The post Kshama Sawant, Seattle councilmember: ‘Brutality of American capitalism’ endangering protesters appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant decried “the brutality of capitalism” after a judge blocked the city’s ban on police crowd-control tools such as tear gas and pepper spray, declaring that the Friday ruling threatened “peaceful protesters.”
“Rather than ensure that peaceful protestors are kept safe from federal agents, this court ruling reveals the brutality of American capitalism readying its full arsenal of weapons to attempt to violently suppress demonstrations,” said Ms. Sawant in a Saturday press release.
U.S. District Court Judge James Robart issued a temporary restraining order against the ordinance passed unanimously last month by the city council, a measure that barred police from using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, bean bags, flashbangs, ultrasonic cannons, water cannons, and other “less lethal” means to break up crowds.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best warned that the ordinance, which was slated to go into effect Sunday, would leave police with “NO ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large violent crowd,” as she said in a Friday message to businesses and residents.
Seattle has been billed as the first U.S. city to prohibit a wide array of crowd-control methods under the ordinance, which passed June 15 and was sponsored by Ms. Sawant.
She said it was needed “after the city’s police — under the watch of Democratic establishment Mayor Jenny Durkan — had viciously used the weapons repeatedly against the Black Lives Matter protests.”
“Now a federal judge has shamefully ruled that these weapons can continue to be used by Seattle police,” said Ms. Sawant in her Saturday statement. “While the judge says this is temporary, our movement understands this is a serious threat. It is particularly chilling that this comes in tandem with Trump’s decision to send border patrol agents like an occupying army into Seattle.”
Rather than ensure that peaceful protestors are kept safe from federal agents, this court ruling reveals the brutality of American capitalism readying its full arsenal of weapons to attempt to violently suppress demonstrations.https://t.co/w6AOPGlTBe
— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) July 26, 2020
Crowd continuing to throw large rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives at officers. pic.twitter.com/3gTGJUonUt
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) July 26, 2020
Seattle police made 45 arrests after declaring a riot overnight as agitators set trailers on fire, broke windows on cars and businesses, threw rocks and mortar fireworks at police, and blew open an eight-inch hole on the East Precinct wall with an explosive device after breaching a fence line.
“Police deployed less-lethal equipment, including OC spray, blast balls, and 40mm sponge rounds. Officers did not deploy CS (tear) gas,” said the Seattle Police Blotter.
Twenty-one officers were injured in the melee, but Chief Best said she had not seen federal law enforcement at the protest. Before the protest, she said police would not use tear gas.
In her statement, Ms. Sawant called for “continued peaceful resistance.”
“We will need continued peaceful resistance to send the courts a clear message that our movement demands its right to protest without being met by the heavily-armed forces of militarized police prepared and planning to inflict harm,” she said.
In Portland, the hotbed of U.S. protest activity for the past eight weeks, non-violent demonstrators typically begin marching in the early evening, but by 11 p.m., bands of rioters, vandals and looters descend on the Justice Center area, where Department of Homeland Security agents are now protecting federal buildings.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill last month banning police use of tear gas except in riot situations.
Last month, Ms. Sawant blamed “capitalism’s brutality” after a deadly shooting in the protester-occupied “autonomous zone.”
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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]]>Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant had a personal message for billionaire Jeff Bezos after the passage of the so-called Amazon tax, warning him that “we are coming for you.”
The avowed socialist framed Monday’s 7-2 council vote for the hefty payroll tax on larger businesses as a step toward the goal of overthrowing the “bankrupt system of capitalism” and replacing it with “a socialist world.”
“And if you, Jeff Bezos, want to drive that process forward by lashing out against us in our modest demands, then so be it,” she said in a video address that was posted Tuesday on Socialist Alternative. “Because we are coming for you and your rotten system.”
Two years ago, the council passed and then promptly repealed a head tax on businesses with more than $20 million in annual gross revenue in the face of opposition from a coalition of businesses, including Amazon, that sought to overturn the tax with a ballot referendum.
In her message, Ms. Sawant warned Mr. Bezos, the Amazon CEO and one of the world’s richest people, that he would face the wrath of “thousands” if he tried that again.
“I have a message for Jeff Bezos and his class,” Ms. Sawant said. “If you attempt again to overturn the Amazon tax, working people will go all out in the thousands to defeat you. And we will not stop there. Because you see, we are fighting for far more than this tax, we are preparing the ground for a different kind of society.”
After passing the “Amazon Tax,” Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant went on this unhinged rant.
She threatens to seize control of the Fortune 500 and overthrow the “racist, sexist, violent, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism.”
If you oppose her? “We are coming for you.” pic.twitter.com/2L17D6wScp
— Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 7, 2020
The newly passed tax increase, officially called JumpStart Seattle but better known as the Amazon tax, would raise at least $214 million annually by taxing businesses with more than $7 million in annual payroll 0.7% for every employee earning at least $150,000, and 1.4% for those making more than $500,000.
The city said the tax hike was needed for “affordable housing and essential city services,” as well as to help small businesses and “our most vulnerable community members” get back on their feet after the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Seattle residents have made it clear — now is not the time for government austerity or divisiveness,” said councilmember Theresa Mosqueda, the measure’s sponsor. “Investing in communities of color, small businesses, and community health leads to a more robust and resilient economy.”
Critics argued that the hefty tax hike will further hobble hundreds of businesses still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
“All of our leaders should be thinking day and night about how to get businesses back open and people back to work safely,” said Alice Teel, spokesperson for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. “Instead the Council turned immediately to new revenue and passed one of the largest tax increases in Seattle’s history.”
Ms. Sawant framed the payroll tax increase as part of a larger social struggle, saying, “We are coming to dismantle this deeply oppressive, racist, sexist, violent, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism, this police state.”
“We cannot and will not stop until we overthrow it and replace it with a world based instead on solidarity, genuine democracy and equality — a socialist world,” she said.
The vote came days after Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order to dismantle the Capitol Hill Occupied Zone, or CHOP, after Black Lives Matter protesters took over a six-block area June 8 around the East Precinct.
Ms. Durkan asked the council in a June 30 letter to investigate and possibly expel Ms. Sawant for “disorderly or otherwise contemptuous behavior,” including leading a crowd of protesters to the mayor’s home, but the council president held off, saying the city was already facing “concurrent crises.”
“The public airing of issues amongst and between independently elected officials will not advance solutions on the deepening needs of our constituents,” said council president M. Lorena Gonzalez in a July 1 statement.
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Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant at a recent digital Council meeting. (Screenshot)
A 19-year-old man was shot early Saturday morning at the CHOP. Another man is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center. Seattle police officers arrived to the scene around 2:30 a.m. after reports of gun shots. They said a crowd prevented them from finding a shooting victim. They later learned that CHOP medics took the victims to Harborview where the 19-year-old later died.
Observations from inside Seattle’s CHOP
Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant released a statement Saturday afternoon about the shooting. Read her full statement below.
Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the black protester who was tragically killed this morning by gunfire at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). Socialist Alternative and I stand in solidarity with the family and friends of the victim, and with the injured protester now in the hospital, as well as with all community members and fellow activists.
Though we await confirmation of the details of the killing, there are indications that this may have been a right-wing attack. If so, this would not be the first such attack on the Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter protest. As many recall, an armed man drove into the protest action on June 8, and shot black activist Dan Gregory, who had heroically intervened to stop the driver.
We need immediate solidarity with the protest at the CHOP, and unity in our movement against reactionary violence. Our movement refuses to be intimidated.
It is no accident that right-wing hate and violence has grown dramatically with Donald Trump in the White House. If this killing turns out to be a right-wing attack, President Trump bears direct responsibility, since he has fomented reactionary hatred specifically against the peaceful Capitol Hill occupation, and even threatened to intervene with federal troops. Also responsible are the conservative and corporate media outlets, both locally and nationally, which have themselves whipped up right-wing hate by completely misrepresenting the nature of the peaceful protest occupation, and who are continuing to do so even now, claiming that this shooting proves the CHOP is descending into chaos. Seattle’s establishment Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best also share responsibility for having portrayed our protest movement as violent.
It is crucial that the CHOP occupation has developed a self-defense committee, which has played an important role at the encampment, and that general assemblies to ensure ongoing political discussions have been taking place. Socialist Alternative and I believe we should further develop both these important initiatives and the democratic structures of the CHOP with regularly scheduled general assemblies to vote on decisions for the movement, and democratically agreed plans around self defense. Elected committees of self defense have historically played vital roles during general strikes, occupations, and in mass movements, in order for the working class and marginalized people to defend themselves and carry out necessary functions in place of the forces of the state. Our labor movement has a crucial role to play in the protest movement, and should provide people and resources to assist in the defense and organization of CHOP.
Our movement should also demand and insist that the Seattle Police fully investigate this attack and be held accountable to bring the killer(s) to justice. Because of the repressive role of the police under capitalism, and often with developed links to reactionary groups, police have historically frequently failed to prosecute violence by the right – even going as far as to shield the perpetrators. For decades in the South, law enforcement across the country did not lift a finger to stop the KKK’s lynch mobs, and often participated in them. It is being reported that police resources nationwide have been used to spy on, repress, and infiltrate the #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd protest movement, and to surveil protest occupations like the CHOP. But on the other side, how much time has been spent investigating the right wing, with their threats and acts of real violence? Just in recent days, neo-Nazis have been making public statements calling for the killing of protesters. Yesterday, on Juneteenth, the day of celebration of defeating the confederacy and ending the institution of slavery, many far-right and reactionary figures have made calls to start a new Civil War. We must demand accountability and justice, and if the police fail to thoroughly investigate and bring the killer(s) to justice, we may need to launch an independent community investigation.
We must show our solidarity with the victims of this violence by continuing to build our movement and fight for our demands: to defund Seattle police by at least 50 percent; for the immediate release of all protesters without charges; for the East Precinct to be permanently brought into community control; for at least 1,000 publicly-owned affordable homes in the Central District and the Amazon Tax to fund citywide affordable housing and green jobs with priority hire for marginalized communities; and for an independent elected community oversight board with full powers over the police, including hiring and firing.
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