For the second time in four days, Seattle police on Tuesday arrested pro-LGBT activists who showed up in force at a pro-family rally. This time, the Christian rally took place on the steps of City Hall, with the Seattle Police Department blocking off nearby streets. Once again, leftist agitators assaulted police, who made eight arrests.
The rally protested Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell (D) who showed more partisanship than justice in his reaction to a similar altercation at the pro-family Christian group’s initial rally last Saturday. There, pro-LGBT “counter-protestors” had also assaulted the thin blue line separating them from the peaceful crowd, resulting in 23 arrests.
In response, Harrell blamed everyone but the pro-LGBT agitators who engaged in violence, from anarchist infiltrators to the peaceful rallygoers themselves, who he said staged their rally “to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
The justice system likewise provided scant consequences for the activists who committed violence. An elected county judge allowed charges against only eight of the alleged perpetrators, and she released all but one activist — a trans-identifying man who was also charged with robbery — without bail.
Thus, having cleared the violent activists of both punishment and blame, city officials ensured they would get more of the same behavior. Like unruly children, these agitators will indulge whatever behavior they can get away with. And, like unruly children, the only effective response is for the proper authority to enforce proper behavior through proper discipline.
Only four days later, at the next pro-family rally, angry pro-LGBT activists attacked the rally’s police protection once again. The “counter-protestors” went well beyond peaceful protest, attempting to push their way into the event and blockading the exits, according to local news reporting. The first arrests came less than 15 minutes into the rally and continued intermittently for the next three hours.
It’s worth emphasizing that police officers — who are paid to face dangerous situations — are not the only ones threatened by the persistent hum of lawlessness that characterizes leftist street activism. With counter-protestors blocking entrances to the rally on the steps of City Hall, hundreds of attendees who showed up for the pro-family rally required a police escort through the hostile crowd.
In one alarming video, a young family of five was surrounded by a jeering crowd of counter-protestors. A woman, who is evidently the mother, held a baby in her arms, only inches away from a wall of people who blocked her forward progress. Directly beside her stands a man, evidently the father, holding the hands of two small boys, one of whom is visibly crying. The entire group is surrounded by people on all sides, and at least a third of these people have concealed their faces, are filming the family, or are shouting at them.
Perhaps the kindest comment came from a protestor with dyed hair standing directly in front of the mother, repeatedly yelling, “Get these pretty babies out of here.” I’m sure in that moment the parents had the same brilliant thought — but where could they go? Some may blame the parents for bringing their small children into the middle of a protest — but how were they to know, when they loaded their little ones in the minivan or slathered them in sunscreen, that the peaceful rally they hoped to attend would be surrounded by a threatening, hostile crowd that would close in on them and block their entry?
The incident raises constitutional issues as well. Free and open political activism has been a staple of the American political system since the founding, so much so that the Founders saw fit in the First Amendment to guarantee “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Political protest plays an outsized role in our polarized, media-saturated climate, where they communicate to elected officials the strength and intensity of various interest groups.
But political activism must remain perfectly peaceable, which includes the absence of spoken or unspoken threats. In the video described above, people on one side of a political issue use their words, dress, demeanor, and physical obstruction to dissuade people on the other side of the issue from participating in a peaceful political demonstration. Such misbehavior goes beyond the limits of peaceable assembly and seeks to intimidate others away from peaceable assembly through lawlessness or threatened lawlessness.
This dynamic is especially pronounced where young families are concerned. Two adults surrounded by a hostile crowd are vulnerable, but they are far more vulnerable when they have three young children to protect. These tender youngsters are incapable of self-defense and are more likely to be harmed in a fight or mentally scarred by what they see and hear. In the video, the crowd holds this point against them, citing the children as the reason why the family should pack up and go home.
If this is considered to be permissible conduct, it effectively denies young families — those members of society with the greatest vested interest in the future — the ability to attend rallies on controversial political subjects.
This is especially ironic because the Left often seeks to inculcate political activism in youth, encouraging them to protest, participate in civil disobedience, and like activities. Here is a family modeling peaceful political activism, and the Left tells them to go home.
Fortunately for the family, the Seattle Police Department was alert and proactive. Before any violence occurred, at least a dozen officers pushed their way through the crowd, escorting the family to safety between two walls of officers, like the walls protecting the causeway that connected ancient Athens to the seaport of Piraeus. “Thank God the police were there protecting them in the midst of this rally,” said Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.) on “Washington Watch.”
Fortunately for America, the Trump administration seems much more responsive to the corrosive reach of lawlessness than top Seattle officials. At 8:15 p.m., only minutes after the first arrests at Tuesday’s rally, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino tweeted that the FBI had tasked a team “to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert.” The timing of the tweet (8:15 p.m. Eastern time) was outside normal work hours but closely tied to the timing of the Seattle rally, suggesting that the FBI is indeed keeping a close eye on developments in that city.
If the City of Seattle continues to tolerate misbehavior by left-wing agitators, it seems that the Trump administration will not. “It should be a sigh of relief among believers across this country that justice is returning to the United States,” said Harris.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Joshua Arnold is Media Coordinator for Family Research Council.
