(Image: Renee Raketty/CHS)
One person was rushed to Harborview and reported in critical condition late Wednesday after a clash with police and several arrests outside the East Precinct in a night of “count every vote” rallies and demonstrations in the city Wednesday.
UPDATE 11/5/2020 7:00 AM: Harborview says the patient is now in serious condition.
Witnesses say bicycle officers emerged from the East Precinct and along 12th Ave and set into a crowd of demonstrators just before 10 PM. The injured person was reported down on the pavement as SPD pushed the crowd back and Seattle Fire was called to the scene.
Seattle Fire tells CHS the person in their 30s was taken to Harborview and was in stable condition. The Stranger’s Rich Smith reported that the patient’s condition was listed as critical at the hospital.
Seattle Police responded to rumors on Twitter that a person had been killed, saying the patient had been “transported from 12/Pike for a medical evaluation following an arrest.”
UPDATE 11/5/2020 8:15 AM: Police said they were attempting to arrest the 30-year-old for property damage “when the suspect appeared to be experiencing a medical issue.”
“EMT-trained officers, who were already on scene, provided medical aid to the 30-year-old and called for Seattle Fire,” SPD says. Police said it was “unclear whether the medical issue was related to the arrest,” but that its Force Investigation Team is reviewing the incident.
UPDATE 11/5/2020 5:55 PM: SPD has released new information about the incident including body cam video showing the arrest. “SPD Force Investigators have learned the subject’s medical episode was potentially related to a substance the subject had ingested prior to police contact,” SPD posted in an update. “The subject was treated at the scene by a Seattle Police EMT, and was then treated by Seattle Fire Department medics prior to being transported to the hospital.”
Police say the person did not sustain physical injuries during the arrest.
Lawyers for the injured protester say their client is a trans male and he continues to be treated at Harborview. They are calling on anybody with video of the incident to come forward to aid their investigation.
“We are outraged at the libelous entry on the SPD blog related to Kel Murphy-Duford. Insinuating that he is responsible for the life threatening injuries suffered at the hands of the police yesterday,” a statement from the Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore law firm reads. “This latest unsupportable blog entry is designed to turn public attention away from police misconduct and towards a victim who currently is unable to speak or stand up for himself. Kel’s husband has provided this photo so that people can see what really is going on.”
The firm says Murphy-Duford has diabetes and takes insulin. The lawyers say they were already representing Murphy-Duford in a lawsuit against the city over injuries from police crowd control tactics sustained during a July protest.
UPDATE 11/6/2020 8:40 AM: He is now listed in satisfactory condition according to a hospital spokesperson.
11:28 AM: A fundraiser to help with medical expenses has been set up and was already near its $10,000 goal by Friday morning.
(Image: Renee Raketty/CHS)I'm hearing the victim is in critical condition. SPDs violence is disgusting and inexcusable, no one was being harmed until SPD showed up. Fuck @SeattlePD. You can see 5 cops pile on the unresponsive victim right after they attack#seattleprotests #seattleprotest #abolishpolice pic.twitter.com/WN8Cme8V1R
— Subpixel Alchemist (@MarcusKulik) November 5, 2020
In the minutes leading up to the clash, police said they had given an order for the protest to disperse after reported “destruction to property in the area, damage to police vehicles, and continued blocking of a major intersection.”
Police said six additional arrests were made at 12th and Pine for obstruction, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer, property damage, and pedestrian interference. One man was also arrested in connection with two previous felony cases, police said. According to East Precinct radio, one person taken into custody was carrying a firearm.
The clash on Capitol Hill followed a rally and march in Pioneer Square as demonstrators spoke out against the Trump administration’s attempts to meddle with election ballot count efforts across the country. Groups that have been demonstrating and marching on Capitol Hill nightly for weeks also gathered again Wednesday night in Cal Anderson and marched through the neighborhood before assembling at the East Precinct.
I am beyond surviving, I intend on thriving pic.twitter.com/YWoieSJ3Nr
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) November 5, 2020
11/6/2020 9:00 AM: More arrests were reported overnight after protesters returned to Cal Anderson and marched across the Hill Thursday night. SPD reported at least two arrests after property damage at E Olive Way and Belmont. There was also a small fire set in front of the East Precinct, according to police.
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I don’t get it. Did King County not count all the votes? Or were the votes being counted by the Seattle Police or something?
Trump is threatening to cancel the the election and make our votes meaningless. This should have everybody in the streets, even in our beloved Capitol Hill.
Go march someplace where 90% of the voters don’t support democrats. People are sick of the constant pointless demonstrations. Stop destroying and disrupting Capitol Hill.
Come on…. so far there is zero evidence that anyone of consequence or in a position of power is listening to the spurious spew of Donald J. Trump…. His *big* victory was getting the observers in Philadelphia moved a little closer – ooooooooo. Until/unless any of his nonsense gains any traction and we actually see thing happening – not just yapped about, stay home and savor his impeding departure. Expect to keep hearing his grating whine for years to come though – and learn to ignore it.
Believe me if by some measure of insanity he manages to wiggle anything through the courts system, I’ll happily be out there myself – but not busting up innocent parking meters on Capitol Hill in Seattle – somewhere and doing something that might actually make a difference and not simply annoying and people who I already have a lot in common with and never were the problem in the first place….
Yeah, it’s kind of pointless to march for that reason when the Trump campaign’s legal arguments are so ridiculous and free of facts that clearly none of them will hold up in any court and the votes will be counted, as they always are.
But if they truly want to spend their time this way, they should march on Washington or go to states like Arizona to protect the polls from Trump’s lunatic base. After 150+ days of having our own neighborhood destroyed, I think many Capitol Hill residents would gladly pay their bus fare.
As a Capitol Hill resident very close to the Cal Anderson park…. couldn’t agree more. Many here are so tired of this neighborhood being the center of noise and destruction. ACAB & FDT, but the marches last night meet my definition of pointless. I hope the person who was injured recovers & SPD pays for it.
The election and its aftermath issues are just another excuse for leftist radicals to do their thing, which includes criminal activity. They don’t care about issues, they just want to create chaos with the mistaken idea that it leads to change.
I’m sorry for the injured person. We will need more details of the incident before we can conclude that the police were at fault.
You know nothing.
“Leftist radicals”
Civil unrest is due to years of police brutality and the right wing shift towards full fascism.
How many windows have your broken, James?
This blog has been taken over by a bunch of whiners. A despotic president is trying to undermine the election, people are rising, and this is.. pointless? An excuse? What are you doing? I’m sure you voted, what did that lead to?
People who live here being tired of 158+ days of mostly out of towners’ constant whining and creating chaos in the streets and commenting on a blog about it is whining? You are warped.
Yes, it’s pointless in a neighborhood that is progressive and predominantly democrat. How many times do we have to say it, we’re sick of you folks destroying our neighborhood. Most of us supported you in the beginning but no longer. Thank you Seattle Police for your work.
Did you just thank the Seattle Police for their work while a person lies in critical condition because of their actions? What is *wrong* with you?!
Mimi, you are not plural and don’t speak for the neighborhood. You may be tired of something and may even think the neighborhood is destroyed. And I support the protesters. I say the neighborhood isn’t destroyed at all and I’m sick of neighbors like you who think they speak for everyone.
If only you could absolutely control what strangers think, say and do, right comrade?
Then we would have truly overcome fascism! *s
Yes, it is pointless, because the President doesn’t have any authority to dictate how states run their elections. He can spew whatever garbage he wants to, there’s simply nothing he can do about it, even with his partisan Supreme Court.
Marching in opposition only legitimizes what is essentially an impotent man’s unhinged Twitter rant. The guy has Rudy Guiliani running this effort, FFS. How has that worked out for him ever?
Sorry, but I think you guys need to completely rethink your strategy in general. Support for BLM has gone down by 10%. We lost a number of House seats we never should have lost. Black men voted for Trump in record numbers. We lost our chance to take the Senate. And despite all this youth activism, there was no dramatic uptick in young people who voted. You seem to have an ambivalent attitude toward voting, which is insane, because unless you vote the despots out of office, we have no chance of getting the changes we want. And, sadly, most of the Democrats in this country are not progressives and need to be persuaded, not alienated by protests that inevitably turn violent.
I agree with Maggie’s points about the voting. Kanye West got 60k votes ffs.
Answer my question, what are YOU doing? Are you going to watch this play out and hope for the best?
I went to D.C. and marched in The Women’s March. I have also marched with BLM before the pandemic, and I marched when Trump announced the travel ban. I am not anti-marching. I am against the marches as they have been playing out for the last several months, these late night chaotic spray painting, garbage burning rampages. I’m not going to out myself by telling you what I do for a living, but I’ll just say that my career is protecting and informing citizens of their rights, and enforcing/advocating for those rights.
I come from an activist family. My mother is an activist in a battleground state, and she does voter registration. In 2016, she literally went door to door in black neighborhoods registering voters, some of whom didn’t even know the names of the candidates who were running. My dad was an inner city teacher and worked for Upward Bound. We believe in working for positive change, not running though the streets smashing things.
Why don’t YOU, @jonc, tell us what you are doing? That is other than whining about others voicing their opinions being whiners. Little bit of the pot calling the kettle black there; huh, buddy?
Smashing things only proves the other side is right and that you are no different. This is no time for juvenile behavior. So yes, sit tight and watch this play out. Democracy gives you no other choice.
People need to grow up and be part of the systems of democratic governance in our country. We need to count the vote, defend the count, and respect the result whichever way it goes.
Like most people, just trying to live our damn lives, dude. Keep our jobs if we can, stay afloat, take care of our families. It’s none of your business how anyone voted and no one has any obligation to get out there and do some symbolic ‘direct action’ protesting Ike or whoever the latest boogeyman is to earn your respect or approval. GROW UP.
This LARPing and destruction in Seattle is doing nothing except causing damage and pissing people off, who are or at least were initially mostly sympathetic to the reasons for the marches in May… Endless marches demanding funding be redirected to BIPOC communities, etc while causing millions in damage, graffiti removal, cleanup and police babysitting overtime expenditures.. that could have been put to better use. Not to mention the marchers much like Occupy years ago have no clear agenda except a laundry list of demands to end prosecution, prisons, presidencies, democracy, capitalism, wealth, inequality of all kinds, blah blah blah blah. You could do all of those things and these jerks would think of more stuff to whine about. Remind me how we’re whining again jonc? Cry more.
Word to kst.