Tag Archives: chop

Seattle Parks backs down — for now — as heavy equipment moved in for BLM garden removal from Cal Anderson Park

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(Image: Matt Mitgang)

(Image: Matt Mitgang)

Seattle Parks crews backed off and Seattle Police stood by after a small but spirited crowd of supporters gathered Tuesday morning to stop the removal of the Black Lives Memorial Garden from Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.

The early morning standoff played out around the so-called “sun bowl” area of the park where heavy equipment had been rolled in for the removal of the garden that was established during the Black Lives Matter and CHOP protest in the summer of 2020. Continue reading →

Black Star Farmers holds community gathering to save garden in Cal Anderson — UPDATE

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UPDATE: With volunteers remaining at the site through the weekend, the “turf restoration” work, so far, has been on hold

 

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As they did in August for a stewarding event where they gathered medicinal herbs from Cal Anderson Park, the Black Star Farmers group is inviting a gathering at the park’s Black Lives Memorial Garden hoped to span all of Friday. It’s the same day the Seattle Parks Department said it was planning to begin its “turf restoration” process that will remove the garden first created during the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest that filled the area with camps and demonstrators.

“Gather in the garden tomorrow – FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 👻 Community members are planning a full day of activities in support of the garden,” the group’s invitation reads. “We will start the morning with Communi-Tea & Yoga from 7-10AM and have an all-ages Garden Party from 12PM-10PM where we will have potluck food, garden stewarding, music, speakers, art making and an art gallery! Please bring plates, utensils, & grillables to share if you can!!” Continue reading →

Call to save the Black Lives Memorial Garden after city announces Cal Anderson ‘turf renovation’ plan — UPDATE: two weeks notice

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The garden in October 2023 — from the CHS Facebook Group

The garden in June, 2020

A Seattle Parks project to restore grass to the amphitheater bowl on the south end of Cal Anderson Park will bring an end to a community garden shaped during Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests. The Black Lives Memorial Garden has been one of the few enduring monuments to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest of the summer of 2020.

A Seattle Parks official confirmed the department will begin the turf restoration project planned for this week but declined to provide more information citing the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday at Seattle City Hall.

A letter reportedly posted by the Black Star Farmers group that has grown around the garden is calling for the city to back off its plans, saying city officials reached out to “request that we relocate the garden to Rainier Community Center in South Seattle.” The letter calls on supporters to gather at the garden for organizing meetings and “occupy the space.”

“Of course, showing up to the garden in the upcoming week and continuing to care for and occupy the space is always an option to show directly that we reject their plans to remove the garden,” it reads. “Now is the time to show up and get organized.” Continue reading →

No charges over Durkan, Best deleted texts from 2020 protests

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No charges will be filed against former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best over deleted text messages from the time of the 2020 protests, saying a King County Sheriff investigation did not find evidence of criminal intent to destroy public records.

King County Prosecutor Lisa Manion’s announcement ends the investigation launched in 2022 after a whistle-blower revealed thousands of texts exchanged between Durkan, Best, current Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins and more officials during the 2020 Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests had been deleted from city-owned devices.

The deleted texts became the centerpiece of a lawsuit brought against the city by Capitol Hill property owners and developers with claims of “Spoliation of Evidence” and intentional subterfuge.

The city has claimed the deletions were caused by factory resets, 30-day auto deletions, and manual deletions.

But some of the explanations bordered on the comical including a Durkan oceanic mishap: Continue reading →

Judge deals a blow to restaurant’s CHOP lawsuit

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A federal judge has dealt a blow to the legal case of a 11th Ave restaurant suing the City of Seattle over what it says was neglect and rights violations as it allowed the Capitol Hill protest zone to grow around the business.

The judge’s decisions this week tossed one of the four complaints brought by Korean fast casual joint Oma Bap and threw another two up for possible appeal in the case. Continue reading →

14-year sentence in CHOP murder case

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Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr.

The man who shot and killed 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr. on the edge of CHOP in June 2020 was sentenced to just over 14 years in prison Friday.

Marcel Long, also a teen at the time of the murder, will have credit for time served and also will serve three years in community custody, according to the King County Prosecutor’s office.

CHS reported here in May on the deal reached for Long to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder for the 2020 killing.

“There is never a guarantee of what will happen at a trial, even in a case such as this one,” the office said Friday about the deal and the judge’s decision. “Thursday’s sentencing for Murder in the Second Degree – a Class A felony – ensures that Mr. Long will have clear accountability.” Continue reading →

‘Misleading account’ — Former Chief Best rebuked for statements to public during CHOP

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Former Chief Best at a press conference at CHOP in the summer of 2020 (Image: CHS)

Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will not have to answer for dishonest and inaccurate statements made during CHOP that an investigation says inflamed the volatile situation around the 2020 protest camp on Capitol Hill that left two teenagers murdered and a string of litigation that continues three years later.

In a memo on the Seattle Office of Police Accountability’s findings in its investigation of the chief’s role in the public safety breakdown around the protests, Mayor Bruce Harrell joined in criticism of Best for making untrue statements to the public but said her refusal to participate in the OPA investigation prevented “a full assessment of the propriety of her actions during an important moment in Seattle history.”

“It is in the interests of the public and the City of Seattle to fully understand the events and the decision-making process that surrounded the protests and public demonstrations that occurred during the summer of 2020,” the Harrell memo reads. “The Executive believes that public employees who have had the honor to serve the City in such leadership positions should assist in establishing a review and record with the hopes of saving lives, reducing property destruction and loss, and addressing the erosion of public trust.” Continue reading →

This Capitol Hill ice cream shop is ‘woke’ — so why is it suing the city over CHOP?

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A memorial to Anderson The memorial to Lorenzo Anderson who was gunned down in front of Molly Moon’s during CHOP

One of Seattle’s most progressive small businesses has sued the city over its actions around the CHOP occupied protest that grew from the 2020 Black Lives Matter and George Floyd murder unrest into a dangerous camp that shut down blocks of Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine core and left two teens shot to death including 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson who was gunned down in the street in front of the ice cream shop behind the suit.

The Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream LLC v. City of Seattle case was filed this week in federal court.

It is being brought forward by the law firm of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, the same firm that won a $3.6 million settlement with the city earlier this year on behalf of a slate of Capitol Hill property owners and businesses that sued over “deliberate indifference” from former Mayor Jenny Durkan, the Seattle Police Department and then-Chief Carmen Best, Seattle Fire, and the rest of City Hall over the handling of the camp that took over the streets around Cal Anderson Park in June 2020.

It is not clear why Molly Moon’s was not part of the previous lawsuit. CHS has asked the law firm and owner Molly Moon Neitzel for more details on the new filing.

Filed on the three-year anniversary of the protest camp’s formation, the lawsuit seemingly puts Molly Moon’s in position of demanding the city should have shut down the CHOP protests.

But the complaint filed this week begins with a defense of the protests even as it blames the city for the disorder that followed. Continue reading →

‘Injustice’ — Plea deal reached in CHOP murder case

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Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr.

The King County Prosecutor has reached a conviction in one of the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone murders but the victim’s mother says this wasn’t the justice she was seeking.

“They want to drown what happened in the CHOP out,” Donnitta Marie Sinclair tells CHS.

Thursday, prosecutors reached a deal with attorneys for Marcel Long, the teen who gunned down 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr. on the edge of CHOP in June 2020, to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder.

“There is never a guarantee of what a jury will do, even in a case such as this one,” a statement from Prosecutor Leesa Manion’s office reads. “Today’s guilty plea and the upcoming sentencing ensures that Mr. Long will have clear accountability for this murder conviction.”

Long’s trial was set to begin later this month.

Prosecutors say Long, then 18, shot and killed Anderson at 10th and Pine in a June 2020 fracas after what witnesses said was a night of gambling and fireworks as crowds gathered and the CHOP zone took shape amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations, community meetings and film screenings, and art. Continue reading →

An apology from SPD? Panel concludes multiyear review of Seattle Police response to CHOP and 2020 protests

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What July 25th, 2020 looked like on Capitol Hill

A panel representing community, Seattle Police, and neighborhood businesses and organizations analyzing the 2020 protests in Seattle and the flawed police response to the waves of demonstrations and unrest that embroiled the city and made Capitol Hill a flashpoint in the Black Lives Matter and police reform movements has concluded its work with a call for city leaders to issue “a sincere, public apology.”

“Panelists agreed on the importance of rebuilding trust and understanding between community and police to discourage the othering and dehumanization of each group by the other,” the report reads. “Of particular importance was emphasizing differentiation of crowd members and avoiding assumptions about crowds as monoliths, especially where this created unwarranted defensiveness and fear in SPD.”

The final report from the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety-led group was issued last week and concludes a multi-year examination that broke the protest periods into four waves starting with the initial flash as the city joined with protests around the country over the police killing of George Floyd.

While the previous reports focused on the establishment of the occupied protest area on Capitol Hill and the abandonment of the East Precinct, the new report looks at how the police response changed after the East Precinct was “reestablished” and covers three key dates of protest and police response in the period from July 3rd to October, 2020:

  • On July 25th, SPD reported 140 uses of force during the 11-hour protest as police and protestors pushed back and forth along Pine Street.
  • On September 7th, SPD pushed protestors from the SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue South to Judkins Park, a 90-minute interaction resulting in 56 reported uses of force by SPD.
  • On September 23rd, SPD reported 45 uses of force during the four-hour protest as police pushed protestors away from the East Precinct.

The conclusions? Seattle Police made the same mistakes in its heavy-handed, overly dangerous crowd control strategies and response with communication failures playing what the panel said were especially large parts in the damaging events as protesters fought back and set fires in solidarity with crackdowns in Portland. Continue reading →