Rantz: After supporting CHOP, hypocritical Molly Moon’s is suing?
Jun 12, 2023, 5:55 PM
Molly Moon’s Ice Cream in Seattle has the gall to sue the City of Seattle for abandoning the East Precinct, a move that led to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). It’s an ironic position given the ice cream maker promoted CHOP.
The shop’s lawyer argued Molly Moon’s “does not seek to undermine CHOP participants’ message or present a counter-message.” Yet it inexplicably also claims the city materially supported and encouraged “a hostile occupation of that neighborhood.”
The ice cream maker’s owner, Molly Neitzel, should look in the mirror. It was Molly Moon’s that materially supported and encouraged CHOP. And if they’re not undermining the message of those participating in the domestic terrorism by Antifa and Black Lives Matter radicals who created CHOP, then why are they suing over their activism?
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Molly Moon’s supported CHOP before it sued
Across the street from Cal Anderson Park and in the CHOP zone, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream claimed the protest made the shop unreachable. As a consequence, the lawsuit claims they suffered significant revenue loss.
There’s little doubt that the city, under the political cowardice of then-mayor Jenny Durkan, helped placate the domestic terrorists that uses violence to commandeer CHOP. I wrote about it extensively in my forthcoming book, What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities. But it was the ice cream shop that helped keep the city out of the CHOP zone, causing its own financial hardship.
On the Molly Moon’s Ice Cream Instagram page, the ice cream maker encouraged the CHOP inhabitants during the “hospital occupation.”
“Yesterday we posted a Black Lives Matter mural in progress by our Capitol Hill shop. This is what it looks like now — beautifully painted by local Black and PoC artists expressing what this moment and movement means to them,” Molly Moon’s posted on June 12, 2020.
View this post on Instagram
Molly Moon’s promoted the “hostile occupation” and its leaders
During CHOP, Molly Moon’s Instagram feed was full of anti-cop, pro-defunding rhetoric. They were mirroring the very demands activists, rioters, and terrorists were using to justify CHOP. Those messages are still up on their page.
Leading up to and during CHOP, the Instagram account was posting messages demanding police be defunded. And they were raising money for the controversial abolitionist group Northwest Community Bail Fund. The money was meant to pay the bail for violent rioters arrested during their “activism.” They highlighted and praised Nikkita Oliver, an extremist who helped create and sustain CHOP. It praised her for organizing and hosting “educational, cultural, and arts-based activities in CHOP.”
“We are proud to have @nikkitaoliver as a leader in our community,” they wrote of Oliver on June 17, 2020, while the “hostile occupation” was ongoing.
On June 11, 2020, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream posted another promotion of CHOP. This time, it labeled the people who violently overtook the area as “peaceful protesters.” It celebrated the police barricades being pulled down.
“This is a photo of #CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) Seattle – a part of Capitol Hill near our shop taken over by peaceful protestors. It’s in the process of transforming into beautiful Black Lives Matter art, now that the police barricade is gone, and is another way our community is standing up for Black lives in our city and country,” it posted.
Molly Moon’s was oblivious to violence — until it wasn’t
It was obvious that CHOP was going to get people killed. Despite local and national media coverage ignoring or downplaying violence, it was rampant from the start. And only after it became untenable, did Molly Moon’s Ice Cream offer just tepid criticism — while still supporting CHOP.
“We have been supportive of CHOP next door to us, and continue to 100% support the Black Lives Matter movement, but incidents in the last few days have created an environment that does not feel safe,” it posted on June 20, 2020. Three days earlier it celebrated being open on Capitol Hill, with the only danger mentioned having to do with COVID.
After CHOP was cleared, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream shop didn’t stop placating the activists responsible.
Molly Moon’s Ice Cream are looking for a payday. While they sue over CHOP, they embraced and promoted it. I’ll have more tonight. https://t.co/6IfuVBkoxo pic.twitter.com/Pp004vz1SN
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 12, 2023
That time they banned on-duty cops
Molly Moon’s Ice Cream posted signage at its CHOP-zone store making it clear that on-duty officers were not welcome. It was another shameful chapter in the company’s history.
“Police Officers: Molly Moon’s is a gun-free zone. Please do not come inside if you are wearing a firearm. No guns allowed inside,” the sign said. It was posted after CHOP was cleared.
At the time, Neitzel defended the signage as a way to keep her black employees safe: “We do not ever want to put our employees in a confrontational situation of having to ask police officers to leave, especially our BIPoC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] employees.”
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Molly Moon’s Ice Cream maker is a fraud
Molly Moon’s is trying to have it both ways.
I think Neitzel truly holds far-left extremist views and it’s clear that the shop was materially supporting CHOP. But I think she also suffered financially — at the time, she told Fox 13 that she blamed COVID, not CHOP — and she’s looking to cash in. There have been successful lawsuits tied to CHOP and the ice cream maker wants some of the settlement cash.
Not only should Molly Moon’s Ice Cream be left out of any settlement, local businesses should sue the shop for helping encourage the “hostile occupation” that hurt their business. And I hope those Capitol Hill activists that once lauded the far-left views of Molly Moon’s Ice Cream are paying attention. She’s selling you out for a settlement, but wants to pretend otherwise.
Listen to the Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). He is the author of the book What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities. Subscribe to the podcast. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.
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