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Fear Mounts Among Seattle Business Owners Amid Calls to Defund Police

Fear Mounts Among Seattle Business Owners Amid Calls to Defund Police

“Sadly it’s become routine; we’ve gotten good at calling the insurance company, boarding up windows and protecting the store. It’s just exhausting”

https://youtu.be/WPzbo6lnWtI

Protesters and rioters in Seattle are in the news all the time. One group of people in Seattle who get hardly any attention are the people trying to run businesses in the city.

They are deeply concerned about the efforts to defund the police. Some of them are even leaving the city.

Joshua Nelson reports at FOX News:

Seattle business owners close shop as city moves to defund police: ‘Safety became paramount’

The push to defund the Seattle police is causing a local business owner to close his store, said Matt Raetzer, owner of Steelpologie Teas.

“It was a decision after deliberation. We’ve been there for three and a half years. That was our first store,” Raetzer told “Fox & Friends.”

Raetzer said that over the past several years the police have made “best efforts to stem the tide of growing homelessness, open-air drug use and violence.”

“Seattle City Hall seems to continue to hobble their efforts to make a change,” he said…

Raetzer said that near his store in Seattle there were multiple shootings resulting in injuries and death.

“Several people were murdered and several people were injured and so at that point, safety became paramount,” he said.

The problem is the Seattle City Council, which is more concerned with advancing policy based on social justice than its most basic responsibilities, like making the city attractive to businesses and job creators.

Michelle Esteban of KOMO News has more:

Seattle businesses owners fed up with crime, worry about cuts to police department

Two people are in custody and four others may be charged after eight businesses were hit by vandals Sunday night on Seattle’s First Hill.

Some business owners are fed up. They worry if this is happening before SPD cuts, what will happen afterwards?…

It’s what some business owners feel is the new norm in Seattle: Cleaning and boarding up after smashed and spray-painted storefronts.

“It is just an unnerving experience,” said Jamie Munson, who runs the Simply Seattle store in Pioneer Square. “Sadly it’s become routine; we’ve gotten good at calling the insurance company, boarding up windows and protecting the store. It’s just exhausting,” Munson said.

Two of his three stores have been hit five times since protests began. Munson says that unnerving feeling he has never goes away for him or his staff.

“I describe it as a low tension that never goes away,” Munson said.

What happens when more of these people pack up and move away, taking their tax revenue and jobs with them?

Deborah Horne of KIRO News says many of them already feel betrayed:

Some Seattle business owners feel ‘betrayed’ as City Council votes to cut SPD budget

Some of Seattle’s business community said they feel betrayed by the City Council.

Many council members campaigned on a promise of hiring more police officers. And some business owners feel the council members are now going much too far…

But Manuel Benevich said he does not regret moving his Gary Manuel Hair Salon here three years ago.

“Oh, no, no, no,” he said. “Pioneer Square is like Brooklyn, New York. It’s very beautiful, very vibrant, pre-pandemic.”

But he is looking warily at the council’s push to defund the police.

“They should be finding ways to retrain and change the culture of the police department,” said Benevich, “not defunding them or firing them or weakening Seattle.”

Their actions are straining even his liberal beliefs.

“I think Seattle has a one -party rule, a one-party rule,” he said. “And that’s always dangerous.”

If the radical left in Seattle gets their way, will it matter if they’re the only ones left?

Featured image via YouTube.

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Comments

Fear mounts. Business owners perplexed. What to do? I don’t suppose it occurred to any of them to vote Republican in the fall.

    healthguyfsu in reply to UserP. | August 14, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    For all you know, they do vote conservatively.

    But there is 1 ambitious and hard-working owner to how many self-centered employees and entitled freeloaders?…it’s a problem that an attitude rot has infiltrated society into beliefs of what is “deserved” and “owed”.

      CorkyAgain in reply to healthguyfsu. | August 14, 2020 at 6:10 pm

      Also we have mail-in voting here in WA and a history of suspicious ballot-counting.

      So even if conservatives managed to make a citywide race close, the left would find a way to rob them of a victory.

      (Sometimes I feel like I’m reporting from behind enemy lines.)

    pfg in reply to UserP. | August 14, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    Take just this Kshama Sawant who sits on the Seattle City Council. There is no stupid, loony-lefty idea that this person doesn’t support.

    She is a representative of the people. She was voted in by those who want her to be their voice. Okay, maybe not by much, but she prevailed.

    “Sawant, a member of the Socialist Alternative party and a former tech worker, was elected six years ago [2013] as the first socialist on the Seattle council in almost 100 years. On election night [11/05/20] she trailed Orion by 8%. But as more ballots were counted she closed the gap [like LBJ’s famous Ballot Box 13], and by Friday evening, with the vast majority of ballots counted, she was up by almost 4%, or about 1,500 votes.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/09/seattle-amazon-kshama-sawant-socialist-elections

bad decisions at the ballot box lead to bad outcomes.

    PODKen in reply to dmacleo. | August 14, 2020 at 9:39 pm

    You can only vote for someone on the ticket … if there are no good choices … you’re screwed. Increasingly that seems to be the case.

There are many innocent victims of this.. But,, who voted for these fools?… Old saying about sleeping in the bed you made.
Vote them out,, then I would like to help/support cleaning up this mess.

“’They should be finding ways to retrain and change the culture of the police department,’ said Benevich,”

He’s part of the problem. Not that it’s not good to continually strive for professionalism in law enforcement, but that he clearly supports the basic false narrative.

Defeat all Democrats

“The problem is th Seattle City Council, which is more concerned with advancing policy based on social justice than its most basic responsibilities, like making the city attractive to businesses and job creators.”

I don’t think that the city’s Communist leadership sees that as a problem. I have been thinking of the Curley Effect, and it seems the city is determined to drive out “racists” (read: anyone who won’t bow the knee to Communism), leaving a population of rich Marxists and those too poor to flee. They don’t care if the city is reduced to rubble so long as they get to run things. “Rule AND Ruin” seems to be the motto.

Joey Williams | August 14, 2020 at 5:38 pm

This can only result in a death spiral in cities that choose to pursue social agendas over traditional community values. Businesses will move out, and new one’s won’t move in – lost tax revenue and jobs. Citizens will move out to find safer places to live and to follow the jobs that disappear from their neighborhoods. Insurance rates will skyrocket – I can only imagine what business rates inSeattle will be like in 2021. That wiul force out more businesses, more lost jobs, ….. and the wheel goes round and round.

Moving companies in NYC are reporting increases in business (from people moving out) of 95% over last year. Folks in all these cities better get out while the getting’s good; as more people leave, property values will drop, and the enormously overvalued homes and apartments in Seattle and NYC will come crashing financially down around those who can’t afford to move out.

    cktheman in reply to Joey Williams. | August 14, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    Yes they move out of the cities in the same manner as others move out of problem states – and then proceed to vote for the same people in the new places that caused the problem where they used to live.

“Their actions are straining even his liberal beliefs.”
____________

There’s the problem right there: his liberal beliefs.

Until he changes those beliefs and starts living in the real world, it’s only going to get worse for him.

IMO, it also comes down to belief in whether people are at heart inclined to doing good or evil. In other words, a spiritual thing.

“I think Seattle has a one -party rule, a one-party rule,” he said. “And that’s always dangerous.”

That may be true that it’s dangerous, but recent evidence seems to suggest that it makes a big difference which party is running the city.

    jeffweimer in reply to rinardman. | August 15, 2020 at 1:57 pm

    One party rule enforced by the “jungle” primary system. It all but guarantees the voters get no distinct choice in policies.

If you have only been there for 3.5 years and didn’t see the direction that city was headed (almost all cities for that matter), I don’t feel sorry for you. It’s the long time businesses that I feel sorry for.

I’ve been looking to start up a business and one of the biggest issues I keep running into is urban rot. I hate it but Ive been playing a game of I told you so with those closest to me who I discuss it with and my CPA. With the white flight to the burbs and semi rural areas I might finally be presented with an opportunity.

Here is exactly what I’ve been warning about for weeks but no one seems interested:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/14/blm-activists-storm-neighborhood-seattle-demand-residents-get-f-out-open-your-purse/

Didn’t anyone see these terrorists heading their way? Why do we have to wait until it happens to us before we prepare for it? An organized show of arms by residents coordinated through the police is exactly the deterrent needed to demonstrate how utterly outnumbered they are and how serious the rest of us are. We have a right to do this under the castle doctrine and especially with the 2nd amendment. I’m not holding my breath.

    CorkyAgain in reply to Pasadena Phil. | August 14, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    Notice the anti-gentrification angle here. The residents threatened by this mob are probably “woke” liberals who thought they were doing a praiseworthy thing by moving to the inner city, revitalizing the neighborhood and radiating goodfeel toward their black neighbors.

      Someone posted a Harvard study about the “Curley Effect” yesterday that addresses that. It’s a tactic politicians employ for selecting their voters.

      Interesting that San Francisco, capital of political correctness and social justice war, is now essentially “cleansed” of blacks and hispanics. I guess homeless drug addicts are now the preferred voting class for Democrats.

If these terrorists can get away with what they do, why can’t we?

I say, SHOOT THE ASSHOLES!

That would definitely throw cold water on their plans to ruin the country.

Luxury real estate in Los Angeles has taken a jump in value: tons of NYers in media are getting the hell out of di blasio’s hellhole.

Ponder how the vile and worthless Dhimmi-crats empower the worst, most utterly useless elements of American society (e.g., goose-stepping “Anti-fa” jackbooted thugs; lazy and coddled white urban Leftists playing Marxist jungle revolutionary; “Black Lives Matter” agitator-vandals), while doing absolutely nothing to assist the most productive members of our society (i.e., small business owners).

Whether cultural tone deafness or intentional, the Curley Effect is in play as pointed out by Recovering Lutheran in the Minneapolis segment. They are oblivious to the obvious eventualities that economies are fragile and can be wrecked. People don’t have to gamble everything to make a buck in these cities. They may see these riots as cleansing but not in the way they think…more like rotting and corrosion.

how to kill a service oriented business, mandate a $15 minimum wage and drive the cost of property insurance through the roof, if you can find the insurance.

All bleeding eventually stops. The big blue cities will either have to apply pressure, pack the wound/s, apply a tourniquet or bleed out.

Oh, no, no, no,” he said. “Pioneer Square is like Brooklyn, New York. It’s very beautiful, very vibrant, pre-pandemic.” – manuel benevich

manuel is under the delusion that the radical left was not planning for, or even wanting Seattle’s current state “pre-pandemic.” JFC, the radical left HAS USED THE “PANDEMIC” AS AN EXCUSE TO ADVANCE THEIR AGENDA TOWARDS THIS STATE AND WORSE. manuel is oblivious to the fact they will eventually cut his throat and load him in the knacker’s van when the they get the chance.

If what is happening in Seattle today is not a sufficient wake-up call to people like manuel, nothing is.

Interested people should read the legal documents at this link … reported on by Christopher Rufo. They outline the details of Seattle’s plan to defund the police. Little is left for the police to do. One of my worries is that since Seattle is in the lead on this that what they do will become a model for other cities.

https://christopherrufo.com/seattle-city-council-moves-to-abolish-the-police/

Barry Soetoro | August 14, 2020 at 10:11 pm

Rioters doing felonious property damage in Washington are granting license to police and citizens to use lethal force, if necessary to prevent the damage, stop the damage, or apprehend the felons.

RCW 9A.16.020
Use of force—When lawful.
The use, attempt, or offer to use force upon or toward the person of another is not unlawful in the following cases:

(3) Whenever used by a party about to be injured, or by another lawfully aiding him or her, in preventing or attempting to prevent an offense against his or her person, or a malicious trespass, or other malicious interference with real or personal property lawfully in his or her possession, in case the force is not more than is necessary;
… .

RCW 9A.16.040
Justifiable homicide or use of deadly force by public officer, peace officer, person aiding—Good faith standard.
(1) Homicide or the use of deadly force is justifiable in the following cases:

(c) When necessarily used by a peace officer meeting the good faith standard of this section or person acting under the officer’s command and in the officer’s aid:
(i) To arrest or apprehend a person who the officer reasonably believes has committed, has attempted to commit, is committing, or is attempting to commit a felony;

(iv) To lawfully suppress a riot if the actor or another participant is armed with a deadly weapon.

(5) This section shall not be construed as:
(a) Affecting the permissible use of force by a person acting under the authority of RCW 9A.16.020 or 9A.16.050;

Legislative recognition: “The legislature recognizes that RCW 9A.16.040 establishes a dual standard with respect to the use of deadly force by peace officers and private citizens, and further recognizes that private citizens’ permissible use of deadly force under the authority of RCW 9.01.200, 9A.16.020, or 9A.16.050 is not restricted and remains broader than the limitations imposed on peace officers.”

RCW 9A.16.050
Homicide—By other person—When justifiable.
Homicide is also justifiable when committed either:

(2) In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his or her presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode, in which he or she is.

I bought some tea in that store 🙁

Poor ghetto dwellers often pay more for groceries and other essentials than people in middle class neighborhoods. I wonder why?

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to Dennis. | August 15, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    Greedy capitalist pig shopkeepers. And racism.

    And I am now getting pop-ups for viruses on your site.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to The Friendly Grizzly. | August 15, 2020 at 5:27 pm

      When the dust settles, and business have left, they will be whining that lack of places to buy basic goods is racist. Smart people walking away from dumb looters and shoplifters is racist.

        The Friendly Grizzly in reply to JusticeDelivered. | August 15, 2020 at 6:35 pm

        They will respond like that idiot candidate someplace in, I think, Texas. The merchants just need to lay down and enjoy it.

        The big corporate chains will pull out because operating in high crime neighborhoods creates too many headaches. Then immigrants from like Pakistan or Korea or wherever smell and opportunity and set up small mom & pop grocery stores. Small family businesses have to charge more in order to make a profit because they can’t match the economy of scale of like Walmart or Target. So poor people will end up paying more for their groceries.

        Nice job BLM!

his happened literally a block away from the Federal Courthouse, just on the other side of I-5.