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A group of Christian pastors held a rally Tuesday evening at Seattle City Hall to call for the resignation of Democrat Mayor Bruce Harrell. This comes after the mayor condemned Christian group Mayday USA for having a worship event in the former deadly CHOP zone on Saturday, which was attacked by Antifa militants and transgender activists.
23 arrests were made on Saturday with numerous police officers sustaining injuries. Instead of condemning left-wing political violence, Mayor Harrell chastised the Christians for holding their rally in a leftist, LGBTQ+ neighborhood, despite his office directing them to be there. In response, Christians and their allies rallied at City Hall, demanding Harrell's resignation and citing his words as religious bigotry.
The 5 pm rally, headed by Pastor Russell Johnson of Pursuit church, was the largest pro-Christian rally at Seattle City Hall in history, according to officials. The group rejoiced in song and dance, and came with a message: Christians will not be intimidated into silence, particularly by city leaders.
While the evening was peaceful from inside the protest, mayhem ensued on the outskirts. Seattle police arrested eight leftist counter-protesters who had arrived to sow chaos along with hundreds of others. According to police, all of the apprehended individuals were taken into custody for assault.
The first criminal incident occurred around 4:15 pm when several pro-trans activists physically targeted journalist Jonathan Choe, prompting him to defend himself. Seattle police arrested two individuals involved in the altercation.
Authorities closed the streets outside City Hall and constructed barriers to keep counterprotesters from attacking the event. While the safety precautions effectively prevented aggressive demonstrators from entering the premises, the group of agitators spent the evening targeting individuals as they approached the rally. At one point, the hostile group surrounded and intimidated a young mother holding her baby, sparking a large police response and another arrest.
Officers were also forced to retreat to safety due to being targeted by the unruly crowd.
Additionally, a man who had detransitioned from gender transition was mobbed, robbed, and assaulted by black clad militants concealing their identities behind masks and facial coverings. They attackedhim over his anti-trans stance. Video footage of the incident shows the victim being surrounded and attacked by the perpetrators.
Seattle police made no arrests of those with the pro-Christian crowd.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino caught wind of the left-wing political violence unfolding in the city and wrote on X that he had asked his team "to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert."
Tuesday night's violence is a continuation of the political unrest that occurred over Memorial Day Weekend. MayDay USA, a conservative Christian group, hosted a concert and worship event, titled "Don't mess with our kids," which included rebuking sex changes for minors. The event was held in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, the former infamous 2020 CHOP zone, which is a predominantly LGBTQ area in the city. Antifa militants, activists from Radical Women Seattle, and the Freedom Socialist Party mobilized to attack the event.
Police officers endured hours of assaults, which prompted the Seattle Police Officers' Guild (SPOG) to release a statement condemning Antifa's "insane use of political violence."
https:/twitter.com/SPOG1952/status/1926779948666093765
After Saturday's event, Mayor Harrell condemned what he called "extreme rhetoric" from the event organizers, referring to them as "far-right" and saying their presence in the historically LGBTQ+ neighborhood was "deliberately provocative." He placed the blame on the Christian group, which resulted in a fiery response from Pastor Johnson, who had been in attendance at Saturday's event.
“The Mayor of Seattle owes Christians in WA State an apology for his bigoted remarks after folks who were holding a peaceful worship event at Cal Anderson Park were violently assaulted for the high crime of expressing their deeply held religious beliefs in the form of a permitted worship event on city property,” Johnson wrote. “23 Antifa thugs were arrested. Cops were hospitalized. Church people were assaulted. And the Mayor of Seattle has the audacity to blame Christians for the violence.”
Despite a strong condemnation from Christian groups across the state, Mayor Harrell doubled down on his initial statement, resulting in Tuesday's protest dubbed "Rattle in Seattle."
The White House also released an official statement in support of religious freedom in Seattle following the rally at City Hall. Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said that the Justice Department has been monitoring the situation.
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