The night after the deadly Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was established during the 2020 BLM/Antifa riots in the city, Marxist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawantled a group of the zone's occupiers and other protesters to Seattle City Hall. Officials from the Mayor’s office tracked the group’s movements and updated each other via text.
When they reached City Hall, Sawant used her key to let the rioters into the building which had been closed to the public since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She f*cking opened the door,” exclaimed Tess Colby, interim deputy director of the Human Services Department on a newly revealed text thread with Senior Deputy Mayor Mike Fong.
Fong estimated at the time of the breach, there were 200 protesters at the police department’s West Precinct, 2-300 hundred at the East Precinct, and another 700 at City Hall.
Colby suggested an emergency suspension of Sawant’s access card but by then it was too late, the rioters were already inside the building.
Stephanie Formas, Durkan’s chief of staff, suggested taking any damages out of Sawant’s budget but never did.
On the same thread, Formas filled in the group that to deal with the activists at the East Precinct, they had asked Fire Chief Harold Scoggins to coordinate with Raz Simone, the so-called “Warlord of the Autonomous Zone.”
According to Formas, Scoggins said Simone was going to get a “security detail” of the occupiers “around the precinct.”
The building was supposed to be closed and secured but according to Colby Sawant’s group had “disabled the door locks so they can’t be locked.”
Rather than dealing with the occupation, even with 150 National Guard members stationed at a nearby stadium, city officials continued to monitor but not act. Director of Neighborhoods Andres Matilla even joked on another thread, “Don’t tell Kshama I’ve been parking in her spot the last four months,” referencing how the councilmembers had been working remotely while the building had been shut down.
While occupying City Hall, Sawant took the opportunity to talk about her plan to tax Amazon rather than BLM and received boos from the crowd who accused her of using the occupation for her own political means. Sawant would later have her staff set up tents inside the zone to collect signatures for a ballot initiative to tax the retail giant.
Toward the end of the conversation, the officials went back to discussing supplying and enabling the autonomous zone and turning over the East Precinct to "the community."
Sawant was not alone in supporting the rioters. Before the occupation, Seattle socialist Councilmember Tammy Morales embraced the looting as a legitimate form of protest. Antifa supporting Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said, “The anger you hear is justified,” after a protester told police to kill themselves.
Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Andrew Lewis, and Dan Strauss were lining up with the activists against their own police officers and proudly snapping selfies with Antifa umbrellas in the background.
All voted to defund the police in 2020 which led to a massive spike in crime.
After the Sawant-led occupation of City Hall complaints of ethics violations were filed with the council-appointed Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) but the commission chose not to penalize the Marxist for her actions.
However, in 2021 the Washington State Supreme Court allowed a recall effort against the radical councilmember to proceed on the basis of the occupation of City Hall along with other charges. The recall was ultimately unsuccessful.
Though many of the communications between high-level city officials were deleted, likely in order to conceal their activities, some were found on the devices of their staff and obtained through a public disclosure request. Earlier this year a federal judge sanctioned the city after it was revealed that the officials had deleted over 40,000 texts during the riots in 2020 that rocked the city.
After the death of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Antifa and BLM activists took to the streets of Seattle to riot. They spent days smashing storefronts, vandalizing property, and even stealing rifles out of police cars after lighting them on fire.
The rioters began to take out their wrath on the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood. Night after night the rioters lined up to face off against officers, hurling objects and launching fireworks at the police. Some members of the Seattle City Council even proudly photographed themselves standing on the lines with the Antifa and BLM activists.
According to emails obtained through a public disclosure request, in order to “de-escalate” the situation, then Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) decided to turn the building over to the “community.”
Though initially hesitant, then police chief Carmen Best went along with the plan and officers evacuated and abandoned the precinct. On June 8, 2020, the rioters seized the barricades left behind by the police and established the six-block Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. They created their own guards and would not permit police back into the area.
Despite rapes, robberies, and murders going up 250 percent during the deadly autonomous zone and millions of dollars in property damage done to the city during the riots, to date, none of the city officials who were involved in enabling the riotershave been held accountable.
