Among the 34 recommendations produced in the latest in a series of planned reports from the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety examining City Hall and the Seattle Police Department’s flawed response to the 2020’s Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests and the formation of CHOP on Capitol Hill, there is one missing recommendation that the day by day examination of the actions from leaders like then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and Chief Carmen Best illustrates very clearly.

Do not lie.

The report, issued last week, is the third in a planned five “wave” series from a 23-member community panel including Capitol Hill community and business members as well as SPD personnel convened to examine the period before, during, and after the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest and produce recommendations for the city and SPD.

• Wave 1 (May 29 – June 1), comprises the period from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to the first set of demonstrations in Seattle, mainly in Downtown Seattle. CHS report
• Wave 2 (June 2 – June 7) includes events that occurred before the leaving of the East Precinct by SPD. During this period, the main demonstrations and confrontations shifted from Downtown to the East Precinct. CHS report
• Wave 3 (June 8 – July 2) includes events that occurred during the existence of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) and Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).
• Wave 4 (July 3 – Oct 6) includes events after the East Precinct was reestablished.
• Wave 5 (Oct 6 to the end of 2020) includes events after the creation by SPD Interim Chief of Police Adrian Diaz of the Community Response Group, tasked specifically with responding to demonstrations, among other things.

The new “Wave 3” report documents a cloud of “deception,” “intentional manipulation of protestor fear,” and irresponsible acts from the mayor down to SPD that eroded trust and made it nearly impossible for the city to effectively communicate with protesters like the June 10th, 2020 press conference in which officials repeated unsubstantiated lies about the protest area. The panel’s report says acts like that set the stage for critical communication errors by the city and mistrust by the community and protesters that contributed to the violent and dangerous conditions that developed around the protest area, leading to deadly shootings, and the July police sweep that ended the protest camp, burying important issues around race and equity that remain unaddressed.“Lying to the community in this way was not only contrary to policy, but it was also a poorly considered tactic contributing to the tensions,” the report says.

Mayor Durkan and her office were also to blame for the deceit and mixed messages delivered during communications and actions around the protest, the new report says.

“This lack of communication falls both on the Mayor’s Office and on SPD leadership,” the report’s analysis of the abandonment of the East Precinct reads. “The Panel was left to draw one of two conclusions from the Mayor and the Chief distancing themselves from the decision process. Either (a) the leaders of the City or SPD were removed from the decision, in which case they did not adequately participate in potentially impactful decision- making, or (b) the leaders of the City and/or SPD were being disingenuous with both the community and SPD officers.”

The panel’s Wave 1 report issued in July 2021 examined the dates of May 29th to June 1st, 2020 when the seeds were planted for weeks of protests including the CHOP occupied protest and came away with findings critical of SPD responses and tactics that contributed to the unrest. The Wave 2 report issued this March looked at what came next as citywide demonstrations were focused on Capitol Hill and the demonstrations quickly shifted, leading to the establishment of CHOP. Both previous reports produced a roster of tactical and procedural recommendations for the city and SPD and its handling of protests crowds — and opened larger questions around trust.

The new Wave 3 report examines the lifespan of CHOP over 23 days as citywide protests shifted from marches and demonstrations involving thousands to a focused camp area around Cal Anderson Park and 12th and Pine and further documents the lies and miscommunications that marked the response.

It begins June 8th, the day moving trucks arrive at the East Precinct in moments that continue to be debated in the history of CHOP and the ongoing political battles of the city.

The surprise move came without official announcement as protests began to center on Capitol Hill — CHS first reported on the strange appearance of moving trucks arriving at 12th and Pine. The official explantation from City Hall and SPD cited worries from FBI warnings of possible arson attacks on the auto row-era building the precinct calls home. It came as a plan from the mayor’s office to remove barriers in the street blocking protesters at E Pine were put into motion. At the time, Chief Best said the evacuation was made as a tactical action that stemmed from Durkan’s efforts to reach out to the demonstrators and led to her decision to remove the protest barriers and allow protesters to gather outside 12th and Pine. “We took down the barricades because we really wanted to establish trust,” Best told media later that June. To this day, Best attributes the decision to on the ground commanders at 12th and Pine despite evidence that the decision was part of the department Incident Action Plan approved by SPD officials.

The Wave 3 report includes those actions in addition to SPD officials either mistakenly or intentionally making statements about unsubstantiated and not fully investigated allegations of armed checkpoints and shakedowns of area businesses in press conferences and statements to the media as evidence of bad decisions and a lack of leadership that hindered the city’s response — and set it on a permanently flawed course contributing to the growth of dangerous conditions in the CHOP zone.

While some of the lies took the shape of miscommunications and sloppy police work, other examples in the report were clear deception. The “improper ruse” in which Seattle Police officers faked reports about armed Proud Boys headed to CHOP illustrated a direct attempt to mislead the public, the report concludes, and continues to poison public perception of the city’s officers.

“Many panelists felt the use of the Proud Boys for the ruse was an intentional manipulation of protestor fear of a violent white supremacist group, used to frighten and undermine the establishment of a Black Lives Matter protest at the height of anti-police tensions in Seattle,” the report reads. “Many Panelists viewed this incident as an example of the way structural and internalized racism can coalesce in police decision-making and cause harm to the community.”

SPD also failed to properly record evidence from the ruse, adding to distrust around the incident. No SPD personnel were disciplined over the act but the department has been directed to revise its policies around so-called “disinformation tactics.”

The Wave 3 report’s examination of June 8th through July 1st, 2020’s sweep and clearance of the CHOP area concludes that dysfunctional leadership, poor communication between Mayor Durkan and Chief Best, as well as the efforts by SPD leadership to mislead the public and exaggerate the dangers posed by CHOP and the trumped-up evacuation of the East Precinct damaged the city’s efforts to effectively respond to the Black Lives Matter protests and put the city’s response on a collision course with tragic outcomes.

The lies like the ruse and the protester checkpoints and shakedowns were part of the damaging communication made by the city and city personnel that included on-the-ground mistakes and delays during the response to the June 20th, 2020 shooting death of 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson on the edge of CHOP.

Miscommunication and mistakes delayed Seattle Police and Seattle Fire’s response to the scene on the edge of the protest area the night of the deadly shooting in an area SPD was refusing to respond to for most 911 calls after its abandonment of the nearby East Precinct building. The teen died at CHOP’s makeshift medical aid station on a table cleared outside Pike/Pine fast food joint Rancho Bravo.

Nine days later, 16-year-old Antonio Mays, Jr. died in a bullet-riddled jeep and a 14-year-old boy riding with him suffered critical injuries in the shootout at the camp. The presence of armed campers and security volunteers and the shooting deaths of the teenagers eventually led to the July 1st order for police to raid and sweep the protest zone and clear the camp.

The demonstrations, meanwhile, would continue but causes around Black Lives Matter and real response to needed social change would fade into anti-police protests and costly “direct action” including fires and vandalism targeting area businesses.

Capitol Hill business owners and residents were left to deal with the aftermath. Some have pursued a lawsuit to recoup financial losses — but even in that process, there is more evidence of deliberate and unintentional acts that have obscured the truth of the events of 2020.

And city and SPD officials have thus far mostly avoided any direct personal consequences though the OIG reports issued thus far document a major erosion in trust in the department and the difficulties police will face now and in the future because of that damage. Chief Best resigned shortly thereafter and Mayor Durkan decided to not seek reelection.

Still, little has changed from 2020. The city’s 2023 budget proposal from Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office will likely lead to a rollback of the only major material changes made to SPD in the wake of the BLM movement. Harrell’s proposal would restore the department’s budget back to $375 million — up $20 million from the current budget — by abandoning the major compromise reform from the “Defund SPD” debate — transferring parking enforcement back to police control.

The final reports and additional recommendations from the inspector general’s office will be released in coming months.

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