JASON RANTZ

Rantz: Sawant claims Seattle cops told to ‘orchestrate violence’ before riots

Jun 3, 2020, 9:01 PM | Updated: Jun 4, 2020, 11:27 am

seattle protest riot kshama sawant racism recall...

Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant at a recent digital Council meeting. (Screenshot)

(Screenshot)

Socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant is pushing a conspiracy that cops have instructions to attack peaceful protesters, pushing them into riots. It’s not just a vile and baseless claim. It’s dangerous.

Despite overwhelming video evidence showing agitators throwing items at cops — or, in some cases, physically assaulting them — Sawant is purposefully pushing a conspiracy to foment hate and anger. That way, she’ll be able to more easily forward her agenda to defund and abolish the police.

Unfortunately, Sawant’s lie is more likely to seriously injure or kill a cop.

Rantz: Seattle councilmember dangerously endorses looting and riots

Sawant uses riots to smear Seattle cops

It took just about a minute into Sawant’s Wednesday morning press conference to viciously smear how Seattle police handle protests that, unfortunately, too often turn into riots or looting.

“Video footage since Saturday has repeatedly revealed that the police are the ones instigating the violence,” Sawant claimed, “and that, in fact, these seem to be not spontaneous eruptions from the police, but they seem to be coming prepared with instructions to orchestrate violence, including repeated practices and patterns of repression and violence, with officers wearing riot gear and carrying tear gas spray canisters.”

There is almost nothing truthful in this shockingly dishonest statement.

Sawant offers literally no proof of her spurious claims. However, ample video shows agitators throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and fireworks at Seattle police during the riots.

The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH reached out to Sawant’s office, via the Seattle City Council’s communications director, asking for any evidence to back up her conspiracy. They did not respond. If they had proof, they would present it. They have nothing but disingenuous talking points.

Inslee and the Seattle police respond

I asked Governor Jay Inslee about the rhetoric from Sawant, along with comments from Socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Tammy Morales endorsing looting.

“We’re not going to succeed in bringing more justice and peace to our society if everybody gets into their trenches, into their bunkers,” Inslee said.

The Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, which has strongly condemned the killing of George Floyd, called Sawant’s rhetoric divisive. In a statement released to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, SPOG President Mike Solan says:

SPOG members are conducting themselves honorably and professionally under intense conditions. I pray for their safety and our communities safety at this time. Sawant’s statements are dangerous and divide our community more than unite us. SPOG yearns for unity in our community and we will hold the line to protect their constitutional right of peaceful assembly so they can express their anger with the tragic death of George Floyd. We will also protect them from hostile actors that are stealing their right to peaceful protest. Our members, despite Sawant’s egregious comments, will continue to act professionally and honor our oath of service. We are quality human beings that love our jobs and Seattle.

And as the Seattle Police Department pointed out in a statement, they support “the rights of everyone to express their constitutionally protected free speech. We have a long history of facilitating peaceful protests and demonstrations.”

Sawant’s claim doesn’t even make sense. The SPD is orchestrating violence to suppress protests after hours of allowing it? Why not shut it down early, use overwhelming force to quell any uprising, and go home early instead of putting in 12-hour shifts every day? It makes no sense because Sawant is making it up.

There’s no ‘out’ for Sawant’s lie

Sawant’s scripts her remarks. This was intentional incitement. I suspect she’ll defend her conspiracy by noting she merely says cops “seem” like they’re instructed to orchestrate violence. She should get no pass because her remarks were delivered in bad faith.

Sawant is a professional instigator motivated by her devout belief in socialism, though there’s not been a case of the socialist system ever working. Her goal is to destroy our capitalist system. She wants to defund and abolish the police. She’d prefer private property ownership end. And we know she hopes to install crippling taxes on whomever she deems the “wealthy” enemy. She does not hide any of this.

So how will she get what she wants? She has to break the system. Sawant thinks she can use this collective pain and mourning to break us.

Right now, she thinks she can defund the police, a fancy way of promoting abolition. How do you successfully push such a fringe position? You poison the debate and create a narrative where cops are the enemy.

So now she forwards an unsubstantiated claim that they have instructions to attack peaceful protesters to a group of people already distrustful of the police. And this lie, I fear, will lead to violence against police.

Deadly consequences

Some vulnerable local is going to believe Sawant’s lie. And they’re going to get angry during one of these Seattle riots. And they’re going to hurt or kill an officer.

We’ve already seen officers in this country shot, run over, beaten, and murdered. Sawant’s vitriol adds fuel to a fire — people are already rightly upset with the murder of George Floyd. Sawant will happily take advantage to disrupt the system she so loathes; a system, ironically, that’s given her the power she holds. She doesn’t want unity; she is sowing division and it’s intentional.

We already know that Antifa and anarchists are capable of violence. And no, it’s not white supremacists, a claim the Southern Poverty Law Center acknowledges is meritless.

It’s primarily Antifa and anarchists groups organizing regionally.

In NYC, the New York City police commissioner called out the violent orchestration.

“There is an orchestrated attack specifically on members of law enforcement across the country,” Commissioner Dermot Shea said during the mayor’s daily briefing. “We are seeing it, unfortunately, alive and well in New York City.”

This is right out of the Antifa and anarchist playbook. And we already know that they’re willing to commit acts of terror, as evidenced by the terrorist attempt in Tacoma by Antifa anarchist Willem Van Spronsen.

Will Sawant feel morally just in helping foment such hatred against police that one of her supporters will kill one?

I’d suggest Sawant stand at the front lines with the police officers to see what they’re experiencing so that maybe she’d have some empathy. But she would never do that. She wouldn’t want to get hit with the bricks she pretends aren’t being thrown at cops.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter and Instagram or like me on Facebook

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Rantz: Sawant claims Seattle cops told to ‘orchestrate violence’ before riots