Uncle Ike’s owner says rioters are regularly targeting his shops
Sep 1, 2020, 6:22 AM | Updated: 6:36 am
(Courtesy photo)
Uncle Ike’s various locations around Seattle have regularly been the target of vandalism by rioters, which owner Ian Eisenberg believes is due to a narrative being pushed related to gentrification and his political views. Eisenberg joined the Dori Monson Show to discuss the ongoing incidents.
“It’s fairly regular on Capitol Hill these days. It’s something that’s happening almost every day, every night. Either it’s vandalism, theft, rioting — it’s getting pretty out of hand,” he said.
“That’s part of it — that I’m the main number one gentrifier, that somehow I built all the apartments in the Central District and am now gentrifying Capitol Hill … And it gets even worse. Like earlier this week, there was a protest in front of our store — it was something out of Alex Jones’ Inforwars — the speaker had a megaphone, and he was talking about my underground child sex trafficking operations. They’re just insane there, standing with a pulpit, making up random stories.”
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Eisenberg also believes that Uncle Ike’s is being targeted for his politics, which he says is not radical left enough for the rioters and protesters.
“I publicly supported Democratic candidates for City Council; they’re very, very liberal candidates by any measure across the country. But they weren’t the progressive choice so I became the target. If you talk to business owners around town, the reason in Seattle you don’t see a lot of political candidate posters in the window — it’s exactly for this reason: The far hardcore left will come after you. And when I say come after you, I’m talking about your personal life, your business life, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, over and over and over again,” he said.
Eisenberg questions the notion much parroted by those supporting the protesters that they’re somehow “mostly peaceful.”
“The other thing that’s amazing is the far left has taken this this new saying that they’re mostly peaceful protests. What does that mean? I’m sure Ted Bundy was mostly peaceful. He wasn’t killing people 24/7. It’s just a bizarre concept that a protest is mostly peaceful so that’s OK, even though they smashed car windows on their way to the protest. That’s not peaceful any more, it’s violent,” he said.
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“From what I’ve seen in a protest around this area, the major big protests you see in the news are peaceful protests, they’re terrific. It’s a core group of 100 or 200 kids in all black outfits — I don’t know if they’re antifa or anarchists — but get the kids. They’re in their late teens, early twenties, running around, smashing stuff, high-fiving each other, having a good time. If there’s no repercussions, no consequences, no new shows on Netflix, this is what the kids are going to do, and the police at some point have to start doing their job.”
There’s one demand Eisenberg says protesters are making of him and Uncle Ike’s that he finds especially ridiculous.
“There’s another demand that the protesters have made of me personally: That I’m not allowed to cooperate with law enforcement anymore. So they’re asking me that if they come to my businesses breaking windows, throwing incendiary devices inside, torching the place, I’m not supposed to work with law enforcement? It’s insane.”
Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.