It's almost midnight. We're still streaming on Instagram!
Its almost midnight. Were still streaming on Instagram!
It’s almost midnight. We’re still streaming on Instagram!

We’re experimenting with Slog AM/PM formats as we meet the present moment. Today, Slog PM will work as a live blog starting at noon. The most recent updates will be at the top of the post.

Our small, mighty, and local team is working hard to bring you coverage from Seattle’s ongoing protests and policy discussions in response to the killing of George Floyd. If you are able, please consider supporting our work.

We’ve reached a new day: It’s now AM. So let’s build out a new post here. Updates coming.

We’re still going at 11th and Pine: The crowd has remained peaceful all night, minus one incident when what appeared to be a few plastic bottles were thrown at police, who then issued a warning.

Omari Salisbury, the citizen journalist who captured this incredible moment on Monday, was allowed behind police line and is walking with Chief Carmen Best right now. Watch the stream on Facebook here. Salisbury and Best walked to the frontline to show SPD’s POV during the protests. A protester down there with a bullhorn, who has been leading some of the chants, invited Best to “say his name,” and she obliged, saying, “George Floyd!” She later told Salisbury, “We can’t have people throwing stuff…One or two is too many,” referring to thrown bottles that have in part sparked police to launch tear gas, blast balls, and to fire rubber bullets into the crowd.

10:30 PM


Chief Carmen Best showed up: She wants to meet peace with peace, apparently.

We’ve pivoted to live-streaming on Instagram: Watch it here. Currently there’s some tension on 11th and Pine about whether or not the group should split up. Some people are leaving.

A pic from another group in the area: via Crosscut’s Mason Bryan.

9:30 PM


Here’s Mayor Durkan tonight interviewing with Joni Balter for Civic Cocktail: We haven’t been able to watch it, but Seattle Times notes that Durkan said the city needs to get better at deescalation, specifically at the end of protests. “What we’ve seen is at the end of the night, when people need to disperse, we need to work on how we do it, because it has not ended well any night,” Durkan told Balter.

Big cheers down on 11th and Pine: Just as this alert hits phones.

7:30 PM


Digital Editor Chase Burns is going live from Stranger World Headquarters: Follow his live stream here. We take that back—streams are getting funky due to the crowds. Jasmyne has one up here, also a little blurry, but she’s got great commentary. She used to do radio! We’ll upload separate, cleaner clips. Follow along live on our Instagram. A warning was issued by SPD.

Durkan does away with the curfew order citing her and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best’s meeting with organizers earlier today.

6 PM

There’s a community aid station at Vermillion on 11th Ave: From the looks of it they are offering water, medical supplies, masks, gloves, goggles, sunscreen, food, a public restroom, and more. It’s coordinated by the Capitol Hill Arts District, who said they “stand in solidarity” with the protestors.

Downtown protest has joined Capitol Hill protest: Seattle Times reporters Sydney Brownstone and Dahlia Bazzaz are on the scene. Brownstone describes the mood as “festive.” Journalist Elizabeth Turnbull shows people throwing flower petals at the feet of police. I’m sure that’ll show up on the scanner.

Durkan releases statement on Seattle’s decision to maintain federal oversight of Seattle Police Department: The Mayor praised herself and police for the bulk of a statement in favor of a “pause” in the city’s request to slip out of the majority of the consent decree. “We need to have community-led a conversation on where they believe the Court should have oversight and where oversight is appropriately moved to the Office of the Inspector General, the Community Police Commission, and the Office of Police Accountability,” she said.

Ongoing coverage:
  • Catch up on this morning’s Slog AM: Seattle police use tear gas, Durkan announces several day curfew, and a noted bigot loses a primary.
  • Read Rich Smith’s overview of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County’s current demands for Seattle.
  • Here’s a rundown of Monday’s umbrella incident.
  • Lisa Herbold wants to prevent SPD from covering badge numbers.
  • Here’s how to protect yourself from tear gas.
  • And how to message people at protests even without internet access.
  • Inslee addresses police brutality protests.
  • Here’s a guide to resistance events, black-owned restaurants, and other ways to stand against racism in Seattle.

    5 PM

    Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal calls for an end to curfews, the National Guard’s presence in the streets, and the use of chemical weapons on protestors: In a press release Jayapal “urged” state and local officials to nix the bullshit preemptory curfews Mayor Jenny Durkan and other city leaders have imposed across the state, describing them as “incursions on civil liberties and the Constitutional rights of people to protest and assemble peaceably.” Jayapal added that she has “not seen evidence that curfews continue to be necessary in the city of Seattle.” She also doesn’t see any reason for the National Guard to be reinforcing police barricades, nor for the police to use “tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash bangs on our neighbors who are powerfully speaking out and standing up against police brutality, racism, white supremacy and anti-Blackness.”

    Quick tangent: Today, the Seattle Public Library was named the 2020 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year.

    Mayor Jenny Durkan booed off the steps of City Hall after promising to make cops take the mourning strip off their badges but saying it “won’t happen overnight.” The crowd chanted “Nikkita for Mayor, Nikkita for Mayor!” referring to activist and former mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver as Durkan walked back inside, vowing to center “all voices.”

    4 PM

    Activists and Nikkita Oliver are having a live-streamed meeting with Mayor Durkan: They’re taking turns talking to Durkan and Chief Carmen Best. Activist Evana Enabulele listed their demands: defund the Seattle police department, fund community-based health and safety, and don’t prosecute protesters. “We are peaceful,” Enabulele said. She also urged the mayor to go outside to address the crowds of protesters who at City Hall. Durkan agreed. She’s on her way to speak to protesters now.

    !!! Also this, breaking: Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes will withdraw Seattle’s motion to slip the bulk of the consent decree, meeting one of the five demands Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County issued this morning. Seattle City Councilmember Lorena González broke the news during a Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

    “The last five days have shown us that, as it relates to our use of force policies, we may not be ready to go it alone without the court’s supervision, and without the ongoing assessment of how we’re putting into practice our use of force policies,” she said. “I want to encourage my colleagues to be open to ongoing conversations about how the consent decree plays into these broader accountability issues. No single system is going to address the underlying current of distress and the issues of mistrust that are at play here. Similarly, a consent decree is not going to save our community. A bureaucratic technical legal case is not what’s going to help with healing and unity and preventing the wrongful killing of Black Americans in our community and across the country.”

    More on the consent decree from David Kroman at Crosscut here.

    3 PM

    Great shots from the Defund Seattle Police March & Rally for Black Lives, currently moving west on James. Follow Alex Garland on Twitter:

    Obama spoke to the nation and its mayors today at a round-table event with former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. He’s calling on every mayor to review use-of-force policies and enact police reform. Here’s a clip, below. Apologies for all of these tweets and embeds, but there are so many video updates today.

    That special Seattle City Council public safety committee is popping: Some updates.

    I-5 is shut down again due to protests: Protestors have not been entering I-5 on the majority of days. This seems to be done as a precaution as the groups move between downtown and Capitol Hill.

    2 PM


    Big crowds gathered in Cal Anderson Park for the Defund Seattle Police March & Rally for Black Lives: The Daily‘s Jake Goldstein-Street is a good account to follow on the ground. I’m working from home at the moment but will be near Cal Anderson tonight for coverage.

    An emergency order that requires Washington state health insurers waive copays and deductibles for COVID-19 testing has been extended for 30 more days. Here is Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s statement.

    ACLU files a class-action lawsuit against Minnesota authorities for shooting, beating, and gassing over a dozen journalists.

    Here’s Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announcing second-degree murder charges against Derek Chauvin, which was originally reported on by the Star Tribune earlier this morning.

    1 PM


    Three more Minneapolis police officers have been charged relating to the death of George Floyd. Former officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng now face charges of aiding and abetting murder. The murder charge against officer Derek Chauvin has been elevated to second-degree murder.

    Seattle’s East Precinct is currently quiet: We’ll see how things change tonight.

    12 PM


    The Seattle City Council is holding a special public meeting right now: Watch below. Council President Lorena González outlined the agenda in a tweet last night. The Seattle Times‘ Daniel Beekman tweeted out a more in-depth agenda. It’s going to be a long one. Stranger‘s Nathalie Graham will have a post covering it on the blog tomorrow morning.

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will elevate the murder charges against Derek Chauvin: Ellison is expected to make the announcement soon.

    Trump wants to move the GOP convention: “The night the President accepts the [Republican] nomination will not happen in Charlotte,” a Republican National Convention official told CNN. Republicans have made it clear that they won’t let coronavirus concerns hinder their convention.

    Black Lives Matter Seattle/King County held a press conference at 9:15 a.m.: You can watch it below. Stranger‘s Rich Smith has an overview of their demands for Seattle here, but TL;DR: 1. Quit trying to wiggle out of federal oversight. 2. End the curfew, which creates cyclical protests. 3. Make protest cops turn on body cams and keep badge numbers visible. 4. Create a “de-escalation team.” 5. Cut the budget for cops and increase the budget for social services.

    • Rich Smith is The Stranger's former News Editor. He writes about politics, books, and performance. You can read his poems at www.richsmithpoetry.com

    Jas Keimig is a former staff writer at The Stranger, where they covered visual art, film, stickers, and culture.

    Chase Burns is The Stranger's former editor. He's covered everything from gay luchadores to chemical weapons to Isabella Rossellini's favorite pets.