On December 15, the Seattle Police Department summoned reporters to police headquarters for an unusual briefing. It turns out the police now have two plainclothes videographers working for them, and what those videographers captured at the December 12 West Coast port shutdown protests on Harbor Island, according to Assistant Chief Mike Sanford, runs counter to loud claims that police brutality occurred during the Occupy-connected port demonstration.

"This demonstration was in really sharp contrast to previous Occupy demonstrations that were peaceful, permitted marches," Sanford said, noting that 11 people were arrested on charges of failure to disperse, obstruction, and assaulting an officer. "This was not permitted, not peaceful."

A police spokesman then hit play, and the video started up.

It clearly showed protesters throwing road flares at officers, as well as a protester throwing something that appeared to be a large piece of plywood in the direction of officers, as if it were a Frisbee. It also showed protesters shouting plenty of "fuck yous." After the police cleared a blocked street that was the site of the biggest melee, the video shows, the roadway was littered with debris—debris that Sanford said included bricks, sharpened rebar, and bags filled with paint. One officer on the video clearly had paint splattered over his face and uniform.

Also shown in the video: minister John Helmiere, of the Valley & Mountain spiritual community in Columbia City, who said in a blog post on December 13 that police had brutalized him at the melee before arresting him on charges of obstruction.

"An officer pulled me down from behind and threw me to the asphalt," Helmiere, 29, wrote. "Between my cries of pain and shouts of 'I'm a man of peace!' he pressed a knee to my spine and immobilized my arms behind my back, crushing me against the ground. With the right side of my face pressed to the street, he repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain. I was cuffed and pulled off the ground by a different officer who seemed genuinely appalled when he saw my face and clerical collar."

Helmiere has filed a complaint with the department's Office of Professional Accountability. But the police video, which runs about five minutes in length and was edited down from about 40 overall minutes of footage, doesn't show Helmiere being brutalized. This absence of brutality is clearly part of what police were trying to get across with their press conference.

"It's important to give context to the stories people may tell," Sanford said.

Helmiere, for his part, counters that the throwing of objects by others at the protest doesn't justify what happened to him as he was standing there, arms locked with other protesters, trying to prevent cops from clearing the street.

"The idea that, even if some things were thrown, it makes it appropriate to pull down a peaceful person and then hit them in the face—that's ludicrous," Helmiere said. "I think any normal person would agree that's not necessary. It's an act of intimidation."

Helmiere also notes that the police video was released less than a day before the Department of Justice delivered a report filled with searing criticisms of the SPD's use of force.

"I think the police are trying to spin this [port protest] story and make it sound far, far worse than it was—like they were victims, when they were aggressors."