Feb 1, 2021 08:58 PM
Police raid Washington motel and end occupation by Antifa-linked group
On Christmas Eve, left-wing militants booked sixteen rooms at a motel in Fife, Washington. Then they filled the rooms with forty “homeless people.” No one ever paid for a single night and everyone refused to leave. The militant group had been demonstrating in front of the motel, which prevented paying customers from booking rooms. The leader of the group, who goes by “Arrow,” demanded that the entire motel be turned into free public housing.
The motel is owned by Shawn Randhawa, an immigrant from India who says he employs ten people. It is a franchise of Travelodge. The actions of these militants threatened to put Randhawa’s motel out of business and his ten employees out of work.
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The local police Chief Pete Fisher and City Manager Hyun Kim had previously said they were negotiating with the militant group. Hyun Kim even called the occupation “a silver lining,” because “we have about 40 souls who have come off the streets who want assistance.” Some local media outlets are aggressively portraying the militants as benevolent community activists.
The group is calling itself “Housing Now.” They are closely linked to local Antifa groups on social media. The same group previously set up a squatter camp in a condemned Middle School in Tacoma, Washington last November. The building had been condemned due to toxic gas. The Tacoma police evicted the squatters in one day. Fife is a suburb of Tacoma.
Now:
Leftist militants armed with hatchets, knives, batons take over hotel in radical hub of Olympia, Washington — and SWAT is called in
Several dozen leftist militants armed with hatchets, knives, and batons forcibly took over a hotel in the radical hub otherwise known as Olympia, Washington, Sunday.
Those inside the Red Lion hotel began calling 911 around 11 a.m., saying a group was attempting to forcibly take over the hotel, the city's statement said. Police were told that the employees felt threatened by the group and that an employee allegedly was assaulted.
The group was identified as Oly Housing Now, a homeless activist group, and its members had gas masks, helmets, and goggles, apparently in preparation for a confrontation, the statement noted. Police estimated about 45 members of the group were inside and outside the hotel.
At the time of the occupation, approximately 40 hotel rooms were booked with bystanders — and those guests sheltered in their rooms during the occupation, the statement said. Hotel employees sheltered in the basement through the afternoon and part of the evening.
But before the occupation, the group had reserved 17 rooms occupied by homeless people. The group had occupied the 4th and 5th floors and were placing black tarps on the windows as police arrived, cops told KING-TV.