The five people hauled out of the Broadway Chase Bank sparking a confrontation between protesters and police on November 2nd have will be charged with firs degree trespass, Publicola reports:
According to Holmes’ spokeswoman Kimberly Mills, the city attorney’s office will file first degree trespass charges against two women and three men—one 23-year-old, three 24-year-olds, and a 31-year-old—sometime later this week.
Mills told Publicola the five could face a year in jail and an up to $5,000 fine if convicted.
The incident was the most violent episode thus far in this fall’s Occupy Seattle actions and police responses.
Glad to hear of this. You break the law, you pay the consequences (sometimes).
It’s about time that demonstrators get prosecuted for the law they allegedly violated. Has anyone heard of prosecution of Occupy Seattle demonstrators for camping in Westlake Park? For erecting a structure in the park? For jaywalking during a march? I haven’t.
Seattle Police Department officers have mostly just harassed and physically assaulted peaceful demonstrators. Instead of arresting them and putting them before a judge, officers typically shove them around, batter them with large metal frames, and attack them with chemical weapons. Often, they arrest people, remove them from the demonstration, then release them blocks away without charge — neutralizing their speech without the need to justify that police action in court. That’s not the way things are supposed to work.
I agree with what David Goldstein blogged yesterday: “SPD Should Do Their Job and Arrest Occupy Protesters, Not Assault Them”.
Yes! Throw them all in jail so they can get the free room, food and education they all want and think they deserve. This is a great solution!! :)
Drama queen
the police ARE doing their job when they use pepper spray. arresting someone is not the only tool they are given by us as a society. you seem to see things in absolutes; blacks and whites. the law is a variety of shades of grey.
and goldy’s argument is flawed. he too sees the law as black and white. you disobey an officer, and you get arrested. fine, when it’s one-on-one. when it’s twenty-to-one then one of the tools the officers are given, that’s non-lethal is pepper spray. don’t like it? then change what tools the officers can use. but it is legal for them to deploy pepper spray on a large crowd that has been asked to disperse and fails to comply with a lawful order.
Zeebleoop, it’s legal for them to shoot a man in the back because he’s tottering down the road with a wood carving knife. That doesn’t mean that doing so is acceptable.
When someone in a crowd is suspected of violating the law, the proper response is to arrest that person and put him before a judge, not to beat him or attack him with chemical weapons.
I at 5th and Pine Wednesday evening. There was no reason to fear for the safety of the dozens of officers on the scene. Many of the peaceful demonstrators who were attacked by the police had already complied with orders to move back after their mass-jaywalking action. They were standing on the sidewalk.
@Phil mocek
i assume you mean you were at 5th and pine on TUESDAY night since that’s when the incident in question occurred? regardless, your interpretation, from within a crowd that outnumbered the police nearly ten-to-one is biased.
i watched a video from tuesday night’s protest and the beginning clearly shows the cops commanding the crowd to DISPERSE. not to get on the sidewalk. not dance the jitterbug. but disperse. leave the area. they refused, so the police, at that point, were able to legally use force to get the crowd to comply with their order.
check out :20 of this video. clearly there is a command to disperse. don’t want to comply? fine, but don’t whine and mewl when your ass gets pepper-sprayed.
Ha, I love it…
If a police officer orders someone to move, but the person just stands there, beating that person, applying electrical shock, or dousing him in a chemical agent that causes temporary blindness and extreme pain is not an appropriate reaction. Handcuffing him, marching or carrying him away, and getting him in front of a judge to face your accusations is.
@Phil mocek
but it wasn’t just one person. it was a crowd that outnumbered the cops about ten to one. your argument isn’t valid.
They should not have prosecuted in the first place. Probably figured on easy plea bargains.