A Washington-based security company backed out of an agreement with the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation after aggressive demonstrators harassed guards, causing them to fear for their safety, according to the Daily Wire.
The Seattle Police Department cleared out Cal Anderson Park on Tuesday for the second time in a month. The park, which reportedly has been a popular walking and workout spot for locals, has been shut down since the end of June while the city cleans and repairs the area from damage caused by recent rioters, The Seattle Times reported.
The park is located near the site of the former Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone protest and is often used as a staging ground for demonstrations and marches. Some protesters and homeless people have set up a tent camp inside the park where people pass out items such as food, bandages, and riot gear to demonstrators before protests begin.
#Seattle Parks doing a massive clean up of #CalAndersonPark. @SeattlePD assisting. Keeping public out of park. “Navigation team” on site too. @KING5Seattle pic.twitter.com/rw3D3nU3pn
— Sebastian Robertson (@srobertsontv) September 1, 2020
The Daily Wire reported that during Tuesday’s cleanup, police and city workers recovered numerous weapons from the area, including a hatchet, knives, and spiked clubs. The officers also recovered makeshift shields and an unexploded mortar. Many of the shields had a raised fist painted on the front, a sign often associated with Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
The city contracted with Jaguar Security to patrol the park nightly from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Three guards were supposed to make $85 per hour each, totaling a cost of $2,550 per night. On the first night of security on Tuesday, however, a group of protesters hounded three security guards around the park to the point that the guards, who happened to be armed, feared for their own safety.
The owner of Jaguar Security, who did not provide his name, told The Seattle Times that the protesters threatened the guards with “poles and sticks,” shined bright lights in their eyes, and yelled obscenities. The guards called police before abandoning the park to protesters.
Officers recover weapons, shields, and spike strips during park cleanup. https://t.co/5buRUpPQNk pic.twitter.com/ZPPzPuoVJA
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) September 2, 2020
“We didn’t issue any directive. We didn’t tell anyone to leave the park. We didn’t get the chance to,” the owner of Jaguar Security, who is black, said. “They cost a minority-owned company a contract….They cost people their jobs.”
Protests and riots broke out in Seattle over the summer after the death of George Floyd in late May. Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while attempting to subdue him for allegedly passing a fake bill. The autopsy found a lethal amount of fentanyl in his system and methamphetamine in Floyd’s body. The combination of these two substances is referred to as a “speedball.”
Seattle was a hotbed for rioters and protesters as they set up a so-called “autonomous zone” and essentially controlled several city blocks for a number of weeks before Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered police to move in and push the occupiers out of the area. Durkan ordered the occupiers out after violent incidents left several people dead. The father of one victim has sued the city for negligence in allowing occupiers to rule the area for such a long time.
The rioters’ recklessness has only surged since the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who had been charged with sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend. The police attempted to tase Blake before he walked to his car and appeared to reach for a knife before being shot seven times in the process.
Trump’s approval rating has surged in Minnesota and Wisconsin since the outbreak of the riots and looting, making the two states something of a toss-up amid the 2020 presidential election.