Seattle police moves in to reclaim their precinct in CHOP, clearing the block in under 30 minutes

886

View
comments

Seattle police on Wednesday reclaimed their precinct in the city’s ‘occupied’ protest zone after the mayor finally issued a 2am executive order to vacate the area. 

At least 23 people were arrested at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone which has seen two deadly shootings and crime rise by more than 500 per cent in just over three weeks.  

People had occupied several blocks around a park and the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct after officers abandoned the building following clashes with protesters calling for an end to police brutality. 

Calling the gathering at the East Precinct and Cal Anderson Park an ‘unlawful assembly’ Mayor Jenny Durkan demanded all barriers be removed in an order issued in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

Seattle police confirmed in a tweet early Wednesday that they would be ‘in the area this morning enforcing the Mayor’s order’.  Officers in riot gear issued a dispersal order at 5am leading to the 23 arrests within just 30 minutes amid fears the protesters could now move to West Precinct. 

Police tweeted: ‘Because suspects in recent shootings may still be in the area, and because numerous people in the area are in possession of firearms, Seattle Police officers involved in this morning’s response will be equipped with additional protective gear.’

Eyewitness Omari Salisbury said: ‘The Seattle Police Department basically reclaimed the precinct in less than 30 minutes, five feet at a time with the bicycle officers out in front.’ 

Speaking outside the precinct Wednesday morning police chief Carmen Best confirmed her officers had reclaimed the precinct, with the help of Bellevue police and the FBI, but could not offer a timeframe on when they would move back in. 

She said: ‘Our job is to support peaceful demonstration but what has happened on these streets over the last two weeks is lawless and it’s brutal and bottom line it is simply unacceptable.’

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the Seattle protest area, as well as city and state leaders. He tweeted Monday morning that the protesters ‘have ZERO respect for Government.’ 

Police said: ‘Since demonstrations at the East Precinct area began on June 8th, two teenagers have been killed and three people have been seriously wounded in late-night shootings. Police have also documented robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes.

‘Because suspects in recent shootings may still be in the area, and because numerous people in the area are in possession of firearms, Seattle Police officers involved in this morning’s response will be equipped with additional protective gear.’ 

Police swarmed the zone known as CHOP at about 5am and a loud bang was heard at about 6:15am followed by a cloud of smoke. 

Officers tore down demonstrators’ tents and used bicycles to herd the protesters.  

Police tore down fences that protesters had erected around their tents and used batons to poke inside bushes, apparently looking for people who might be hiding inside.

Most protesters appeared to have dispersed several hours after the operations started and armed officers looked on from rooftops as clean-up crews of workers arrived to break down tables and tarps that protesters had set up in the zone. 

Chief Best said: ‘The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings, two fatal, robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area.’  

Tweeting their moves to dismantle the area police said: ‘Police have observed individuals in the vehicles with firearms/armor. The vehicles also appear to be operating without visible license plates.

‘Anyone who remains in the area, or returns to the area, is subject to arrest.’ 

Confirming the 23 people arrested police said one man, 29, was in possession of a large metal pipe and kitchen knife when he was taken into custody. 

Police also released a video documenting the acts of violence inside CHOP over the last few weeks.  

Crews had already used heavy equipment Tuesday in an attempt to remove makeshift barriers around the CHOP zone following the two fatal shootings.

But demonstrators dragged couches and other items to replace the structures. Those were largely gone later Tuesday.

The move to dismantle the area follows the shooting death of the unidentified 16-year-old boy in the early hours of Monday morning. A 14-year-old was also critically injured when eyewitnesses say armed security inside the zone fired 300 rounds.    

Volunteer medic Marty Jackson had described the area as an ‘active war zone’ and said: ‘I don’t think we’re gonna stop here.’   

He told KUOW it was CHOP’s own armed security who fired at the car driven by the teen after it crashed into a barrier, killing him and critically wounding the 14-year-old. 

Warning people not to come to the CHOP zone, Jackson added: ‘Because now it’s like pretty much an active war zone. Now you have security and medical always looking around waiting to see the next.’ 

Footage from inside the zone had shown the chaotic scenes and the bullet ridden vehicle in the immediate aftermath of the shoot out Monday. 

City workers on Friday tried to remove makeshift barriers erected around the area but stopped their work after demonstrators objected. 

Seattle police Assistant Chief Adrian Diaz said Tuesday the large, makeshift barriers would be removed in incremental steps to allow traffic to move through portions of a road that had been closed off.

‘So far, you know, everything is peaceful this morning, so that’s a good sign,’ Diaz told The Seattle Times.

There had been increasing calls by critics, including President Trump, to remove protesters from the ‘Capitol Hill Occupied Protest’ area east of downtown following the fatal shooting Monday of a 16-year-old boy and the June 20 killing of a 19-year-old man.

Protesters say they should not be blamed for the violence in the area. People continued to add artwork, flowers and candles at a memorial for the 16-year-old on Tuesday.

Chief Best said the shootings are obscuring the message of racial justice promoted by protesters.

Nearby businesses and property owners also filed a federal lawsuit against the city last week, saying officials have been too tolerant of those who created the zone and that officials have deprived property owners of their property rights by allowing the zone to continue existing.

Also Tuesday, Mayor Durkan asked the City Council to investigate council member Kshama Sawant, accusing her of opening City Hall to protesters on June 9 and participating in a protest march to Durkan’s home on Sunday.

‘She and organizers knew that my address was protected under the state confidentiality program because of threats against me due largely to my work as U.S. attorney,’ Durkan wrote.

Sawant said she had not organized the march and wasn’t taking Durkan’s words personally, The Seattle Times reported.

‘In reality, this is an attack on working people’s movements, and everything we are fighting for, by a corporate politician desperately looking to distract from her failures of leadership and politically bankrupt administration,’ Sawant said in a statement.

Earlier this month Sawant and other council members called on the mayor to resign over what they called the Police Department’s militaristic response to protests. Durkan has said she will not resign. 

Nearby businesses and property owners filed a federal lawsuit against the city last Wednesday, claiming officials have been too tolerant of those who created the zone and that officials have deprived property owners of their property rights by allowing the zone to continue existing.

The business owners said they were not trying to undermine the protesters’ anti-police-brutality and Black Lives Matter messages.

But the owners said they have suffered because the creation of the zone has limited their access to their businesses and that some owners trying clean graffiti from their storefronts or attempting to photograph protesters have been threatened.

A second lawsuit was filed by attorney Jacob Bozeman Monday. He said: ‘To abdicate the authority to an unelected, unauthorized and armed group of people to decide who can come and go, who can be searched and seized, and under what portions of the city you can come and go from, for fear of physical retaliation against you, is unconstitutional.’

Read more: