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Seattle Police Chief speaks out on CHAZ: ‘Leaving the precinct was not my decision’

SPD tours the emptied East Precinct (Image: Matt Mitgang)

SPD tours the emptied East Precinct (Image: Matt Mitgang)

In a video message posted Thursday she says was prepared for her rank and file officers, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best backed away from the show of unity she has held with Mayor Jenny Durkan over the course of two weeks of anti-police protests here to express her anger in the decision to empty the East Precinct headquarters at 12th and Pine.

“The decision to board up the precinct — our precinct, our home, the first precinct I worked in — was something I was holding off,” Best says in the three and a half minute video, addressing officers. “You should know, leaving the precinct was not my decision.”

Meanwhile, the chief and top SPD brass visited the building Thursday morning for a tour and to assess damage of the graffiti-covered but still very much standing building. Above her, the station’s sign has been spray painted to read “Seattle PEOPLE Department East Precinct.”

As they toured inside, a crowd of neighbors, media, and protesters gathered in hopes of learning more about the fate of the building.

 

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While critically important to those living and doing business in the neighborhood, and a core element of why the protests are centered here in the first place, the drama around the building is overshadowing larger efforts and progress around police reform and increased equity for Black communities in Seattle as activists and elected officials push to cut SPD’s budget and increase social spending following the nationwide outcry against law enforcement brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Starting Sunday, SPD hastily evacuated the 61,000-square-foot building of equipment, loads of paperwork, and personal items and made a surprise announcement it was pulling officers off the blockade around 12th and Pine. What followed was the formation of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, a few-block, Cal Anderson-encompassing camp and protest zone that now serves as the center for Seattle’s rallies, marches, and actions for Black Lives Matter and anti-brutality protests against police.

 

Durkan and city officials have maintained the pullback from the precinct was made “as part of the proactive effort to guard against potential damage or fire” after what the mayor said were decisions made by SPD based on “specific information from the FBI” about threats to the 12th and Pine facility and other buildings in Seattle.

Best’s video now seems to counter that narrative. In the speech, Best expresses her anger about the Durkan administration’s “change of course.”

“You fought for days to protect it,” she tells the officers.” I asked you to stand on that line day in and day out, to be pelted with projectiles, to be screamed at, threatened, and in some cases hurt. Then to have a change of course nearly two weeks in — it seems like an insult and our community.”

Chief Best

Chief Best

“Ultimately, the city had other plans for the building and relented to severe public pressure. I’m angry about how this all came about,” Best says.

UPDATE 3:50 PM: In an afternoon press conference, Best elaborated on the situation around the exit of the precinct, describing the process in tactical terms that stemmed from her decision to remove the protest barriers and allow demonstrations to gather outside 12th and Pine.

“We took down the barricades because we really wanted to establish trust,” she said.

But that decision was followed by actions from Best’s command that the chief now says were not approved by her. While she would not pin the decision on her command staff, Best again made it clear she does not intend to take responsibility for the decision to empty the building. “It didn’t come from me,” Best said.

The gymnastics left Mayor Durkan in the awkward position of supporting her chief’s non-decision Thursday afternoon.

Durkan also dismissed talk of her and Best resigning in the wake of the protests. “We thought about a Thelma and Louise moment,” the mayor said, referring to the climatic scene in the 1991 story of two outlaw women on the run.

Given the emerging fractured priorities in Durkan’s office and in Best’s command that resulted in a city police precinct being emptied without either Durkan or Best’s approval, can either leader assure neighbors, Black Lives Matter, or the CHAZ organizers that they aren’t just pawns in a battle over police reform?

Meanwhile, Best’s video also repeated SPD’s concerns about reports of armed checkpoints and mob-like shakedown of businesses in the zone — reports that CHS and others have reported do not include specific investigations or evidence.

“We have heard anecdotally of citizens and businesses being asked to pay a fee to operate within this area; this is crime of extortion,” Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette said Wednesday in a short press briefing, referring to a comment posted to CHS by a purported area business owner. That commenter has not replied to our requests for more details about the allegation and the FBI told CHS Wednesday it had received no reports and no information about that kind of activity in the area.

“If anyone has been subjected to this, we need them to call 911,” Nolette said.

SPD also says it has “been hearing from community members that they have been subjected to barricades set up by the protesters with some armed individuals running them as checkpoints in the neighborhood,” another claim being repeated on social media and in comments on sites including CHS. Accounts from residents describe a small number of people armed with rifles who have been seen serving as guards near parking garages and areas where motor vehicles travel near the camp. In her video, Best also says SPD leaders “have heard” about the armed patrols.

UPDATE x2: The mayor and chief Best said Thursday afternoon that there are no documented reports to back up the stories. The mayor said there has been “some vandalism,” and “a fight,” but nothing serious has been documented. The department had “heard anecdotally” about the reports,” Best said.

Sunday’s show of force by police now appears to have marked a turning point (Image: Noah Lubin with permission to CHS)

Gov. Jay Inslee, meanwhile, also made a statement “about the situation on Capitol Hill.”

“Although unpermitted, and we should remember we are still in a pandemic, the area is largely peaceful,” Inslee wrote. “Peaceful protests are fundamentally American, and I am hopeful there will be a peaceful resolution.”

While directed at her officers, Best’s video was posted by the SPD public information office to its public blog and Twitter accounts. “I understand that my comments in this message may be leaked to the public but I’m not concerned about that,” Best says. “I stand by what I’m saying. We have solid information to believe that anti-government groups would destroy the precinct once we left whether through vandalism or arson.”

Thursday, Best acknowledged that nothing of the sort has transpired and, also, whether she meant to or not, made the case for standing down SPD’s aggressive show of crowd control tactics.

“Today the precinct remains standing,” Best said. “No officers were hurt, no force was used.”

 

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Kario
Kario
3 years ago

And yet, once they left, things have been exponentially more peaceful, and nobody has destroyed the building. In fact, the armed protestors were there specifically to protect the building, so it would seem that the one thing causing the violence and chaos in that area was the police, and once they left, things were better. It’s just a building, Chief Best. Maybe focus your efforts on your toxic workplace culture instead of the physical place you all called “home.”

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Kario

This is the truth. I’m not a protester although I do support sweeping police reform and ending police brutality and I am anti-racist. I live in this area and while the police were following Best’s orders to hold the line, those of us that live here were being terrorized and traumatized by the actions of the police, not the actions of the protesters. I would have never imagined that I would want the police to abandon the station but I can’t deny that it has been peaceful since they retreated. Their role should not be to incite fear and violence but this is exactly what they did. If they had refused to hold a line from day one, the protesters would have been allowed to march past the station and so much of this could have been avoided. I think Best has made the wrong choices every step of the way. We want peace in this neighborhood and yes we want justice too.

Sam Fish
Sam Fish
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

And yet, without the protests, you would not have been terrorized at all.

Which brings us to where is the actual specific data that shows there is systemic racism existing in democrat cities?

There isn’t any, but there is mob of useful idiots with AR-15s. Think that isn’t going to turn Lord of the Flies real fast? Before you toot your horn about peaceful conduct, give it a week.

The police chief said it wasn’t her call to withdraw the police, however who did, was suppressed. Don’t ask why.

The extortion claims are being criticized because the same inept media can’t seem to figure out why business owners wouldn’t want to announce that they’ve been extorted when they’re surrounded by the extorters. Ever watched a mob movie?

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Do you live here or are you just one of the many alt-right/Russian troll bots who infiltrate this website?

Ignore the trolls neighbors.

zeebleoop
zeebleoop
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

@Mimi, just because someone views things differently than you doesn’t make them a troll. However, dismissing someone out of hand does make you sound a little Trumpian.

While I don’t agree with much that @Sam wrote, there is some truth in that the cops likely wouldn’t have responded had some (not all) of the protesters not thrown rocks, bottles, and other projectiles. I’m sure if someone were to start throwing rocks at you that you wouldn’t just stand there and take it.

There have been plenty of protests and marches at Cal Anderson over the past few years that have not resulted in policing needing to use crowd dispersal weapons. Could that be because those protests didn’t feature protesters assaulting cops? Just something to think through.

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

I have watched hours of livestreams of the protests and have not seen any evidence of protesters throwing rocks etc. This is an attempt to gaslight the public from the truth. The police initiated the violence.

Peace keepers not punishers
Peace keepers not punishers
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

: I respectfully disagree that if projectiles are thrown at police they are therefore justified in responding with such force.They have A LOT of tax funded protective gear, the public does not, and risking injury to multiple people because of the actions of a few seems out of scale. I would like to see police trained in management of assaultive behavior that involves non-engagement rather than upping the ante/fanning the flames.

Lisa
Lisa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Here’s some food for thought:

Right now there are peaceful protests going on there, right? It looks an AWFUL LOT like it did when the police were marching WITH the protesters, right? BEFORE the riots and the looting started.
Well, if you think that the criminals are going to sit back and let this opportunity pass this by, YOU’RE CRAZY!

Do you think for ONE MINUTE that just because the police left that building the criminals left? HECK NO! In fact, they’ll all be moving IN! I would if I were off the type! You’re all easy prey!
What happens when there’s a murder? Is anyone experienced in collecting DNA? Getting warrants so they stand up in court? What happens when you find out who did it? Who prosecutes? Or is it just good old vigilante justice? What about child abuse cases? Who refers them to social services? Police usually do that. Does anyone have training in mental health to be able to determine if someone has mental issues as opposed to being on drugs?
There is a LOT you don’t GET!

You CANNOT blame the police for the chaos when the riots came FIRST. THE PEOPLE BREAKING THE LAW IS WHY THEY WERE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Now, if the rioting and looting starts again, who will be there to protect the stores and the people? NOT THE POLICE! And I hope you’re happy then!

AA
AA
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

“I am anti-racist”

As if that’s a controversial statement in 2020.

God, I hate people.

Keith Piorkowski
Keith Piorkowski
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Until you need their help. Good luck and Godspeed

Sully
Sully
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

@Mimi You hurt your cause when you blatantly lie. Hours of livestream included nightly raining or rocks, bottles, cement chunks, frozen cans and improvised explosives on the police. The police moved the line back, protesters eager to battle with them for more photo ops pushed through the line and moved the fence. Now there are armed goons at night, one of them a self-professed Deuce 8 gang member, assaulting others while holding a rifle saying “I’m the police now.” Literally this guy livestreamed himself doing it and that video is still up on his page. That’s your mayor of peaceful town. The fact that you’d lie about something so easy to counter tells me that you are brainwashed, much like the children in the killing fields who put bags over people’s heads.

Zelda B.
Zelda B.
3 years ago
Reply to  Kario

I live next door to this precinct, and I’m with you. If the police hadn’t shown up in riot gear, covered their badge numbers, and refused to let them anywhere near THEIR building (they kept the protest line in front of OURS) — there never would have been any violence.

SPD acted like thugs and ignored the pleas of the tenants in the 7-story apartment building with which they share the block. They abandoned their building in hopes of a “See, I told you they were violent” attitude. And if you’re a grown adult in riot gear and you feel the need to tear gas someone that throws a water bottle or a candle, you have absolutely no business “protecting” our city.

Sully
Sully
3 years ago
Reply to  Zelda B.

Police didn’t go to the hospital for a water bottle and a candle. ER docs don’t treat people for a water bottle and a candle bruises. And you must not have lived there very long if you don’t know that each time there is a riot in Seattle going back decades it ends on the hill with a bunch of almost always very white people, mostly male, attacking cops at the precinct. So when the riot came to them, they tried to protect the precinct. We taxpayers own that building and wanted it protected, just like the city buildings downtown that were vandalized including police HQ. Now the protesters have to own the fact that even after the police put 300 feet between them and the line, in an effort to deescalate, the protesters moved the fence and kept moving to close distance. Wanting a confrontation. Stop lying and tell the ugly bits of what BOTH sides did. Pretending like the quite violent (and thanks for filming yourselves doing it) protesters were nightly innocents in this is ridiculous. Lastly, if you think cops shouldn’t wear riot gear in the face of a riot you stand outside while enlightened white people yell racist names at you and throw rocks, bottles, bound together M80’s and hunks of cement at you and let me know how that works out with no gear.

RWK
RWK
3 years ago
Reply to  Zelda B.

@Sully: Thank you! Your comments are reality as to exactly what went down at those barricades.

RJZ
RJZ
3 years ago
Reply to  Kario

Your statement is correlation to cause. It’s a logical fallacy btw. So anarchists create a country with rules and borders, create a wall to keep illegals out, let homeless refugees in and share food, only to find that they ran out of food. Proved conservative’s point a bit, doncha think? Sounds a lot like Trump’s border wall.. hilarious! Why do you care about a toxic environment for police? You don’t even consider them to be human.

Sean OConnor
Sean OConnor
3 years ago
Reply to  Kario

You can watch videos of the CHAZ’s self appointed police point guns at people, threaten to kill them, and break their glasses.
These are not peaceful people, they are violent extremists.

Oh yeah, if it matters, the people they are doing it to are black.

One more umbrella
One more umbrella
3 years ago
Reply to  Sean OConnor

You are responding to a dreamt up fear that you have. I can attest the the people of CHAZ are peaceful. The police precinct was left unlocked, none of the protesters went in. When someone, not from CHAZ, ran into to start a fire at the precinct, the CHAZ protesters put it out immediately. This is a protest by American people against wrong doing held up by American systems of oppression. If you are in support of this this oppression, I add my umbrella to the line to shield all those you are keeping down.

Sully
Sully
3 years ago
Reply to  Sean OConnor

Luckily the idiots are livestreaming it all. I watched the video you’re talking about. Dumb as a box of rocks.

Cathy
Cathy
3 years ago
Reply to  Kario

Oh, but if you don’t need any police, why do you need armed protesters patrolling the perimeter? In the theory you expound, there should be no need for armed protesters anywhere. Your group is apparently too young to remember the hippies…free love and communes…This is reminiscent of that and P.S. It didn’t work.

Jen Moon
Jen Moon
3 years ago
Reply to  Cathy

“So anarchists create a country with rules and borders, create a wall to keep illegals out, let homeless refugees in and share food, only to find that they ran out of food.”

In general, those aren’t anarchists. If you are talking about CHOP. none of that has happened. They keep sending food out with folks to deliver to the homeless.

Prefers to remain anyonymous
Prefers to remain anyonymous
3 years ago

I would not call someone carrying an assault rifle chasing down drivers ‘peaceful’….
I live over the hill and certainly will be avoiding the Pike-Pine corridor until the armed vigilantes are gone.

Susi Stuart
Susi Stuart
3 years ago

I live right here and have been in and out of the Pike Pine corridor several times. It’s fine. Stop spouting bullshit.

A nony mouse
A nony mouse
3 years ago
Reply to  Susi Stuart

The guy who did the chasing live streamed it on his own facebook page…..
Someone posted the link yesterday.

Hard to call something BS that happens right in front of your own eyes.

Here’s Raz’s own video. At 2:47:45 he confronts someone in a white smart car and chases them down the street, rifle in hand.

https://www.facebook.com/razsimone/videos/264830291498845

Mars Saxman
Mars Saxman
3 years ago

It’s a great scene; you should come check it out. I also live up the hill, and I’ve been swinging by every day. There are speeches, music, people making art, movies at night, people giving away food and other supplies. It’s kind of a big block party. It won’t last forever, and it’d be a shame to have missed it.

“Armed vigilantes?” – hardly! There are a handful of volunteers doing security, but they’re just watching out for proud boys or the like; they’re not bothering anyone.

b
b
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

Cool, glad you guys decided to have a block party in the middle of the pandemic. Hope you all are getting tested.

Lisa
Lisa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

I’m sorry but that video does not make it look like a great scene. It looks like the slums.
Instead of just sitting around, you all should pick up the trash, clean the graffiti off the buildings and clean those old flyers off the telephone/light poles. It looks worse than Detroit, & I won’t go there by myself, day OR night!
What a hole!

Sean OConnor
Sean OConnor
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

They bothered the black guy that they beat the living hell out of and stole his glasses and phone and threatened to kill.
It’s doing the rounds; feel free to start preparing to minimise, deny or deflect.

Kristen
Kristen
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

Soo graffiti is now art? In all photos I see no art I see graffiti I don’t see a big peaceful “block party” Also I hope you all get coronavirus it would really help the rest of us out.

Noooeee
Noooeee
3 years ago

Why not watch the video that was posted yesterday of Raz wandering around with his automatic rifle, or look at the pictures in the press of white guys with their guns up in the Chaz. It doesn’t seem anecdotal. Who needs an automatic rifle on the streets of Seattle ?

Mars Saxman
Mars Saxman
3 years ago
Reply to  Noooeee

Those are just AR-15s, not automatic rifles. Machine guns cost $20k or more, and Washington State made it illegal to buy one back in 1994. Strongly doubt any of the rich old gun collectors who might still own a pre-ban automatic rifle would be foolish enough to carry it around at a protest.

Cynthia Penner
Cynthia Penner
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

“JUST” AR-15s?

CD Neighbor
CD Neighbor
3 years ago
Reply to  Mars Saxman

Yeah… just a military style weapon (with the exception that the fully automatic fire has been taken away) that was purpose designed to blow holes the size of coke cans in large numbers of human beings in the least amount of time possible with the least amount of skill needed…. gives me a real case of the warm and fuzzies…. NOT.

And I don’t care if it’s up in Snohomish or here on Capitol Hill – no thanks.

Allison Agostinelli
Allison Agostinelli
3 years ago

The police precinct does not belong to Chief Best or the officers who work there. It is there to serve the public. When it no longer protects all its citizens it has to change. If my employer tells me to leave the building, I leave the building.
Chief Best feels aggrieved that projectiles were thrown at her officers. I do not condone those actions, however that pales opinion comparison to officers shooting peoples eyes out, tear gassing and, terrorizing a neighborhood for weeks.

RWK
RWK
3 years ago

Please provide evidence that Seattle officers shot people in the eyes. I think you made that up.

KR
KR
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

Of course they made it up, Bob.
But these snowflake idiots are allowed to get by that bullshit, when you and I aren’t.

Jen Moon
Jen Moon
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

I’d have to look that one up but we watche officers clock one of the livestreaming journalists in the head as he attempted to pull a woman in a wheelchair back from the front line and out of the way. Was he the only one? Sure seemed like there was an awful lot of footage like that.

James Hobart
James Hobart
3 years ago

That’s all fine and dandy. How many of the “protesters” actually live in our neighborhood? Zero. Have this happen in your neighborhood then see how welcoming you are.

Sully
Sully
3 years ago
Reply to  James Hobart

The guy stating he is “from the hood” and a Deuce 8 is apparently from Gig Harbor. And he’s the mayor of CHAZ apparently, as well as – in his own words – “the police now.”

Josh
Josh
3 years ago

It is their to serve the public. The public, all the public. Not a mob of rock throwing children. Whoever gave the order to abandon the precinct should be fired.

PD
PD
3 years ago

Tells you everything you need to know about Best, and Durkan, and how they both need to go.

As does the SPD.

When will people realize this is NOT AN ORGANIZATION THAT CAN BE REFORMED.

We need a new, community-focused police service that is de-militarized (that’s right, current police: all those toys you never should have had need to go bye-bye permanently), defunded (the SPD has EATEN THE DAMN CITY BUDGET), and an end to qualified immunity (that’s right: misbehave and you will be faced with accountability).

Best and Durkan need to go.

I was never a Sawant supporter, but at times like this I am oh, so glad to have her on the council.

Lisa
Lisa
3 years ago
Reply to  PD

So the criminals have guns & the cops don’t?
Real smart!
Hope you’re never in the position where you or someone you love are in a life or death situation where a cop either needs to take the guy out or you or your loved one will die.

You people who want to defund the police have NOT thought this through at ALL.

Gonzo
Gonzo
3 years ago
Reply to  Lisa

Lisa, eat a Snickers. You sound a lot like a Karen when you’re hungry. Also, go back to the Suburbs, you NIMBY.

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago

One more thing . . . I find Best’s language very telling and disturbing “The decision to board up the precinct — our precinct, our home, the first precinct I worked in — was something I was holding off,” Best says in the three and a half minute video, addressing officers. “You should know, leaving the precinct was not my decision.”

The precinct is not their home it’s where they work. This is actually the home of those of us who LIVE here. The police are supposed to protest us, not gas us and force us to abandon our literal homes to escape the gas. Her sense of ownership of the precinct contributed to her choosing to tell her force to hold the line therefore creating a tense and conflict-filled situation rather allow the protesters to protest, which is their constitutional right. Note that when the protest is the Womens March etc. the police stand by peacefully and do not decide to hold a line and create a power struggle with the protesters. She needs to go and we need sweeping police reform and accountability.

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

*protect us

CD Neighbor
CD Neighbor
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

You do realize that the Women’s March and March for our lives etc. were planned and permitted right? (that is permitted as in granted a parade permit by the city, not as in allowed) That is how one avoids problems – streets are officially closed, traffic is controlled and the protest is given a police escort that actually helps them.

I get it – not all events can be planned for, and this was one, but still – there are ways to protest without running afoul of the law. You do have the right to exercise your first amendment freedoms – BUT – and this is a big but, there are actually limitations – it’s not a free for all. Leeway is already being given allowing people to march in the streets without a permit or street closures in the first place.

This is how you do it without doing anything illegal.
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_pdf_file/kyr_protests.pdf

zeebleoop
zeebleoop
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

“Note that when the protest is the Womens March etc. the police stand by peacefully and do not decide to hold a line…”

Yes, because the Womens March so often leads to credible threats of arson. And those darn women in the march, always throwing rocks, bottles, and 12 inch, glass devotional candles. Why aren’t they stopped? Damn, you really nailed the equivalency on that one.

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  zeebleoop

“Credible threats of arson” . . . more propaganda to gaslight the public. Look, I’ve said it before, I’m not a protester I’m just someone who lives here who has been paying attention to what is actually happening on the streets rather than buying what the main stream media is feeding us. Let’s not talk about “credible threats” that never materialized but about the things that actually happening like the police using excessive force and gassing the hell out of our neighborhood. Are you OK with that? Are you OK with small children, the elderly, the disabled, people with asthma, people recovering from CV19 etc. being gassed in their own homes? That’s what happened here people and that should trouble you.

Susi Stuart
Susi Stuart
3 years ago
Reply to  zeebleoop

Log off, Zeebleoop. You have nothing important to contribute.

Alex S.
Alex S.
3 years ago
Reply to  zeebleoop

Anarchists openly state their goal is to harass, harm and eliminate law enforcement, because the police supposedly stand between them and the democratic system they wish to replace.

They are 100% obsessed with this goal, whereas police officers could really care less about this rag-tag band of Black bloc skaters and taggers.

The notion that police are the instigators of assault, violence, burning and looting is such joke – only a naive kiddo or echo chamber ideologue could believe it, whether they live on the Hill or not.

The way PNW anarchists attack & destroy, then instantly change their tune and play the victim card is a sophomoric game I thought only Trumpists were capable of playing.

caphiller
caphiller
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Not to excuse the police violence and tear gas, but the difference is that the Womens March et al are not directly antagonistic to the police. Much higher risk of property damage to the police station during BLM march than during marches for other, non-police-related causes.

Alex S.
Alex S.
3 years ago
Reply to  caphiller

Anarchists want to burn the government down to create their big, bright Mad Max / Burningman future.

Women’s March protestors were encouraging women to get involved in politics to affect REAL change – and to reject the giant orange cheeto occupying the White House.

That’s the difference.

Also, the Seattle Women’s March was destroyed by radical elements that tried to co-opt it, in classic left circular firing squad fashion.

Jen Moon
Jen Moon
3 years ago
Reply to  caphiller

Maybe we should have been, that march was a joke. It would have been nice to actually have accomplished something, no? gah.

And Alex S., talking about Anarchists and “their goals” to “harass, harm and eliminate law enforcement” because they stand between us and the “democratic system they wish to replace.” Have you *met* an anarchist? Preferably one over 30? You sound like a fucking pamphlet…

Everyone talking about “protest should have a permit”, “why do things get destroyed?””they were so antagonistic to the cops”…
Sometimes protest is loud and messy and on fire and broken and confusing and we aren’t sure wtf is going on. If those things don’t work for you, maybe a different country would be better for you.

Sully
Sully
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Pink hat middle aged ladies didn’t riot through downtown. They didn’t loot and vandalize 90+ businesses in Chinatown ID. They didn’t take their rioting all the way up the hill breaking shit on the way to confront the police. You must be new, because for decades when a riot happens, the wanna-be anarchists go to East to do damage and fight the police. The current day ones just wish they were old enough to have been at WTO, rioting and assaulting people in turtle costumes. And by the way, why do none of you who support this offer 1 word of empathy for the Asian Americans whose businesses were looted and vandalized during your “peaceful” protest?

Josh
Josh
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

You sound inexperienced in life. Go out and live some more years. I bet your views will change.

Robert Lendenmann E-5
Robert Lendenmann E-5
3 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Why did they
Kill the 70 old retired police right in front his daughter
Ok riot no punishment
I don’t understand any of this
So killing steeling hurting burning is ok
You are all NUTS !!’

Diane Ramsey
3 years ago
Reply to  Mimi

Women marching do not burn down buildings.

The Ghost of Capitol Hill
The Ghost of Capitol Hill
3 years ago

So glad the streets of Capitol Hill aren’t as wack as these comments lulz on ya’ll go back on Next Door if you wanna cry about ur whtie feelings.

J
J
3 years ago

lol, what a joke. Burn the city down, go right ahead. The people that live and or own a business on cap hill voted for these fools who run and ran this city for decades. Have your block party, and your few minutes of fame, but this is a black mark on our city. Btw don’t push we the people to far with your racist bullshit, you don’t want to go there.

Capitol Hill Red
Capitol Hill Red
3 years ago

Does anyone feel for the local retailers that are boarded up in and around the zone? I have noticed less than a 1/2 mile away business opening back up, people eating in restaurants again, jobs coming back, families walking around talking to each other. Would it be at all possible for protest to happen organically and allow the PP community to try and climb their way out of this massive hole? Lets protest the heck out of every part of this city – why occupy? What is that accomplishing? The whole occupy thing is going to backfire. It distracts from the real message, the real change needed – in our city police department.

Susi Stuart
Susi Stuart
3 years ago

I went in and ate at Rancho Bravo just fine the other day. What the hell are you talking about?

Alex S.
Alex S.
3 years ago

The supposedly homegrown activists occupying the Hill might want to start spelling “Capitol Hill” correctly if they want to gain more neighborhood credibility https://twitter.com/SwarmFeral/status/1270397772995293184/photo/1

Ben Jurqunov
Ben Jurqunov
3 years ago

Can all us houseless people come to live there ?
I’d give anything to sleep indoors and have toilet and water.

Chagall
Chagall
3 years ago

Comrades unite…we must soon invade nearby farms as the homeless have taken all our foods.

Jon
Jon
3 years ago

I just want to say that I support Seattle PD. Most officers try to do their best, and are good people doing an extremely difficult job.

For the record, I live on Capitol Hill (past 4 years) and before that lived for 21 years north of UW/Ravenna.

The protesters seizing public property and defacing businesses is wrong. There is nothing honorable in it. Filth, graffiti, crime, drug use are hallmarks of decline and decadence. Nothing more.

HTS3
HTS3
3 years ago
Reply to  Jon

On a related note, does anyone of the people spraying ACAB across everything including my storefront, see the irony of their act? Labeling any group as being a certain way is sort of what this protest is about, right?

Troy Doyle
Troy Doyle
3 years ago
Reply to  Jon

And the property values, if any value is left are going straight to zero, just like your PO PO protection.

Tom
Tom
3 years ago
Reply to  Troy Doyle

Property values are going to zero? Anyone looking to buy a home around Capitol Hill would disagree with you.

Troy Doyle
Troy Doyle
3 years ago

This area of the country has always been a little different. People I have met from the PNW are a weird lot, and this to be allowed is more proof to this pudding.

Moving On
Moving On
3 years ago

Hmmm. It sounds the police department may have been the victim of some false reports/threats here, which I believe is a crime (like calling in a bomb threat to a school).

It seems like they should be well positioned to investigate and make an arrest, or perhaps give a ticket, as I think this is a misdemeanor?

As far as lashing out violently at the rest of the neighborhood, who had nothing to do with these (ultimately empty) threats, that’s some occupying army BS and it’s got to stop. Act like an occupying army, be treated like an occupying army, right?

Also, the deep symbolic attachment to the office is weird. I certainly don’t feel that way about my office, which I have not been allowed to visit since early March.

ThePoPoNoGo
ThePoPoNoGo
3 years ago

The only reason that people who man those barricades with AR-15s are still among the living is because most people still have a healthy respect for laws and the enforcement of those laws. If this was truly an autonomous zone there would only be a short amount of time before someone else with more guns than the previous guy shows up and takes over. The ones who don’t like the new guy could either resist, flee or face a firing squad. The ones who are tepidly ok with the new guy can just wait it out for someone else to come along and take over. History tells us that is scenario can occur anywhere in the world.

This cycle would keep repeating itself into perpetuity… until the populace has had enough of it. 

Quail
Quail
3 years ago

Get off the Hill and protest in your own neighborhood, we’re tired of you disrespecting our neighborhood.

YAZtheMaz
YAZtheMaz
3 years ago

Some calls for service that police respond to on a daily basis that some people don’t know about. Not all police are good, but all police in major cities have to work decently hard. They aren’t going to get all of these daily… but they will get them eventually. 

1. Respond to in-progress and already occurred domestic violence calls.

2. Respond to suspicious people calls for service. 
-Think of someone on the side of your house for no apparent reason. Who should you call about that issue?

3. Respond to fatality accidents.
– The fatality accident will most likely have to be reconstructed and this requires highly specialized training. 

4. Respond to (and secure until a keyholder arrives on the real burglaries) alarm calls.

5. Respond to criminal mischief calls. – Destruction of private property  – Destruction of public property

6. Respond to road hazard calls.   -Removing roadway debris that would create an immediate danger to the public.

7. Respond to lost children/ runaway calls. 
 Example #1 : Someone finds a lost 2 year old child with no parents to be found. The officer can go door to door (if necessary) looking for anyone who knows the whereabouts of the parents. 
 Example #2 : Someone notices that their 16yo daughter didn’t return home for the night.  A runaway/missing person report is initially taken by the officer and the runaway is entered  NCIC/WCIC for nationwide distribution of the info. Locally, BOLO  information is given to area agencies.

8. Respond to mental health calls.  
 – Including those that have weapons   
– Including those that have stated suicidal ideations with a plan    
– Including those who are walking down the middle of busy intersections   
– Including those who have taken hostages.  
  – Including those who have stated they will kill themselves to someone else on social media. These people often state they have already taken pills/cut themselves and Emergency          Communications sometimes has to contact phone companies to locate these people with cell phone pings.

9. Respond to people down/passed out for unknown reasons calls.   
– Including those who are intoxicated and passed out in drive-thrus and at stop lights. Officers sometimes have to box them in with two patrol cars because waking these       intoxicated people up is extremely dangerous.
 – Including people found dead in ditches  
 –  Including people on the outsides/insides of businesses who overdosed from drug use.

10. Respond to people (mostly women) who are terrified because someone is following them (possibly an ex of some sort) and fear for their lives. 

RWK
RWK
3 years ago
Reply to  YAZtheMaz

When I read that police response times over the 3rd Precinct are now triple what they were, I am concerned about all those people who truly need a quick police response. Nice going, CHAZ, your selfish actions are putting a lot of D3 residents at risk.

RWK
RWK
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

“East Precinct” not “3rd Precinct.”

Kristin
Kristin
3 years ago
Reply to  YAZtheMaz

Yes, we see what happens when cops show up for people passed out at drive-thrus. They end up shot in the back.

Most if not all if these things can be reassigned to different teams of people who are better trained to deal with them, ESPECIALLY the mental health calls. In fact, I think this is actually kind of what defunding the police means, is redistributing this kind of work to those better-equipped to handle it.

Jen Moon
Jen Moon
3 years ago
Reply to  Kristin

Many groups who don’t get treated well by the cops already do these amongst themselves…1,2, 7,8,9, 10. We have professionals among us or we have learned how to be. And some of those situations above are or can be escalated by cops.

John Frost
John Frost
3 years ago

Oh boo hoo for the police chief. If she is that set against what happened and the political decision to abandon the police precinct house, then she should either resign or take it back by force. If the mayor tries to fire her, tell her to pound sand. Can’t see many people NOT supporting a police chief wanting to restore order in the city. And if, according to the mayor, the people of CHAZ are just “peaceful protesters,” then the police won’t have any troubles taking their own police precinct back, right? And if you don’t agree, what’s to stop these rioters from claiming even more of the city, maybe even coming to YOUR neighborhood and taking over your store or destroying your building?

Said
Said
3 years ago
Reply to  John Frost

Shut up white trash

Dr. Tony Antonio
3 years ago

Sorry you can’t just take over a neighborhood. The reason you were allowed to do so is because of the previous riots and the police wanted to avoid violence.

Joe
Joe
3 years ago

Allowing these protesters to occupy part of a major US city is a disgrace. If you are on here lying saying that these people are doing this shit peacefully is bullshit. There are videos all over that contradict those statements. People the only way we are going to change anything is to stop the tribalism bullshit everyone clearly sees but does nothing about because you don’t want to look bad. We need to stop making excuses for bad behavior on both sides and admit when we are wrong. I don’t really like to post any opinion I have because all it does is fall on deaf ears. If I state my “OPINION” about anything that some people don’t like to hear, I will get attacked on every level with individuals who would try to destroy my life. I would be called racist and a nazi. Then I would probably told to apologize. Doesn’t that sound like something coming out of a fascist Nazi Germany or North Korea. Being a fucking communist is cool now. I mean WTF is going on here?

Scott
Scott
3 years ago

Are you kidding me….no “documented reports?” What a load of crap! I have seen armed sentries standing in fron of a Chaz sign. What is proof to you? No…it’s all cool in Chaz. Nothing to see here.

Robert Lendenmann E-5 amry
Robert Lendenmann E-5 amry
3 years ago

What are you going call when your child is hurt by someone inthere or kill?
How about drugs. Steeling. ??
I would not be a police officer now. Did any you service your country overseas
Gress it bad here!

So you are you going to call
I am a black foot Indian
My grand grand father put Our reservation Use a The laws
Sod steel hurt people

Joanie
Joanie
3 years ago

THIS unMayor& Police very Un Chief have bo idea how to handle a situation PUTTING THEIR CITIZENS IN DANGER&FEAR TO OPERATE.THEY SHOULD BE COMPLETELY ASHAMED OF THEIRSELVES&RESIGN SO MORE QUALIFIED ONES COULD HANDLE HARSH MEASURES THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN BY THESE HARSH ACTIONS.