Yesterday evening marked the absurdly long-named “October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation” at a rally outside of the Broadway Performance Hall on Seattle Central’s campus.
The crowd seemed to number around 80-100 people at any given time. It was a diverse group, too—tween African-American girls, Native Americans, punks and metalheads, college students, a confused-looking bearded old man in a purple kilt and orange knit cap, a super-old grandma, and a bunch of pretty average adults. Also on hand throughout the rally were 12 SPD motorcycle cops, a few more guys manning two squad cars in the middle of Broadway, and eight bicycle cops.
As the rally kicked off, a black anarchist flag was held high and the air smelled of clove cigarettes. There was a tent run by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) off to the side. Some of the signs floating around included “Stop police brutality, charge Officer Birk,” “Jail Birk now,” and “Being brown is not a crime.” A couple of anarchist kids arrived with big pots of food and started serving free food.
On stage, organizers gave mic time to people who had lost loved ones to police brutality. That is, until they decided to let an RCP member speak. The guy started off well, just running down egregious cases of brutality. But then he started to talk about the need for a communist revolution.
More after the jump.
One guy in the crowd began to yell “Respect the dead!” while another cranked up a boombox to drown out the communist. Two women in the crowd shouted these hecklers down… it was only later that I realized they were RCP members, too, and likely dedicated counter-hecklers.
Soon after that, I decided to visit the RCP tent and find out why a Maoist group that advocates violent revolution would attend an anti-violence rally. The woman I ended up arguing with was one of the counter-hecklers. Predictably, she had no interest in talking about the 65 million people Mao killed and instead wanted to focus on her great concern for humanity. I asked her why she was anti-police when communist regimes have tended to have the most aggressive police states. She showed me a statement from the RCP’s chairman about how good police need to have good motives—communist motives. Having traveled widely in Russia, I invited her to ask any ex-Soviet citizen about their experiences with the communism-motivated militsiya. This did not amuse her. Shortly thereafter, she began to initiate force against me (gentle shoving!) and I left.
With the protesters getting ready to march, I resolved to talk to two of the SPD officers on hand. They were friendly and estimated the crowd to be two or three times larger than in years past. I asked them about the slogans being tossed around (think: yelling of “Fuck the police”), but they seemed indifferent and said no one, not even cops, likes police brutality. One of them shook my hand before I left and wished me well. Yet again I was reminded that it is easy to hate an abstraction but much harder to despise fellow humans.
You might say the crowd thought the RCP’s views were
*puts on sugnlasses*
…revolting.
It’s pretty easy to despise fellow humans who act in a despicable manner. And when the “abstraction” from which that despicable fellow human’s authority derives unconditionally defends his actions, it’s pretty easy to despise the abstraction as well.
So these were the people I saw when driving to a show last night on Boren. Someone might want to tell them that the reason there are not a lot of protest marches at night is that no one can read your signs and therefor have no clue what you are doing there. I thought it was massholes at first until I noticed all the bikes had cops on them.
This is also why we don’t have a whole lot of ground to mock the organization of teabagger protests. Ours are invariably a disjointed mess of nonsense with no real focus or direction. The idiot communists and anarchists and the endless boring off topic speeches(did Palestine come up?) are why I don’t go to rallies or protests anymore.
Plus they are pretty ineffectual.
Right here is where I go from “this sounds mildly interesting” to laughing out loud in real life and onto the next corner of the internet:
“… a black anarchist flag was held high and the air smelled of clove cigarettes.”
which generation is being criminalized again?
The thing about caring enough about something to actually go out and make your voice heard is that you know the American Maoists are going to be there trying to co-opt the situation into yet another Communist yelling match. It is as soul-crushing as their tired doctrines and they will never stop annoying everyone forever. Blegh.
@ 1 — Rimshot!
@ 2 — Don’t get me wrong, I still hate the police state and am looking forward to getting involved with the Copwatch group that was at the rally yesterday.
@ 3 — I actually thought this was a pretty decent protest. The communist hijacking was unfortunate, but the general mood was respectful. Oh, and no one got violent.
@ 5 — This question was not answered. Drat.
The willful ignorance of these communists is amazing.
Nice to read about a writer for “The Stranger” calling out a “communist” on their hypocrisy. Kudos to you, sir.
I hate Capitalism,
I resent my comfy home,
I hate my education,
My cash, my car, my phone.
So when it comes to revolution,
And social paradise,
Of course I’ll give up all of these,
But until then, they’re quite nice.
Ok, rally over.
You can all go back to being scared middle class kids livin’ in “the city” looking over your shoulder while you walk down an empty 23rd street at night, hoping a police car will swing by.
Leftist/liberal types, by their very nature, are not good at wielding power or authority. Their forte is attacking established power, but whenever they get it themselves and try to increase their power, they wind up looking very inept and illegitimate and enraging the masses.
I was at a gathering of folks a week after Williams was shot and killed by Officer Burk. They handed the megaphone and people who knew him said what they came there to say, then it was handed over to these revolutionary people who basically tagged along knowing a bunch of anti-cop folks would be there.
The tone quickly went from “Fuck the cops!” to “Fuck the world!!!”. Political scavengers. Like the scientologists on 3rd ave, I throw away the pamphlets they hand to me.
What @9 said!
I’m pretty sure if any of those communists experienced a true communist state, they’d be running back to their parent’s Mcmansion within a week.
Of course, there aren’t really any true communist states left, so it’s a mute point.
I feel for the people who have lost love ones to police brutality, but I do believe it’s an abstraction rather then the norm. There are 1300 or so officers in the SPD, and some are undoubtedly bad. But I don’t believe that the majority – or even a significant percentage – are guilty of brutality.
This article reads like a right-wing college newspaper article.
Highlight the idiotic comments of the marchers, and then lob a softball question to the cops: “Of course we don’t like violence.”
Maybe a comment on the other groups at the march, or perhaps a question to the cops as to whether they support their own guild’s efforts to reduce accountability for incidents of excessive force.
Matt, I was all with you on this until you said “I hate the police state.”
THE police state? Our police state? Really? Here, in Seattle, the Seattle, Washington “police state”? After you just got done lecturing some twit on your experience in Russia speaking to people who know firsthand what an actual police state looks like, now you’re blithely leveling the difference between Seattle’s rather fucked up police department and the nightmare of life in an actual police state with secret informants denouncing their own neighbors and families, gulags, copy machines treated like munitions, and on and on and on…
The problem with so many people here — the bad cops and the nutty activists — is that they can’t distinguish between things. The difference between a when you need to shoot a suspect and when you don’t. The difference between a community with a few criminals in it, and a community where they all belong in jail. Between the need to smash fascism and the need for major oversight and reform.
It just baffles me how so many people demand every cop to be capable of appreciating nuance in every split second decision, in every situation, every day without ever falling short, but they themselves are too lazy or sloppy to do the same no matter how low the stakes are and how much time they have to think before they spew.
There were about 3 major incidents of what might be termed “police brutality” in this year so far.
But, there were 2,360 violent crimes including
How about a rally against Criminal Brutality?
http://www.seattle.gov/police/Crime/10_S…
Hail Satan.
Let SPD be held accountable for their actions. Officer Ian Birk, not only for MURDER, but FILING A FALSE POLICE REPORT, and SPD for LYING TO THE MEDIA.
You will be judged, SPD, by the same measure as your court.
The ball is in our court, now.
Hail Satan?
@ 17 FTW.
Whatever the sins of SPD (and until the Williams shooting, those sins were very minimal), there is no police state anywhere in America.
@ 15, correction: there has never been a Communist state in the world, ever. “Communism” is the final level that humanity is supposed to reach, at which point there is no state. The nations that have flown that banner were all quasi-agrarian socialist dictatorships. In fact, they barely qualified as “socialist” thanks to their top-heavy management style.
@19
i think i agree with you (i also agree with 20)
you seem serious though, ya know, let’s take Birk to Seattle Center for public execution (what was the cute Pulp Fiction line) get medieval on his ass…um…yeah
seriously though
Lying to the media should be fully encouraged!
Lying to the media is a beautiful thing!
Lying to the media is the last hope for society’s sanity!
May all future statements to the media be lies!
God!
Please please let this happen!!!
@17 – I don’t expect cops not to make mistakes. But I don’t think they should always escape accountability, either. Lethal response is appropriate at times, sure. But when it’s clearly not – and I don’t mean just in retrospect – they should be jailed.
Maybe that would make them needlessly hesitant in a dire situation, but that seems like the lesser evil. It at least might stop them from shooting the kid armed with a TV remote.
Mentioning nuance and going on and on about a remark about a police state?
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
@ Naive White Libtarded Seattle Progressive, You had it with #10, You lost it with #12.
#12 is straight outta The Conservative think-tank playbook. They have entire media broadcasting networks devoted to the sole purpose of attacking those they disagree with.
Having said that, Let me re-phrase what I think you mean: Motivation away from pain is stronger than action towards pleasure. The Conservative/NeoCon/Right/Republican/fill-in-the-blank capitalize on ignorance half truths anger & fear. That’s HOW they win. Thats how we had 2 terms of Pres. Ray-gun, 1 Bush, A conservative House & Senate during Clinton, & 2 more terms of Bush II. They do the metaphorical equivalent to telling someone a burner is hot. When people realize the burner isn’t hot, the Democrats come along offering a hug and a warm blanket.
Yeah, it’s nice, but unless your feelings are REALLY hurt or you REALLY need a blanket ’cause you’re REALLY flippin’ cold, action is harder to come by. Out of 28-30 years prior to Obama, We’ve had 1 Democratic president, and the last time Dems had control of both houses was 1994.
I for one, see the playbook.
How much are you paid to post here?
@ 25, the poster you’re addressing is a long-term troll who was forced to register because most of us keep unregistered comments hidden. Don’t waste your time.
@21,
Yes, and there’s never been a “true” libertarian state either. It doesn’t matter because even the intermediate states that have existed have demonstrated how corrupt, useless, and morally bankrupt both systems are.
@Naive White Libtarded Seattle Progressive
My point is: Your point is moot, off topic AND demonstratively false.
Their inability to keep power is undeniably true. The fault is not with the wielding, it’s human nature survival instinct doesn’t work in their favor.
Thanks Matt from Denver. I figured as much. I’ll not be responding further to him. I still think he might be paid to post here by somebody.
There has, however, been exactly one true Christian. But they nailed him to a cross.
@21: “…and until the Williams shooting, those sins were very minimal…”.
Please define “very minimal”.
@ 27, that wasn’t the point, so I’m not sure what you’re driving at, exactly.
@ 31, please don’t cross-examine me. If you have something to say, say it.
gee… the sad part is that they couldn’t even defend Marxism from an unpaid intern. I could teach ’em a couple of things.
@32: Do you consider police conduct during WTO, the beating of Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes and the planting of drugs on a dude in a wheelchair “very minimal” sins? I don’t.
@ 34 Marxism and Communism, as practiced by the Soviet Union and China, are not the same thing. Perhaps you should research that fact before you try to teach anyone anything.
@Matt Luby and other critics out here. You all have a lot to say against people who are uniting to fight police brutality. So are you for the police murdering unarmed people and getting away with it? Are you for the police killing 7 year old, Aiyana Stanley Jones who was sleeping on the couch with her grandmother at the time? Are you for the police killing 20 year old David Young in Federal Way who was unarmed and driving a truck that police thought was stolen? What do you have to say about John Williams a native carver who was shot 4 times in the side by the police? What about Oscar Grant, who was shot in the back while face down on a platform.
If you are going to defend this, than I and many others would rather join with communists, anarchists any day than you and the police. Yesterday, people came together from all kind of political perspectives, from all different ages and from all different background to demand justice. It was a beautiful thing. This article was shallow and weak.
P.S. McCarthyism is soooo 1950’s
The organizers seem to have very low self-esteem, where they’re not very discerning on who shows to their protest: they’ll take pretty much anyone. Anyone putting together a protest against police brutality should be aware it’s a dog-whistle call to the anarcho-thugs & insano-marxists. The kind of people no one w/ any sense will listen to, beyond pure curiosity factor. The whole thing will be dead on arrival.
If the people behind this were at all serious, and not operating from the charlie brown “why’s everybody always picking on me” attitude, they would focus their protest from “all police brutality” to the specific recent questionable acts of SPD. They’d also have a list of understandings, basic assumptions about America & it’s police force that all speakers need to adhere to. The sort of assumptions that would immediately disqualify the shrill, the extremist, the bandanna-faced folks from appearing. Instead of a silly exercise in shouting & pouting, they should have specific & practical goals.
@Matt Luby and other critics out here. You all have a lot to say against people who are uniting to fight police brutality. So are you for the police murdering unarmed people and getting away with it? Are you for the police killing 7 year old, Aiyana Stanley Jones who was sleeping on the couch with her grandmother at the time? Are you for the police killing 20 year old David Young in Federal Way who was unarmed and driving a truck that police thought was stolen? What do you have to say about John Williams a native carver who was shot 4 times in the side by the police? What about Oscar Grant, who was shot in the back while face down on a platform.
If you are going to defend this, than I and many others would rather join with communists, anarchists any day than you and the police. Yesterday, people came together from all kind of political perspectives, from all different ages and from all different background to demand justice. It was a beautiful thing. This article was shallow and weak.
P.S. McCarthyism is soooo 1950’s
You jackoffs diddling around with your marxist and anarchist twaddle are at least as guilty in these police killings as the most complacent citizen. At least those saying nothing aren’t making it worse by making protesters look like retards. There are grownups trying to put a stop to police violence and you dumbfucks are in the way.
It was a great Rally and March. Loved the crowd chant of “Unite to Fight” after people were interrupting the speakers. If people can call for review boards, and more training, then for damn sure we need to have someone talking about the need for revolution. I think the diversity of the political views and demographics was it’s strength. I agree Laurell1, red-baiting is passe, as-is the left-critic hack. There is much to be angry and indignant about with all the crimes of this system… why critique people who are actually trying the change it.
And checking your Mao stats would also be advised…
Man, and then he shakes hands with the cops… DAMN!
@ laurell1 — I’m going to assume you were a rally organizer or at least an active participant. Did you even read my post? Or did you just come here expecting everyone from the media to be intrinsically opposed to your rally? Because I went to the rally as an active supporter of your cause. I’m a voluntaryist or a market anarchist, whatever you want to call me. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to call bullshit on people when I see them doing stupid or inconsistent shit.
Try reading the post next time. Maybe then you won’t alienate members of the media who actually support your cause. Oh, and the McCarthyism bullshit, really? Do you even understand what that means? I was opposing communism for being violent, not because I’m some sort of nationalist. Maybe you should stop organizing rallies if you can’t even keep up with this post.
@ 16 — See above. Could I have asked a tougher question of the cops? Yeah, I could have. I’m sorry that I am a little bit afraid of cops and this was my first time talking to them like this. Please show up with your notepad and ask them tough questions next time.
@ 17 — It’s not on the same magnitude here, for sure, but America exhibits a lot of worrying police state trends. It isn’t just brutality, it’s cops covering up for other cops, it’s the TSA and the DHS turning our airports into East Berlin, it’s ICE cops being able to check your papers within ten miles of the border, etc. No, things are not as bad as they were in the USSR, not even close. That doesn’t mean they aren’t bad.
@ 34 — Wanna have a debate? I’m down.
Worrying trends, Matt? There have been a lot of worrying incidents — to many. But worrying trends? No, that’s historically incorrect. The trend over the last 100+ years has been in the opposite direction, away from police brutality and towards accountability. The lynchings of the early 20th Century, the McCarthy era, civil rights era killings, FBI gestapo tactics… It used to be far worse than now.
That record of success is all the more reason to keep working to make it better. It’s proof that we’re not wasting our time. But the trend is not worrying; the *trend* is reassuring.
And the fact that we’re winning is all the more reason not to lose your shit and go all Chairman Mao.
@ Unpaid intern. (1) You didn’t write any damn thing about opposing police brutality so how is it supposed to be clear that you support the cause. You shook hands with the cops! You probably aren’t even aware that one of the cops that was at the protest has been harrassing and threatening John William’s family and you possibly shook hands with him. Did you even talk to any of the fucking families who were there speaking, that poured their hearts out about how they have lost their children? If you were there to actually stop and raise awareness about police brutality, wouldn’t that have a made a really important and heartfelt interview? (2) You never answered any of the the thing I posed. Are you for the police killing innocent people or not? Should cop that murdered John Williams be held accountable?
As for McCarthyism, the history of that was an attempt to intimidate and divide progressive people by bullying, lying and distorting reality in order to make people fearful of associating with communists. Considering your post has nothing but hearsay and you provide no real evidence for your accusations, I would say you and Joe McCarthy have some things in common. And anybody who has actually READ what the RCP has written can see that you don’t know what you are talking about and you sure as fuck don’t know what communism is.
… Go ahead, read what they have to say. Then we can have some real intellectual discourse.
@laurel1–re: these families who have “lost their children” at the hands of the police–who exactly were these victims? Have there been more 3 than questionable deaths-by-police in the last 5 years? Because I honestly don’t remember one beyond this Indian guy, sad as that is. To be honest, you come off as a little bit hysterical, and Unpaid Intern comes off as reasonable and genuinely motivated by a spirit of inquiry.
So, I was at the Day Break Star meeting between the First Nation and the SPD. Before things got going, I observed known members of the RCP circling the periphery like antsy hawks. And get this, whenever there was some sort of opportunity to shout, they shouted. Now, these were white people. As a person of color, I took this to be very disrespectful. They were at a Native event when the grief was still raw in our hearts, and they were shouting violent words from the periphery, trying to shape and diverge the event to suit their own purposes. It is well known that they role play these situations, practicing what it is that they will shout. How do I know this? Because I have infiltrated their ranks. I am actually in the FBI. Just kidding.
OR AM I?
Lolz, you cwazy commies.
So, I was at the Day Break Star meeting between the First Nation and the SPD. Before things got going, I observed known members of the RCP circling the periphery like antsy hawks. And get this, whenever there was some sort of opportunity to shout, they shouted. Now, these were white people. As a person of color, I took this to be very disrespectful. They were at a Native event when the grief was still raw in our hearts, and they were shouting violent words from the periphery, trying to shape and diverge the event to suit their own purposes. It is well known that they role play these situations, practicing what it is that they will shout. How do I know this? Because I have infiltrated their ranks. I am actually in the FBI. Just kidding.
OR AM I?
Lolz, you cwazy commies.
@ 35, the WTO was a unique situation involving many different police departments. But yes, like the Mardi Gras riots, the SPD fucked up by not being prepared for it. As far as the others, compared to police agencies that do routinely beat and murder suspects (think LAPD or NYPD c. 1990, if not today – or hell, look at King County Sheriff’s Dept for that matter), then yes, that’s minimal. Note that I didn’t say non-existent.
Matt
Unlike the NYPD, the SPD and the City has been unwilling to do any serious structural inquiry into police brutality and corruption in its midst–seattle versions of the Knapp and Mollen Commissions which are highly needed when you consider some of the crap that has gone down–i.e. Alley Barnes beating, Tasering of a 16 yr old in sea tac, the Raymond Nix beating, Mexican Piss abuse, and the Williams shooting.
@ 50, I’m not sure but I’m going to guess that those commissions were convened after some serious incidents like the guy who was raped in jail with broomhandles. Which is not to say that Seattle should wait for things to get that bad, but it should raise the question as to whether things are headed that way.
The “Mexican piss” incident was fucked, and the Mayor and SPD did a bad job with that one so far. Were the other incidents done by the SPD? Sea-Tac’s not in their bailiwick.
@laurel1: I know it’s difficult for you to understand, but it is possible to be simultaneously against police brutality AND think you and your ilk are ridiculous and ineffectual. That you are *trying* to change something doesn’t mean you’re actually doing any good, in particular when you can’t be bothered to come up with real solutions and instead insist on your bullsh*t radical revolution nonsense.
Am I the only one that sort of wants to see you people try to overthrow the shackles of the capitalist machine? All 10 of you in your self-righteous rage? Might be fun.
Hate is a strong word, but why when police brutality is brought up it’s always with the “omg quit hating on the cops”. It’s like saying “bankers aren’t the real problem, it’s all those people drinking their koolaid”. Put down the koolaid and let’s deal with the issue, let’s not just dismiss it because an overwhelming majority of police officers are amazing at their jobs, the people who abuse the public trust should be punished and called out. When I say “police brutality” I’m not talking about the officers who risk their lives to save others, I’m talking about the power tripping racist steroid heads that every single police officers knows exists. They don’t make up some kind of special cliche, they don’t conspire with each other, they don’t normally plan to be so brutal, it’s just a reality that needs to be faced. I know the police are great people who just want a better place for their kids, why are my motives questioned when I question a brutal cop?
It’s a shame this is the only article other than Dan’s articles in the top 10.
I had a very interesting discussion Saturday afternoon at Gasworks Park with some local African-Americans and it confirmed my suspicion that the white folks on Capitol Hill and north of the Ship Canal just don’t get what reality is like for people who aren’t white and privileged.
And, yeah, you are – even if you think you’re not.
Will, is the reality many Seattle white folks don’t get concern the problem of police brutality toward people of color, or concern about broader issues of discrimination in many facets of life against people of color in the puget sound?
Unpaid intern (Matt)- you go to a police brutality protest as a reporter but your “report” has no real reportage. You claim to be a “supporter of the cause” of protesting police brutality, but your blog instead amounts to a slam of the protest itself and an attack on communists who played a prominent role in mobilizing people to fight against police brutality and murder. As someone reporting on this, one would at the very least expect you to convey the actual stories that were vividly and movingly brought forward by family members of those killed by police. For instance, the speech by David Young’s mother who told how her son was killed by police after his car was pinned against a fence, and then the police lied that he “tried to run them over”. Or you could have told readers about the circumstances of the murder of Aiyana Stanley Jones- 7 years old, shot through the door by Detroit police when they raided the wrong apartment, and no cop got charged or tried, as well as many others that came out at the protest. But nothing of substance on these atrocities is mentioned in your report. Instead you basically cover up this reality, shaking the cops hands and declaring, “it is easy to hate an abstraction, but much harder to despise fellow human”. Even KIRO did better than you, which isn’t saying much.
Instead of an honest report, you fall all over yourself to seize the opportunity to rant against communism and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Here, we’re treated to the same skewed and stereotypical viewpoint repeated ad nauseum by “western scholars” to the point it has become accepted as the “common wisdom” with little or no actual critical examination. We’re told Mao killed 65 million, without any back up or evidence- I guess if you say it, it must be true? Responding to such stuff requires way more space than is available here but I encourage those who do want to critically examine and think about this beyond such simple (and wrong stuff) to check out Maoist intellectual Raymond Lotta’s website http://raymondlottatour.blogspot.com/. Lotta has recently toured campuses in the U.S. taking on all comers in his speaking tour- “Everything You’ve Been Told About Communism is Wrong, Capitalism is a Failure, Revolution is the Solution”. In relation to China, the actual history of the socialist period in China (which is now a capitalist country) was primarily one of tremendous advances in the situation of the majority of people, such as life expectancy, literacy rate, the position of women and the participation of the poorest and most dispossessed people in the administering of society. Secondarily, there were real problems and errors in this experience, and it’s actually Bob Avakian, the RCP’s leader that has been digging in to these errors and developing an approach to do much better in the next wave of communist revolution.
If you ask Katherine Macduff, Mental Health Counselor for Washington’s DSHS, the shooting of John T. Williams was completely justified and anyone who thinks otherwise (such as the large masses of protestors gathered in downtown Seattle in recent weeks) are suffering from severe mental illness and need to be put into treatment ASAP. Is it just me or does Dr. Macduff sound a little like Muammar Gaddafi?