JASON RANTZ

Rantz: Edmonds extremists demanding you give up your home is peak 2020

Nov 28, 2020, 3:36 PM | Updated: Nov 30, 2020, 7:30 am

Edmonds, Moorish squatters...

The road into Edmonds, Wash. (Sounder Bruce, Flickr)

A group of Seattle-area extremists is demanding wealthy residents give up their waterfront properties and it’s peak 2020. The only way it could get weirder is if they come with an army of Asian Giant Murder Hornets weaponized with the coronavirus.

The drama is unfolding in Edmonds and Woodway where a group of squatters called the Moorish Sovereign Citizens have presented phony documents to homeowners claiming ownership of the properties. Ironically, Seattle’s Black Lives Matter activists should take note of the equally ridiculous but more polite — and creative — strategy of getting people to leave their neighborhoods.

The group, founded in the mid-1990s, is based on the teachings of the Moorish Science Temple. They do not believe in the government authority of the United States or Washington. Like the area-homeless, they also don’t mind squatting on property that isn’t their own.

Give up your homes or else… we’ll politely leave!

In the last month, the squatters have approached at least four homeowners politely asking that they vacate their property so that the group can occupy it.

Not subject to area-laws, the Moorish extremists were smart enough to pick beautiful waterfront property to call their own. After all, why go after a barren lot in Sequim or deal with the crippling I-5 traffic near DuPont? Sure, you can also get some nice property in Seattle or Medina, but you’ll have to deal with either high crime or self-loathing wealthy progressives respectively. Edmonds and Woodway seems like a good compromise.

By all accounts, the Moorish squatters are forceful but polite. They’re also not breaking any laws. When they’re asked to leave, they do (perhaps it’s why they haven’t been lucky enough to get property yet).

“Essentially they’re saying ‘we were here first, we decided to leave, we’ve come back, and this is our land. This is our house, and we’re taking it,’” Sergeant Josh McClure of the Edmonds Police Department told the Dori Monson Show on KIRO Radio, where I first heard the story.

McClure said Edmonds PD made contact with two squatters to offer them criminal trespass notices.

“It’s a unique situation,” McClure said. “They’ve been cooperative and compliant and even, in some cases, respectful to our officers, but we don’t think they’re going to go away any time soon in terms of their attempt to do this.”

Seattle’s Black Lives Matter activists should take note.

Seattle’s BLM activists act much differently

Contrast the Moorish squatters with Seattle’s BLM activists.

Over the summer, a mob of racist activists (some who have acted criminally at various riots) targeted white homeowners in the Central District. They demanded the homeowners leave their property and pay reparations — presumably to the activists making the demands.

“Give up your house … give Black people back their homes,” an activist demanded into a bullhorn as the mob stopped outside a home. Another demanded a homeowner, “Open your wallet!”

Perhaps these activists could take a cue from the Moorish squatters?

Both groups are inspired to activism for different reasons, but they have much in common: They want what doesn’t belong to them and don’t believe local laws apply to their causes. At least one group is considerably more polite and will leave when you ask them to.

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: Edmonds extremists demanding you give up your home is peak 2020