The Seattle City Council stopped its proceedings multiple times and six people were arrested Tuesday after public comment was limited during a demonstration at City Hall calling for support for a group of asylum seekers that has been bounced around the region as housing options have fallen through.
“Officers were called to Seattle City Council Chambers at about 2:55 p.m., as people filled the room and continued to interfere with the session,” SPD reported in a brief on the Tuesday arrests. “Those who were part of the disruption were told to leave the chambers, but they refused and were told they would be arrested if they continued.”
Police say the protesters were arrested for criminal trespass with one man also facing charges of obstruction.
With shouts growing as the time allotted for public comment ended, the protest and disruptions left the council and its six first-time members as well as council president Sara Nelson scattered with some calling for police to intervene.
“Our physical safety is being threatened by the actions of the demonstrators outside,” newly elected District 5 rep Cathy Moore said during the session, KUOW reports. “The windows could easily be broken, and then we’ll have a mob scene. I’m asking for police presence to arrest those individuals.”
Moore, the representative for the city’s northeast, is a former King County judge.
The Stranger reports groups were taking part in the public comment period of the meeting to ask the city to fund housing “for hundreds of Venezuelan, Angolan, and Congolese refugees who will face homelessness if they do not win more funding” as the protest disruptions took place. Some spoke out against the city’s planned spending on gunshot location technology.
The refugees have been “bounced around from a church in Tukwila to hotels in south King County for the last few months,” KOMO reports.
After the disruptions and arrests, the council released a statement trying to separate the protest from the asylum-seekers. “To be clear – that disturbance was caused by a group of protesters and not refugees, who the City of Seattle has been working with to provide shelter,” the short statement reads.
Once order was restored, the council continued its meeting including a vote to designate a portion of 43rd Ave S as “Sen George Fleming Way” to honor the first Black state senator remembered as a champion of low-income housing. Fleming’s family were the only citizens present in the cleared council chambers for the vote.
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Well finally, something to stop the Y’all Qaeda comments from Sawant’s revolutionary minions. As AuntieTiffa always says, Comeuppance Sucks. Perhaps a little accountability, jail time, bail, legal fees, and ruining the rest of your lives, will give you a little perspective. Stand for something worthwhile and not for performance art. Are we having fun yet?
Are you feeling alright? There was a protest and people got arrested…like usual. What is this “finally” and what are you even talking about pinhead?
I supported Sawant and I’m here commenting on your blurb of nonsense, so I fail to see what your point is lol. You seem mad though you should blow off some steam.
Especially because homelessness will get worse if we don’t find ethical solutions to housing the inevitable waves of migrants our and every other state should expect from now on. Our country is reaping what it has sown.
I am feeling fine, perchance ecstatic. Thanks for asking.
Would you like a referral to a good therapist? It helped me and maybe it could help you.
Are you having fun yet?
The “waves of migrants” will become a trickle if our political leaders finally get tougher on border enforcement, and especially the policy that allows illegal migrants to roam free for years pending their asylum hearings, most of which result in a denial. Even Democrats now generally agree that we need a more effective approach.
Ms. Nelson cut off public commentary – in violation of our 1st Amendment right to free speech. Charges will be dropped, and protesters will be back to battle Sara again. It was an exercise in how NOT to handle public commentary and free speech.
Are you texting me from lockup? Asking for a friend,
It sounds like you have about as much of an understanding of 1st Amendment (and where it applies and doesn’t) as the wack jobs on the far right.
Hahaha. It must have been quite a shock for the sawantists to be held accountable for the disruptive, undemocratic, shrill, bullying.
Shrill? Feeling sexist are we?
That’s you with a sexist connotation for shrill, no one else. Check yourself.
Yeah no one has ever been sexist on this blog while attacking Kshama Sawant and her supporters.
No one believes your disingenuous criticism, so you check yourself right out of here.
Not that I necessarily agree with the original ‘shrill’ comment for similar reasons, but: Conjecture much? I bet you’re getting a real kick out of berating everyone on language and their (on your part) assumed message. Kindly take your ad hominem somewhere else or participate like an adult.
Describing the timbre of someone’s voice as shrill is being used above as a sexist dogwhistle by Reality, CLEARLY–they demonstrably hate Sawant, and attack her and her supporters in every conceivable way possible. It completely fits within the pathology of Reality’s storied comment history on this blog–a person who’s mind Kshama Sawant lives rent-free in.
I just calls em as I sees em.
lol – I’m sorry, no. And again – projection much about being disingenuous?
No, actually, lots of people perceive the word “shrill” to have a sexist connotation, because it’s almost exclusively applied to women. I get that you may not have encountered this idea before, but it is neither new nor radical:
https://time.com/4268325/history-calling-women-shrill/
Kudos to the Council for standing up to the leftist bullies who were having a juvenile temper tantrum and disrupting the work of the Council. The public comment period is when they have a chance to voice their views, but then that wouldn’t attract enough attention, would it?
And, by the way, I would have the same opinion if it was a right-wing group that was behaving like that.
zach, you would have supported the monarchy in the revolutionary war too by that logic–just vote, that solves everything! Such a shockingly dim understanding of how history’s most important victories were won.
Go to school and try to actually learn something if you want to feel so self important, you’re showing your naivete.
I think zach probably doesn’t support a revolution…this ain’t 1848.
If each protester each took in one refugee, then maybe problem solved?
where’s this guy when we need him?
https://youtu.be/ocig3BfyYRk?si=Pj1KB8OCivxv1FZt&t=134
I wonder when people will realize that Seattle’s progressive bona fides begin and end with LGBTQ+ recognition and legal weed…it’s libertarian/propertarian, not progressive. Property rights outweigh human rights, same as it ever was.
Just a reminder…. When you protest and you want to show solidarity, strength and belief, virtue and fearlessness, be sure to hide your identity behind a hat, glasses, and a surgical mask. Then run away and post like the fierce warrior you want to be. Otherwise you might be confused for someone with backbone.
Are we having fun yet?