“Seattle organizers are planning a protest against police brutality as clashes with cops and rioting in Minneapolis have continued in the fiery unrest following the killing of George Floyd,” CHS reported Friday, May 29th.
That May march was organized by Central District anti-police and gun violence group Not This Time and activist Andre Taylor. But by the end of the night as thousands moved through the streets of the city and across Capitol Hill, it was clear that something larger was taking place.
150 day later, organizers of the groups that have formed and galvanized in the months since that first night of protest in Seattle gathered smaller crowds Monday night in Cal Anderson Park. Still measuring in the hundreds, the demonstrators heard organizers plead for those who showed up to mark the milestone and recommit to bolster the ongoing demonstrations and Black Lives Matter cause. Some expressed surprise at the large turnout as smaller groups have been continuing to protest, march, and sometimes take direct action with property damage and vandalism in the weeks since the larger citywide protests have ended.
A CHS timeline of the “150 days” is below.
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Monday, the crowds again took to the streets for a march from the East Precinct to the West Precinct before returning back to the core of 2020’s protests along E Pine on Capitol Hill.
The night was illustrative of how the protests have evolved in Seattle and the network of community and personal connections that keep them going as the push for defunding the Seattle Police Department and increased spending on social and community services continues. Monday night, the evolved network of Seattle protest was in motion. Social media was busy with Seattle Police scanner updates and a few livestreaming journalists who have worked to maintain a trusted place with the demonstrators even as there has been growing distrust of media and its role in recording video and images of protests activities. And a massive car brigade joined the march to provide a safety corridor around the demonstrators after a summer of threats, close-calls, and the tragic death of a protester on I-5 hit by a speeding driver.
Monday’s 150 day march was also mostly peaceful on the long route down and back up the Hill with reports of a few incidents of property damage and vandalism. The most significant police activity came later in the night as most marchers were headed home when SPD found a small group had entered an area part of its secured parking facility across the street from the East Precinct on 12th Ave. At least four people were detained. According to police radio, the alleged trespassers were to be identified and released.
The night mostly echoed with some familiar sounds from the days of CHOP. Even the protest zone “house band” was part of the effort Monday night. The Marshall Law Band which helped demonstrators rock their way through the days of activism in the CHOP zone joined Monday night’s procession performing across the city from the back of a truck.
- Friday, May 29th: Protests begin in Seattle after the Floyd killing as thousands march and demonstrate. Windows are smashed at Capitol Hill’s Amazon grocery and Ferrari dealership, and seven arrests are reported.
- Saturday, May 30th: Protests continue as clashes with police grow downtown bringing flames, tear gas, and gunfire. Mayor Jenny Durkan begins a nightly curfew to try to quiet the unrest.
- Sunday, May 31st: Protests grow with a large rally in Westlake.
- Monday, June 1st: Police clash with demonstrators on Capitol Hill, deploying tear gash and flash grenades.
- Tuesday, June 2nd: Durkan tries to address protester demands by speaking at a march to thousands of demonstrators. Protesters again march on Capitol Hill.
- Wednesday, June 3rd: A ‘Defund Seattle Police’ rally begins in Cal Anderson after another battle of tear gas and blast balls on Capitol Hill. National Guard troops join the lines with police outside the East Precinct.
- Thursday, June 4th: The city bows to protest demands and lifts its curfew as demonstrations continue. Cal Anderson continues to grow as a center of the ongoing protests. Meanwhile, a battle line of sorts emerges at 11th and Pine.
- Saturday, June 6th: As flashbangs continue to burst around 11th and Pine, Seattle City Council member join the protest.
- Sunday, June 7th: Mayor makes a speech on deescalation of the ongoing protest clashes between demonstrators and police. SPD responds, making its strongest show of force yet at “standoff” at 11th and Pine. That Sunday night, a man drives into the crowd at 11th and Pine and shoots a demonstrator. Nikolas Fernandez, the brother of an East Precinct cop, will be arrested and charged with one count of first degree assault.
- Monday, June 8th: Moving trucks arrive at the East Precinct.
- Tuesday, June 9th: The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone forms around an emptied East Precinct. Chief Carmen Best will later say she did not order the precinct to be abandoned.
- Wednesday, June 10th: Kshama Sawant and protesters briefly occupy Seattle City Hall as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — soon to be known as CHOP — grows.
- Friday, June 12th: The city says it will speed up the process to transfer Central District properties including an old fire station at 23rd and Yesler to Black community groups.
- Saturday, June 13th: A CHOP rally and march targets affluent communities in Madison Park.
- Monday, June 15th: Neighbors and businesses report that SPD officers are not responding to 911 calls around the CHOP occupied protest zone. Meanwhile, the zone takes on a party-like atmosphere with speeches, rallies, music, and dancing as demands begin to crystalize around defunding SPD.
- Tuesday, June 16th: The Seattle City Council attempts to rein in SPD by restricting the use of crowd control tactics and weaponry. Meanwhile, officials say the ongoing protests have not contributed to the COVID-19 crisis as King County applies to loosen state restrictions.
- Wednesday, June 17th: Residents and businesses near CHOP struggle with the day to day living and doing business in the midst of the protest zone.
- Saturday, June 20th: One person is killed, one wounded in overnight Capitol Hill protest zone shootings. 19-year-old Renton High graduate Lorenzo Anderson died at 10th and Pine.
- Thursday, June 25th: A collection of developers, real estate owners, and small business owners sue the city over its support of CHOP and lack of action to end the protest.
- Friday, June 26th: Some occupiers make a stand, others prepare for exit from CHOP as the city moves in to clear parts of Capitol Hill protest zone.
- Monday, June 29th: A teen boy is shot and killed and another wounded in a chaotic early morning shootout on the edge of the protest zone after a night of fears about possible attacks on the camp. The shooting left 16-year-old Antonio Mays, Jr. dead in a bullet-riddled jeep and sent a 14-year-old boy riding with him to the hospital. Later that night, a protest march and councilmember Sawant took the #defundSPD budget fight to Durkan’s doorstep with a rally outside her Northeast Seattle home.
- Wednesday, July 1st: Under executive order from the mayor, Seattle Police sweep in to retake the East Precinct and clear Capitol Hill protest zone.
- Friday, July 3rd: Post-CHOP protests continue.
- Saturday, July 4th: A driver smashes into a Seattle Black Lives Matter crowd during I-5 protest, killing 24-year-old Capitol Hill resident Summer Taylor. 27-year-old Dawit Kelete has been charged with vehicular homicide.
- Friday, July 10th: Seven of the nine city council members pledge their support for #defundSPD goals.
- Thursday, July 23rd: Ongoing “direct action” protest flare up with a night of heavy damage across Capitol Hill. Among the businesses targeted is a fashion and vintage shop owned by the wife of an officer who shot and killed Charleena Lyles.
- Saturday, July 26th: Seattle protests grow in solidarity after federal actions in Portland. A large march from Capitol Hill includes an arson fire at the youth jail construction site.
- Monday, August 10th: Seattle City Council approves cuts to SPD budget and redirection of funds to social and community spending. The cuts net out to around 12% — a far cry from the call for 50% #defundSPD cuts.
- Tuesday, August 11th: SPD Chief Carmen Best announces she will step down over the budget cut plans.
- Thursday, August 13th: Ongoing “direct action” efforts involving smaller protest groups and targeted property damage boil over with SPD intervening in a clash between demonstrators and private security personnel hired by local property owners near Cal Anderson. CHS will later report on the growing presence of the firms in the neighborhood.
- Friday, August 14th: Police make the first in a series of sweeps of Cal Anderson after homeless activists set up a mutual aid center and camp in the park.
- Friday, August 21st: The City Council scrambles in response to Durkan’s veto of its SPD cuts and budget bill. After weeks focusing on other parts of the city following the sweep of CHOP, organizers of the Everyday March return for a demonstration on Capitol Hill.
- Tuesday, August 25th: Police and protesters renewed their summer clashes after fires outside the East Precinct in a march in solidarity after a police shooting in Kenosha.
- Wednesday, August 26th: An investigation is announced over a Seattle Police sergeant’s ‘conduct at a demonstration’ caught on video at a Capitol Hill protest.
- Friday, August 28th: Fallout from the summer protests begins to increase as a growing number of federal charges are brought against demonstrators including this 19-year-old charged for an arson attack on the East Precinct. Meanwhile, a massive wall and fence goes up around the reopened East Precinct.
- Tuesday, September 1st: Marchers mark the 10-year anniversary of John T. Williams police killing in Seattle as Cal Anderson’s encampments and mutual aid efforts are again swept.
- Wednesday, September 18th: A terrible murder suicide leaves two people dead at the encampment in Cal Anderson Park. Police say Lisa Vach, a 38-year-old Seattle woman, was murdered before notorious “Seattle is Dying” focus Travis Berge killed himself inside the park’s reservoir pumphouse.
- Tuesday, September 22nd: The City Council overrides Durkan’s veto, turning its attention to the 2021 budget battle with the mayor.
- Thursday, September 24th: Demonstrations over injustice in the Breonna Taylor case spill over with a night of clashes with police including Molotov cocktail attacks on the East Precinct, a baseball assault on an officer, and a bike office seen running over a fallen demonstrator’s head. Two friends are arrested and charged weeks later in the assault and arson.
- Monday, September 28th: The mayor says a newly formed task force will shape her $100 million promise to fund community and social service organizations made during Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests.
- Sunday, October 4th: More Starbucks property damage and vandalism is reported on the Hill as ongoing nightly demonstrations take on an increasingly anti-police focus.
- Monday, October 5th: The E Pine Black Lives Matter mural is restored and preserved in a a joint effort between the original artists and the city to make the art a permanent part of the street.
- Friday, October 16th. Interim Chief Adrian Diaz’s new 100-strong Community Response Group created to provide faster response times to 911 calls across the city while providing SPD support in response to ongoing demonstrations and protest activity makes its first demonstration arrests on Capitol Hill.
- Monday, October 19th: A federal judge refuses to dismiss the Capitol Hill business lawsuit against the city over it handling of CHOP.
- Monday, October 26th: The City Council votes to spend $2 million to fund an eight-person team through the rest of 2020 to handle homelessness outreach after funds for the Navigation Team were cut over the summer. The new team will not include police. Meanwhile, OPA investigations continue to yield a mixed bag with some complaints against SPD officers upheld while others are found to be without merit. Meanwhile, Chief Diaz has not said what if any punishment officers with misconduct findings may face. Monday night, protesters mark 150 days of demonstrations in the city with a march from Capitol Hill.
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SERIOUS thank you and deep respect for charting this critical movement from the beginning.