SJWs Take Over Tacoma Motel, Demand Free Housing, Suggest Defunding Police To Pay Bill
On Christmas Eve, a group of homeless activists paid for 16 rooms in a Travelodge hotel in Fife, Washington, near Tacoma. They hadn’t paid since and they refused to leave.
“We wanted somewhere for people to stay warm and dry and get showers and stay as safe as possible,” Rebecca Parson, spokeswoman for activist group Tacoma Housing Now, told The Tacoma News Tribune.
There were 48 people inside 18 rooms in the hotel as of Monday, with 60 protesters outside, chanting “we’re not leaving.” That number had been reduced to 15 rooms by Tuesday, according to KING-TV.
“We paid for the first night and now we’re demanding that the city and county pay for the other nights we’ve been here,” Parson, a local socialist, told KING.
And she assured the hotel’s owner, Shawn Randhawa, that he’d be paid for the rooms. The money just wouldn’t be coming from her group or any of the homeless people staying there.
“Like most or all hotel owners he’s struggling right now because of the pandemic. In fact, we are bringing business to the hotel. We paid for the first night,” she said.
Spokesperson for Tacoma Housing Now:
“We paid for the first night and now we’re demanding that the city and county pay for the other nights we’ve been here.”
Group paid for 16 rooms for homeless on Christmas Eve. Has no plans to move out until demands are met. @KING5Seattle pic.twitter.com/BpUfvEhWUs
— Sebastian Robertson (@srobertsontv) December 30, 2020
However, Pierce County officials said they hadn’t been in discussion with Tacoma Housing Now. So, how were they supposed to pay for it?
Defund the police, of course, among other things.
CARES money, FEMA money, defunding the police. So many options for funding. PAY UP, @CityofTacoma and @PierceCo.
— Tacoma Housing Now (@TacHousing) December 29, 2020
“I’m just devastated,” Randhawa told The News Tribune. “Because of the protest, I have nothing else. I was barely getting through this pandemic, and now this. This Christmas, the Grinch came.”
And as for the business being directed his way, that didn’t happen.
“My concern is their protest and that [that] shuts me down. All my real paying customers, the people that were supposed to be booking on all these channels, they’re not going to book. I have zero reservations today. And I had two yesterday. They all got canceled,” Randhawa told KING.
Originally, Fife Police didn’t deal with the occupation aggressively.
“We’re trying to see if we can work out a resolution without having to take law enforcement action,” Fife Police Chief Pete Fisher told The News Tribune. “We’re talking about people with medical issues, cold weather that are homeless. So we are trying to work with our neighboring agencies to see what we can do in the form of relief, relief or temporary shelter.”
Randhawa wasn’t happy with the response. “They are keeping me hostage. No one is out to help me,” he said. “It’s complete lawlessness.”
In a Wednesday media release, Fisher admitted it was “clear from this incident that [the department’s] procedures were inadequate for a group set on criminal behavior to hold a business and a City hostage.”
“On 12/30/20 at approximately 1100 hrs, members of the Fife Police Department responded to the Travelodge and, at the request of the business owner, gave lawful orders for all subjects staying at the Travelodge that had not paid for rooms, to leave the property. I am pleased to report that all subjects illegally occupying the Travelodge have voluntarily left the site,” he wrote.
“Along with Public Health Officials on scene that provided assistance to subjects that identified as Covid-19 positive, the City of Fife also worked with regional resources to provide a bed, shelter, and alternative housing opportunities.
“Additionally, the criminal investigation is ongoing for the subjects who illegally occupied the property, which could include felony level charges.”
As Jason Rantz at KTTH-AM pointed out, Tacoma Housing Now wasn’t particularly thrilled with the police showing up at the hotel.
Cops are onsite blocking us in and have PPE and zip ties. We believe arrests are about to happen.
— Tacoma Housing Now (@TacHousing) December 30, 2020
Cops are breaking doors open.
— Tacoma Housing Now (@TacHousing) December 30, 2020
We need supporters on the ground at the Port of Tacoma Travelodge. Please live stream and stay in your cars for Covid safety.
— Tacoma Housing Now (@TacHousing) December 30, 2020
Parson took issue with the word “voluntary.”
“It’s a total joke and an Orwellian use of the word ‘voluntary,’ because the police were at the hotel threatening people with felonies, and they’re now going on the record in news articles saying they might charge us with felonies,” Parson told KING.
“So I don’t know what world we live in where threatening someone with felonies if they don’t leave, and then they leave, is that voluntary? Of course not. It was not voluntary.”
Fine — and I take issue with the idea the people who had illegally commandeered a Travelodge being told they had committed a crime and would be treated as such being “involuntarily” removed.
Even on the off-chance the county was going to pay Randhawa back for the rooms at the insistence of these SJWs (they likely weren’t), this still scared off other business — at a time when he needed it due to the pandemic. But, oh well. What’s the sacrifice of your livelihood, comrade? They thought they needed the rooms.
Fife Police should have removed the occupants earlier. We can be thankful, however, that they did it at all.
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