Tag Archives: protests

‘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 →

‘United to stop Russia’: Victory Day protest targets Capitol Hill’s Russian Community Center — UPDATE

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Thanks to CHS reader Ryan for the pictures from Tuesday night

UPDATE: An organizer says the RANDOM group representing pro-democracy Russians in Seattle was also part of the protest

A march and protest targeting the Russian Community Center on Capitol Hill Tuesday night was a reminder that war in Ukraine has now been raging for over a year and that the impacts from the conflict can be felt as far away as 19th Ave E.

“Our rally serves as a powerful reminder of the immense sacrifices made during World War II and the ongoing conflicts, such as the one in Ukraine,” the event posting promoted by the Ukrainian Association of Washington State read. “We gather to honor the memories of those who bravely fought against the horrors of Nazism, which inflicted tremendous pain and suffering upon the world. Today, Ukraine finds itself battling against Russia, a nation driven by imperialistic ambitions reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazism and Stalinism, but now manifested in a modern form—rusсism.”

UPDATE 5/15/2023: A representative for the Russian Action Network– RANDOM, an organization of pro-democracy Russians in Seattle, tells CHS the group was also part of the protest. Agata Ianturina says the group had been targeting the Victory Day party on May 9th but also screenings of “Soviet films related to WWII” that were being shown at the center.

Continue reading →

Broadway banks targeted in ‘climate justice’ demonstrations

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(Image: 350 Seattle)

A couple Broadway banks were targeted Tuesday as part of climate justice demonstrations across Seattle and the country.

Groups including 350 Seattle say they organized the protests to bring attention to “Wall Street’s Continued Financing of Climate Destruction.”

Tuesday’s shutdowns included a joint action from 350 Seattle forced a temporary closure at the Wells Fargo at Broadway E and E Republican, the group says, “dealing with an ‘oil spill caused by corporate greed.” Meanwhile, the GreenFaith was reportedly “disrupting business with an interfaith worship service” at the Bank of America at Broadway E and E Thomas.

CHS isn’t aware of any arrests associated with this week’s Earth Day adjacent protests. Last month, Seattle Police complained of sabotage of one of its officer’s vehicles after “a pebble was found jammed into the stem” causing the car’s tire to deflate.

 

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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 →

CHOP on stage? 11th & Pine ‘documentary theatre performance’ sees first light with readings at Capitol Hill’s Erickson Theatre

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Have the wounds from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and CHOP’s time on Capitol Hill healed?

This weekend, playwright and University of Washington professor Nikki Yeboah’s work examining the aftermath of the protests will take the stage with Sound Theatre Company’s reading of 11th & Pine at the neighborhood’s Erickson Theatre:

Several years after the 2020 protests against police violence that ushered in a racial awakening across the nation, a deposed protest leader sends out a call to fellow activists. Her goal? To reconstruct the occupation she led in her city. As they relive moments both utopian and excruciating, the activists find the task of explaining what happened is not so simple. Did they succeed? Did they fail? How will they be remembered? Meanwhile, old tensions resurface and the group contends with powerful opponents who want to tell the story in their own way. Based on interviews with Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protestors, 11TH & PINE explores the impact of organized protest, asking “can we make a difference, and if so, at what cost?”

Continue reading →

Prosecutor: Reckless driving plea deal for East Precinct cop’s brother in 2020 CHOP protest shooting

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The shooting scene in June 2020


 

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Fernandez (Image: CHS)

Nikolas Fernandez, the brother of an East Precinct cop charged with first degree assault for the June 7, 2020 shooting that injured a protester in the middle of a Black Lives Matter demonstrations at 11th and Pine, has reached a plea deal on a lesser charge with the King County Prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutor Leesa Manion announced the deal for Fernandez to plead guilty to reckless driving in a Friday message to her staff saying that the the deal does not “diminish the understandable fear of the crowd that day or minimize the impact the defendant’s behavior/actions had on the victim.”

From Fernandez’s plea deal statement

“In June 2020, our office charged a man with Assault in the First Degree for driving into a closed street during a demonstration in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and firing one shot at a man who punched him,” Manion writes. “After a careful and thorough follow-up investigation, we made the decision to resolve this case with a plea to Reckless Driving. Earlier this week, our office discussed our decision with the victim and witnesses. There is no doubt that the victim in this case felt scared when he saw the defendant driving down the closed street. The video evidence in this case shows that he and other protestors responded in a way that they thought was necessary to protect themselves and others.”

Under the deal, Fernandez has agreed to a sentence of 24 months probation, a 30-day driver’s license suspension, plus “mandatory court costs and fines.” The reckless driving charge carries a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

The full “Case Resolution” message to her office is below.

Fernandez’s trial had been repeatedly delayed. The case was scheduled to come to trial a year ago in February 2022 after delays caused by the by the assignment of a new prosecutor and the “large number of outstanding interviews” required to try the case. The deal came with the latest trial date in April approaching. Fernandez has been free on $150,000 bail.

Fernandez was charged with first degree assault for the shooting that wounded protester Dan Gregory and set off panic in the tightly packed crowd outside the East Precinct in the early days of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. In 2021, CHS reported on Gregory’s hopes for a Carnegie Medal in recognition of his bravery that day as he tried to disarm Fernandez. Continue reading →

‘Justice for Tyre Nichols’ protest marches from Capitol Hill

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A group of protesters gathered in Cal Anderson Park and marched to the Space Needle and back Friday night in a demonstration against police as video of the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols by officers in Memphis was released.

The protest was announced via social media and a television news helicopter circled above the Capitol Hill park to cover the small demonstration involving a few dozen participants. No significant property damage was reported on Capitol HIll during the march which ended with the group gathering for a short time outside the East Precinct where Black Lives Matter protests stretched out during and after CHOP, replaced by months of anti-police protests through 2020 and into 2021. Continue reading →

Trial delayed again for East Precinct cop’s brother in CHOP protest shooting

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The trial of Nikolas Fernandez has again been delayed.

The King County Prosecutor’s office said earlier this month it needed more time to prepare its case against Fernandez in the June 7, 2020 shooting that injured a protester in the middle of a Black Lives Matter demonstrations at 11th and Pine.

The trial is now slated for a late February start.

It has been a long path to justice in the shooting. The case was supposed to come to trial a year ago in February 2022 after delays caused by the by the assignment of a new prosecutor and the “large number of outstanding interviews” required to try the case. Continue reading →

Trial for brother of cop who shot CHOP protester pushed back to 2023

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The shooting scene in June 2020

It has been more than two years since Nikolas Fernandez opened fire in the middle of a Black Lives Matter protest at 11th and Pine. His trial is now scheduled for January 2023.

Fernandez is charged with first degree assault for the shooting that wounded protester Dan Gregory and set off panic in the tightly packed crowd outside the East Precinct in the early days of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.

A year ago, CHS reported here on Gregory’s hopes for a Carnegie Medal in recognition of his bravery that day as he tried to disarm the brother of an East Precinct officer who had driven into the demonstration crowd. Last November, Fernandez’s trial was set to begin in February 2022 after delays caused by the by the assignment of a new prosecutor and the “large number of outstanding interviews” required to try the case. Continue reading →