Trump to governor, mayor: Take back your city, or I will

A neighborhood east of Seattle's downtown has been taken over by militant activists declaring it the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone." (video screenshot)

What happens when the radical ideas of your Baby Boomer youth are implemented in a "Lord of the Flies"-style social experiment, and you are "the Man"?

Paralysis, apparently. At least in the case of Democratic Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee.

At 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday – some 24 hours after militant activists demanding complete abolition of police and the court system declared sovereignty over seven blocks near Seattle's downtown – Inslee claimed he had no knowledge of the remarkable development.

Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee speaks to media June 10, 2020 (video screenshot)

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Inslee, who briefly ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year on a climate-change agenda, was asked what he thought about the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone," particularly in light of his authority over the National Guard.

"Well that's news to me, so I'll have to reserve any comment about it," he said.

"I have not heard anything about that," Inslee continued.

But he paused before adding, with a nervous laugh, "from any credible source."

"Not that you're not credible," he quickly told the reporter. "It's just that before I espouse an opinion, I should know of which I speak."

The reporter followed up.

"As far as the National Guard," he asked, "how long are you going to keep them there, and if there is a takeover of a street in Seattle, where they're barricading and keeping people out, the protesters are, would you want the Guard to be involved?"

"You know, that's a hypothetical. We've gotta have safety," the governor said.

"I'm sure that people will find a way to have public safety everywhere in the state," he said. "I'm confident of that."

Inslee said that as of Monday, the National Guard was two-thirds demobilized, and he didn't know if it had been completely demobilized.

"If not, that will be shortly, I believe," he said.

Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone already has its own Wikipedia page.

See Gov. Inslee's exchange with a reporter:

Later, Inslee dug his hole deeper, unwittingly offering Washingtonians a reason why they should vote him out of office this fall.

He was reacting to President Trump's tweet vowing that if he and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan don't regain control of the Seattle neighborhood, he will.

Inslee wrote, with no self-awareness: "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business."

A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business. “Stoop” tweeting. https://t.co/O6i04qmZ9v

— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) June 11, 2020

Durkan reacted to Trump's tweet with: "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker."

Inslee also has struggled to defend the slow-walking of Washington state's reopening from the coronavirus lockdown. When a local TV reporter asked him in May how his policy squares with the evidence that people under age 60 have little chance of dying from COVID-19, he became defensive, offering only the non-sequitur that seniors can't be put "on a desert island alone, segregated forever from our society."

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'You are now leaving the USA'

WND reported Wednesday morning far-left militants – described as anarchists and members of Antifa, Black Lives Matter and other groups – declared sovereignty over the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" after the Seattle Police Department abandoned its East Precinct building.

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best

The move – amid signs declaring "You are now leaving the USA" – followed a week of clashes with police and National Guard soldiers that culminated with police erecting a barricade around the station. But protesters attacked, injuring officers with bricks, bottles and improvised explosive devices. The activists then accused police of brutality.

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best explained the National Guard and police officers were retreating from the police station, leaving it empty and boarded up, as "an exercise in trust and de-escalation."

Since then, she has promised that her officers will consider various ways to "reduce [their] footprint" in the neighborhood.

But that hardly meets the demands of the "Free Capitol Hill" activists, according to list they posted on Medium.com.

"The Seattle Police Department and attached court system are beyond reform," they write.

"We do not request reform, we demand abolition."