11 ms·
I'm also about that far away and walked through there last night. It felt more like a summer street fair festival. I also took a few pictures. https://photos.ap
by gabesk 6y ago
I'm also about that far away and walked through there last night. It felt more like a summer street fair festival. I also took a few pictures. https://photos.app.goo.gl/UN8RpwWS5TYAY5Nn7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/UN8RpwWS5TYAY5Nn7
- thu2111 6y agoBut then there's also this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaQyClgU4AEJnWf?format=jpg&name=medium https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaQyClgU4AEJnWf?format=jpg&name=... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaQyCmMUEAEn_1o?format=jpg&name=900x900 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaQyCmMUEAEn_1o?format=jpg&name=... I've not before seen a summer street festival where armed militias wearing bulletproof vests patrol the streets.
- jasonvorhe 6y agoHow many summer festivals have you been to where to people in charge are at risk of being attacked by armed white supremacists?
- thu2111 6y agoPutting aside the question of who is going to attack these people, that's my point. It's not a summer festival.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- latencyloser 6y agoThat's just a plate carrier, with no plates in it. It won't stop a bullet, definitely not a rifle round. Maybe he has some soft armor jammed in there but doubtful based on the rest of his "I bought this from the local gunstore 3 days ago setup."
- dmoy 6y agoYou cannot buy a semiautomatic rifle in 3 days in WA. There is a minimum 10 day waiting period. You could buy the pieces and build it yourself, but you'd need some tooling.
- latencyloser 6y agoYes, you're correct and it's a good clarification. Thanks. The rifle in this photo is definitely purchased and would've been subject to the waiting period you mention. I was being a being a bit sarcastic about his gear being brand new and forgot about the relatively new laws as part of my joke. :)
- dmoy 6y agoTrue, I'm being needlessly pedantic here :) And who knows, they could have bought the parts and assembled it, if they can find things in stock somewhere.
- numpad0 6y agoLooks like a completely stock S&W M&P 15 Sport II, 16” barrel, GI style mag, collapsible stock, plus a cheap airsoft optic. M&P 15 is a complete knockoff of US military M4/M4A1 carbine, except barrel is longer and has no full auto function to comply with regulations. Way too boring configuration to build from parts or build out of an 80% blank, and also probably not an airsoft. Disclaimer: I’m an airsofter outside US at best in the context
- jakelazaroff 6y agoI truly don't understand the problem here. Can you tell me what it is that makes these people dangerous and scary, but the similarly armed protestors who showed up at government buildings a month ago — or, frankly, the police — fine?
- dgellow 6y agoYou draw a false dichotomy. Nobody in this thread said that armed protestors or the police aren't scary.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoI'm not drawing any sort of dichotomy; I'm just asking for an explanation as to why this is notable.
- dgellow 6y agoI expect that someone with an assault weapon and what looks like a bullet proof vest is scary for quite a lot of people. And that's notable in the sense that is goes against the idea of "a peaceful event similar to a music festival" (paraphrasing).
- jakelazaroff 6y agoBut you see stuff like that at music festivals as well, in the form of police. So I'm asking why this is scary or notable but that is not.
- umanwizard 6y agoThe only big music festival I've been to is Sasquatch (twice). I certainly did not see people with assault rifles there. Which festivals are you talking about?
- UnpossibleJim 6y ago
- staticassertion 6y agoSummer street festivals often have a police presence.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ryanlol 6y ago> I've not before seen a summer street festival where armed militias wearing bulletproof vests patrol the streets. In big European cities it’s pretty normal to see cops wearing body armor and carrying rifles around such events.
- tekknik 6y agoIt is not common in the US. In parts of the middle east it’s a daily affair to see someone walking around with an AK or equivalent
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 6y agoThis is the point of the Second Amendment: for when people feel safer with random dudes in bulletproof vests and AR-15s providing security than they do with the police.
- idownvoted 6y agoI know those "summer festivals" from Europe. Especially the "free spech"-debates and their "diversity" of opinion. I just imagine how it must feel living there for years and not being 100%-OK with your neighbourhood becoming a "summer street fair".
- jpatt 6y agoThis section of town is normally the busiest part of the Seattle nightlife. They didn't just turn some random residential block into Coachella. It's right by where the Capitol Hill block party is run, legally and with the city's blessing, every year. That's a major corporate event with _significantly_ more powerful sound systems.
- idownvoted 6y agoI'm sorry for my sarcasm not coming through ;-) I was referring to the "block party" feeling of European "autonomous zones", i.e. in variaous European cities like Hamburg, Berlin, Kopenhagen, Barcelona, …, where Antifa/Anarchists/Far-Left "took over" an area/building, with city-officials telling the police to back-off, which created "never ending block-parties". Growing up there, seeing that it was always the same no matter which city or country, was the best vaccine against their school of thought.
- marcoperaza 6y agoThis is going to come to either an immediate or tragic end when someone inside this zone needs the police to come save them. Either the police will tear down the fences and fight whoever they must to rescue this person, or the mayor will order them to stand down and an American is left to fend for himself so that a politician's agenda can be advanced.
- MikeTheGreat 6y agoThere aren't any fences, and the police are currently operating in the CHAS like normal. From https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/11/43892640/businesses-extorted-armed-checkpoints-on-capitol-hill-yes-and-also-mercer-island-is-for-sale https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/11/43892640/busines...: "And get this—the police are still in the neighborhood, doing routine police stuff. Last night I watched two cops deal with a person who had passed out on Broadway. They prodded her and asked “you wanna go to detox?” until medical professionals arrived. (Obviously, we should be funding social workers to take care of these kinds of problems instead of cops!)"