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The mayor of Bellingham, Washington, should have been kicked out of city hall on Friday morning after rioters, apparently advocating the homeless, stormed the building.
“It was disturbing,” said Mayor Seth Fleetwood, who did not hesitate to ask those in a homeless camp outside the building to move 25 feet away, said at Seattle’s KIRO-TV.
“They knocked on the door and we found out that they had opened it somehow and were coming in, and I was advised to leave.
He was taken out the back door of his car, the station reported. Fleetwood said he couldn’t help but compare him to the rioters who raped the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6.
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Rioters also spray painted the exterior of the building, the Bellingham Herald reported.
This undated photo shows protesters outside Bellingham Town Hall, where a homeless settlement has taken root.
(City of Bellingham website)
Bellingham Police told the Herald that around 20 rioters entered the lobby, but no damage was done and no one was injured.
The Herald reported that those who raped town hall left without incident and no arrests were made.
Bellingham is a college town about 88 miles north of Seattle, which has been a center of anti-police protests and riots since last spring, including an anti-Biden riot on inauguration day that caused damage to Pike Place market.
The group that attacked Bellingham Town Hall also shot down an American flag that was fluttering outside the building and began to trample on it. Someone was able to save the flag from the rioters, KIRO reported.
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Fleetwood told KIRO the city plans to ask members of the homeless encampment that took root late last year to move 25 feet away from the building after several issues, including harassment from employees of the county and several fires.
“We are seeking a peaceful end to this encampment and if there is a confrontation, we will not be the aggressors,” he said.
He added that the city offered services and supplies to campers and asked them to leave voluntarily.
The rioters are also said to have become hostile to local journalists whom they accused of invading their privacy.
A radio reporter said rioters stole his microphone, spray painted him, threw hot chocolate at him and tried to take his other equipment, including his iPad. He said rioters shouted that he was taking “unauthorized” photos of the protest.
“I have never known this kind of belligerence,” he said, according to KIRO. “We had protests in Bellingham and I have never seen anyone act that way.”
The Herald reported that its reporters had moved for safety reasons as they saw other reporters being harassed as well as an official from HomesNOW !, which advocates for the homeless.
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“The circumstances at Town Hall and on the Library Lawn are utterly untenable, largely aggravated by outside protesters and agitators who are not residents of the encampment,” Fleetwood said in a statement, according to the Herald . “Their actions are doing people who experience homelessness a disservice and put them at increased risk.”
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