On Wednesday, prosecutors filed no charges against two protesters arrested for felony assault by Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers during a pro-Palestine protest outside the World Trade Center Seattle last Friday. The lack of charges seems to support claims from protesters that SPD overreacted to the demonstration, as does the fact that, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, SPD itself said the department might not have a felony case against either defendant. However, the department said Thursday they were still investigating the protesters.
SPD said demonstrators used people and cars to block the entrances and exits into a parking lot and a garage of the World Trade Center and the Waterfront Marriott Hotel and ignored orders to move. However, protesters described their response as cooperative and said the cops escalated the situation.
According to two of the organizations present at the demonstration, the UW Progressive Student Union (UWPSU) and the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, cops did not clearly warn protesters before rushing them and aiming pepper ball guns at the crowd. Though no one reported watching SPD shoot the pepper balls, several witnesses said they experienced eye irritation similar to the effects of pepper spray.
SPD policy allows cops to use pepper balls to disperse a crowd so long as they can prove that protesters caused a traffic disturbance that could have resulted in “imminent harm” to demonstrators or to members of the public. Organizers pointed out that videos show protesters separated to either side of the sidewalk to give space for tow trucks to enter the parking lot. SPD said the department is reviewing officers response to the protest.
One series of video clips from the demonstrators shows cops rushing the protesters. At some point during that process, 62-year-old high school teacher Linda Bevis, who appeared to be standing on the sidewalk, was knocked down. The video shows officers helping her up only to arrest her. Officers tried to book her into jail, but a nurse who examined her there told them to take Bevis to the hospital because she had a large lump on her head. In an interview, she said she’s still not clear why officers put her in the paddy wagon and dragged her to King County Jail before releasing her.
SPD officers arrested Bevis and three other protestors that evening. The jail released one of the protesters right away, and prosecutors have not filed charges against that person. The jail held the other two protesters for more than 24 hours after finding probable cause for felony assault charges.
In charging documents, officers described the two alleged assaults. In the first, officers said the protester had shoulder-checked SPD Officer Erik Eastgard hard enough that he injured his knee. Witnesses said the protester had simply run into Eastgard while running away from the irritant that cops released. SPD has still not sent prosecutors their investigation into that arrest.
In the other case, charging documents said that a protester shoved SPD Sgt. Matt Newsome multiple times before he arrested them for felony assault. That protester captured their arrest on camera. In the video, the cameraperson appears to walk down a street while filming police as they direct another protester to the sidewalk. Officer Newsome then spots the cameraperson and approaches them. When the protester sticks out their arm, Newsome says “don’t touch me” and threatens to take the person to jail if they touch him again. The camera then starts jostling around. Another angle of that arrest shows officers appearing to dogpile on the person shortly after they stick out their arm.
A compilation of videos UWPSU posted on social media also show footage of an officer stabbing a protester’s tire. One clip shows an officer appearing to wave a driver forward just as another cop runs up to the van and stabs its back wheel.
SPD’s official account of the incident acknowledges deflating tires, though it did not mention anything about pepper balls, which several demonstrators reported seeing. SPD declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations.
Demonstrators say they’re considering all potential legal avenues against the police and demand a full investigation into the police response to the protest. They’ve also asked for SPD to fire the commanding officer at the protest.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include the fact that SPD plans to review the response by officers to the protest and to clarify that prosecutors may still file charges.
Take not being prosecuted as a win; don’t sue the SPD and drag this pointless shit out years.
“Demonstrators say they’re considering
all potential legal avenues against
the police and demand a full
investigation into the police
response to the protest.”
were it up to the Po-po
they’d prefer we’d keep
our “opinions” all to our-
Selves. that’s just so much
Easier for them & the Status
Quo who’ve never even Heard of
a War they couldn’t get Way behind.
“They’ve also
asked for SPD to fire
the commanding officer at the protest.”
good for Them.
@1:
What exactly is “pointless” about this? Are you saying citizens shouldn’t even attempt to hold SPD accountable when they pull this kind of Punk-Ass Shit? It’s people refusing to stand up to them that gives them the impetus to CONTINUE to pull this PAS.
@1 Take it as a “win” that they were not prosecuted (after doing nothing wrong) just arrested and jailed, and don’t seek accountability from the people who violated their Constitutional rights? Seems unAmerican
@5 and yet
Wormtongue’ll
Always give You a
Free Pass for Miscat-
egorizing a word you cannot
properly define. he’s ‘funny,’ that way.
keep trying.
@5 felonies charges were an overreach. Misdemeanors are appropriate and I hope to see charges filed soon. No jail but fines and community service would be great.
@5 is once again showing they are a horrible person. Do you even know what terrorism means?
Protesting is protected by the FIRST amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Not that anyone in this country acts like it.
I lived in NYC on 9/11.
We have learned NOTHING.
All of the trauma we are paying for with hundreds of billions of American taxpayers to aid, abet, arm, and fund the genocide of Palestinians in their own country is going to come whip lashing back against all of us and we deserve everything that happens to us.
Our own government has chosen violence against its own people, even writing legislation where Americans will serve prison time for boycotting Zion, protesting against Zionist terrorism, and daring to speak out against national or international slaughter of human beings.
Meanwhile, our own people are slaughtered every day by guns, because this country, a death cult of the highest orders, will do nothing about guns. The shooting at the after parade of the Super Bowl had EIGHT HUNDRED ARMED POLICE OFFICERS and not one of them stopped anyone from getting shot. NOT ONE.
What is happening in Palestine, at the hands of Zionists, paid for by American taxpayer dollars, witnessed by the entire world that sits by and does nothing, is the most evil thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
I hope Israel gets wiped off the face of the earth and that the United States is thoroughly destroyed (most likely from within) as well.
Human beings have no humanity. All of humanity is dead already.
Time to finish the job and end the world as we know it.
It’s the only option for the rest of the life on this planet to have even a fraction of chance of survival.
@9: Meds need adjustment again, eh?
Watching something on a screen, from a nice, safe distance, is not “witnessing” it.
Palestinian Arabs had a choice, to live in peace with Israelis. They chose war. They chose war several times. They suffer the consequences of choosing war and death over peace and life.
But, please, continue fantasizing about violence and death against your fellow humans, your fellow Americans. It’s exactly what we deserve for not agreeing with you, right?
“Palestinian Arabs
had a choice, to live
in peace with Israelis.
They chose war.”
–@Wormtongue,
oh so Causally equating
Palestinians under Both Israeli
AND Hamas’ Control — as if Hamas
allowed Palestinians to Vote since 2007
or even Bothered to seek their opinion on
ANYTHING — but here’s the Deal, numbnutz:
Hamas is a Terrorist Organization
who DONT GIVE A FLYING FUCK
WHAT Gazans have to say
seems like even
you oughtta
Know That
by fucking
now. now
go Back
to your
Grammar Naziing.
it’s Truly the sole
thing you’re
‘good’ at.
“Watching
something
on a screen,
from a nice,
safe distance,
is not ‘witnessing’ it.”
–@even more wormmy
resident co-Apologist
for Genocide
what IS being Witnessed
by the whole fucking Planet
& oh so Easily dismissed by you
is a Genocidal Action IN REAL TIME
on, yes,
Screens!
and
the World is
Rapidly running
the Fuck Outta Patience
with Nutnyahoo’s wantonly
Murderous campaign of Terror.
here’s a little “quote”:
“There is
NEVER any
Justification for
Terrorism. fucking EVER.”
–@you
paraphrased
in the Rarest of
moments of Lucidity.
@11: I was referring to 1948 and 1967; choosing Hamas immediately after Israel removed all settlers from Gaza (!) was just icing on the war cake.
“…is a Genocidal Action IN REAL TIME…”
What definition of “genocide” do you use here, and how does it differ from the one given in the Genocide Convention, upon which the ICJ relies? Because the only thing anyone knows about your definition is that it differs from the one given in the Genocide Convention, in ways you persistently refuse to specify.
@13 what do you know about the history of the region prior to 1948? Are you aware Jews illegally immigrated there en masse, and conducted terror operations against the then-government, who rewarded them by giving them territory that had previously belonged to someone else (guess who)?
Zionists chose war before the even was a State of Israel. Their hands aren’t clean.
@13
all Grammar
nazis Know the
difference between
adjectives & Nouns.
the
intelligent
ones leastways.
yet another
Fail. try
try A-
gain.
@14: At the start of the Stranger’s flagrant abuse of the word “genocide,” I noted there were few clean hands in the Arab-Israeli conflict. That proved insufficiently simplistic for the Stranger and supporting commenters to comprehend, and so was ignored, thus bolstering that statement’s claim to truth.
In 1948, for the expiring British Mandate in Palestine, the United Nations created a plan for a Jewish State and an Arab State. The Israelis, including some Palestinian Arabs, accepted; the rest of the Palestinian Arabs attacked, in alliance with five other Arab countries. The Palestinian Arabs who chose war, lost. The Palestinian Arabs who chose peaceful coexistence became Arab Israelis, and have enjoyed all of the rights, privileges, and immunities of Israeli citizenship. There is a simple and stark lesson in the disparate political fates of that one people.
@17 Imagine some random person came into your house and set up shop on your living room couch. You called 911, and when the police arrived they announced that henceforth you would share the house, the intruder occupying the living room and you having your bedroom and kitchen. The intruder excitedly accepts this arrangement, obviously. If you refused would it be fair for outsiders to hold that against you?
damn.
more people
lacking Wormtongue’s
“mastery” of thee English Language:
nyt:
Prominent
Black Church
Leaders Call for
End of U.S. Aid to Israel
African African Methodist Episcopal
Church Bishops Council leaders said
American financial assistance to
help Israel fight in Gaza sup-
ported “mass genocide.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/us/ame-church-us-israel-aid.html
gosh
wormy
seems like
you gotchyur
Dirty Work cut
Out for ya. Good luck!
Little buddy.
remember:
BiBi Appre-
ciates You!
@18
it’s
merely
“Domicide
Lite.” of Course!
wormmy’s fine with it.
he
Loves
good Company!
@18: I’m not exactly sure what Seattle’s “progressive” response to homelessness has to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, but I would agree both problems have defied progressive solutions.
The United Nations had a plan for a peaceful, two-state future for the expiring British Mandate in Palestine. Some of the inhabitants of Palestine agreed, some took up arms against. That’s the root of the modern conflict there.
from Democracy Now! :
Protest Actions
Against Israel’s Genocide
Continue Around the World
Solidarity protests with Gaza took place around the world again this weekend, including in London, England, where tens of thousands of people streamed through city streets. In India, workers with the Water Transport Workers Federation have vowed not to load or unload weapons to Israel, saying they “always stand against the war and killing of innocent people.”
In the U.S., the African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishops Council called on the Biden administration to end funding for what it called Israel’s “mass genocide.” In Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of the U.S. Congress, is urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in next Tuesday’s presidential primary to protest President Biden’s complicity in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/19/headlines/protest_actions_against_israels_genocide_continue_around_the_world
‘them Protestors
ain’t Nuthin’ but a
damn Focus Group!’
–gee dubya bush just prior to Iinvading
TWO Sovereign Nations in the Middle East
“they’re Bloody
INCONVENIENT!”
–a lotta tS’s
Commentariat
Hell —
it can only be
Genocide IF the
Genociders agree
On the Term & they’re
a Murdreous, Picky af bunch
when it comes to Grammar Naziing
butwhattabout
the Domicide?
you may ask
an Impertinent
query too Unimportant
for Serious People to address