The Bellingham Herald has a frequently updated online reporting going on all morning. Julie Shirley, the Managing Editor, is covering this herself, and doing a thorough job. Maybe underreporting on the Antifa action in an effort to not encourage more protestors to show up. We don’t know.
Bellingham City Hall had announced several days ago that the encampment would be cleared Friday morning at 9 am. Obviously the plan all along was to clear it today, Thursday, thus hopefully avoiding the influx of outside protestors, including those who have come up from Seattle in past days of demonstrations. It seems to be working, along with a strong law enforcement presence with Bellingham police, Sheriff’d deputies and some Federals.
The Herald reports that a bulldozer is present. A photo on the Herald website shows a front loader.
City officials ask that the public avoid the area while this is ongoing. Hopefully they are allowing local reporters - especially independent ones - to cover the process. No, I’m not going down. This is work for younger reporters.
A few days ago, local homeless advocate Doug Gustafson was shooting video of the encampment so as to record the situation. Doug is a Bellingham resident and has spent years trying to help the homeless, being part of the HomesNow effort. (Erroneous sentence removed) So while Doug is shooting video last week, the Antifa start getting in his face. These are young violence prone clad in black street people from Seattle. They started swarming Doug yelling at him to stop shooting and to leave - and threatened him physically. Yes, they intimidate, bring in big guys who walk up to a person’s face and if they do not move then beating starts. Doug was chased totally around the city hall. Not a police person in sight and eventually Doug had to leave for safety. You can watch his video here. So Doug gets violence from the city council and the street punks. And no police to protect citizens when known violent out of town punks are roaming our city hall. Surely the police were watching all this live on their CCTV.
1:30 pm - Just back from a drive around the road blocked area. Approximately 12 square city blocks are completely blocked with police barricades and vehicles. A huge perimeter from city hall. Dozens and maybe over a hundred government personnel can be seen working in the city hall area with front loaders and trucks.
Comments by Readers
Dianne Foster
Jan 29, 2021Thanks John,
I drove around it too. I didn’t realize it was Antifa - though I knew a call went out around the state for disrupters. I’m really disappointed, as I’ve always respected Antifa. But their attacks on reporters is inexcusable. I don’t believe they are Black Bloc, though not sure.
LeeAnn Cogert
Feb 03, 2021Antifa isn’t an organized thing. To associate their name with ANY and ALL disrupters is inaccurate. And where is the source that says that group was calling themselves Antifa. Who is their representative? Just because people dress in black does not necessarily mean they are antifa. In fact it is rumored that many violence prone, neo Nazi types imitate the Black Bloc form of dress, show up and call themselves Antifa. Typical Antifa states over and over they are peaceful unless it’s in Europe and those people are organized Black Bloc. Not loving this article.