While D.C. Democrats were still decrying the right wing violence against the inauguration that never happened, the real offenders, antifa, were out in force on the west coast causing more destruction and mayhem to the local government, citizens and small businesses in Seattle, Denver, Portland and unruly crowds were causing issues with police even in the usually quiet city of Tacoma, Washington.
Democrats have a lot of work ahead of them to both reign in the destruction of the left, whose tactics they embraced against former President Trump, and convincing the right that the left has any interest at all in unity rather than what appears to be the quest for unlimited power disguised as revenge.
As far away as the U.K. they see the lack of unity under a Biden administration as the Daily Mail reports:
“Antifa rioters smashed windows at Portland‘s Democratic Party headquarters, burned US flags in Denver and vandalized store fronts in Seattle just hours after President Joe Biden was sworn in.”
It’s also not gone unnoticed that liberal leaning cities have increased their push back now that they feel it politically safe to do so. Now feeling free to use the federal agencies and teargas that they decried under a Trump Presidency. Over the summer, there were demonstrations for more than 100 straight days that went largely unchallenged and played down by the news media as “mostly peaceful”. The Daily Mail continues,
“Mayor Ted Wheeler recently decried what he described as a segment of violent agitators who detract from the message of police accountability and should be subject to more severe punishment.”
Protests erupted on Wednesday just hours after Biden’s inauguration. In Portland the focus was again on the ICE building that has been the site of several violent clashes between demonstrators and federal police over the past year. The demonstrators have long demanded that ICE, the agency created for the enforcement of immigration laws, be abolished. The clashes late on Wednesday escalated to the point where authorities needed to block off streets leading to the building.
Video posted to social media show flash bangs exploding as federal authorities attempted to quell the unrest.
It was clear the Portland protestors had taken on a new target, carrying anti-Biden and anti-police signs while marching to the Democratic Party headquarters where they smashed windows and spray-painted ‘F*** Biden’.
One of the signs read,
‘We don’t want Biden. We want revenge for police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres’
Elsewhere, far left and BLM supporters came out to protest Biden. American flags were burned and graffiti spray-painted onto storefronts in Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington. Marching protestors in Sacramento, California wielded shields and clubs.
- In Denver, communist and anti-fascist demonstrators set fire to an American flag near State Capitol
- In Seattle, groups of Antifa rioters vandalized storefronts and businesses in downtown area on Wednesday
- Police in Seattle said that Antifa members smashed windows at the federal Nakamura Courthouse
- Reports indicate that some 60 Antifa members wielded clubs during march in Sacramento on Wednesday
‘No prisons, no walls – no USA at all,’ they chanted in California.
Other chants included ‘No kids in cages’ and ‘All cops are bastards.’
‘The fact that one figurehead is being traded for another on the 20th does not matter to us,’ according to a message posted on the Antifa Sacramento web site.
‘This does nothing to combat the white supremacy that the US was built on, and does nothing to stop its current white supremacist project.
‘While we do not care about the damage done to the Capitol building in DC on January 6th, we recognize it as an outgrowth of the racist rage that has been building and organizing for years.’
Most of the demonstrators were dressed in black while some were carrying Black Lives Matter signs and banners, according to KOVR-TV.
Sacramento police say demonstrators toppled over the fencing at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Though no demonstrators were cited, one person who confronted them from their car was cited for illegal possession of pepper spray.
And on Saturday night police in Tacoma, Washington were forced to push their SUV through a gathering crowd swarming them, blocking them in according to a Tacoma Police News Release:
“During the operation, a responding Tacoma police vehicle was surrounded by the
crowd. People hit the body of the police vehicle and its windows as the officer was
stopped in the street. The officer, fearing for his safety, tried to back up, but was unable
to do so because of the crowd. The officer had his lights and sirens activated. While
trying to extricate himself from an unsafe position, the officer drove forward striking one
individual and may have impacted others. The officer stopped at a point of safety and
called for medical aid. One person was transported to an area hospital. That person’s
condition is, at this time, unknown.”
Puyallup Police Capt. Dan Pashon, who is part of the team investigating the incident, told KOMO that two people were transported to the hospital. One victim has been released, and the other remained in the hospital as of Saturday evening.
Biden’s White House has been quiet on the issue. Press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday that she hasn’t spoken with President Biden of the recent turmoil in the Pacific Northwest, adding that the situation is being monitored by the national security team.
