The Seattle Police Department and Parks Department cleared out a park in Capitol Hill on Tuesday that vagrants have repeatedly occupied and vandalized.
During the cleanup effort, they found machetes, axes, spike strips, shields and a mortar, Fox News reported.
Occupiers turned Cal Anderson Park into a tent city this summer. The police and parks department previously dismantled the tent city and told vagrants to leave in the middle of August, but the same conditions quickly reemerged, the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported.
Seattle officially closed the park on June 30, but that has not prevented Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists from turning it into a CHAZ-esque police no-go zone.
Cal Anderson Park is in the same neighborhood as the former Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
Spray paint on a building reads, “ACAB,” meaning “All Cops are Bastards,” and “Sovereign Land, No Cops.”
Police officers said they discovered the weapons while searching through a tent.
They took the weapons as evidence while the department investigates who they belong to.
Police arrested seven people, including three for assault, three for trespassing, and one for a felony warrant.
The parks department said in a statement that the occupiers have put themselves and Capitol Hill residents in danger.
“The Seattle Fire Department has received nearly 22 calls to 911 regarding bonfires, rubbish/garbage fires, and requesting medical aid within the park, in August alone,” the statement said.
“Residents living nearby have reported breathing issues as a consequence of smoke from the illegal fires and the types of items burned,” it continued. “Due to firefighter safety and access issues, firefighters have been unable to safely respond to extinguish the illegal burns.”
Those who organized the park’s occupation said they are there to help homeless people.
Social workers have tried to give aid to the homeless people by sending them to shelters, the parks department said in a statement.
“Preliminary data show that System Navigators have made at least 54 engagements and 13 referrals to shelter at Cal Anderson Park throughout the closure period,” the statement said.
City officials put up fences and welded the doors to the park’s bathrooms.
Cal Anderson fences and welded shut bathroom doors. #seattleprotests pic.twitter.com/S3INPF2eo1
— Pat Smith (@patimpending) September 2, 2020
The police department seems to be taking steps to prevent reoccupation of Cal Anderson Park.
The mid-August cleanup kept the park safe and clean for only a few hours, the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported.
During my lunch break walked around Cal Anderson Park. Police have cleared out many and now are holding a perimeter. #seattleprotests #seattleprotestcomms #calanderson #Seattle pic.twitter.com/2GtgLeJjq9
— Yazz D. Atlas (@EntropyWorks) September 1, 2020
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has ordered Seattle to slow the cleanup of homeless and protester encampments because of the virus, which has led to a growing number of the filthy, dangerous areas.
Also in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, the Seattle Police Department has taken back control over the East Precinct building, which they abandoned when CHOP terrorists occupied the area.
But the East Precinct was targeted again last week.
Arsonists used quick-dry concrete to try to seal the doors, with the police still inside, and light the building on fire. Their plan failed. The department is fortifying the area.
