trans, anti-queer event that is led by far-right Christian activists. The Mayday USA rally in Seattle is provocatively being held in the heart of the Queer community. It is part of a 5-city national tour. Reactionary preacher and former Spokane Valley state representative Matt Shea, of the “On Fire Ministries,” is one of the prominent supporters…”

Freedom Socialist Party leader Doreen McGrath stated:

“We are encouraging everyone to come out and show their solidarity…Attacks of this kind need to be met with protest every time…”

In other words, a Christian group meeting in a public park is considered an “attack”.

By mid-day the mob engaged in a series of violent actions on the Christian rally, forcing police to intervene.  At least 23 activists were arrested on charges of assault and obstruction. 

After a decade of unhinged woke activism in the US most people are now well aware that the political left’s idea of “free speech” is highly one-sided.  They believe that free speech laws give them the right to disrupt and even violently shut down other people’s free speech.  They think that the 1st Amendment gives them the right to do whatever they want whenever they want.  This is simply not reality.

Furthermore, the political left argues that the right to disrupt is supported by the content of their opponent’s speech.  Meaning, if a person or group is presenting conservative or populist views (what they call “hate speech”), this justifies violence as a tool to shut that speech down. 

This is a very convenient mindset because it allows them to rationalize any malicious tactic.  All they have to do is label their enemies “fascists” and the rules of civil order go out the window.  This is why leftists are unlikely to win a majority of elections at any point in the near future and it’s also why the American public is increasingly tempted to return the favor and visit violence on woke activists.

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