Why A Seattle Council Candidate Called 911 Over Yard Signs

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle City Council candidate Ari Hoffman doesn't know how many times he's called 911 over the last few months, but he remembers the most recent one on Monday night.

A Facebook post by the group Emerald City Antifa came to Hoffman's attention. The post criticized Hoffman for spreading "fear and hate about homeless folx, mentally ill people, and drug users." It also mocked Hoffman for a 911 call he made in March over stolen campaign yard signs.

He called 911 on antifa, he said, because he doesn't "take any chances for my family's safety."

That was the latest in a series of 911 calls and other police contacts Hoffman has made during his campaign for the District 2 Seattle City Council seat over what he views are anti-Semitic attacks. The people he's called the 911 on — principally, a woman who lives near him in South Seattle — say Hoffman is harassing them over crimes they didn't commit. Others say Hoffman is drumming up outrage to spread harmful anti-homeless ideas.

As some local political spats do, this one began over campaign yard signs.

In early March, Seward Park resident Dana Math saw a Facebook post about Hoffman signs popping up in the Seward Park neighborhood. Hoffman is allied with the group Safe Seattle, which some consider an anti-homeless hate group. Math disagrees with Hoffman's political views, and says he is using Seattle homeless crisis as a wedge issue.

"It's right out of the Trump playbook," she said.

So when Math noticed two improperly placed campaign signs stuck in a roundabout in her neighborhood, she decided to remove them. Under Seattle regulations, campaign yard signs aren’t allowed on public property. According to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, residents who notice signs in the public right-of-way are supposed to call SDOT, however. Math later posted on Facebook about removing the signs.

A screenshot of Math's Facebook post made its way to Hoffman. He contacted Seattle police, and a detective opened an investigation. Math remembers having a relatively nice conversation with the detective, who Math said seemed eager to close the case. Math offered to give the signs back, and did later drop them off at the Seattle police South Precinct.

But soon after that, Hoffman had more signs stolen. He called 911, telling a dispatcher that Math had driven around Seward Park in the middle of the night and stolen more than two dozen signs. Hoffman specified that the thefts were targeted at Jewish homes. He described Math’s appearance, including her “gray eyes” (Math says she has brown eyes), and at one point referred to Math as "dumb." Hoffman also posted a surveillance video of the apparent culprit on his Facebook page, but the video is too dark to see who's in it. It was re-posted on the Safe Seattle page.

The Seattle police detective from the first call contacted Math again. This time, the detective told Math, the matter was being escalated to a police lieutenant because it involved a possible bias crime. But Math had an alibi. She wasn’t even in the state when the alleged thefts occurred. Police advised her to file a harassment complaint against Hoffman, but she declined.

Hoffman says he called 911 because he feared that Jews in South Seattle were being targeted.

“It freaked out a lot of people in my community,” he said. “They don't feel safe anymore.”

He also says that Math and others have made remarks about talking to “the Jewish community” about Hoffman's politics. He says that's anti-Semitic. When asked to explain how, Hoffman says no other racial or religious groups would be asked to explain such a thing.

“If you don't see it, I'm not going to be able to explain it to you,” he told Patch this week.

(Miri Cypers, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Seattle office, said that the campaign sign incidents had not been reported to her. She said the ADL would investigate, however, if necessary.)

As further evidence, Hoffman provided 37 screenshots of various social media posts that he says are threatening or anti-Semitic. One calls Hoffman a Zionist, another tells him to "go back to Israel." Several screenshots are of posts made by Matt “Spek” Watson, a local hip-hop artist. In Hoffman's screenshots, Watson criticizes Israeli military actions against Palestinians. But Hoffman would not go so far as to call Watson an anti-Semite.

“I don't want to speculate on what he may or may not be,” Hoffman said.

Watson has long been a Hoffman critic. Over the weekend, he published audio of the Hoffman 911 call where Hoffman accuses Math of theft.

"I'm concerned that he's using his frequent appearances on national conservative media to raise tens of thousands of dollars from outside the district, and then using that money to poison local discourse by pushing outdated, dangerous, right-wing policy that has decimated communities for decades," Watson said.

Hoffman has appeared on Fox News, NRA TV, KTTH, and on former Washington State Republican Party chairman Kirby Wilbur’s show on KVI. Hoffman points out, however, that he has been on left-wing outlets, like Rainier Avenue Radio. When asked directly about his political affiliation, he said he doesn't "fit in a box" and wrote in his father for president in 2016.

(Hoffman did use the antifa incident to raise money. He sent out a $20,000 fundraising appeal saying,"'Anti-Fascist' militants and vigilantes are attacking my campaign to make Seattle better for everyone.")

Along with the 911 call, Watson published emails between Hoffman and Seattle police. In one, Hoffman appears to single out Math.

“She posted again. This time on my campaign page. She admits to having the signs and only admits to stealing the one in the roundabout. Meanwhile I looked up her address and checked with the neighbors and all the signs near her house are missing as well. Every missing sign was taken from a jewish [sic] house,” he wrote to officer Calvin Hinson on March 18.

Math drew the line when she heard she was being accused of a bias crime. She’s lived in District 2 for 15 years, is a mother, and is active in the community. So she wrote Hoffman a stern note letting him know he was toeing the line of defamation.

“I think what’s so alarming is the whole effort to silence your potential constituents,” she said. “To take it to this level is very out of line.”

Except for the occasional online comment, she hasn’t heard anything about the sign thefts in months. Seattle police did not immediately respond to a question about whether the sign-theft case is still open.

Hoffman, who owns an amusement rental company in Sodo, says he feels like a target, whether for his political beliefs or his religion. His 911 calls are preemptive, he said. In an interview, Hoffman drew a line from the yard-sign thefts to the Holocaust. He wondered if his relatives who died during World War II waited too long to call for help.

“I got to tell you, the conversation in the Jewish community when they see the antisemitism, they start wondering maybe if it's time for us to go as well,” he said, referring to Jews leaving Seattle.

Asked why he didn't just talk to Math directly — they live near each other and share mutual friends — Hoffman says he "draws the line at safety."

"I got a lot of messages from [Math]that were downright horrifying," he said.

The 911 call he made on Monday about the antifa group Facebook post was waylaid. The 911 dispatcher told him to contact the Seattle police non-emergency number, but he said there was no answer.