The minister getting punched in the face REALLY implies that they are interested in protecting peaceful protesters.

A lot of what is cut out is what the police did prior to this. We know from their attempts to provoke a truck driver by blocking him early in the action that they set out to create an intentionally tense and complicated situation. Also evident in the video, too, is some of their own misdeeds (like pulling a woman by her hair at 2m54s, she had been helping successfully direct exiting traffic prior to police interference earlier).

It's galling to me that on the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, we see the SPD using provocative videos to discourage people from exercising their first amendment rights by painting protests with a broad brush. It feels like they're intentionally trying to guide the narrative. Who else are they coaching on media tactics?

This makes me wonder: first, how would this protest have borne out if the police hadn't done what they did? We saw at Terminal 5 that protesters left after the arbitrator announced the shutdown for the night. If the police had let protesters be, would there had been the tensions we see?

Finally, in all of Seattle's history of peaceful protest, we've only ever seen it devolve when the police are determined to squelch this protest. Do any of you want to live in a city where we wonder if this is a Police-approved protest? Such a weird conversation to have the night before the results of the DOJ's investigation of the SPD...

I'm confused. The police videotaped the protest, yet the police have repeatedly implied -- in some cased, flat out said -- that videotaping the police in action is a criminal offense. So the police broke the law (according to them) and actually admitted this in front of the entire local press corp?

What Ian said.

And Baconcat.

How much did it cost the SPD to pop it thru the video toaster to edit it like that? We saw the raw vids during the event.

@3 for the ARREST THEM NOW win.

@5, shake your fat fist at them, maybe that will help.

Can you do a public information request for the entire video and all the photos? Or is SPD above the law there, too?

So the SPD's position is that all the previous protests that they put down and made arrests were in fact peaceful?

No, their position is that Serfs have no Right to Protest.

Its pretty fucking clear to me that there needs to be some kind of political drug intervention with the city council and mayor as they honestly dont care what happens to the police, the city or private property. Theyre too busy falling over each other apologizing to the protesters whenever the protesters fuck up and that alone gives them all the ammunition they need to fuck shit up again. SCCC had to beg the state AG to help them, because the city refused to do anything about it.

We need to put a stop to this form of thug protest and force the city to stop rewarding such bad behavior.

I think you guys are confusing cops dealing with assholes with cops acting like assholes. It's a subtle but important difference.

Here's an example of the latter, in case the distinction isn't clear.

Publicola has had the SPD video up for awhile tonight. Pretty interesting stuff.
http://publicola.com/2011/12/15/spd-says…

@8: This afternoon, I filed a Public Records Act request for all the video.

i can't wait to see the video as i find this very hard to believe, and i was about 3 people back directly to the left of the barricade. i didn't see anyone throw anything at the police, and when i heard the news reports, i asked fellow protesters from the front and heard only that one person had thrown a flare over the line of police. of course, i had to leave right before the first flash bang went off because the police had pepper sprayed my friend in the face (for doing nothing) and i had to guide him to a medic. i saw mostly yelling people with at least one hand up in a peace sign. the seattle police have a proven record of unprovoked brutality and i guess it will take some hard unedited video of something i might have missed to convince me that this time it is a different story.

The video uploaded to the main post won't play past the 5-second point for me, but it played long enough for the "no audio" notice to be displayed. Imagine that! SPD is doesn't have sound capabilities built into their video equipment!

#16: Awesome!

Why didn't they release the full video? We already know that the SPD modis operandi is to provoke violence, are you really ready to take anything the SPD says at face value? (REALLY?!?)

Are you ready to report what really happened Eli, or just be a stenographer for the SPD?

Yes, of course. The ill-advised activities of a few justify wholesale beating the shit out of anyone who looks at you sideways. Got it.

Does anyone else smell wood burning from Nero's house?

Look at the exponential scale of violence in these protests...from a bunch of tent dwellers singing Kumbaya to people hurling rebar like harpoon.

At the same time as the Euro devalues, people see a billion in investment money evaporate, and tax revenues for WA plunge...who exactly is going to keep paying for police to act as riot control?

And now we find out how that half our country has hit the skids and is essentially poor, with negative assets and no hope of escaping the trap of high rents and low wages.

That is an army of 150 million ready to follow whichever e-Spartacus who gets up on a concrete barrier, raises his fist and shouts "What have you got to lose?"

The first part of the video showed cops plowing into protesters. Later, there is evidence of bags of paint being thrown (hard to tell how many bags despite replay). What else?

all i could see was 1 dude throwing the flag about a foot after the police pushed the harmless woman to the ground and a few small pieces of trash hurled from somewhere in the back of the crowd. the "threats" made to police officers were the young man yelling about the horse being brought into the crowd and trampling a protesters feet. (this happened just before, but in their infinite wisdom spd decided to cut out that tidbit). there were several more pd cameras going, from cars parked to the left of the line, etc. this is the best they could do to prove we were violently protesting? after seeing the video i'm not surprised i missed it even though i was right there. if you could see the force and fury the pd exhibited as they rushed, pushed, hit and grabbed people just standing there your eye certainly wouldn't have gone to a crumpled lunch bag being tossed overhead as being the most violent event of the moment. btw, i was directly beside the barricade about 3 people back and i never heard an audible order to disperse. as my car was parked in a limited time zone with a dog in it i would have moved back a bit, so go figure...

You know what? I don't normally have a lot of tolerance for "Fuck the police" attitudes but I am goddamn tired of the cops' excuses and bullshit and bullying over the Occupy protests. You're supposed to be professionals. Don't try to feed me "scary" as an excuse for brutal reprisals when you're sporting body armor, riot shields, and overwhelmingly superior armament, you dickheads. You were there to put down the protests, not keep order or "protect" anything but the status quo.

So, yeah, you know what? Fuck the police. Fuck 'em. Never helped me one damn bit when I've been burglarized, but you're always there to write me a parking ticket or tear gas my friends, aren't you?

This is disgusting. All protests are permitted under the constitution not to mention it is a human right to disagree and protest, in my opinion. Further it does not surprise me that a few rocks and sticks are thrown at cops who are aggressive. Just look at the nationwide, violent crackdown against peaceful protests. The surprising part is that these types of incidents are not more prevalent. " they brought paint" really? so fucking what. I bring paint to make signs at almost every protest. The Seattle police should be pointing the finger at whoever decided to crush the occupy movement for inciting violence.

This is disgusting. All protests are permitted under the constitution. Further, it does not surprise me that a few rocks and sticks are thrown at cops who are aggressive. Just look at the nationwide, violent, coordinated, police crackdown against peaceful protests. The surprising part is that these types of incidents are not more prevalent. " they brought paint" really? so fucking what. I bring paint to make signs at almost every protest. The Seattle police should be pointing the finger at whoever decided to crush the national occupy movement for inciting violence.

We are a non-violent movement. If we were not committed to non-violence I would not be involved because I refuse to work with any group that endorses violence.

I can not speak about the incidents police are referring to because I was not there to witness it and the videos are unclear except for the scene showing police violently arresting peaceful demonstrators.

I don't know who allegedly threw objects and I don't know if they were participants of the Occupy Seattle group but I can tell you that people who support the Occupy Wall Street movement do not condone violence. One of it's major strengths is that it is a peaceful movement.

To insinuate that the entire movement is violent based on a few isolated alleged incidents by individuals is simply unfair and inaccurate.

Police have often been overly aggressive towards demonstrators and have often escalated the situation. I think they need to understand that peaceful acts of non-violence should not be dealt with by using violence on the crowd or with violent arrests of peaceful protesters.

No violent acts are displayed in scenes one and two of the video posted on the KOMO 4 news website.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/SPD-s…

I am not sure why they put those scenes in the video. As far as I know, using profanity and blocking a street with a bicycle are not violent acts.

In scenes three and four the faces of people who allegedly threw objects are not visible so it is unclear how releasing the video will help identify any suspects.

Scene five actually documents SPD officers violently arresting peaceful demonstrators. In that scene a female protester is knocked to the ground during the arrests. I think this scene is actually incriminating the cops. Probably not a smart move on their part to release it.

1) Theory – the SPD is trying to justify their use of pepper spray, chemical gas and concussion grenades on protesters Monday. They are currently under DOJ investigation for use of excessive force. The results of that DOJ review will be released today at 9 AM. The SPD was chastised for using pepper spray on folks at Westlake Park – including Dorli Rainey. The mayor had to apologize. Last week’s headline in the Seattle Times was, “Police Chief Announces Complete Reorganization of Department”, or something like that.

2) Rather than a concern for public safety, the press conference may have been a campaign to vindicate SPD by casting OS as violent.

3) I still question justifying the use of crowd control devices on peaceful demonstrators in response to a few trouble makers.

4) Peaceful civil disobedience is not a violent act. People who commit peaceful civil disobedience should not be assaulted and violently arrested.

5) Since we don’t know who the folks were who allegedly threw objects, we can not comment on them. We don’t even know if they were OS participants, independent agitators or infiltrators. I didn’t see any clear evidence in the KOMO video of bricks or rebar being thrown.

5) We now know that there was at least one person with a camera and two other people taking video who were working with the police department that day. They were most likely dressed as a protesters or as a members of the media.

Mark Taylor-Canfield
Occupy Seattle
Media Working Group

@28

"We are a non-violent movement"

Unfortunately, a declaration of nonviolence does not make a nonviolent movement. Only a movement's actions can make it nonviolent. And so long as there are people within the movement* resorting to violent acts, and there is no attempt to expel such members, or keep them out, then you simple can not claim to be a nonviolent movement.

It's unfortunately all or nothing. This is why nonviolence requires more discipline and organization than many other forms of protest, and why it benefits so much from specific training.

 

* and yes, these people are members of the Occupy movement. They are part of the occupy movement because they are at the protests, protesting, and there is no other definition of membership. This is by design. This is a direct consequence of the 'borderless, leaderless' system of internal government used by Occupy. It also means that for this specific port Action, you yourself are not a member of Occupy, because you didn't participate.

@28 "We are a non-violent movement."

Actions speak louder than words.

@28: Thank you. That was a very helpful assessment of the ongoing narrative, and much appreciated for its clarity and overview.

"Okay, you guys, all those OTHER times, yeah, we beat up non-violent protesters, but THIS time, we swear it totally wasn't our fault."

I wonder why the DOJ says the SPD is NOT acting correctly.

Hmm.

Who to believe ....

Oh, wait, what is this Front Page story in the Seattle Times on an out-of-control SPD this morning ...

I like how this has been the same amount of violence from probably the same few people, and none of the marches have been permitted. Great job on the cognitive dissonance there, Mike Sanford. Hard to solve (real) crimes with your head that far up your ass, isn't it?

@13: If you don't like political dissent, you are free to move your ass to any number of countries that don't allow it. For the time being, our country still does.

@36

How's that appeal to authority working out for you?

"It’s scary. It’s very scary.” Also, he said: "It's very dangerous."
Well, guess what, pigs? It's very dangerous to deprive US citizens of their civil rights. The Feds are already coming down on you violent, arrogant, bigoted assholes, and if they can't make you clean up your unconstitutional act, then the body politic will. Say goodbye to your sweetheart union contracts and get ready to face the real world. Fuckers.

You know, if you want the SPD to keep escalating things, most American Citizens actually do have lots and lots of guns.

Be careful what you wish for.