Police, FBI clear out Seattle protest zone
SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department, with help from Bellevue police and the FBI, swept into the Seattle protest zone early Wednesday with heavily equipped officers and tactical vehicles to clear out the area and arrest people who remained there.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order at 9:28 p.m. Tuesday, declaring “gathering in this area an unlawful assembly requiring immediate action from city agencies, including the Police Department.”
Police moved in at about 5 a.m., issuing dispersal orders for “anyone who remains in the area or returns to the area.” They arrested 32 people by about 9:30 a.m., according to the department.
At least 100 police officers equipped with body armour, batons, helmets and weapons moved into the CHOP, which stands for Capitol Hill Organized Protest. Protesters backed away slowly, with some yelling, “We’ll be back.”
Protesters have occupied several blocks around Cal Anderson Park and the Police Department’s East Precinct for about three weeks ina 24/7 demonstration slash-encampment that sp rang up during the wave of national protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Seattle police left the precinct in early June after standoffs and clashes with protesters.
The area had remained relatively peaceful until the weekend of June 20, when the first of four shootings near CHOP in the span of about nine days killed 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson and injured another man. After another shooting Monday morning killed a 16-year-old boy and injured a 14-year-old boy, Seattle police Chief Carmen Best said “enough is enough.”
“Two African American men are dead, at a place where they claim to be working for Black Lives Matter,” she said Monday.
CHOP volunteer security guards moved through the camp, helping people quickly pack and remove their things before a slowly oncoming line of police arrived, said demonstrator Janene Karnista Hampton, a member of the Syilx People who goes by Karnista.
Karnista and her companion, Dr. Whitefeather, who is Apache and Cheyenne, spent the early morning blessing both police and protesters, burning sage and praying for everyone to get out of the area without violence.
“Everyone has done a good job here because everyone is out safe,” she said. “But it will come back. This is not going away. We’re still fighting for justice.”
Police reported people were overturning portable toilets as officers swept the area and tore down tents.
“This order, and our police response, comes after weeks of violence in and around the Capitol Hill Occupied Protests Zone, including four shootings, resulting in multiple injuries and the deaths of two teenagers,” Best said in a statement. She was watching Wednesday morning from a staging area at the fire station on 13th Avenue and East Pine Street.
Fourteen people were booked into the King County Jail between 4:30 and 10 a.m., according to jail logs. Although it was not immediately clear if all 14 had been arrested at CHOP, the jail roster indicated most of them were booked on suspicion of obstruction, assault or — most commonly — failure to disperse.
Police said anyone seeking to leave the area without getting arrested could do so through the south end of the zone, toward Pike Street.
One protester who has been helping out at the camp at Cal Anderson for several weeks estimated as many as 50 people living homeless have been staying at the park, or nearby in cars or other temporary arrangements. The protester, who asked not to be identified, described the unhoused population as diverse, ranging from people with mental-health issues to people who were unhoused by choice “because it’s just simpler.”
He said CHOP community members had been actively helping many of the homeless occupants stay fed and safe and often served as informal social workers when they were in distress. He said the demonstrators would continue to assist people without homes if they were swept from the park by the city.
“The community is definitely stepping up to help them as much as possible,” he said.
A man named Jay, who is homeless and stayed at the encampment in Cal Anderson Park for two weeks, said he was sorry to leave.
“Other places are sketchy, but I felt safe here,” he said. “This place was based on respect. I don’t know where I’m going to go.”