Rantz: Activist group says Seattle cops targeted them. Video shows otherwise
Jul 27, 2020, 8:06 PM | Updated: Jul 28, 2020, 8:49 am
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.
Video referred to in the press release of a legal observer (green hat) getting pepper sprayed directly in the face. pic.twitter.com/7HZqPAx87E
— NLG Seattle (@NLG_Seattle) July 26, 2020
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.
Any media outlet that claims Seattle's riot was simply a "protest" is lying to you. And the folks who justify violence solely thinking it'll help get @realDonaldTrump booted from office isn't just taking a losing position — but an evil one. My latest hit for #TuckerCarlson. pic.twitter.com/kRxImgleG4
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) July 28, 2020
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.
The mayor’s office says the allegations have been sent to the OPA and “SPD’s training and policies as they relate to journalists and legal observers have not been recently reviewed or updated.” pic.twitter.com/V24w3VLJmu
— Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) July 26, 2020
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.
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