posted 12/03/11 05:02 AM | updated 12/04/11 12:32 AM
Views: 13814 | Comments : 173 | News, etc.

Occupy Capitol Hill | SWAT raid, arrests as police clear occupied building

By jseattle
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In a pre-dawn SWAT raid, police surrounded Capitol Hill's 10th and Union area and stormed a building to flush out a group inside. Earlier Friday night, members of Occupy Seattle had entered the slated-for-demolition building and said they intended to use the space as a new headquarters.

Organizers said there had been at least 20 arrests. The arrested were being booked on charges of criminal trespass and included men and women, according to police. A police spokesperson said he could not yet confirm how many people were arrested but that a report would be available later Saturday. UPDATE: King County Jail records indicate 13 people booked this morning for criminal trespass with a handful also booked for obstruction. UPDATEx2: SPD reports 16 arrested. Details below.

The building will be demolished to make way for a 79-unit apartment building. CHS reported Friday morning that the developer plans to begin demolition this week but members of the group said they had heard a rumor that the demolition permit had expired. City records show that the permit is valid through November 2012. Developer Seawest has said it plans to begin construction of the new project in January.

The Friday night takeover came as Seattle's Occupy group learned that a Thurston County judge had upheld the Seattle Community College system's right to invoke an emergency rule to ban camping on the Seattle Central campus. It follows a takeover in the Central District of an empty home at 23rd and Alder across the street from Garfield High School. We do not have any reports of a raid at that location but our sister site Central District News reported Friday on efforts being prepared to remove the group squatting in the duplex. Friday night, some of the group taking over the 10th and Union building told CHS they would simply find another building if they were removed. Up Union two blocks, the Undre Arms Apartments sit empty awaiting demolition and another new apartment project.

Early Saturday morning, a large contingent of police were at 10th and Union when CHS arrived following the raid. We were told police began entering the building just before 4am entering through doors and the roof of the building. A Seattle Fire ladder truck was at the scene to provide roof access.

We have not heard reports of injuries at this time.

(Image: @occupyseattle)

7:47AM - UPDATE - Some good photos of the operation after the initial raid from Chris Van Wick:

_DSC6415 copy, originally uploaded by vanwack.
12:46PM - UPDATE: SPD brief reports 16 arrests - The SPD brief on the incident has been posted. The department says 16 were arrested and that officers were spit on before returning under "a signed trespass agreement" --
On December 2nd at approximately 5:30 pm, Occupy Seattle protesters broke into an empty and locked building located in the 900 Block of East Union Street. The protesters then decided to hold a benefit concert as a fundraiser and allowed people to enter the building. Third watch East Precinct officers attempted to make contact with the protesters. The protesters closed and locked the door. They then barricaded the door from the inside. While the officers were at the door, protest members were on the roof and began spitting on them. The officers withdrew. The owner of the building was contacted and he stated that the protesters did not have permission to enter or remain in the building. The owner has a signed trespass agreement with the Seattle Police Department. A little after 3:00 am, officers responded to the building and contained it. At 3:24 am officers gave an announcement for all parties to leave the building. The order was repeated at 3:33 am with a second announcement. At 3:41 officers entered the building through an open door. Once inside one more announcement was made and officers asked the people to leave. Officers then cleared the building. Officers located and arrested sixteen people inside the building. All 16 were subsequently booked into KCJ for Criminal Trespass. Officers then secured the building and notifiied the owner.
9:59PM - UPDATE - Here's a post and pictures from Pugetsoundanarchists.org about the building takeover and the subsequent raid:

On the Capitol Hill Occupation: 8 hours of life in a dead world
Background: Last night around 75 people entered an enormous empty building on Capitol Hill after a march entitled, "You Can't Evict an Idea! Occupy Everything". Hundreds of people came in and out of the building: writing slogans, dancing with friends to live bands, giving speeches, and sharing food. The building is set to be demolished shortly for luxury apartments. Police and SWAT raided the building at 3AM that morning. 13 arrests.
_____________________________________________________
We have all dreamed of it. Some of have even seen it before, but never here, never in Seattle. They say it's too liberal, too clean, that our time has passed, that the city is theirs.
Last night we shattered their mirage. We all felt the specter of our own possibilities as we ran through that empty vast building. What before was dead, we made alive. Those who entered acquaintances, left comrades.
The building may lie dead again but the life that was breathed into it lives in each body that entered its beautiful expanse.
Capitalism may kill us. The crisis may torture us. But the revolutionary spirit of our possibilities makes us immortal.
You can't evict an idea!
Everything for Everyone!
The text handed out at the door can be found here: http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/1157
10:00PM -
12:32AM - These are pictures taken by CHS earlier in the night prior to the raid as the group set about taking over the building and setting up for a dance party.
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thank you
Nice work, SPD! It's good that they are finally being more aggressive with illegal occupations. It's better to take care of this now instead of waiting for the "protestors" (aka squatters) to get more entrenched, as they did at SCCC.

Now, I hope they will do the same thing at the occupied house across from Garfield HS.
Comment by calhoun
5 months ago
RE: thank you
What a great story to wake up to.

Thank-you SPD!
Comment by Timmy
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Yes! Agreed, great work SPD & thank you! Keep it up!
Comment by Michelle
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Yes! Thank you SPD for moving so quickly. This is becoming a bigger and bigger issue and needs the immediate attention you provided! And as far as I've heard, it was efficient and violence free! Thank you!
Comment by Reese
5 months ago
RE: thank you
I wonder who owned the building, that this was taken care of so quickly? Regular people in this town wouldn't get this sort of service from the SPD. It must be one of the big developers, or one of the friend$ of the council.

If they want to occupy something, occupy the Rainier Club. That will give the bastards some Maalox moments. I'd love to see how a SWAT team would handle that.
Comment by Occupy Everywhere!
5 months ago
RE: thank you
The Rainier Club is like a foreign country's embassy. There would never be a call to the police. Not only could they shoot you in there, your body would go right into the studio apartment sized fireplace.
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Occupy everywhere, you are just a sheep of another herd. The reason why might be it is an abandoned building you guys are committing a crime in. Not because the police give preferential treatment to certain people. It might have been a lot easier to verify beyond a reasonable doubt that occupy was not allowed in there since the owner information was posted on the building unlike 307 23 Av.
Comment by Hello
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Overreact much? The UN's rapporteur on freedom of expression thinks so: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/12/02/occupy-wa
Comment by AJ
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Hey AJ, why base your opinion on a single one minute clip, when you can get the whole story.

http://youtu.be/hhPdH3wE0_Y

There is a whole lot more to that UC Davis pepper spaying incident than most realize.
Comment by kinison
5 months ago
RE: thank you
Oh, Sam. I've seen the clip.

So have the many observers who are decrying what happened at UC Davis. Given their gravitas and judgment I'd have to say I'm in good company in opposing what happened to UC Davis.

Heck, it's how we all found out that Lt. Pike was actually slapped in a suit for anti-gay harassment.
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
Ridiculous
I'm a small business owner and I can't get the police in this city to investigate property crime or a break-in because they don't have the time and resources. I've heard similar stories from other business owners, homeowners and victims of vandalism and theft. But, they can cordon off a three block area, roll out a dozen police cruisers, enlist the fire department and SWAT team and spend thousands of dollars to evict a small group of people from an abandoned building? The Seattle Police Department's priorities are not where they should be. If they have this much free time and the resources for this sort of action and the sustained surveillance they've dedicated to watching Occupy Seattle, then we obviously need to cut their budget or demand that they re-examine what they are being paid for. This can not possibly be the best use of taxpayer money.
Comment by JJ
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
I am a small business owner a block away from OS and in my multiple years on Capitol Hill have never seen the mayhem we've experienced here in the past 5 weeks.... Between clearing those Godamn stickers and graffiti off everything, we have been burglarized 4 times, and have been tripping over needles daily... I have heard that the local Walgreen has practically given up on snatch and run shoplifting.... You want to cry for the poor guy trying to run the SCCC Performance Art Center.... What a shit show!

Let me say on behalf of the 99% of my Cap Hill neighbors thank you SPD and a great start to claiming our neighborhood back.
Comment by TimmyJ
5 months ago
no thanks here - I am human, so are the squatters
Last night was 34 degrees out - or less. And the heroic police, en masse, un announced, in the middle of the freezing night, supported by the new yuppies on the Hill, they threw people needing shelter out of an empty, trashed by previous tenants, tear down building ...

Why?

Seems the so called squatters, they are less than human, poor, mostly homeless. Oh, no, stop. All of those, but, well now, seemingly for a change organized into a group .... beware, the REAL red scare, they could be commies.

Thus, dangerous. Oh, so dangerous. Everything important - all the crime we face is now cast aside. The homeless are a little bit organized, the police must mobilize and overload the judicial system with petty crime.

My Seattle, you are becoming like some place in Mississippi or Alabama. Sad.

By the way it is now 35 degrees, cold, cold. Dangerously, repeat dangerously cold for the homeless and zero resource folks, busted by the depression. Oh, that, most of the posters here have money in their pockets.
Comment by Xavier
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
Cry me a river. There are many homeless shelters in Seattle, and there are very few nights when beds aren't available. But then they couldn't get drunk and/or use drugs, could they?
Comment by calhoun
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
@Xavier

Mississippi or Alabama? ROFL!

Which group is hanging outside all night wearing hoods (hoodies) chanting like a bunch of clan members?

Want to get warm? Apologize to your parents... Maybe they will let you crashi in the spare room
Comment by Arthur
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
.. your mommies basement has been the sock reply to many serious postings ... sounds kind of feeble to be honest. I am a business owner, investor, made my first million at 26, silly goose.

This issue is about heart and soul and priorities.

I see no reason to protect a tear down building in bitter cold which could serve many temporary shelter needs.

And it is akin to a red scare. And we are in the midst of the Second Great Depression, when do we admit thee are many years of this shit to go?
Comment by Xavier
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
Thank you. The police over-reaction scares me more than anything occupiers could possibly do.
Comment by Roberta
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
TimmyG--people are putting up sticker art in your neighborhood. gee that's tough man. me-I don't eat the dead flesh of animals so don't care for the smell of burning flesh coming from restaurants. And I don't like being ordered around by corporations so refuse to get a Safeway or QFC card yet i ahve to look attheir huge lit up signs all the time. Do you have a business sign up that I am compeeld to look at? Where is it? I'd like to come by and clean up that eye sore.

The rest of you believe everything your corporate controlled media and government tell you and never question anything. You are angry and begrudge the pathetic and desperate lives you live, but you don't question-you don't offer any resistance--and you hate anyone who does. You are jealous and bitter; you are pathetic sheeple.
Comment by Street
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
You trip over needles? Needles are like a millimeter thick! That's embarrassing.
Comment by gayhomo
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
"The streets" have spoken!
Comment by benjammin509
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
Jesus "Street"...

I was actually on your side when you were talking about banks....

Now you are mad at my lunch meat and grocery stores????

As my great aunt used to say... Rave on shitbird, rave on...
Comment by TimmyJ
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
And the Police department will complain that their budget is running out. Gee, I wonder why? At this point I am supporting occupations everywhere, not because of illegal activity, but the focus of the message that the occupiers want to have made public. The police, by showing up with that much armor, fire power, a small army, really, to handle 25 UNARMED nonviolent KIDS??? WTF. It's the message that is dangerous to the monied interests that the police are trying to stamp out for the 1%. Sorry kiddos, the cat is out of the bag, and Occupation is moving into the neighborhoods. We're bringing the banks down. Game over.
Comment by Guy Fawkes
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
"We're bringing the banks down. Game over."


You're delusional.
Comment by calhoun
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
"Street" is the one. I imagine that most every protestor is like this one. Did you every think that you are accessing the internet through a business, sending your message on a device made by a business, and posting some insane rant on a website hosted by one business and run by another. If you hate corporations so much, stay off the internet and take your rant to the soapbox where they belong. The soapbox was also made by a company though.
Comment by Johnny Blazay
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
"My Seattle, you are becoming like some place in Mississippi or Alabama. Sad."

Seattle's history has in it: running out the natives that lived here, Redling and other housing discrimination against African Americans, Jew's, Japanese and some other folks, white only schools, placing Japanese Americans in interment camps and then stealing their homes and things, office space for the KKK and a handful of pro-Nazi groups prior to WWII, union members getting shot at and clubbed by police, more neo-nazi skinheads than you can shake a swastika at, gay men being beaten up for being gay, developmentally disabled children being barred from public schools....

It sounds to me like Seattle was just being Seattle.
Comment by 72feetabovesealevel
5 months ago
RE: Ridiculous
Oops, I forgot to mention the blacklisting that went on in the 50's and the Teen Dance Ordinance in the 80's and the kids that got hit with billy clubs who were, I guess, guilty of the crime of being new-wave and being out late at night. Or the class warfare where the liberal elite looked down on ( and tried to price and zone them out of neighborhoods) the working class left that worked on fishing boats, in the ship yards, and at Boeing (solidarity my ass).

See, Seattle's niceness and it's vaulted liberalism is at best only skin deep.
Comment by 72feetabovesealevel
5 months ago
yay
Thank you SPD! Take control. Who knows where they would have next.
Comment by danny
5 months ago
am I safer? - thank you, I voted against your salary increase.
I have a nice 2 bedroom condo on the Hill, high security, 4th floor. I feel so much safer now.

Safer, here on the fourth floor of a secure building. Police have kept me safe. Nordstom is having a sale on platinum jewelry, silken garments, and imported perfume.
Comment by Martya
5 months ago
RE: yay
Martya: Nordstom's only carries brand name. If you want high end, and a glass of wine or scotch while you shop go to Mario's or one of the boutique stores that haven't moved to Bellevue.
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
Tanks; not
Yes, thank you SPD for your constant overreaction, overuse of force, and lack of understanding of the occupy movement. Im sure glad there are people like you guys constantly trying to silence the vioce of the people. We are so fortunate you and many other law enforcement agencies continue to enforce your militaristic tactics in the name of damning freedom. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Anonymous
5 months ago
RE: Tanks; not
Whats to understand. We're not your parents. We're the rest of town, who's sick of your noise. Trespassers are subject to arrest. Its an illegal act. Sorry your damn missing in action parents never taught you this fundamental fact, but your illegal sh*t is tiresome.
Comment by 20 year resident of cap hill
5 months ago
RE: Tanks; not
You are obviously ignorant of everything going on in the country right now. It is so deeply corrupted today that big change is a necessity. Sure, the protests may cause some problems like noise. Big deal. And 90% of the time when something bad like drugs or fighting happens, it is 1 person in the entire group making a bad decision. Was the civil rights movement all nice and quiet and did it obey the rules and just give up when they were atta ked? No. And because of that we now have (supposed) equality between all people. Go ahead and stay inside your nice little bubble cut off from the real world. Things are changing and hopefully someday you will understand that.
Comment by Anonymous
5 months ago
Waste of city resources.
They'll just find somewhere else. These problems that they're protesting don't just go away. You're going to have a dead protester one of these days when some trigger happy swat team member gets spooked.
Comment by Money
5 months ago
RE: Waste of city resources.
You see, it's not a protest anymore, there in lies the problem. There are shelters for these folks, or they can just go back home. The occupy movement has become, just noise. Thanks SPD! NEXT - SCCC!
Comment by upd
5 months ago
RE: Waste of city resources.
It is still a protest. Actions are ongoing, planning continues. The majority of us are not campers so the idea that this is a big campout is ridiculous.

Just think: for weeks folks have been saying what you're saying and yet Occupy is still here. Perhaps this is larger than you think? :)
Comment by AJ
5 months ago
RE: Waste of city resources.
Nope, not larger than I think, or care to think really. This will all just drift off as a short attention span phase until the next big thing takes up the headlines, now what were we talking about?
Comment by upd
5 months ago
RE: Waste of city resources.
There are Occupy protests in hundreds of cities nationwide. On any given night the actual protest function swells to tens of thousands (correcting for time zone differences) and on some nights to hundreds of thousands.

As far as vanishing, that prediction has been with us since day one. First it was gone within a week. Then a month. Now it's just this nebulous "any day now" prediction.
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
Entering through doors and the roof of the building??
Through the ROOF? Are you nuts, SPD?

Thanks for protecting a building slated for demolition rather than protecting Seattle citizens from actual crime this morning. But I joke.
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Entering through doors and the roof of the building??
And how are you so sure they weren't doing both? Thanks SPD for everything you do for us!
Comment by upd
5 months ago
Speak for yourself, upd
Because it's clear they again disgraced themselves this morning.

I guess they couldn't find any octogenarians to pepper spray so they had some time on their hands.
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Entering through doors and the roof of the building??
Oh still harping on that ol' story? That's long been forgotten - 'cept by you clearly. You've had a hard day of it at the keyboard. Go get some fresh air.
Comment by upd
5 months ago
Not to worry, upd
That photo of the stunned grandmotherly 85-year-old right after Seattle cops pepper sprayed her in the face ain't going nowhere. It's already achieved "iconic" status, as they say. An instant classic of police brutality.

SPD's uh, "professionalism" then put Seattle at the top of the news, all around the world -- not in a good way. Personally, I'd be quite happy if that were the end of it, but I'm afraid it won't be. There's just too much SPD idiocy itching to get out. Like this morning's roof entry into the warehouse. You gotta be shitting me! Can't you just picture those clowns dressed up like Spaceballs stormtroopers, rappelling into a warehouse full of kids?

The hits just keep on coming.
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Entering through doors and the roof of the building??
Breaking and entering is an actual crime. It's a felony.

Instead of posting something on the internet in defense of criminal activity, think of all the things you could be doing instead: working on that great but evasive granola combination, buying a tapestry with a picture of Bob Marley and/or an arabesque design, letting a dog run amok being it's "smarter than normal dogs", or fashioning a Guy Fawkes mask out of the back of a cereal box (like Fawkes' gunpowder plot, OS will fail. Way to brand yourself with the winning team).
Comment by Johnny Blazay
5 months ago
brand yourself with the winning team?
Cops dressed up like stormtroopers from Spaceballs are the winning team?? Yikes.

But you know which team scored a big win last night? Occupy, with the lengthy segment on 60 Minutes about widespread Wall Street banking fraud and the shocking absence of prosecution following whistleblowers' revelations.

That story would not have run without Occupy shifting the focus of the national conversation to Wall Street criminality and how the 1% routinely escape justice. Kids get busted for being in an abandoned warehouse slated for demolition, but greedy bankers can ruin 401(k)s, pension plans, and the US economy without fear of prosecution. Hell, they were rewarded with bonuses in the $millions, after their bad bets were covered by Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, regular Americans are losing their homes.

Instead of posting something on the internet in defense of SPD idiocy, think of all the things you could be doing, like cleaning and re-inflating your Ann Coulter blow up doll. You really had some hot fun last night, didn't you, Johnny Blazay?
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
Justin - the best coverage in the city
Amazing on the street coverage. And all in freezing cold. Can we buy you some brandy for the coffee?

Very good work.
Comment by Weave
5 months ago
RE: Justin - the best coverage in the city
My reward was catching the first half of Arsenal v. Wiggan in peace and quiet. But thanks :)
http://capitolhillseattle.com
Comment by jseattle
5 months ago
Nice Job SPD
These "protesters" continue to baffle me. Yes, the things that the Occupy movement are trying to bring to light will not be going away anytime soon. And, our system is seriously broken. However, the protesters do their cause NO good by acting the way they are acting (i.e entitled, unfocused, no respect for the law, etc.)

I'm glad the SPD acted as they did. Squatting in any vacant building they choose to break into is simply wrong. And it needs to be stopped before it gets out of control.

Occupy Seattle is losing my empathy quickly.
Comment by kpd cap hill
5 months ago
RE: Nice Job SPD
None of this is new. Protesters camped out in the 30s, 60s and 70s often. There were mass die-ins, people protested by filling restaurants to sit-in and protest inequality. LGBT activists have been party to complaints about tactics for, well, the entirety of the LGBT rights movement.

Not a single thing is novel unless history is foreign to you.

Also not new: cheering on cop conduct.
Comment by AJ
5 months ago
It's Amazing
how many people were so quick to defend a guy getting an $800 tow bill for parking in a spot that isn't his (and wasn't being used)...but this shouldn't be that big of a deal.

you fucking hippies disappoint me.

nice job SPD, best thing i've heard about you in the last 3 years.
Comment by JS
5 months ago
RE: It's Amazing
I'm not a hippie. Most of us aren't.

Me? Just a gay activist :)

But we love the 5 or 6 hippies at are with us :)
Comment by AJ
5 months ago
RE: It's Amazing
That's just silly. No one was saying he had a right to park where he was. Simply saying that $800 was excessive.
Comment by occupyhomeless
5 months ago
Take a breath
Think about the sort of police actions possible when good people blindly promote crackdowns.

Think about the Seattle PD's recent history.

This isn't the glorious defense of Seattle you think it is.

So let's stop the frighteningly right-wing pro-government crackdown rhetoric.
Comment by AJ
5 months ago
RE: Take a breath - note AJ
AJ, can I say hon? You are being saved from the Occupy scare .... you do feel safer, don't you?

Apparently, recently, a dog shit near the SCCC Occupy, and sundry other major problems. The site offered thousands of meals for over a month, no problem, but, all in a hypothetical lather about scary potential health problems - they were using bleach like crazy on dishes - exactly the right thing to do. Health Dept. never mentioned that.

I think a lot of the posters here ARE - police folks.

You forgot how many people get outraged when the Queers do their parade every year, leaves the street messy, a street is closed, and the fear that children might be affected by all that color and costuming ... some of people here sound a great deal like the usual .... status quo conservatives, bitching and smug, lacking any social perspective beyond their small world.
Comment by Xavier
5 months ago
RE: Take a breath
It's well-established that many of the IPs of posters on PubliCola and Slog are from groups like the second floor of City Hall and the Seattle Times offices. Go ahead and ask blog owners. They'll confirm it.

It wouldn't be surprising if some of the IPs matched certain precincts on these posts.

And yet they're still people. So even if it is groupthink trolling it's still people doing this. And that's the problem.

You do make a good point about the pride parade reax, though.
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
RE: Take a breath
When the police earn my respect, I'll give it. Looks like they cleared out 70 people without injury or incident. Bravo.
Comment by 20 years on cap hill
5 months ago
RE: Take a breath
Xavier thinks if we disagree with him we must be cops.

Typical idiot punk protester noise.

Are you one of the gutter punks who attacked the guy holding the "Occupy Somewhere Else" sign? Typical of your religious zealotry. If you don't agree then you must be one of THEM and must be destroyed.

You are no better than the police, my dear young deluded friend.
Comment by typical
5 months ago
Waste of taxpayer money
Wow, was there a hostage situation? Weapons? Or is this just a huge show of force so SPD can feel like their collective penis grew 13 inches that day?

What a huge waste of taxpayer money.
Comment by Roberta
5 months ago
RE: Waste of taxpayer money
I think - saying collective - 13 is a very small increase.

BUT, on overtime, weekend bonus time and war zone bonus time and missed sexual opertunity time - police pay checks will be much, much bigger... ah, so. Follow the money.

And where can I find the formula - maybe some pix?
Comment by Gene
5 months ago
RE: Waste of taxpayer money
Did you not read the comments from local businesses above that some of these people ARE causing massive issues? Either the group needs to crack down on it or expect more of this. Considering whats happened in the camp, who knows what could happen behind the closed doors of an abandoned building.
Comment by Kane
5 months ago
RE: Waste of taxpayer money
The trope of the crushed small business is tired. You hear it when the wrong color person moves in or you hear about it when gay activists protest a business and it's always "why do they want to hurt us".

I'm no economist but I can probably tell you what's actually causing strife for businesses and people. It's actually pretty much the same reason Occupy protesters are doing what they're doing.

It's the economy, buddy. :)
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
RE: Waste of taxpayer money
.. Caused by the effing protestors. Thats always the thing, protester zealots never seem to understand that their own actions have costs that others have to bear. In this case, the police overtime for their nice garbage collection at 4 am. What do you expect them to do to trespassers in private property in a building thats being demolished in a few days? I read of no injuries and no deaths. Only disappointment on the whole morning (just kidding. A little).

GTFO dummies. You overstayed your welcome, you aren't in any way making coherent sense. If you had any balls you'd be occupying downtown banks, but you know what'd happen then. As for a "worldwide movement." .. yes, on the internet. I am the 99% and all that. but breaking laws and breaking peoples daily routines just so you can have a nice sit-in or camp-out or trash another neighborhood you then dont help pick up? Go to hell, you selfish little twit.
Comment by 20 years on cap hill
5 months ago
Thank-you SPD!
Job well done. Please continue your efforts to move these illegal squatters along.
Comment by neighbor
5 months ago
Great coverage!
Thank you for the great news coverage -- I don't see any other local outlets picking it up yet. Nice reporting!
Comment by Moi
5 months ago
Thanks Seattle Police!
It is much appreciated how professional and diplomatic you have been through these trying times. Thanks for all you do!
Comment by Billie
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Yeah, pepper spraying that 85 year old woman and the priest were real high quality, professional operations.

HA!
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Cry me a river. That senior woman and the priest were breaking the law and not following reasonable police direction. They deserved what they got.

I'm sick of the protestors using the image of an old woman pepper sprayed to claim police brutality. You break the law, then you get the consequences.
Comment by calhoun
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Bob, in this case, you don't know what you are talking about. I was there, across the street, watching. Most, if not all, of the people against whom the Seattle police used their chemical weapons at the corner of 5th and Pine had already moved out of the street. They were just standing on the sidewalk watching. If I remember correctly, Dorli was never in the street with the jaywalking demonstrators. Please don't continue to spread misinformation.
Comment by Phil Mocek
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Additionally, Bob, don't you suppose that the correct response to alleged violation of the law is arrest and prosecution, not assault and battery? Those officers were not in danger. Dousing peaceful demonstrators with chemical agents was completely inappropriate.
Comment by Phil Mocek
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
I carefully watched the video, Phil. Several warnings were issued to move to the sidewalk, and they were ignored by some in the intersection. Finally, pepper spray was used on those ignoring the police order. Those who were on the sidewalk then were not intentionally pepper-sprayed....but probably they were affected, because they were still very close to those still in the intersection.

Yes, you were there, but sometimes video shows more accurately what actually happened. You see what you wanted to see.
Comment by calhoun
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Right, Calhoun, the cops were great that night. Total professionals. That's why the mayor apologized the next day.
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
To be clear, the Mayor apologized because he is spineless and was forced too politically, not because it reflects the opinion of the majority of contributing Seattle citizens. Your world is absolute fascinating to me.
Comment by upd
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
Puh-leeze, upd, how do YOU know how the majority of "contributing" Seattle citizens feel about that lady getting pepper sprayed? I'd wager that most of them were outraged by it, and rightfully so. We don't need bullies in police uniforms.

Anyway, police professionalism is never going to require an apology, whether the mayor is a member of the Chordate phylum or not.

My world is absolutely fascinating to you? Wonderful. It's called "reality." Feel free to inhabit it whenever you want. You can start right now!
Comment by etaoin shrdlu
5 months ago
RE: Thanks Seattle Police!
"Yes, you were there, but sometimes video shows more accurately what actually happened. You see what you wanted to see."

What I want to see is police reacting to suspected unlawful behavior by arresting people and putting them in front of a judge, not deploying chemical weapons on the suspects, then walking away.

You suggest that people on the sidewalk who were assaulted by police received this treatment because they were near people who were still jaywalking. 1) Do you really believe that's acceptable? 2) Doesn't this suggest that contrary to your former statement, Dorli may have been standing by, going about her lawful business, when the police assaulted her?

"The police didn't intend to shoot those people on the sidewalk; they just happened to be nearby when the police were shooting at the people
Comment by Phil Mocek
5 months ago
Problem could be easily solved.
If someone that owns an unused abandoned property would come out and offer the use of it for Occupy Seattle for a Headquarters then this would no longer be an issue. Wish I owned one. I would be willing to do it.
Comment by TruSeattleite
5 months ago
RE: Problem could be easily solved.
And who pays for my building when it gets burned down? Who pays for my insurance? Will you be the one sued when a junkie od's there? You don't own a building because you have no idea what it takes to do so.
Comment by 5%
5 months ago
RE: Problem could be easily solved.
Yup, the legal exposure to the property owner if one of these idiots gets a scratch (with or without the police) would be a nightmare. They wouldn't win of course, but the money it would waste to defend against it anyway would be terrible.
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
RE: Problem could be easily solved.
I just made a suggestion. Did I say for you to do it? No. If you don't want to do it then don't. No one said you had to. So quit being a rude jerk. Might get your point across better if you didn't act like such a schmuck about it.
Comment by TruSeattleite
5 months ago
RE: Problem could be easily solved.
@truseattleite

this only recently became about occupying warehouse space.

up until yesterday's ruling the occupy folks were content to camp on sccc property. prior to that, when they were still at westlake, the mayor offered the use of city hall as a camp; occupy turned him down. i'm not sure why, if basic space to build a shelter was one of their key tenets.

so it seems to me that this is less about shelter and more about fucking with "the powers that be".
Comment by zeebleoop
5 months ago
smackdown
Its easy to occupy a broke community college, not so easy to occupy a project owned and funded by deep pockets. Same reason they're squatting in the CD and not north capitol hill. I suspect any occupation of the underarms will be quickly ejected as well.

This movement is a joke, trampling on those who don't have the resources to do anything about it. Come to my hood, see what happens. We have foreclosures here and bank owned properties too, but we also have resources and motivation to get you out of here lickity split.

The people most affected by this os movement are the ones grinding it out just trying to make it, oh sweet irony.
Comment by 5%
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
So I gather you're not from Capitol Hill? ;)
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
It's not irony. It is their plan.
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
So the anti-poverty activists want to eat their own? Riiiight.

Cut the propaganda.
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
Born and raised, actually, right here on capitol hill. I'm a minority, raised by a single mother who clawed and scratched her way to make it, we were on food stamps, SSI, and free lunch programs. I've had had a job since I was 8. If I wanted something I could only depend on myself to get it. I used to deliver the capitol hill times from galer to republican every wednesday, by myself, when when I was 12 I got my first times route, and delivered the times daily until I was 17, bought a car, and needed to make more money.

I've been emploed over 33 years now in one capacity or another, have never taken unemployment, or any other subsidy. I know what it's like to be broke, I've been there. But I also know that there are jobs out there for people willing to work. I own a business now and it amazes me how apathetic the generations behind me are, 99% of you suck, don't know what a hard days work is, and all you want to do is drink and go to shows. I'm constantly hiring, and firing.

I work my ass off to keep the north capitol hill home I own warm and cozy. Everything I have I worked for, nobody has given me shit. No little spoiled trustafarian is going to come to my hood and fuck it up. Most of us who actually grew up here, in this very neighborhood are the same way. We all work, because we didn't have shit growing up.
Comment by 5%
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
Tell me about it. I been here 5x longer than you, so I know the type. Want to go get some machetes and cut off their heads? How about we bust out the rifles and go ashooting? Let show em how we long time residents of the hill settle things. Freedom! USA! SPD!
Comment by 120 year cap hill reisdent
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
5%: They don’t care. Doesn’t matter how hard anyone works for what they have. The public education system was designed to produce workers from the beginning. But even that objective has become so corrupted in the last 30 years that we have a workforce that can’t produce anything. The private schools are not in any better shape because they can’t use teaching materials not approved by the state.
If any of you “kids” out there take exception to my last statement, go find yourself a 6th grade McGuffey reader. It would be considered university level reading by today’s standards.
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
RE: smackdown
alexjon: The “movement” publicly states a bunch of demands and reasons for being, and then performs the most baffling actions that run counter to the stated goals. This has many people scratching their heads and concluding the “movement” is a bunch of idiots or spoiled children.
It is and it isn’t.
The useful idiots you see in the park and the street are being coordinated to do what they’re doing from afar. In all the cities at the same time they are being directed in phases. I think it was AJ that mentioned a bit of history in a post above. This is very similar as to what happened in the 1930’s except this time there are so many issues at play there is no way to stop them. Theses idiots are going to be sacrificed by the real power behind the “movement” when the public outcry gets to a high enough level. It’s unfortunate, but now the game is to chase them from place to place and burn through the Police budget. Again, while I don’t agree with many things AJ has written, he warned to be careful of what you wish for regarding the government response. He’s correct, but our city is unique in the fact that our Mayor is who he is – so who knows what type of response the Police will be allowed to provide. I am not going to be surprised at all if a public apology is issued again to the “movement”.
I would like to point out that some of Occupy Seattle members have actually received the benefits of redistribution of wealth that they stated they want so much. The public’s money is now being used to house the members in a high rise downtown, they have been provided clean clothing, showers,... read more
Comment by ERF
5 months ago
Fuck the Seattle Occupy "movement"
For anyone who cares about change for the better these fuckers are just... a bunch of fuckers. A bunch of inexperienced-at-life fuckers whose sole achievements are to split and embitter anyone who might be sympathetic to one of the myriad of their slogans.

The SPD action? Absolutely appropriate to meet message with message. Don't get it yet?
Comment by umvue
5 months ago
RE: Fuck the Seattle Occupy "movement"
It's a movement because this is happening worldwide. A few hundred here and a couple thousand there doesn't sound like much until you find out that there are hundreds of these protests ongoing now. It's a movement.

As to your larger point, what message are you suggesting the cops are promoting here? They've cracked down on every aspect of Occupy, not just the inflammatory parts -- they've even gone after the warm 'n fuzzy ones. Like a jewish prayer hut and signs and curious old ladies.
Comment by alexjon
5 months ago
RE: Fuck the Seattle Occupy "movement"
The message from the cops to ME might be something like:

If you take a large group of people and very publicly break the law we will send a large group of people and very publicly stop you from breaking the law.

To members of the "movement" the message seems to be:

The greedy corporate overlords (probably in cahoots with the Trilateral Commission, big Pharma, ...) are denying us our right to do what we want to do when and where we want to do it.
Comment by umvue
5 months ago
Good riddance to bad trash
Sorry punks, I don't want you here, and I'm not alone. Go trash your own neighborhoods you came from. Eff off and leave us who actually live here alone. You are not my voice, you are a bunch of whiny children whose moms never told them "no."
Comment by 20 year cap hill resident
5 months ago
AaaaaaMerica! Fuck yeah!
Glad the SPD got to practice their 'terror' fighting skills. SWAT teams on the roof? You people support this sort of police behavior?

These special ops types or raids in the middle of night are ridiculous. The complete overkill in manpower, the insane amount of money it must have cost. Go up to the building in the middle of the day with 4 cops and tell them they are in violation of the law and they must leave. Attacking them like they are holed up in there making bombs is crazy.

Is this what foreclosure evictions are going to start looking like too? Property uber alles?

Probably becuase the most important thing is to crush the movement as much as possible before the shopping season really kicks in.
Comment by makers
5 months ago
RE: AaaaaaMerica! Fuck yeah!
It cost a few pence now, but putting the fuckers in their place now means saving several pounds later.
Comment by umvue
5 months ago
RE: AaaaaaMerica! Fuck yeah!
property owners rights > a bunch of petulant immature precious little snowflakes who already made their point and overstayed their welcome.


imokwiththis.jpg
Comment by 20 years on the hill
5 months ago
RE: AaaaaaMerica! Fuck yeah!
Saves money on training and give real world experience.
Comment by 5%
5 months ago
Seattle Times mentions CHS.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016921016_o
Comment by CHS_is_teh_awesome
5 months ago
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
The SPD needs to RE-READ the Constitution.

It says, we have a right to PEACEFULLY assemble to address our grievances. It says NOTHING about LAWFULLY assemble.

I hope they get sued. An effing SWAT team deployed to arrest peaceful protesters? I, for one, just called the Chief of Police and told him I would be buying a tent and camping out on the effing sidewalk in front of his house, and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. EFF YOU, Diaz!
Comment by GuyFawkes
5 months ago
RE: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Peacefully assemble after breaking and entering? I'm all confused. The right to peacfully assemble does not preclude basic criminal law and property rights.
Comment by Confused
5 months ago
RE: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
peacefully assemble is not break and enter private property. peacefully assemble is normally reserved for public space. Like, say, a community college campus. Once you left there and broke laws to Occupy, the cops took the correct response and removed you.

And most of the rest of us 99% ers agree with the action the cops took, because unlike you, we understand how protests are supposed to work. By definition, a protest is a public property action, because you are protesting the action of the state.

Unless you were protesting specifically the action of the property owner at 10th and Union, you had no business being on his or her property, plus you broke laws to gain access to his building.

How freaking dumb are you punks anyway. Seriously, did any of you graduate high school much less take any classes in college? You're an embarrassment to the cause you claim to represent.
Comment by 20 years on the hill
5 months ago
RE: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
I've been living here since the 1890's. Me and my sisters used to eat dirt with the remaining natives because we had nothing. But I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and opened a sarsaparilla joint on Broadway. Best soda you ever had. I made my own way, never asked for nothing. Then, at the age of 40 or so, the 1% caused the world economy to crash and I had to eat dirt again, only there weren't any natives cuz the government had moved them to camps. Spent most of the depression broke. But then after the war i pulled myself up by the boostraps again and opened a soda fountain. Even made sandwhiches. Man, were they good. What with all the death and war, the 50s sure was a bustling time. Sold a lot of soda. Things were good till the oil emargoe and the 80's, when that old devil Reagan started his watchmacallit where capitalists could do whatever they wanted. Made the little guy suffer. Lost the soda fountain round 1984. But by 1996 I was back on top, had a computer company that made software for soda fountains. There I was, pulled up by my boot straps, until 2000. But luckily I cashed out and started buying houses. Now I got five of them sitting empty in the CD, can't make a penny off them, wish I could sell them and buy a soda fountain again. Anyway, I never had nothing and worked for everything I have.

Good job, SPD. Let those twerps eat dirt. You aint like the nazis. dont let no one tell you that. i worked, god damn it, so im right. sorry if i dont type so good. long live capitalism.
Comment by 120 year cap hill reisdent
5 months ago
RE: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
@guyfawkes

from the aclu:

"The right of free expression is not an absolute right to express ourselves at any time, in any place, in any manner. For example, we do not necessarily have a right to hold a large rally at midnight outside a hospital. While we may have the right to march in a parade or on a city street, we may not have the right to decide the exact time or route. The government has the authority to make reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of certain speech activities if there is a compelling reason to do so."

and this under "Speech Not Protected by the Constitution" on the aclu's website:

"Broadly speaking, we are free to communicate our ideas but not to encourage immediate crimes."

trespassing on someone's private property is a crime and not constitutionally protected speech.
Comment by zeebleoop
5 months ago
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