Judge Approves Petition to Recall Democrat Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan After CHOP Fiasco

CHAZ / CHOP made national headlines as "protesters" and anarchists took over entire city blocks of Seattle and banished the police.

They attempted to create an "autonomous zone" where they governed themselves.

However, there were high profile cases of murder and violence that happened inside CHAZ / CHOP, which led to its eventual dismantling.

But... many are accusing Seattle Mayor Durkan of doing too little, too late.

The Seattle Times has more details on how the recall will work:

A King County Superior Court judge has approved a petition for an election to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, opening the door for a campaign that’s gained steam over the last several weeks.

The ruling Friday on charges filed by a group of five people last month comes after weeks of local protests against racism and police brutality — sparked by the killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck for about eight minutes.

Once any recall petition is approved, signatures are needed to qualify for a special election ballot. The petitioners must, within 180 days, collect valid signatures from a number of voters equal to 25% of the votes cast in the last election. In this case, signatures from more than 50,000 Seattle voters would be needed.

The Durkan petitioners’ recall effort, known online as the “Fire the Mayor” campaign, accuses the mayor of “endanger[ing] the peace and safety of the community” by allowing police to “leak false information about fabricated crimes and threats to the media” and issuing a citywide curfew without sufficient notice to the public. The petitioners also accused Durkan of restricting certain property rights in downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill, the neighborhood where many of the protests took place.

“Jenny Durkan’s abuses of power, lack of foresight and failure to protect the public — and the peace — in Seattle leaves us with no choice,” petitioner Elliott Harvey wrote in a statement on the campaign’s website. “This is exactly the kind of case a recall is intended to address.”

In a response Saturday, Durkan’s chief of staff, Stephanie Formas, said the mayor “consistently has acted to protect the City’s public health and safety and to respect the constitutional rights to peaceful protesters,” and defended Police Chief Carmen Best, who Durkan believes “has exercised her challenging duties lawfully and appropriately to protect the public peace,” according to the statement.

The court this month held an online hearing on the petition, hearing from the petitioners and from attorney Rebecca J. Roe, who represented Durkan.

In her ruling Friday, Judge Mary E. Roberts dismissed six of the seven charges put forward as “insufficient,” but allowed one — which accuses Durkan of allowing tear gas and other crowd control weapons to be used during the coronavirus pandemic — to proceed “more narrowly than alleged.”

The judge did not rule on whether the allegation was true. “This court’s role in this case is limited,” she wrote. “At this stage of a recall effort, the court is to assume that the Recall Petitioners’ allegations are true, and to determine whether if true, they can support a recall.”

Formas, speaking for Durkan, said in a statement that the court’s ruling is significant since, at this stage of the proceedings, the judge must assume the allegations are true. “Even under this low standard, the Court dismissed six of the seven claims” in the petition, and dismissed a second petition altogether, the statement said.

The "experiment" that happened in Seattle cost lives, recklessly endangered many others, and resulted in damage of the community's trust in the local government to protect them.

Though 50,000 signatures are needed to force a special election, the organizers are not taking any chances.

They are aiming for 57,000 qualified signatures to make sure that they have more than enough to trigger a special election.

The move could giver liberal mayors across the nation a second thought before kneeling to the radical mob.

The silent majority is beginning to speak out and fight back to protect their own safety.

According to Breitbart:

KOMO reported that the plaintiffs behind the petition would have to collect 50,000 signatures before an election can be held.

The Durkan petitioners’ recall effort accuses Durkan of “endanger(ing) the peace and safety of the community” by allowing the police to “leak false information about fabricated crimes and threats to the media” and putting a citywide curfew in place without giving advance notice to the public.

The petitioners also accused the mayor of restricting certain property rights in the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill, where many protests occurred, and downtown Seattle.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office on Saturday rejected these claims, saying the mayor “consistently has acted to protect the City’s public health and safety and to respect the constitutional rights to peaceful protesters.”

The petitioners filed seven charges against Durkan, but of those charges, only one of them was applicable to support the recall election— the use of tear gas and other chemical agents against rioting in the streets that erupted in Seattle during the protests and over George Floyd’s death in May.

Seattle Police used pepper spray and flash bangs to stop the riots in Seattle, which had been going on for days since Floyd’s death.

The recall effort is called the “Fire the Mayor” campaign.

The entire story of what happened in CHAZ / CHOP reinforces the growing narrative that Republicans stand for law and order... but Democrats are kneeling to the radical mobs.

While "virtue signaling" may be nice for the headlines, it has real-life consequences.

People deserve leaders who will keep them safe while maintaining their constitutional rights!