Ok, I tried to puzzle all this together. On 6/9, the Account called Seattle Anti-Facists tweeted several times. A few hours later, Andy tweeted images of tweets that had the identical text and logo of the Seattle Anti-Facosts tweets, but with a different name “Seattle Antifa” and a different identification “raincity161.” These weren’t retweets. So, yes I do think he made and deleted the copycat account because part of his shtick is that Antifa is a big coordinated organization that presents an immediate threat to the United States. So, he wanted tweets from “Antifa” and not Anti-Facists, cuz who wants to be pro-fascist?
But that doesn’t take away from your point about the Seattle Anti-Fascist account. I read through its tweets, and I have to say I have no idea whether this is one guy in a basement or an organized group. The vast majority of the feed is retweets.
But I did find some context. Washington is open carry. And we have groups both left and right that open carry. The last of your three tweets was in response to an incident last weekend where a 10 year old girl was tear gassed or pepper sprayed. Can’t recall which right now. So the suggestion is that if protesters were armed (like various protests of right wingers in MI, etc.) the police wouldn’t gas kids. The difference between how armed protesters who stormed the capital in Michigan were treated and the tear gas and pepper spray deployed against unarmed protesters here has gotten quite a bit of attention out here this week.
The tweet about Chaz needing more guns was the first evening after the police left. I was watching Twitter to see what would happen because the bad stuff tends to happen at night. It was very confused, with a ton of paranoia that the police would come back and attack or burn the precinct down and blame it on the protesters.
Then something truly weird happens. These groups use scanners to listen to police chatter. The police start talking about a group of Proud Boys forming near City Hall. The group grows. No long guns, but one has a sidearm. No, there’s a couple of either sticks or guns. An officer apparently talks to the group and announces they intend to march East to Cal Anderson Park. That’s the Park inside Chaz. They’re on the move, 20 or 30 of them. They’re going to meet up with another group before going to the Park.
Proud Boys and local Antifa are arch enemies. So this causes quite the stir among the folks in Chaz. I believe that’s when the gun tweet was sent. And at least a couple guys with AKs appear in photos from that night. I have no idea whether that tweet had anything to do with it, because the folks there were sure, at least early on, that the Proud Boys were coming armed to take over Chaz.
I say early on because a few folks also got in cars and on bikes to find this group of Proud Boys. And despite knowing where they started and where they were headed, neither of the two groups were seen by anyone. According to the scanner, they miraculously reversed course, got in their cars, and left with no fuss. The Proud Boys are from an area about three hours from Seattle.
Weird. Since then there have apparently been a couple guys there open caring sometimes. If you read that Wall St. Journal opinion piece you linked, the author is a local conservative talk radio host. He visited CHAZ and reported that he saw no guns. So I’m guessing it depends on who’s there at any given time.
So I’ll apologize for saying you were punked. Andy is good at punking. It was his publication that started the false rumor that the CHAZ leaders were extorting local businesses. The police chief repeated the claim without identifying her source. Then local media reported what the chief said. Tucker Carlson got ahold of it and did his thing with the President watching Fox. And now we have the Law and Order President threatening to have the military invade a park and a couple buildings in an American City.
The good news is, the Chaz neighborhood is still calmer than it was before the police withdrew. We had two huge protest marches that had no police presence and, last I looked, had no violence. And if Trump finds a new shiny to play with, we can keep the tension low and resolve the situation. The major problem with that, of course, is that no one is in charge, so arranging negotiations is awkward.
Tomorrow is another day. I just hope I never have to wade through Andy‘s feed again.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
