JASON RANTZ

Rantz: Activist group says Seattle cops targeted them. Video shows otherwise

Jul 27, 2020, 8:06 PM | Updated: Jul 28, 2020, 8:49 am

Seattle riot protest Seattle rioters tagged a Whole Foods with the message "Hang Bezos." (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters committed arson against 5 construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) More vandalism at the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) More vandalism at the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After committing arson and vandalism, Seattle rioters march passed the East Precinct. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After committing arson and vandalism, Seattle rioters march passed the East Precinct. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After committing arson and vandalism, Seattle rioters march passed the East Precinct. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After committing arson and vandalism, Seattle rioters march passed the East Precinct. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) A man pretending to be a hero holds onto a leaf blower during the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) Aerial view of the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Aerial view of the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Aerial view of the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) Seattle police make one of many arrests during the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) Seattle officers make one of a series of arrests during the Seattle riot (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle officers make one of a series of arrests during the Seattle riot (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) A woman is treated for OC spray exposure during the Seattle riot. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) After an explosive device is lobbed against the East Precinct, Seattle rioters taunt police. (Photo: Jason Rantz) Seattle rioters tossed an explosive device of some kind at the East Precinct. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Seattle rioters destroyed a Starbucks in the Central District. (Jason Rantz/KTTH)

A far-Left legal activist group claims Seattle police officers targeted them with pepper spray during Saturday’s riot. But a video shows that claim to be utter nonsense.

The National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG) is a fringe political group filled with lawyers and law students that attend riots and protests singularly focused on protecting like-minded activists to protest in a way they see fit. When Antifa goons get arrested, the NLG is there to bail them out. It’s why they’ve been called the “legal arm” of Antifa.

Now, the NLG is pretending they were personally targeted by police. This appears part of NLG’s political agenda to help Antifa and other agitators demonize police officers.

Rantz: 69 photos from the center of the Seattle anti-police riot

Targeted at Seattle riot? Nope

In a press release posted after the Seattle riot, the NLG claims they were victims of “violent targeting of legal observers and indiscriminate use of crowd control munitions by the Seattle Police Department.”

To prove their point, NLG posted video of a legal observer they say was “getting pepper sprayed directly in the face.” Except that’s not what the video shows. Indeed, it shows someone else getting hit, avoiding direct contact with the legal observer. You can even see the pepper spray soar past her.

The unnamed legal observer was close to the pepper spray deployment, no doubt. When you’re near agitators, legal observer or not, you risk getting in the way of pepper spray. I was out there and dealt with residual pepper spray. Why? Because I was trying to get video of rioters in the act so that I can do what The Seattle Times and some national outlets refuse to do: tell the truth of what’s been going on.

Wearing an ugly, bright green hat doesn’t mean officers won’t use pepper spray around them in order to disperse agitators the NLG seeks to protect at all costs. And no matter what police do, the NLG will complain.

Rantz: Seattle experienced a violent riot against police, not a protest

The claim was amplified

Area journalists and activists amplified the claims on Twitter.

For The Seattle Times, Heidi Groover posted the claim along with a statement from the mayor. Groover, a former Stranger writer who reports as if she’s not just sympathetic to the protester’s cause but serving as their publicist, tweeted a quote from the statement making it seem like the mayor’s office sided with the NLG complaint.

Not highlighted in the tweet is that the statement said: “Many journalists and legal observers are reporting from the frontline, and this has sometimes placed them in the midst of escalating events with explosives, rocks and bricks thrown at officers, and officers taking actions to disperse a crowd …”

In their coverage of the Saturday riot, Groover and her coauthor, also a Stranger alum, Sydney Brownstone, downplayed the violence. An arson that burned five construction trailers at the Juvenile Detention Center, frequent officer assaults, and vandalism against businesses was first referred to as “scattered vandalism and fires.” It took them 14 paragraphs to mention the arson, and 18 to mention the explosive device leveled against the East Precinct.

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

Jason Rantz on AM 770 KTTH
  • listen to jason rantzTune in to AM 770 KTTH weekdays at 3-7pm toThe Jason Rantz Show.

Jason Rantz Show

Jason Rantz

Burien lawsuit...

Jason Rantz

Exclusive: City of Burien sues King County for breaking contract in homeless camping ban

The City of Burien filed a lawsuit against King County for its refusal to enforce a homeless camping ban that was lawfully adopted.

13 hours ago

Image: The Stevens County Sheriff's Office says it recently received an odd call from a Sasquatch h...

Jason Rantz

Rantz: Sheriff’s office asked legality of hunting Sasquatch in Stevens County

A Sasquatch hunter had an interesting question for the Stevens County sheriff. Is it legal to hunt Sasquatch?

1 day ago

Image: Children bike past Wilson Elementary in Spokane....

Jason Rantz

Rantz: ‘Racist’ Spokane elementary school’s ‘slaves and hobos’ ignites controversy

After a teacher told students they could dress as "slaves and hobos" for an event, the Spokane NAACP cried foul.

2 days ago

Images: At left, Bellevue Police Department Officer Kevin Bereta is seen in his uniform. At right, ...

Julia Dallas

Bellevue officer injured in VP Harris motorcade recalls road to reclaiming benefits

Bellevue Police Officer Kevin Bereta's life changed while he was on VP Kamala Harris' service detail during her visit to Washington.

2 days ago

permanent supportive housing...

Jason Rantz

Rantz: You’re being lied to about permanent supportive housing in Redmond

Redmond residents rightly push back against permanent supportive housing as a solution for the homeless, as Seattle media get in the way.

3 days ago

WA State Attorney General Bob Ferguson campaigning.  (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)...

Jason Rantz

Rantz: On crime, Bob Ferguson campaign made its first massive blunder

The Bob Ferguson campaign wants you thinking his top priority is crime. His entire political history says otherwise.

4 days ago

Rantz: Activist group says Seattle cops targeted them. Video shows otherwise