Seattle Erupts in Chaos, Mob Deploys Explosives Against Officers
Seattle police retreated to a precinct early Sunday, just hours after declaring a riot during large demonstrations in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood near where weeks earlier people had set up an “occupied protest zone” that stretched for several blocks.
Some demonstrators lingered after officers filed into the department’s East Precinct about 1 a.m., but most cleared out a short time later, according to video posted online.
Authorities said rocks, bottles, fireworks and mortars were thrown at officers as they attempted to clear the area using flash bangs and pepper spray over the course of several hours stretching into Saturday night.
Seattle police Chief Carmen Best called for peace at a late-night news conference and told reporters she hadn’t seen U.S. agents the Trump administration dispatched to the city at Saturday’s protest.
Via Twitter, police said they arrested at least 45 people for assaults on officers, obstruction and failure to disperse. Twenty-one officers were left with mostly minor injuries.
As of 10pm: Police have made 45 arrests in connection with today’s riot in the East Precinct. 21 officers sustained injuries after being struck by bricks, rocks mortars/other explosives. Most officers were able to return to duty. One was treated at a hospital for a knee injury.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) July 26, 2020
Earlier, protesters in Seattle broke through a fence where a youth detention facility was being built, with some attackers setting a fire and damaging a portable trailer, authorities said.
Officers investigating a possible explosive damage to walls of the East Precinct. Also reportedly some sort of explosives being thrown or fired at officers.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) July 25, 2020
Thousands of protesters had initially gathered peacefully near downtown in a show of solidarity with fellow demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, where tensions with federal law enforcement have boiled over during protests stemming from the May 25 death George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Initially there was no sign of law enforcement near the Seattle march. Later, Seattle police said via Twitter that about a dozen people breached the construction site for the King County youth detention facility. Also, police said protesters broke out windows at a King County court facility.
Earlier this week King County Executive Dow Constantine, in response to long-standing demands by community activists, said he would work to eliminate youth detention centers in the county by 2025.
After the fire at the construction site authorities said they had ordered people to leave a different area, in a section of Capitol Hill, near downtown, where the East Precinct is. At least one person broke through a fence line at the precinct, authorities said, and moments later a device explosive that left an 8-inch hole in the side of the precinct.
Earlier this month police cleared the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone after two fatal shootings. A group had occupied several blocks around a park for about two weeks following standoffs and clashes that were part of the nationwide unrest over the Floyd death.
Prior to Saturday’s protests, Best had announced officers would be armed with pepper spray and other weapons, promising officers would not use tear gas and urging demonstrators to remain peaceful.
“In the spirit of offering trust and full transparency, I want to advise you that SPD officers will be carrying pepper spray and blast balls today, as would be typical for events that carry potential to include violence,” Best said.
At an emergency hearing on Friday night, U.S. District Judge James Robart granted a request from the federal government to block Seattle’s new law prohibiting police from using pepper spray, blast balls and similar weapons.
The temporary restraining order halts the law that the Seattle City Council passed unanimously last month after confrontations that have been marked by violence, looting and highway shutdowns. The law was set to take effect on Sunday.
But the U.S. Department of Justice, citing Seattle’s longstanding police consent decree, successfully argued that banning the use of crowd control weapons could actually lead to more police use of force, leaving them only with more deadly weapons.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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