Comments

1
Looks like if the cops had done their job better last year, there might have been no masks emboldened to make smashy that federal courthouse glass. So the feds would've had no need to clumsily investigate, and no unrelated folks would have been getting jailed and mysteriously put in solitary for contempt over naming names.
2
I'm surprised that the Teamsters and other unions let the "anarchists" get away with using their labor event as cover. I'd think they'd be a little more active in preventing their march and rally from getting hijacked.
3
Really? The May Day March is going to happen on April 24?

Or did you mean it's TWO weeks from today?
4
So... police will be keeping a closer eye on demonstrators?

... yay?
5
People don't "express their First Amendment rights." People are born with the right to express themselves. The First Amendment prevents Fowler and other government staff from infringing upon that right.
6
@5, I think Fowler meant to say "exercise their first amendment rights". I know that words have meaning and all that, but keep in mind that he's a cop, not an english teacher after all.
7
As long as they hold a couple journalists responsible.
9
Well, if they send their undercover law enforcement employees to bust up property this year, they are going to have to figure out a way to incite more non-police to participate so they can actually make some arrests of black mask vandals. There has to be a limit (I hope) to how gullible the public will continue to be at the lack of arrests when there is so much live footage of lengthy acts of property destruction.
10
@6: We don't have "first amendment rights." The First Amendment restricts government. It acknowledges rights that preexisted the Bill of Rights and lays out restrictions on government in an effort to protect those rights from undue interference.

One need not be an English major to understand that this guy, like many people, think of freedom of expression as some special thing bestowed upon people by that sometimes-pesky Bill of Rights. The reality is that we already had that special thing, and it's really not so special. The Bill of Rights exists to restrain people like Fowler who wouldn't likely respect someone's inalienable to express himself were it not for explicit regulation barring government staff from infringing upon those rights.

In my mind, true First Amendment activity is public employees standing by, holding back on stopping someone from saying something they would prefer that he or she not say.
11
8, man, that's a tired old argument. Same shit was trotted out in the 60's, when black folks were marching for equal rights. You'd think people might be a little ashamed at spewing out unoriginal ideas that obviously show they don't have an original thought on the subject.
12
They're ready to mace some old ladies and hassle anyone who's not a white collar conservative.
13
@2 I don't think the Teamsters are that upset or surprised by folks acting out in such fashion. After the WTO fracas, they were buying the 'anarchists/rabble rousers' drinks at ____, laughing and commending them on their tactics. It was great to see a 'mainstream' organization expressing understanding at youthful frustrations and anger.

*Not going to name the bar in case the wrong union people are listening. Hate to get folks needlessly in trouble!
14
Anyone who's interested in local cop politics and/or SPD's policing of political demonstrations really should read the June 30, 2012, memo from Joe Kessler reviewing May Day actions. He argues for more use of OC spray because cutting back is likely to result in more injuries as cops substitute other methods of force. His contempt for Sanford shines brightly through. He's going to win this policy battle, because Sanford hot-shotted off to apprehend a window-breaker bare-handed and dress-shirted, when he blew his cool over the de-policing surrounding him and window-break-fleeing in front of him.

Every time people conflate property damage and physical harm to people by referring to this less than 20 minutes of vandalism (from 12:38 - 12:55, according to the timeline in Kessler's report) as widespread violence, they provide cover for Kessler's agenda, moving toward a city where the offense of "pedestrian interference" is punishable on-the-spot by a cop with a cannister of somewhat-mild chemical weaponry.
15
I for one look forward to the baseless and stupid conspiracy theories spouted by the commentors when something smashy or violent happens on May Day.

Glad to see it is already started.

We may even get a post stating why it is OK to destroy private property if you like, you know, feel strongly enough about something, man.
16
Either the cops do nothing, allow property to be damaged and citizens assaulted, only to be praised for their handling of the event. Or they actually do something about it and pepper spray the anarchist, arrest them and a few innocent people (wearing masks?) then get blamed for over use of force.

SPD are kinda fucked no matter what happens. Maybe the mayor will give them more freedom in their rules of engagement?
17
@16: I didn't notice anything in Kessler's report about assault being committed, attempted, or thwarted. Can you accept that there is a difference between property damage and causing harm to people?

Kessler, representing the Rich-O'Neill-style "we wouldn't have these problems if people just did what police tell them to do" policing, never wrote in his report that Sanford's "no pepper spray to gain compliance," "mingle in the crowd un-threateningly," and "spot the wrongdoing then carefully arrest just those people" plan was unsound. He wrote that there was not adequate preparation and communication, and that the SWAT and SAT units didn't have the right not-quite-street-clothes, not-quite-riot-gear, clothes to wear. But Kessler wants to be in charge, and Sanford failed to do the political groundwork needed to implement his plan last year, so Sanford is being thrown under the bus, and future political demonstrations here will be flanked by a hundred paramilitary cops on overtime pay.
18
"SPD are kinda fucked no matter what happens. Maybe the mayor will give them more freedom in their rules of engagement?"

Here is the crux of the problem. The police are only fucked if they completely botch the job by doing too little or too much. If they actually do their jobs properly, then the violent and smashy smashy types get arrested for being violent and smashing things, and everyone who is there to march gets to march unimpeded and unintimidated. The problems start when the police either treat everyone as a violent smasher or fail to hold the real violent smashers accountable.
Policing is not an on/off switch. There is an appropriate response to the situation and professional police should be able to realize what it is and implement it.
19
Today, I filed a records request for the following records related to last year's May Day response:


"May Day 2012 Incident Commander's Review" memorandum dated June 30, 2012, from Joseph C. "Joe" Kessler #4601, along with the following records referenced in that report and all associated metadata (quotations below are Kessler's words; page number from memo is provided in parenthesis):

1. "Credible intelligence information that led [Kessler and other SPD staff] to believe that the Anarchists were going to take advantage of [El Comite Reforam Migratoria y Justica Social's and May 1st Coalition's annual May Day / Immigration March] to commit acts of violence and property destruction downtown" (p 2)
2. Invitation to 2012-04-23 meeting, sent by Michael A. "Mike" Sanford #4774 (p 3)
3. "The list of officers who had completed Undercover Training" (p 4)
4. "Photographs of all assigned plainclothes officers" (p 4, p 5)
5. "Photographs and information pertaining to all known anarchists/criminals and previously arrested `Occupy' demonstrators" (p 4)
6. "Photographs of all known/suspected anarchists and persons previously arrested during the recent `Occupy' demonstrations" (p 5)
7. Authorization for officers to enforce fire code received from SPOC 2012-05-01 11:36 (p 4)
8. All materials presented at the 2012-04-23 afternoon meeting conducted by Michael A. Sanford #4774, including but not limited to printed materials and the electronic slide show ("Powerpoint presentation") (pp 3-4)
9. E-mail sent by Debbie A. "Deb" Brown #6214 2012-04-16 - 2012-05-04 (note that metadata includes full headers and that these are electronic, not paper, records)
10. E-mail sent by Thomas O. "Tom" Mahaffey #5831 2012-04-16 - 2012-05-04 (note that metadata includes full headers and that these are electronic, not paper, records)
11. E-mail sent by Michael A. Sanford #4774 2012-04-16 - 2012-05-04 (note that metadata includes full headers and that these are electronic, not paper, records)
12. E-mail sent by Joseph C. Kessler #4601 2012-04-16 - 2012-05-04 (note that metadata includes full headers and that these are electronic, not paper, records)
13. Draft incident action plan (IAP) distributed on 2012-04-27 (p 5)
14. Final incident action plan (IAP) distributed 2012-05-01 (p 5)
15. All materials presented at the 2012-04-30 10:00 "Commanders meeting in SPOC" outlining branch missions, rules of engagement, undercover/plainclothes deployment, and pepper spray (OC) use
16. Video and still images collected on 2012-05-01 by "Additional SPD deployment [that] included civilian videographers and photographers for the event" (p 6)
17. Voice and SMS call records from Kessler and other management personnel "using cell phones to communicate to avoid giving tactical information over non encrypted airways" on 2012-05-01 07:00 - 2012-05-01 19:00 (p 12)
18. Audio recordings of event communications "on Zone 1, Tac 3" from 2012-05-01 11:00 - 2012-05-01 19:00 (p 13)
20
There is a very clear agenda from parts of the police department to overstate the damage caused by the smashers and to misstate the mistakes that were made last year. Use of the word "violence" to describe property damage and the attempt to blame the police's confused response on the DoJ investigation is part of that propaganda. Not all of the police department is engaged in this agenda, but let's call it out when we see it.

If a report is commissioned and funded by the police department, it's clearly not "independent" - words have meaning people!

I don't support property damage as a form of protest, and I think that the police have a useful role in society and should have a role in stopping property damage, but let's not overreact. Some people are suggesting (subtly and not-so-subtly) sending hundreds of body-armored, helmeted, club-wielding, gun-toting people to be "visible" at a demonstration. This is hardly an encouragement to free speech and peaceful assembly and is not the kind of policing we want in Seattle.

There is also a section in the After Action report calling for more "less lethal" equipment. The conclusion that I draw from that section is that certain members of the police department think that firing rubber bullets into a crowd where only a small number of people are causing trouble is a good idea. Any failures in policing last year would only have been made considerably worse by additional "less lethal" equipment.

The police should arrest people when they commit serious crimes, they shouldn't be intimidating demonstrators. They'd be more effective if they concerned themselves less with policing demonstrators, less with political intelligence, and less with placing undercovers in the crowd, when they should simply concern themselves with arresting the small number of criminals that sometimes attach themselves to demonstrations.

When the police do make arrests, they clearly should not use more force to effect an arrest than a judge would impose as a sentence if the person were found guilty of the crime. Since we don't punish convicted trespassers and jaywalkers with beatings and chemical weapons attacks, it's not even slightly reasonable for police to use those tactics on demonstrators engaged in those activities.

Similarly, if the supposedly liberal mayor of a supposedly liberal city needs to make emergency proclamations or claim emergency powers as the result of a small number of people smashing windows downtown, there's something deeply wrong with his sense of proportion and his sense of history. This weird desire to react to existing criminal behavior by imposing _new_ laws is a classic failure in clear thinking and he should be ashamed.

Hopefully all demonstrators will confine themselves to demonstrating rather than smashing things up this year. And hopefully the police department will behave like civilized members of a civilized society.

Cienna, did they really say that they arrested 8 for property damage last year or are you paraphrasing?
21
There is a very clear agenda from parts of the police department to overstate the damage caused by the smashers and to misstate the mistakes that were made last year. Use of the word "violence" to describe property damage and the attempt to blame the police's confused response on the DoJ investigation is part of that propaganda. Not all of the police department is engaged in this agenda, but let's call it out when we see it.

If a report is commissioned and funded by the police department, it's clearly not "independent" - words have meaning people!

I don't support property damage as a form of protest, and I think that the police have a useful role in society and should have a role in stopping property damage, but let's not overreact. Some people are suggesting (subtly and not-so-subtly) sending hundreds of body-armored, helmeted, club-wielding, gun-toting people to be "visible" at a demonstration. This is hardly an encouragement to free speech and peaceful assembly and is not the kind of policing we want in Seattle.

There is also a section in the After Action report calling for more "less lethal" equipment. The conclusion that I draw from that section is that certain members of the police department think that firing rubber bullets into a crowd where only a small number of people are causing trouble is a good idea. Any failures in policing last year would only have been made considerably worse by additional "less lethal" equipment.

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