(Image: Matt Mitgang via Twitter)
Rage and frustration over injustice in the police killing of Breonna Taylor brought hundreds into the streets of Seattle overnight in a wave of protests across the country.
In Seattle, the night included a vigil for Taylor on the steps of the city’s federal courthouse, marching, and a clash with police near Capitol Hill’s East Precinct that eventually ended in the declaration of an “unlawful assembly” and clouds of pepper bomb explosions, blaring sirens, and rubber bullets.
Seattle Police and activist organizers report at least 13 were arrested and several people were injured including officers and demonstrators, some posting pictures online of their injuries from the hard foam rounds fired by police to disperse crowds late in the night.
Earlier Wednesday, a vigil brought speakers and lit candles on a rainy, blustery night to the steps of Seattle’s federal courthouse after a grand jury in Kentucky declined to file homicide charges in the March 2020 killing of the 26-year-old Black woman.
On Capitol Hill as the vigil continued, groups of two to three hundred formed and marched, beginning a now familiar pattern of back and forth, slow motion pursuit with police vehicles blaring sirens and flashing lights to try to break up the marching crowds.
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A similar scene played out Tuesday night following the Seattle City Council’s vote to override Mayor Jenny Durkan’s vetoes of police budget cuts.
Wednesday’s back and forth flowed onto First Hill and included bouts of property damage including shattered windows at at least one Starbucks and damaged street parking payment kiosks. The early sparring also brought the first reported arrests on the evening, according to reports from demonstrators and live streams from the march.
After reconvening in Cal Anderson, hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Hill again and around Broadway back toward 11th and Pine, the center of clashes with police during the CHOP occupied protests this summer. With the large E Pine Black LIves Matter mural temporarily removed in a rehabilitation project, a sort of one-sided standoff ensued on as live streamers showed SPD officers preparing inside the precinct’s E Pine garage entrance.
Around 10:45 PM, a large boom could be heard from a firework thrown onto the precinct garage ramp. Police soon flowed out of the precinct after they said someone “cut security cameras” at the walled-off and heavily fortified precinct. Police aggressively pushed into the crowds, appearing to target a handful of demonstrators for arrest, and sending many fleeing and choking from clouds of pepper spray and explosions from pepper bombs.
The raw footage of my friend getting hit in the head. It was like a warzone out there. #seattleprotest #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/8gemu9Ko25
— 🍾 Welcome To the Shit Show 🍾 (@JonathanLit) September 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/okrrrralexa/status/1309024367179968513
A larger push would come around an hour later as the crowds had moved back toward the precinct and fires were set to debris and dumpsters in the street.. The heavy police thrust scattered demonstrators and pushed crowds far from the precinct onto Broadway where police continued to pursue protesters and take people into custody. Sirens again blared across the neighborhood as the windy night carried the smell of pepper spray. A dumpster fire was reported near Boylston and Pike and there were reports of property damage in the area.
(Image: SPD)
Police report several officers were injured including one struck in the head by an assailant with a baseball bat. Police have asked for help in identifying the attacker.
Among the arrests, King County Jail records show at least two people held for failure to disperse, one booked for obstruction, and a handful of booking for malicious mischief and rendering criminal assistance.
Numerous accounts and photos of injuries suffered by demonstrators were posted online and many expressed outrage of video that showed one officer roll his bike over the head of a protester witnesses say was injured and lying helpless in the street. Many identified the protester as the demonstrator known as “Trumpet Man,” a regular presence during CHOP and a popular antagonist of police seen at actions from Portland to Seattle. The matter will be referred to the Office of Police Accountability for further investigation, police said early Thursday morning. The OPA’s findings in its first rounds of investigations from complaints filed during the summer’s protests found only limited violations.
UPDATE: SPD announced Thursday afternoon that the OPA has opened an investigation into the incident and the officer involved has been placed on leave as the King County Sheriff’s Office considers a possible criminal investigation.
Credit For This Video Goes To: https://t.co/uLRKVCvraO
— Martin Banks (@WarlockBranis) September 24, 2020
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