Post navigation

Prev: (08/24/20) | Next: (08/25/20)

Police and protesters clash again after fires outside East Precinct and march in solidarity with Kenosha — UPDATE

The crowd earlier in the night before the march and fires (Image: @MarcusKulik)

Multiple small fires were reported burning outside and around the area of the East Precinct and booms could be heard through the neighborhood as police clashed with protesters following a night of marching and demonstration in solidarity with Kenosha, Wisconsin after another police shooting in America.

Police issued a dispersal order and moved on groups of demonstrators after the reported fires around 12th and Pine just before 11:45 PM. Seattle Fire was called to the scene. An ambulance was also dispatched to the precinct building for a person injured during the melee. Private security hired to protect nearby buildings but increasingly also on patrol around Pike/Pine at night were also part of the fracas and helped police trying to extinguish the flames of a bonfire set in the driveway of the East Precinct and another set in the middle of E Pike.

Earlier starting around 9 PM, a crowd of more than 100 marched from Cal Anderson to the East Precinct where they rallied and police reported graffiti and vandalism before the group made its way downtown and to the West Precinct.

According to police radio reports, a group of around 20 attempted to break into the E Pike Amazon Go and left the property damaged. There was also reports of vandalism at the East Precinct and the West Precinct.

UPDATE 8/25/20 6:45 AM: SPD reports one arrest:

Police began monitoring a protest that marched from Cal Anderson Park just after 9 PM Monday. The group made their way to the West Precinct where some individuals began hurling objects at the building causing minor damage and broken windows as well as painting graffiti on the walls. A nearby coffee shop also sustained some damage as some people smashed the plate glass windows. The group then made their way back east and continued to protest outside the East Precinct. Some individuals there climbed over a chain-link fence and set a fire next to the building. Police moved in and began issuing commands for the crowd to disperse and took one person into custody for investigation of arson. The group returned to Cal Anderson Park around midnight and dispersed from there. One officer was injured during the course of the protests.

Police also say “someone threw multiple incendiary devices” outside the offices of the Seattle Police Officer Guild union offices on 4th Ave S but “it is unclear at this time if this incident is tied to the protests.”

The crowds were reported returning to the area of Cal Anderson when the fire and explosions were reported.

The park has continued to be a center of activism and protest even as it remains “temporarily closed” according to the city. Groups of tents have again filled parts of the part and groups continue to use the park as a meeting place and even a training ground. Last week, neighbors reported groups dressed in all black practicing maneuvers on the Bobby Morris sports field and carrying wood shields like those used in Monday night’s protest.

Monday’s unrest in Seattle was part of nationwide protests and riots. Sunday, Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake in another instance of police violence against a Black man.

Friday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan vetoed legislation that would have cut a small portion of the city’s police budget in what many hoped would be the start of a full defunding effort in Seattle after months of protest in the city.

UPDATE 8/25/2020 11:30 AM: The daily Morning March targeted north Capitol Hill Tuesday morning with an energetic march through the Stevens neighborhood and onto 15th Ave E where demonstrators called on passersby to join the crowd of dozens and the brigade of several vehicles and bicyclists providing protection to the march as it filled streets and intersections.

CORRECTION: When first posted, we incorrectly reported that Jacob Blake had been shot and killed. CHS apologizes for the error.

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

18 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
RWK
RWK
3 years ago

Pretty small crowd of rioters and property-destructers (aka far left anarchists with nothing better to do but create mayhem). Whatever happened to the peaceful protesters? They seem to be MIA during these recent actions. Maybe they no longer want to be part of the criminal activity.

Tim the Enchanter
Tim the Enchanter
3 years ago
Reply to  RWK

Good point! Maybe the peaceful protesters are too scared to risk their lives to ensure your personal protection service (the SPD) is actually defunded? What hypocrites! I will personally go and tell them to ENDD Seattle or shut up about BLM. At least the hypocrites aren’t as openly evil as the wealthy whites who hide behind their officers…

stan
stan
3 years ago

“… the wealthy whites who hide behind their officers…”

As compared to the entitled, privileged whites who hide behind peaceful protesters when hurling frozen water bottles and mortar shells? Yeah, they so brave.

Jimena
Jimena
3 years ago

Fires, Vandalism, Intimidation.

Yet we’re still calling them “demonstrators” or “protesters”?

We’ve given these unelected, anonymous people a license to rage through our neighborhood.

Tim the Enchanter
Tim the Enchanter
3 years ago
Reply to  Jimena

And we thank you for it!

Jimena
Jimena
3 years ago

And I’m sure the Republicans thank you. Except for the extreme left, the only ones celebrating this anarchy are the Trump gang.

Strange bedfellows.

LA
LA
3 years ago

Stop threatening the safety of the families who live in these areas. The retail damage you are causing costs business owners thousands in insurance, inventory and jobs. None of this violent action will fix anything. Wake up!

Tim the Enchanter
Tim the Enchanter
3 years ago
Reply to  LA

#divestspd on Twitter. Read that page for 5 minutes and you WILL wake up!

Pam
Pam
3 years ago

I have been staying a few nights a week at a random hotwire hotel. At breakfast this morning I found out that the couple next to me and the fellow solo dude were both Cap Hill residents like myself that needed some respite. We bonded over the lunacy of these people. So I guess some good is coming of this, or something.

But seriously, if their goal was to make the area around Pike/Pine unlivable and inhospitable to business, congrats, you’ve done it! You’ve traumatized us and in many cases destroyed out livelihoods. BLM is but a footnote at this point.

Tim the Enchanter
Tim the Enchanter
3 years ago
Reply to  Pam

Wow must be nice to have money! I’m sure you work oh so hard to protect it. HAHAHA.

GregM
GregM
3 years ago

The point of our society is to give everyone equal opportunity to build their lives. For some that means focusing on career and money.

No, our society isn’t anywhere near perfect but your response sounds like a frustrated jealous child more than an adult.

Done With Dogma
Done With Dogma
3 years ago

The Cal Anderson/Pike and Pine Corridor is devolving into vigilantism. I don’t even know what else to say. Whatever demands and political aims the ENDD has is rapidly losing any credibility across Seattle.
Where we are at now is that we’ve got people in need who are afraid to go to the Shelterhouse Occupation where the ENDD are supposed to be the self appointed heroes and protectors of the houseless and unsheltered.
Anyway, I don’t blame them really because they are too ignorant to get mad at and their counterproductive actions are a result of a failure at higher levels of city leadership.
I just hope enough people get to the point of self awareness that we can all step away from the vigilante justice unfolding here BEFORE more people get murdered or otherwise die from preventable tragedies.

Tim the Enchanter
Tim the Enchanter
3 years ago

Maybe they will come for your house next!

why do cops lie
why do cops lie
3 years ago

SPD continues to escalate peaceful situations into police riots. Hope every one of them is fired.

caphiller
caphiller
3 years ago

Lighting fires outside the police precinct and smashing up the Amazon Go doesn’t exactly sound peaceful

dftl
dftl
3 years ago

Your idiocy is showing.

Old AntiWar Dude
Old AntiWar Dude
3 years ago

Same group tried to march into our local QFC on 15th Ave E, raged at young Black security guard who blocked them, then marked up the parking lot with gems like “Quality Fascist Center” and “Abolish Capitalism”. There are legit issues with businesses like Starbucks, Uncle Ike and Kroger (which owns QFC and ended their workers’ Hazard Pay). Instead of working with labor groups trying to organize their low-wage workers existing unions (UFCW 21 at QFC) we’ve seen smashed windows or even arson on Cap Hill and downtown. These self-appointed white “saviors” could put themselves at service and under direction of BLM, Black community, labor; instead their “street theater” merely creates propaganda for Fox and GOP.

stan
stan
3 years ago

You don’t get it. They don’t care about any of the causes they chant about. It’s merely a cover for them to excuse their destructive behavior. This is no different from any other anarchist group that just wants to watch shit burn.

Right now, they’re getting a ton of press. And like Donald Trump, they feed on the attention. They, and the alt-left, are the flip side to Trump and his base.