Tag: Seattle

Commentary: America’s ‘Social Justice’ Nightmares Have Only Intensified

Ohio Star Staff
Pills

Seattle is in King County, Washington, where Joe Biden got 75 percent of the vote in the 2020 election. King County had more than 1,000 drug overdoses involving fentanyl in 2023. These two facts are almost certainly related, but which is the cause and which the effect? Or could it be that both (a) the tendency to vote for Democrats and (b) the addiction to dangerous drugs are caused by some unknown factor? Without a careful analysis of the available data to identify that unknown background factor, is it wrong to hazard a guess that the overdosing dopeheads and Democratic voters in King County are just plain stupid?

Beyond sarcastic put-downs, it behooves those interested in public policy to take a look at what’s going on in places like Seattle, where Democrats dominate and “progressive” ideas therefore advance unhindered by any effective opposition. In the case of King County’s skyrocketing drug overdoses — which increased nearly 50 percent in just the past year — local officials have declared the problem “a public health crisis.” However, fentanyl is illegal, which means that the overdoses are also indicative of a crime problem, and progressives are against putting criminals in prison.

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Seattle Shuts Down Last Remnants of CHAZ Protest Area

Ohio Star Staff

On Wednesday, the city of Seattle finally reclaimed the last portions of a downtown area that had first been claimed by far-left protesters in an infamous effort to create an “autonomous zone.”

Fox News reports that the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and police department destroyed a so-called “community garden” that had been planted in Cal Anderson Park back in 2020, at the height of the nationwide race riots carried out by anarcho-communist and black nationalist agitators. The city declared that the destruction of the garden was due to concerns for public health and safety, as the site continued to draw undesirable people to the park, including homeless people and drug addicts.

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Crime-Ridden Liberal Cities Have a New Favorite Scapegoat: Automakers

Just the News

Chicago is the latest major city to sue Hyundai and Kia for failing to equip their U.S. cars for more than a decade with anti-theft technology, which was exposed on social media last year and made the vehicles a target for criminals.

“Unlike the movies, hot-wiring vehicles is far harder than it appears—unless that vehicle was manufactured by Hyundai or Kia,” the lawsuit filed Thursday by the city of Chicago states.

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Commentary: What to Do About American’s Decline

Ohio Star Staff

Twenty-first-century America was on a trajectory of gradual decline — until it began to implode.

Was the accelerant the COVID-19 pandemic and unhinged lockdowns? Or was the catalyst the woke revolution fueled by the 2020 summer of exempted rioting, looting, arson, and violence? Or was it perhaps the deranged fixation on removing Donald Trump from the presidency and destroying the rule of law in the process? Or all that and more?

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After Seattle Defunded Its Police, Local Business Owners Say Crime Is Worse than Ever

Admin

Two years after Seattle slashed its police budget, local business owners say crime has skyrocketed, with police unable to deal with thefts, homelessness and open-air drug use that plague the city. Seattle and broader King County had more than 13,000 homeless people within its boundaries in 2022, more than every other similar area except Los Angeles County and New York City, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, while the Seattle Police Department (SPD) lost more than 130 officers, KOMO News reported, as homicides, shootings and motor vehicle thefts increased. Local business owners say law enforcement is failing to effectively deter the rampant drug use and theft disturbing their livelihoods.

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Seattle Subjected White City Employee to ‘Racially Hostile Work Environment,’ Lawsuit Alleges

Ohio Star Staff

A former Seattle municipal employee filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle earlier in November for allegedly creating a “racially hostile” working environment.

The plaintiff, Joshua Diemert, alleges that he was denied opportunities in his career in Seattle’s Human Services Department because of his race, forced to sit through race-based training sessions, urged to join “race-based affinity groups” and accused of benefiting from “white privilege.” Diemert seeks a declaration that Seattle’s policies and practices violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as well as damages up to $300,000.

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Rioters Vandalize Oregon Democratic Headquarters, Descend on Seattle

Ohio Star Staff

Riots broke out in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night after demonstrators clashed with police and vandalized a Democratic Party office.

People dressed in all black shattered windows and the glass door to the Oregon Democratic Party’s office in Portland, according to The New York Times, vandalizing it with spray paint and posting a video to social media, saying that their actions were in response to the inauguration of President Joe Biden. In Seattle, police said that several buildings were vandalized.

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Seattle Set to Slash Police Budget Amid Crime Spike

Ohio Star Staff

Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is set to sign a bill that would slash police funding amid a citywide crime spike.

Durkan’s signature would cut police training and overtime funds by 18% after the city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the budget reductions, according to Fox News. Activists within local government unsuccessfully sought a 50% slash in law enforcement funding, but the council did approve the transfer of 911 dispatchers, parking officers and mental health workers out of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Fox reported.

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Trio of Cities Take Trump to Court Over ‘Anarchist Jurisdictions’ Designation

The Center Square

Seattle, Portland, and New York City are suing President Donald Trump and his administration over legal actions that have put future federal funds on the line.

The joint lawsuit is in response to a memo issued by the Trump administration last month requesting U.S. Attorney General William Barr review a list of cities that could be considered hotbeds for civil unrest.

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Seattle Patrol Car Set on Fire With Officer Inside

Ohio Star Staff

Fox News reports a Seattle police officer sitting in a patrol car parked in an alley Thursday afternoon suffered minor burns after a man set the vehicle on fire and ran away, authorities said.

Police responded to the incident near the downtown area around 1.30 p.m. after receiving calls that a man was walking around with a piece of burning lumber, according to a Seattle Police spokesperson.

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DOJ Identifies New York City, Portland, Seattle as Violent Anarchist Jurisdictions in Move to Revoke Federal Funding

Ohio Star Staff

The Department of Justice on Monday identified three cities—New York City, Portland, and Seattle—as jurisdictions that have permitted “violence and destruction of property,” thereby meeting President Trump’s criteria for withholding federal funding to those areas.

Earlier this month, the president issued a memorandum asking the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Attorney General Barr to list the areas that “have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities.”

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Commentary: Antifa Aren’t Revolutionaries -They Serve the Powers That Be

Ohio Star Staff

Antifa rules the streets of Portland and sows chaos in many other American cities. Millions of Americans don’t like Antifa, but many struggle to figure out who these black-masked radicals really are.

Conservatives like to call Antifa “fascist” or the modern-day successor to the Ku Klux Klan. Liberals will insist either that Antifa is a nonexistent, right-wing fantasy or that they’re secret white supremacists out to discredit the “peaceful” protesters. 

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‘Totally Lawless Situation’: Father of Man Killed in CHOP Files $3 Billion in Claims Against Local Government

Ohio Star Staff

The father of a young man killed in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone has filed $3 billion in claims against King County, the city of Seattle, and Washington state.

Horace Anderson filed the lawsuit Thursday over the death of his 19-year-old son, Horace Lorenzo Anderson, alleging that the local government’s “inactions” and actions created a “hazardous, and lawless situation” that resulted in his son’s death, KING 5 news reported from a statement by the law firm representing Anderson.

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Seattle Mayor to Veto City Council’s Cuts to Police, Budget

The Associated Press

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said Friday she will veto City Council-approved proposals that would include reducing the police department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

The council’s proposals approved last week were supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis but strongly opposed by the mayor and police Chief Carmen Best.

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Commentary: Weatherman Fired for Accurately Reporting Which Way the Wind Is Blowing

Ohio Star Staff

Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, is an old gag attributed to Mark Twain, but it turns out that if you do try to do anything about it you will get fired, at least if you work at NPR.

NPR affiliate KNKX in Tacoma, Washington fired on-air personality and University of Washington professor Cliff Mass for correctly reporting which way the wind is blowing in Seattle (and elsewhere) on his personal blog.

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Seattle Mayor Appeals Judge’s Decision That Could Result in Her Removal from Office

Ohio Star Staff

Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan urged the state supreme court Wednesday to overturn a lower court decision that allows efforts to remove her from office to proceed.

King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts has permitted a recall effort that could effectively remove Durkan from office, according to the Seattle Times. A total of five Seattle residents submitted the petition due to the mayor’s handling of the police response to protests and a weeks-long encampment in the city formerly known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), the Times reported.

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Police Budgets Nationwide In Crisis After Covid, Activism Cut Funding in Half: Study

Ben Kolodny
Nashville Police

Police Departments across the country are in crisis as calls to defund the police, rioting, and the Covid Crisis threaten to sap existing resources. 

A new study by the Police Executive Research Forum showed that almost half of the 258 departments surveyed are facing budget cuts. Portland City council approved a $15,000,000 dollar budget cut last month as the city struggled with riots. The Portland Police Department was forced to pay over $5,000,000 in overtime to deal with the unrest. 

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Firsthand: I Watched Seattle’s Descent Into Hell

Ohio Star Staff

It’s Saturday, May 30, 2020, and thousands of protesters glut the Seattle streets. By mid-afternoon the mob grows to more than 10,000 Black Lives Matter activists, Antifa thugs, and anarchist shock troops. What starts as largely peaceful demonstrations descends rapidly into largely violent and destructive riots.

“No justice, no peace,” they holler, as they hurl Molotov cocktails at police cars, bash in store front windows, and loot jewelry, fashion clothing, and cheesecake — yes, cheesecake. The popular Cheesecake Factory was not spared.

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‘Lawlessness’: Businesses, Residents From Within Seattle’s CHOP Sue City

Ohio Star Staff

Businesses, workers and residents sued the city of Seattle on Wednesday, saying local leadership enabled and endorsed the occupied zone at the detriment of “basic public safety.”

At least a dozen businesses filed the class-action lawsuit, which came as a result of Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP)’s continued proliferation in the city.

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A 3rd Shooting Reported in Seattle’s CHAZ as Mayor Moves to End the Police-Free Zone

Ohio Star Staff

Seattle Police Tuesday morning reported the third shooting in Seattle’s Capitol Hill “autonomous zone” since Saturday. In all, four people have been shot in CHAZ, including one victim who died.

The shooting was reported just before 5:00 a.m. just outside of Cal Anderson Park on the edge of the zone, also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP).

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No More ‘Summer of Love:’ Seattle Mayor Will Move to Dismantle CHOP/CHAZ Protest Zone

The Associated Press

Faced with growing pressure to crack down on an “occupied” protest zone following two weekend shootings, Seattle’s mayor said Monday that officials will move to wind down the blocks-long span of city streets taken over two weeks ago that President Donald Trump asserted is run by “anarchists.”

Mayor Jenny Durkan said at a news conference that the violence was distracting from changes sought by thousands of peaceful protesters seeking to address racial inequity and police brutality. She said the city is working with the community to bring the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone to an end.

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The Tennessee Star’s Neil McCabe Interviewed by Politico for Story on Nation’s Division

Anthony Gockowski

Neil McCabe, the national correspondent for The Tennessee Star and Star News network, was interviewed by Politico last week for a front-page story on the nation’s division.

The article focused on Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, called CHAZ for short, which Politico described as a “microcosm of the culture wars.” The CHAZ was established by protesters earlier this month after law enforcement officers withdrew from the scene.

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Commentary: The CHAZ Stands Alone

Ohio Star Staff

One of the more amusing spectacles of the recent protests has been the establishment of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ)—now called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP)—in the middle of downtown Seattle, Washington. Conservatives on social media have had a field day making light of the pint-sized experiment in neo-Marxist utopia. Contained within these few square blocks, however, is a microcosm of all the lies and failures of Marxist regimes since the Bolsheviks came to power, and we should pay attention while they are still merely amusing.

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Commentary: Anarchy, Seattle, and All That CHAZ

Ohio Star Staff

Three cities, all supremely liberal, represent an American descent into anarchy against which no one is standing.

After New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he wanted to slash the police budget, the New York City Council is going about cutting $1 billion from that budget, about 16%. That will inevitably cause a reduction of police presence around the city and, with equal inevitability, result in an increase in crime.

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Seattle Asks for a $100 Million Relief Fund for Illegal Aliens

Ohio Star Staff

Seattle leaders called on the Washington state government Monday to establish a coronavirus relief fund that provides millions in cash assistance to illegal aliens.

The Seattle City Council passed a resolution Monday encouraging Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and state lawmakers to establish a Washington Worker Relief Fund to “provide emergency economic assistance to undocumented Washingtonians,” according to the Seattle Times.

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‘Tech Addicts’ Seek Solace in 12 Steps and Rehab

Ohio Star Staff

We like to say we’re addicted to our phones or an app or some new show on a streaming video service. But for some people, tech gets in the way of daily functioning and self-care. We’re talking flunk-your-classes, can’t-find-a-job, live-in-a-dark-hole kinds of problems, with depression, anxiety and sometimes suicidal thoughts…

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Apple Is Dropping $1 Billion to Put 5,000 Jobs in Texas With Expansions Planned in Major Cities

Ohio Star Staff

by Tim Pearce   Apple is investing $1 billion to nearly double its workforce in Texas and is hiring thousands more employees in offices across the U.S., the company announced Thursday. Apple is adding 5,000 positions to its Austin, Texas, campus on top of the 6,200-strong workforce already there. The…

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Clueless in Seattle: Smug City Throws Money After Streetcar and Bike Fiasco That’s Totally Off the Rails

Tennessee Star Staff

By Printus LeBlanc Once again, the oh-so progressive, oh-so enlightened Seattle City Council is showing the rest of the country what not to do. The idealistic leftists who control the Council are wasting millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in failed attempts to solve problems Council members created – and spending…

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