Ross: Dreaming of a world where Seattle protesters aren’t upstaging their own message
May 6, 2021, 6:06 AM | Updated: 10:51 am
A downtown Seattle store, looted following a late-May 2020 riot. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
The barricades around Seattle鈥檚 East Precinct are coming down — could that mean a true summer of love? Or does it just clear the way for the local Taliban to stream back in? If May Day is any indication, it doesn鈥檛 look good.
The anarchists in black were back on May Day, trying to upstage the march for workers鈥� rights by breaking windows, splashing some paint, attacking the Starbucks 鈥� gotta attack the Starbucks 鈥� and providing .
Given that, I鈥檓 not so sure that removing the barricades is a wise move.
But I can dream, right?
I can imagine a Capitol Hill where they take away the wall, and even the fence comes down, leaving the precinct buck naked 鈥� and yet 鈥� nothing happens! We go a whole summer without so much as a single graffito anywhere on the building.
Demonstrators not only march in peace, they patronize the businesses along the way, they let the residents of Capitol Hill 鈥� who generally sympathize with liberal causes 鈥� get some sleep, and the moment they see a troublemaker, they surround him like T-cells, take his crowbar and his paint can, ziptie him to a bike rack, and then clean up the mess he made.
Can you imagine? I can imagine demonstrations so well-controlled that for once the message is聽not undermined! I can imagine signs that say 鈥淪mall Business Builds Wealth,鈥� 鈥淪upport Equity not Chaos,鈥� and “Fire Bad Cops, Support Good Cops,” and I can imagine demonstrators who leave the neighborhood cleaner than they found it!
Imagine how powerful that would be for the left, to have huge peaceful protests for equity during the day, 鈥� while each night on the news, the January 6th rebels are on trial, and America is seeing endless bodycam video of QAnon believers dressed like trick-or treaters, defiling the seat of democracy.
Now that would be a powerful contrast. But my guess is there are just too many Antifa-types who are in it for the fight, and who don鈥檛 care that they keep defiling the causes they supposedly support.
I hope they prove me wrong.
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