Ahead of protests planned for this Friday's May Day, were you wondering how Seattle police are trained to handle demonstrations? After all, on the last day of mass demonstrations in Seattle—Martin Luther King day—things didn't go so well. One police officer pepper-sprayed teacher Jesse Hagopian in the face, resulting in a lawsuit. Protesters were arrested and accused of assaulting an officer who was trying to maintain a police formation. Those protesters were never charged, however—video evidence revealed that the officer appears to have tripped.
The image up top is the cover of a Seattle Police Department demonstration management manual from 2013. The document was provided in response to a public records request by Howard "Information Pit Bull" Gale. You can read the full document right here. The department's disclosure unit described it as the first batch of "SPD documents regarding demonstration management training during the current year (2015)," as requested by Gale. Gale supplied the document to The Stranger.
It's not clear why a manual from 2013 got released in response to a request for documents currently in use in 2015. But one could assume it's because this 2013 manual is still in use today. SPD spokesperson Sean Whitcomb said he believes the manual is dated, but doesn't know whether it's still in use. He didn't question its authenticity. "This looks more like something I saw during WTO," he said.
The manual begins by declaring, "Objectives: To define the Seattle Police Department's philosophy for implementing responses to Unusual Occurrences."
The document discusses crowd control formations, mass arrests, and how to strike protesters with batons. (The Department of Justice found in 2011 that 57 percent of baton usage by Seattle police was unnecessary or excessive.) It doesn't include a single reference to, much less any guidance about, first amendment-protected activities, "free speech" rights, or civil disobedience.
"In this context," Gale believes, "constitutionally protected freedoms suddenly become 'Unusual Occurrences,' leading to a further misunderstanding of free speech activities and how they are to be policed." He said this kind of training has led to police "illegitimately trying to control protesters' movements, resulting in First Amendment infringements and illegitimate use of force."
In response to Stranger questions about the manual, Whitcomb e-mailed another document, also dated 2013 and drawn up during the McGinn administration, that describes the 20/20 Policing Reform plan. SPD removed the document from its own website once Mayor Ed Murray took office. But Whitcomb said it—and this section of the department's website—better reflects the department's demonstrations management philosophy than the manual obtained by Gale.
