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Sixth day of protest in Seattle brings victories for the movement and another night of protest on Capitol Hill — UPDATE: ‘You go home, we go home’

Nikkita Oliver

Nikkita Oliver makes her way past officers during Wednesday’s daytime demonstrations

Protesters outside the East Precinct Wednesday night (Image: Jake Goldstein-Street)

By Jake Goldstein-Street with additional CHS reporting

The movement behind six days of protest in Seattle against police brutality marked significant victories Wednesday including a major decision from the city on oversight of its police department and the lifting of heavily criticized nightly curfew. Seattle citizens will no longer be required to stay inside between the hours of 9 PM and 5 AM and, “For those who are demonstrating,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said in the announcement of the roll-back of her unpopular policy, “please keep making your voices heard peacefully.” Durkan’s bid to end federal consent decree oversight of its police force in place for years after findings of biased policing is also being put on ice.

With past mayoral candidate lawyer/activist Nikkita Oliver broadcasting live at a conference table inside City Hall in a meeting with Durkan, city officials, and representatives from Seattle area groups and communities, the movement made its most solid gains yet in the days of demonstrations and clashes with police.

It wasn’t clear if the victories would carry on into the night as again thousands of protesters gathered on E Pine and near Cal Anderson surrounding the neighborhood’s East Precinct — an area that has again become a stage for the First Amendment in Seattle. A feed showing multiple live streams from the area can be found here.

UPDATE 10:10 PM: Police in riot gear and National Guard troops again formed a wall of barriers around the East Precinct headquarters at 12th and Pine as demonstrators again focused their concentration near the 11th and Pine fences. Wednesday night, a loud, low-flying Washington State Patrol airplane providing surveillance reports of the situation replaced the drone of helicopters as the most irritating sound on the night. Police geared up with shields and gas masks multiple times as tensions flared over thrown objects including barrages of plastic water bottles, apples, and, at one point, rocks police determined had been thrown from a building at 12th and Pike. The roof was cleared of people and police could be seen observing the crowd below from the vantage point. Large groups of protesters were also reported breaking off from the main crowds for marches across the Hill. After a report of a dispute involving a driver who reportedly tried to ram a group of protesters near north Broadway, a massive crowd of around 1,000 marched to the area and then back down Broadway to the protest’s core. While umbrellas used to block pepper spray, gas canisters, and blast balls were also again ubiquitous in the crowd, Wednesday’s new “must have” gear for protesters was ear plugs and protection over concerns of a “sound cannon” device rumored to be part of SPD’s crowd control arsenal at the site.

Chief Best in Omari Salisbury’s livestream

10:20 PM: Chief Carmen Best made an appearance behind the police line at East Precinct and was roundly booed by the crowds.

10:40 PM: Best might win back some love. She invited livestreamer Omari Salisbury behind the barricade lines. Salisbury has become a popular figure during the protests with his video coverage and nearly ceaseless commentary about what he is seeing play out.

UPDATE 11:20 PM: Aviation enthusiasts have identified another plane visiting Seattle’s skie — FBI surveillance craft #N021LS.

UPDATE 11:45 PM: Numbers have fallen at the core of the protest at 11th and Pine but many remain. A group of 100 or more was reported marching from northern Capitol Hill to join the crowd.

UPDATE 8:30 AM: “You go home, we go home” chants filled the night as protesters remained in action on E Pine into a new day. A small crowd held the ground on E Pine and is now ready to start a Thursday of protest on Capitol Hill. Signs and aid stations have remained in place along with other elements of the protest. A large banner hung near the site now marks the number of days “since our last teargassing.” Overnight, protesters and neighbors rejoiced when the noisy Washington State Patrol surveillance plane ceased its night-long trips in circles around the area around 1:30 AM. Police, meanwhile, remained at the line all night and appear prepared to join the protesters in the round-the-clock presence at 12th and Pine.

UPDATE 10:15 AM: CHS reached out to the FBI and WSP about their airplanes and future plans for deployment. The FBI wrote back:

 

After two nights spent at the intersection of 11th and Pine that ended in tear gassing from law enforcement, protesters of police brutality were back at Cal Anderson Park on Wednesday’s sunny afternoon with calls to “defund” the Seattle Police Department.

 

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An online petition calling on city leaders to cut the department’s budget in half started circulating on Sunday after protests Saturday evening ended in looting downtown and dozens of arrests. The petition effort is led by Covid19 Mutual Aid – Seattle, one of the many groups hosting Wednesday’s rally and subsequent march.

Wednesday’s protest, taking place on the baseball diamond closest to 11th and Pine, began with a passionate reading and singing of names by Tracy Stewart from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship of Black individuals killed over the past decade, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, this year.

“There are too many names,” Stewart said as her daughter held a sign of their names. “I am a person, my people are people. We are genetically the same; pull your head out and recognize evolution.”

Activist and former mayoral candidate Oliver called for police accountability as demonstrators shouted for law enforcement not to prosecute protesters and for the city to instead fund community-based health and safety measures, including anti-violence programs and trauma services.

“You have suffered so much before these six days and in this entire six days at the hands of this brutal police force and leadership that refuses to acknowledge that what they’re doing is wrong,” Oliver said as demonstrators cheered across the park’s turf field. “I have not heard a single word of accountability from the leadership of this city and that is unacceptable.”

Protesters, blocks deep, then took off south on Broadway chanting to defund SPD, condemn Amazon, and remember Floyd.

They eventually ended up at City Hall, where at 5th Ave and James St, several lines of police officers and state troopers stood behind a barricade as demonstrators walked by for about 10 minutes and excoriated law enforcement for their treatment of Black people. Meanwhile, legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild walked along the line to write down the names of officers standing guard.

Protesters surrounded the steps of City Hall on 4th as speakers called for action from Mayor Durkan and other city leaders while police blocked entrances to the building.

Several protest leaders on Tuesday were able to meet with Durkan and SPD Chief Carmen Best at the city’s Emergency Operations Center on 5th Ave and Washington. Durkan had said she would meet with protest organizers Wednesday to start hashing out a plan for police accountability and racial justice.

On Wednesday, organizer David Lewis and Oliver walked past the police barricade into City Hall to meet with Durkan and Best.

Sherae Lascelles, who is running to outseat longtime state Rep. Frank Chopp, said “these meetings should not happen behind closed doors when they come to our safety.”

“Nothing about us without us ever,” said Lascelles, a community organizer and advocate for sex workers.

Lascelles led a call-and-response among protesters who were ready to deliver petition signatures to Durkan, chanting “Mayor Jenny, we have something for you. It’s our voices.”

During the meeting with Durkan, which was livestreamed, Oliver recited protesters’ demands and called for the demilitarization of police. Demonstrators in recent days have often chanted “Take Off Your Riot Gear, We Don’t See No Riot Here” at police during standoffs.

When asked by organizers if Durkan would come outside to address the community, the mayor agreed.

“True public safety does not come with police,” Durkan said. “True public safety comes from access to healthcare and education justice and good-paying jobs and respect and dignity.”

The appearance did not go well, however, ending in boos.

The rude reception added to another tough day for Durkan. The City Attorney’s office announced Wednesday it will pull back on Seattle’s attempt to remove elements of the federal oversight of the city’s police force.

“Here in Seattle, I’ve been closely monitoring the response to demonstrations, and 14,000 complaints to our Office of Police Accountability (OPA) in recent days signal that we are about to witness the most vigorous testing ever of our City’s accountability systems,” City Attorney Pete Holmes writes. “As OPA undertakes its independent investigation of misconduct allegations, it’s become clear to me that we need to pause before asking U.S. District Judge James Robart to terminate the sustainment plan elements of the federal consent decree so that the City and its accountability partners can conduct a thorough assessment of SPD’s response to the demonstrations.”

Last month, Durkan’s City Attorney and the Justice Department began legal proceedings to end a consent decree placing oversight over Seattle Police. The federal consent decree that came out of an eight-month DOJ investigation of Seattle policing released in winter 2011 that revealed troubling findings about the department’s use of force. SPD’s overhaul included a DOJ-approved use of force policy.

Tuesday, CHS reported on statements from senior Durkan administration official Dominique Stephens about a roster of changes on the table including pulling back on the consent decree effort following days of protests in Seattle.

Another element Stephens said was on the Durkan administration’s mind? Changes to police training.

Wednesday, the Durkan administration also backed off its nightly curfews, a restriction the mayor had maintained was requested by Chief Best “as a way to aid in crowd control and preserve public safety after violence.” But after criticism from leaders including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and city council members including Kshama Sawant and Council President M. Lorena González, González has joined calls for Durkan to also prohibit the use of “chemical weapons” like tear gas by SPD and for the state National Guard troops deployed here to assist SPD to be removed.

The day also brought important updates in the case that sparked the protests as the Minnesota Attorney General upgraded its charges against former officer Derek Chauvin to second degree murder and has charged three more cops at the scene with “aiding and abetting murder,” the Star Tribune reports.

Wednesday marks the sixth consecutive day of protests against police brutality and racism in the city.

Oliver and activists busy with Wednesday’s demonstrations are continuing their call for further concessions from City Hall including cutting the department’s budget in half. “The city faces a $300 million budget shortfall due to COVID-19. Seattle City Council should propose and vote for a 50% cut from the $363 million already budgeted for SPD,” a petition on the defunding reads. The group is also calling for funding affordable housing and “community-based anti-violence” programs as well as demanding the City Attorney’s office not prosecute protestors.

 

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Brian Aker
Brian Aker
3 years ago

The Seattle police continue to harass the entire Hill by flying their helicopter 24 hours a day, for the last four days. Last night at nearly 1 o’clock in the morning, their helicopter was flying low and slow across the hill.
The Washington state troopers have joined the Seattle police helicopter, with their own small airplane that has been doing constant loops around the center of the city as well. It appears to have a large mounted a camera on its left wing.
Both of those aircraft are very loud, and it is difficult to believe that both agencies aren’t aware of the harassing nature of these crafts flying low and in loops.
The mayor needs to order the police to cease this harassment. Additionally, The mayor needs to reach out to the governor’s office to ask the state police to end their harassment of the Hill as well.

Paul t
Paul t
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

Agreed. It’s oppressive And unwelcome. But let’s not defund law enforcement so long as we live here.

Brian Aker
Brian Aker
3 years ago
Reply to  Paul t

I would agree that funding law is an absolute necessity, but there is a need for change.
We should question how the money has been spent, and how it will be used in future.
The need for reform is not just at county and city level. Why did the state decide to send its own aircraft to do constant low overflies of the city? That is excessive. The Governor should be responding right now about how the state is going to addressing its own abuses.

James
James
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

DEFUND THE POLICE!

TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

One has to wonder what it cost to keep a helicopter and two planes up in the sky 12+ hours a day, and for what?

Think of what a public school could have done with that money.

ltfd
ltfd
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

SPD does not have a helicopter.

Rommel
Rommel
3 years ago

The constant low plane flying and non stop noise is aerial harassment of the citizenry. Why anyone thought this was a good idea is hard to fathom. It’s intimidation and overkill all at once. Flying low at night over a dense residential area is dangerous too. They better buzz off soon.

The Ghost Of Cobalt Cafe
The Ghost Of Cobalt Cafe
3 years ago

The airplane pilot (FBI? WSP?) doing “sky donuts” overhead needs to stop already. It’s 12:30 a.m.! We get it. You know how to fly in a circle. Now come down, land, and collect your plastic pin-on wings!

YouDontUnderstandHowToDoThis
YouDontUnderstandHowToDoThis
3 years ago

Collecting MAC addresses, social media posts, video streaming, facial recognition,biometrics, fingerprints, meta data analysis, transit recordings, SDOT & WASDOT cameras info, WiFi, Bluetooth,Cellular networks and more. Wireless traffic and electricity usage networks. Stingray cellular capture devices. SPD, WSP, FBI, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
3 years ago

you left out capitolhallseattle.com comments

Shrugged Atlas
Shrugged Atlas
3 years ago

Do these protesters realize they are being electronically surveilled the whole time? FBI airplanes, SPD choppers, Seattle Office of Emergency Management. Do they know they have been infiltrated by undercover LEO’s? Stop Protesting in Seattle, we’ve seen your faces. WiFi recognition of personal cellular devices and cars are in place, just read the local news. You will now and forever be enemies of the state!

PD
PD
3 years ago
Reply to  Shrugged Atlas

They don’t.

It’s like crazy right wingers railing against the “mark of the beast” who gleefully use their cellphone and take it everywhere….

People have little understanding of surveillance, both its extent and how it works…they see their phone as some sort of extension of themselves and their identity and not a 24/7 surveillance device capturing everything from location, to voice recordings, to user-input preference activity via parsing of internet and app usage.

Fairly Obvious
Fairly Obvious
3 years ago
Reply to  Shrugged Atlas

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Today I learned that exercising your institutional rights makes you and enemy of the state.

Thanks the ghost of Ayn Rand! You’d love what your diehard fans have done to our country!

TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
3 years ago
Reply to  Shrugged Atlas

Ya a lot of us do. Thankfully, most are wearing masks, but you’re probably right that we’re being surveilled, and I would be that somewhere out there my name is on some list of protestors.

That’s horrible. But still, we must protest. We must express dissent. And while cell phones are undoubtedly a tool of surveillance, we need to communicate and document cases of police misconduct, as we can’t afford to do anything less.

Mimi
Mimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Shrugged Atlas

My parents protested in the 1960s and when my Dad got a hold of his FBI file decades later there were photos of them at the protests, amid a sea of thousands of protesters. The surveillance has been going on a long time. It has taken different forms but if you protest in this country, you are known to the Feds.

Mark MacIntyre
Mark MacIntyre
3 years ago

Mayor Durkan/Chief Best: Why is it SPD always drives protestors into our neighborhood, then spends the night chasing them around in a pyrotechnic game of cat & mouse, with aircraft buzzing overhead, night after night? Is that what downtown businesses prefer? Just lucky?!!?

OLDERTHANYOU
OLDERTHANYOU
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark MacIntyre

@MayorJenny Stop our community from being overrun. I am disabled, I haven’t had the money for anyone to help me. The protests and virus have made my life so sad. I cant leave my studio apartment to get food and toilet paper. Others with disabilities who have joined in the peaceful protests have been hurt severely. Please STOP

Whichever
Whichever
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark MacIntyre

I think you’ll find that the protests tend to go there on their own.

RWK
RWK
3 years ago

I don’t think the end of the curfew can be counted as a “victory” for the protestors. The curfew was totally ignored anyway, and not enforced. That said, now is not the time to end the federal consent decree which has been providing oversight of the SPD.

For sure, peaceful protestors should not be arrested and prosecuted. But do you really think that those who are vandalizing, destroying property, and looting should not be held accountable?

PD
PD
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

I know, Bob!

Why can’t these people of color just play by the rules!

It’s so mystifying!

Sit down, Bob, your milquetoast understanding of basically everything is irritating in the best of times, and absurd given the moment.

Glenn
Glenn
3 years ago
Reply to  PD

Keep talking Bob. After all, freedom of speech is one of the thing the protesters are now fighting for. You should enjoy it as much as they do, and the repeated insulting attempts by commenters here to silence you are really a bit much.

Cappy
Cappy
3 years ago
Reply to  PD

From my direct observations and from the footage I’ve seen…it’s not the people of color who are vandalizing and violently protesting. It’s the white folks using a peaceful protest to spur on the hatred. Arrest those folks and hold them accountable for their choices.

Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor
3 years ago
Reply to  PD

Cappy: Perversely and surprisingly, the people running in and out of the Bellevue Square stores (at least in the TV footage I saw) seemed to be mostly African-American.

TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
TurnCalAndersonIntoADogPark
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

Hasn’t been any looting in days.

Eli
Eli
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

I’m not sure what there is to disagree with in Bob’s comment.

As noted by others, the daily protestors have *not* been vandalizing, destroying property, or looting.

Personally, I agree 100% that whoever did that on Saturday/Sunday – gang members, whoever – needs to go jail and be held accountable.

Nope
Nope
3 years ago
Reply to  Eli

Perhaps no looting because little worth looting on that part of Pike. Few empty bars and coffee shops. The good stuff is down in the u village….

Michael Newton
Michael Newton
3 years ago

Yes we know there is electronic surveillance. We don’t care. We’re not hiding. We don’t have to.

Ineedtakeout
Ineedtakeout
3 years ago
Reply to  Michael Newton

Because you are law enforcement?

Alocal
Alocal
3 years ago

If we do defund the police it’s worth considering returning the $$ to the source – our property tax bills. It’s laughable how the money seems to be randomly apportioned to other wish list schemes. We might even consider funding the education system enough that the kids have laptops and internet to do distance learning ?

Brian Aker
Brian Aker
3 years ago
Reply to  Alocal

There is an existing levy on property that was supposed to be going toward purchasing laptops for students, the Seattle Public School System has not been purchasing/handing them out ( this is the impression I was left with when this came to light after the pandemic began ).
The only children that were already on a fast track to get laptops, where the children in the now privately run for the public school middle school next year ( they are also getting all new desks/etc). AKA Washington Middle School.

Alocal
Alocal
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

The whole distance learning exercise has been a tragic mess for such a supposedly equitable and high tech city. I believe amazon finally donated laptops, but since the schools consume half of the entire city budget it would be interesting to know where all the money goes….

RWK
RWK
3 years ago
Reply to  Brian Aker

The problem is not only lack of having a laptop, it’s that many poorer households do not have internet access.

Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor
3 years ago

https://crosscut.com/author/nikkita-oliver

Nikkita notes: “Nikkita was the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017. The Nikkita Oliver for Mayor campaign narrowly missed the general election by approximately 1,100 votes; coming in third of 21 candidates.”

So, were there enough Seattle residents out on the streets last night who could have changed that?

Primary:
Jenny Durkan 27.90% 51,529
Cary Moon 17.62% 32,536
Nikkita Oliver 16.99% 31,366

General:
Jenny Durkan 56.53% 118,803
Cary Moon 43.47% 91,345

Handsome Jack
Handsome Jack
3 years ago

If Sawant gets her way and defunds the police, you can kiss Amazon goodbye, massive white flight, and sure fire future of being Detroit / Mogadishu

AnthonyWrobe
3 years ago

Студенты юридического факультета, изучающие Конституционное достоинство, знают о сложности данного предмета. Начиная с самого определения, становится конечно, что здесь не вполне беспричинно простой, ведь Конституционное право является одной из важнейших отраслей правовой системы государства, его нормы регламентируют смета государственного устройства, форму правления, высшие государственные органы.

Итак написание курсовой работы кстати конституционному праву требует знаний не только самого предмета, все и целого ряда подобных дисциплин и большого количества дополнительной литературы.

Курсовая произведение применительно Конституционному праву позволяет студенту карать достоинство теоретических знаний сообразно дисциплине и овладеть навыками исследовательской работы. Непременно, сколь идеально выучить душка кстати Конституционному праву не рядом силу каждому студенту, тем более, лже это не профильный мета, тутто возникает проблема – стоит ли тратить столько времени и переменять голову, коль дозволено простой обещать работу у специалистов.

Что предусматривает написание курсовой работы?

Конституционное привилегия занимает основополагающее полностью в национальной правовой системе. Это связано с тем, что Конституция беспорочный идол учредительной страна народа определяет статус органов государства. Конституционное право, словно повиновение, имеет громада понятий, стало пребывание написании курсовой работы, студенты не иногда испытывают трудности. Курсовая существо соответственно Конституционному праву предполагает научить студента своевольно ориентироваться в источниках информации и добыть навыков чтобы будущее.

Основная альтернатива выполнения курсовых работ это:

1. Закрепить теоретические знания и выучить напрасно решать конкретные ситуаций;
2. Выучить единовластно, возделывать и доказывать конкретные проблемы, которые существуют в науке теории государства и права;
3. Развить умения в студента непосредственно мучиться и разбирать литературу сообразно теме.

Как подготовиться к написанию курсовой работы?

Самое первое и основное урок в курсовой работе – это правильно выбрать тему работы. Содержание должна красоваться довольно узкой, дабы вмещать способствовать разбирать ее более или менее маломальски в рамках работы относительно небольшого объёма. Однако она должна болеть актуальной и достойной внимания. Материалы для исследования темы должны фигурировать доступными и это касается не единственный библиотек. Облюбовать тему следует в пределах своей компетенции. Злоупотреблять темы, просты в исполнении, а трудиться нуждающиеся в кропотливой исследовательской работе, значительных усилий и длительного времени. Курсовая произведение соразмерно Конституционному праву может вносить правильно оформлена и идеально выполнена, поскольку впрочем нюансы влияют ради итоговую оценку исследовательской работы. Коли студенты не уверены в своих знаниях как силах, они предпочитают делать более мудро и правильно – указывать курсовые работы у специалистов.