In news you may have missed over the weekend due to underreporting, an armed left-wing activist attempted to blow up the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma with a 500 gallon propane tank bomb. The federal facility was one of several sites across the country where protesters gathered for “Lights for Liberty: to end Human Concentration Camps” events. Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, a long-time anarchist and member of antifa, was shot and killed by Tacoma Police officers Saturday morning in an exchange of gunfire after managing to firebomb vehicles used to transport detainees.
After hearing of the incident, comrades of the gunman took to social media and the streets to celebrate his martyrdom, writing:
We find his actions inspiring. The vehicles outside the detention facility are used to forcibly remove people from their homes and deport them, often to situations where they will face severe danger or death. Those vehicles being destroyed is only a start of what is needed. We wish the fires Will set had freed all the inmates and razed the entire Northwest Detention Center to the ground.(Puget Sound Anarchists)
Van Spronsen left behind a manifesto, declaring “I am antifa.” In it he decried fascism and concentration camps, and urged fellow comrades to arm themselves, stating “we are now responsible for defending people from the predatory state. Ignore the law in arming yourself if you have the luxury, I did.” Adding, “the semi automatic weapon I used was cheap, home built unregistered ‘ghost’ AR-15, and had six magazines.” No word yet from the dishonest anti-gun crusaders who would undoubtedly be all over this story if a right-wing perpetrator had used an “assault rifle” to launch an attack on an occupied federal facility.
Antifa’s rise as the militant faction of the Left is the product of a Democratic party which has repeatedly turned their head and refused to denounce the group as the terrorists that they are. In their quest to reclaim power, the Left’s race to the radicalized bottom has emboldened these groups to now form coalitions with heavily-armed anarchists, like the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club. This is what happens when there is no adult in the room to check people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who recklessly equate detention centers and their employees to Nazi death camps. Perhaps the terrorist in Saturday’s attack didn’t realize the ICE sweeps scheduled for this weekend didn’t include any cities in Washington. An understandable oversight, given the inciteful rhetoric coming from Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan and Washington Governor/presidential hopeful Jay Inslee.
On the day before the incident, Governor Inslee managed to find a “Lights for Liberty” rally in Washington D.C. With bullhorn in hand, he fired up a group of America Federation of Teachers union members. In his 4 minute defense of non-citizen rights, he referred to the current administration as a “reign of terror” no less than 4 times and reiterated AOC’s debunked “kids in cages without soap” claim.
Never one to outdo himself, the Governor’s response to Saturday’s attack in Tacoma was predictable if nothing. In an interview with CNN, he immediately blamed Trump for “intentionally trying to create anxiety and fear” among the undocumented and astoundingly claimed that he did not know whether the attacker was targeting detainees or staff. He went on with his deliberately misleading assertion, stating:
“We know at this moment there is tremendous anxiety in our community,” he said. “We know there is tremendous anger about the inhumanity going on at the border. I know seeing children in cages as we have seen is extremely heartrending to all of us. I know at the moment we have to hope that we can remain calm.”
Over the past three years, conservatives who have been physically attacked, forcibly censored, doxed and terrorized by antifa here in the PNW have repeatedly looked for leaders willing to step up, defend the rights of citizens and enforce the law. In July of 2017 the Department of Homeland Security designated antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’. Two months later, the FBI followed suit. What level of tragedy has to occur before WA politicians prioritize civility over power? Thank God for unsung heroes like the Tacoma Police officers, whose quick actions prevented the detonation of a bomb.
The incendiary political rhetoric will only grow as we move closer to the 2020 election. Every time these groups are legitimized through ignorance, they grow more emboldened. It’s time for Jay Inslee and Washington politicians to act like the adult in the room, and be more cognizant of their words. And it’s time to denounce and shut these groups down, before someone gets killed.
