Radical and Violent Protestors Cause Tens of Millions of Dollars in Economic Damage

While the liberal news media is lionizing the protestors who have brought major cities to a standstill as warriors for social change, the real impacts of their disruption must be considered. The truth is that these protestors are costing local businesses tens of millions of dollars in each city that they are wreaking havoc. The more that the cities cede control to the protestors and abandon the principles of law and order, the more economic damage that they do to the city. This has become very apparent in the Pacific Northwest, where liberal mayors have given these protestors free run to tie up their cities.

Seattle Suffers After Police Abandon Part of the City

Although Seattle police recently cleared the area that they abandoned to protestors weeks before, the economic damage caused is beginning to become apparent. A recent lawsuit against the city and its mayor revealed the extent of the economic calamity that these protests have brought onto neighboring businesses. The allegations in the complaint detailed how protesters were vandalizing businesses. Moreover, they created terrible and intolerable sanitary conditions that made it impossible for the people who were able to access the area to remain there for long. In addition, the protestors made it nearly impossible for the businesses to receive and make deliveries. Companies with locations in the abandoned area were forced to close their doors. Even when the mayor learned of the extent of the economic damage, she still delayed in sending in the police to reclaim the area from the radical protestors.

While the area has now been cleared, it will take a long time for the businesses to return to normal. Customers will not want to set foot in the area out of fear for their safety. The abandonment of the area to protestors will likely make this area a no-go zone for some time to come.

Portland Protestors Vandalize and Destroy Large Swaths of the City

To the south of Seattle, Portland has also adopted similar surrender techniques when it comes to dealing with disruptive protestors. There are estimates that business losses in the city due to the violent protests have reached $23 million. In Portland, the disturbances have reached their sixth week, and local law enforcement has shown little appetite to assert control as the city leadership has been holding them back. As a result, protestors have had free reign in the city's streets, and the impact on businesses has been devastating.

Many of the city's protestors have little to do with the ideological causes that are being ascribed to them. For 41 straight nights, they have been causing chaos in the streets of the city, often bringing business activity to a halt throughout the city. Even as Oregon residents have been allowed to emerge from the strict lockdown they were placed under, they are afraid to venture out due to the violent protests.

Beyond making the city an unsafe place and discouraging commerce, Portland's protestors have rampaged throughout the city in recent weeks. The mob has burned down a federal building and has smashed windows on countless businesses throughout the city.

The problem in Portland is that violent protests are spreading throughout the city. The disturbances were originally centered in Downtown Portland. Now, the protestors are seizing control over more areas and seem to be operating at will wherever they want. The protests seem to be less about social change than about venting and destroying property. The mob, which claims to be operating in the name of racial justice, is burning down black-owned businesses in the city and is destroying property in black neighborhoods.

As President Trump correctly deduced from the beginning, these protests are really being led by anarchists who are hell-bent on destruction without any type of ideological agenda other than ruin. The protestors are largely white Antifa troublemakers who have hijacked another agenda to sow chaos. However, the police have hesitated to take back control of the Portland streets. It remains to be seen whether the National Guard will need to be called in to take back control if the city's leaders take no interest in reasserting their own command over their own city and streets. In the meantime, the reign of destructive terror that these hoodlums are unleashing on the city deprives the residents of the law and order that they should expect from their own local government.