White BLM mob comes calling on home of Seattle’s black police chief

Carmen Best, a black woman, is the chief of police in Seattle. She’s a longtime member of the police force and, as you would expect, a liberal who supports police reform and peaceful protests calling for such reform.

Best has criticized vandalism, arson, and rioting — a stance that surely is no more than table stakes for a police chief even in this woke age. However, her force has done very little to combat the criminal mob behavior that plagues Seattle.

Nonetheless, Best has incurred the wrath of the BLM mob. Thus, according to this report, “a crowd of about 200 persons, mostly white men and women in their twenties” converged on the police chief’s suburban home. Members of this mob were “dressed in black with masks and black hoods and carried signs that read ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

Neighbors established a perimeter to protect the home of Best, who was not present at the time. At least one neighbor pointed a gun.

That’s the only good news associated with this story. I hope we’ll be seeing more examples of spirited citizens standing up BLM mobs, given the absence of police forces willing to do so. As we have seen, though, such neighbors risk being prosecuted by Soros-backed prosecutors.

The BLM mob harassed Best’s neighbors. They “shouted profanity and insults, took license plate information on vehicles, took pictures of homes, and asked little kids who lived in the neighborhood what schools they attended.” In addition:

Other BLM protesters carrying large duffle bags attempted to make their way to Chief Best’s private residence. When confronted by neighbors to show the content of the large duffle bags, protesters refused to cooperate. There were no reports of any physical altercations.

Neighbors told the Lynnwood Times that some of their private information has been publicly disclosed on social media and they are afraid for their safety. . . .

“I feel incredibly unsafe,” said one neighbor. “We think it will happen again… Their objective was not completed; they never made it to her house, we stopped them… so we think they will be back.”

Best has responded to the mob’s visit with a letter to the city council. As Jazz Shaw points out, the letter does not talk about “mostly peaceful protesters.” Instead, the chief characterizes the protesters as “aggressive.” The characterization is accurate, although this incarnation of the BLM mob was less aggressive than others that have terrorized Seattle.

Best called on the city council to “stand up for what is right” and to take action to prevent “mob rule.” Shaw notes the contrast between this language and that used by Best in a letter to Seattle businesses telling them they are basically on their own when the mob arrives.

I suspect that this longtime law officer has been frustrated for some time by the city’s approach to the mob, but is constrained by Seattle’s mayor and city council. Unfortunately, it was only after the mob got very close to her suburban home that Best was willing to speak out forcefully.

In any case, Bill Otis offers a concise summary of “where we are” with BLM:

A hooded gang of mostly white thugs shows up at the private neighborhood residence of a black police chief, with equipment they refuse to unwrap, question little children, and terrify the neighbors. Let’s not fool ourselves. This is not a civil rights protest, and it’s not about George Floyd. It’s the mob — a bunch of Brownshirts — and if we tolerate it, we won’t be able to claim later on that we didn’t know what was coming.

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