SPD Can't Use Tear Gas for 30 Days

News • Film/TV • City • Animals • Cops • Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: Local Leaders Call for Durkan's Resignation, SWAT Can't Use Tear Gas for 30 Days, I'm Not a Horse Girl But...

by Chase Burns and Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 7:15 pm

TO FREEDOM!!!
TO FREEDOM!!! Petra Tänzer / Getty Images

Bad news for media outlets that use Instagram embeds: In an interview on Thursday, Facebook—who owns the social media app—said that embedding an image or video from Instagram may not protect news organizations or other for-profit sites from copyright claims. This means websites would have to get a license from the original poster before being able to embed an Instagram on their own site, potentially upending a widely held assumption that crossposting from the site did not need such an agreement.

There were horses, repeat, HORSES, at a rally organized by Africatown near 23rd and Jackson this afternoon: Their names are PJ and Chaka Khan and they are perfect. I'm not a horse girl, okay, I (Jasmyne) just love horses at protests.

That rally also included a presentation of demands and a giant teach-in: You can read the demands which include redistributing $180 million from the Seattle Police Department and immediately severing all existing contract and financial ties between the Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Police Department.

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News

Progressive Leaders Call for Mayor Jenny Durkan to Resign, or for the Council to Remove Her

by Rich Smith • Friday at 6:00 pm

Some progressive leaders and local Democrats have a signed an open letter demanding her removal from office.
Some progressive leaders and local Democrats have a signed an open letter demanding her removal from office. LESTER BLACK

A couple dozen (at the moment) local leaders have signed an open letter demanding the resignation or removal of Mayor Jenny Durkan for her "failure to stop the Seattle Police Department from engaging in violence against its residents; for her failure to protect the safety of our communities, specifically our Black community, the homeless, and peaceful protesters; and for violating the accepted standards of our community by excusing and defending the violence used against our families, friends, and neighbors," they write.

"Mayor Durkan has repeatedly proven that she is either unwilling or unable to exercise control over the Seattle Police Department," the letter continues. "Mayor Durkan has failed to uphold the values of the Democratic Party, has willfully violated her duty to keep the people of Seattle safe, her duty to direct and control all subordinate officers of the City, and her duty to maintain peace and order in the City. For all of these reasons Seattle Mayor Durkan must resign or be removed."

According to the municipal code, "The Mayor may be removed from office after a hearing, for any willful violation of duty, or for the commission of an offense involving moral turpitude, upon written notice from the City Council at least five days before the hearing. He or she shall have the right to be present, to the aid of counsel, to offer evidence and to be heard in his or her own behalf. Upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of all the members of the City Council, acting as a court of impeachment, the office shall become vacant."

They're asking all who agree to sign this petition.

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Signal Boost

Signal Boost: Seattle's Doctors for Justice March

by Chase Burns • Friday at 5:54 pm

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Here's another big march to signal boost for tomorrow. The Doctors for Justice March will kick off Saturday June 6 at 9 am and march from Harborview Medical Center to Seattle City Hall. Here are the demands that Doctors for Justice listed on their flyer:

  • End policing that is violent against marginalized populations, particularly our Black communities (e.g., racial profiling, stop and frisk, gang injunctions, criminalization of homelessness)

  • Redirect funds from law enforcement agencies to community-based programs for harm prevention, intervention, and transformative justice

  • Stop and reverse militarization of law enforcement

  • Eliminate legislative and union contract provisions that shield the police from accountability

  • Declare records of all investigations of law enforcement brutality with associated materials as public property and ensure public accessibility

  • Immediately end the violence against protestors. We stand in solidarity with them!

    • Stranger EverOut has a guide to Seattle resistance events here.

    Film/TV

    More Great Reviews for Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You

    by Chase Burns • Friday at 5:14 pm

    We love to see it.
    We love to see it. HBO

    We gave Michaela Coel’s upcoming series I May Destroy You an excellent review. The 12-episode series premiering on HBO this Sunday takes Coel's signature wit and applies it to the aftereffects of sexual assault. Frankly, I will watch anything with Michaela Coel in it. The London-born actress is most known for her series Chewing Gum, a fast, witty, and singular sitcom about a religious 24-year-old who just really wants to have sex. Our writer Robert Ham called this new act from Coel "stunning" and wrote that "this is gripping, provocative television of the highest order and the kind of platform that Coel, and storytellers like her, richly deserve."

    The reviews are now in and others agree:

  • Vulture: "One of the most immediately striking things about I May Destroy You is its tone...This play on tonality runs the course of the series—scenes that start out as sexy only to become harrowing, dark moments are edged by the comedic without losing sight of the rich dramatic stakes."
  • New York Times: "At just about every step, it’s touching and quietly hilarious. Coel gets away with things that would be dicey for other writer-directors, and she does it with consistency."
  • The Hollywood Reporter: "There's a lot happening here, a lot of big swings. And even when it misses, the ambition of it is a thing to admire."

    I May Destroy You premieres Sunday June 7 at 10:30 pm on HBO and HBO Max.

    • News • Cops

    Seattle Says Only SWAT Can Use Tear Gas For 30 Days

    by Nathalie Graham • Friday at 5:10 pm

    Cloud city but in this case the clouds are tear gas clouds not Googles campus.
    Cloud City, but in this case the clouds are tear gas clouds and not Google's campus. Nathalie Graham

    For the next 30 days, at least, the Seattle Police Department will not be allowed to use tear gas, or CS gas, as the police call it. The SWAT team can still use tear gas, however, but only if authorized by SPD Police Chief Carmen Best or someone she has designated to issue the order.

    Mayor Jenny Durkan and Chief Best announced the "ban" on tear gas—which SPD last used to disperse protesters on Tuesday, and which has wafted into peoples' apartments on Capitol Hill—after the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and the Community Police Commission (CPC) plus King County Public Health Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin recommended the city cease using the chemical weapon on "First Amendment activities." *Cough* Otherwise known as peaceful protests. *Cough*

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    News

    57 Buffalo Police Officers Resign From Special Team After Suspension of Colleagues

    by Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 4:37 pm

    Last night, two Buffalo police officers were suspended without pay after a deeply disturbing video of them shoving an elderly man to the ground, stepping over his limp body as blood dripped from his ear, surfaced online earlier that day. The man was identified as Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old peace activist and demonstrator, who came up to the group of officers during a protest over the killing of George Floyd. Gugino was hospitalized with a head injury and is in serious but stable condition, reports the New York Times.

    In a show of solidarity and egoism, today all 57 officers resigned from the Emergency Response Team—a specialized team devoted specifically to respond to riots—over the officers' suspension. President of the Buffalo police union, John T. Evans, stated that the officers were "simply following orders" to clear the square.“It doesn’t specify clear the square of men, 50 and under or 15 to 40," Evans told The Buffalo News. "They were simply doing their job. I don’t know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backwards.” I think the video directly contradicts that claim.

    Watch the video, taken by WBFO, a Buffalo radio station, of the incident here—warning, it is graphic:

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    EverOut

    The 42 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Weekend: June 5-7, 2020

    by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 4:30 pm

    Spectrum Dance Theatres 2017 piece Shot is a moving response to the long history of violence against black Americans. Its available to watch in full on YouTube.
    Spectrum Dance Theatre's 2017 piece Shot is a moving response to the long history of violence against black Americans. It's available to watch in full on YouTube. Spectrum Dance Theatre via Facebook

    Looking for ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement this weekend? Our resistance & solidarity guide has lots of info in the way of events (like a march with Doctors for Justice this Saturday), reading materials, ways to donate to social justice causes, resources for protestors, and more. We've also rounded up our picks for movies to watch at home, which includes several films highlighting black lives and movements, as well as a guide to supporting black music artists in Seattle. If you're looking for even more options for things to do this weekend, see below for our picks of virtual happenings in every genre, from Phinney's Pride Rainbow Hop to MoPOP's Seattle Pride Drag Show, and from a Black Lives Matter concert with Parisalexa to a YouTube graduation ceremony featuring the Obamas, Condoleezza Rice, and Beyoncé. For even more options, check out our complete streaming events calendar.

    BLACK VOICES

    COMMUNITY
    Dear Class of 2020
    YouTube is hosting a virtual graduation ceremony for the class of 2020, featuring commencement addresses from Barack and Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, plus live performances from major names like BTS, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé.
    Saturday

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    City • Cops

    ICYMI: Seattle Residents Got Tear Gassed in Their Own Apartments

    by Nathalie Graham • Friday at 2:45 pm

    Protesters on the streets dont want to deal with this. Civilians in their homes dont either.
    Protesters on the streets don't want to deal with this. Civilians in their homes don't either. Nathalie Graham

    This piece received a lot of attention yesterday. Thanks for sharing it, everyone. And we see you, Councilmember Mosqueda! —Eds. Note

    Maggie has started taping the windows in her apartment in Capitol Hill. She still ends up coughing each night, but it's not as bad as it was Monday night when the Seattle Police Department fired tear gas and pepper spray across the residential neighborhood.

    Maggie, whose name has been changed out of fear of backlash she's already gotten from posting about her experience on Twitter from some "local right-wing militia dudes" as she described, lives right near where the George Floyd protests have been happening each night this week on Capitol Hill. She hasn't been participating in the demonstrations because of the pandemic and the vulnerable people who live in her apartment building but she says she's "100 percent in solidarity" with the movement.

    On Monday, she was watching and participating from her apartment window. Suddenly, there were flashbangs. She grabbed her camera. It looked like fire. A cloud of smoke billowed upwards. Her partner rushed over yelling to close the windows. Maggie started coughing. Tears were streaming down her face. "I was like 'Oh my god, we have gas in here,'" Maggie said.

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    Signal Boost

    Signal Boost: Rally for Black Lives in North Seattle

    by Chase Burns • Friday at 2:35 pm

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    We're working hard to keep up-to-date information on the ongoing rallies and activism happening in Seattle in response to police brutality. Here's one to signal boost happening Saturday in north Seattle.

    EverOut has a guide to Seattle resistance events here.

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    Image_from_iOS__7_.jpg
    News

    On the Move: Dahlia Bazzaz Is Following a Protest in South Seattle

    by Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 2:22 pm


    Seattle Times' schools reporter Dahlia Bazzaz is currently following a #BlackLivesMatter protest organized by a group of Franklin High School students in south Seattle right now. The group has a list of demands which includes demilitarizing and defunding the police, funding counselors and nurses in their schools instead of cops, introducing ethnic studies and anti-racist policies throughout Seattle Public Schools, as well as giving the youth a greater voice in schools. It looks like they began on the intersection of MLK & Rainier Ave, then began walking down Rainier, and have ended up on the Franklin High football field. Follow more of Bazzaz's coverage on Twitter here.

    News • Arts • CHARITY! • Cops

    Mutual Aid Organizing Is Growing in Capitol Hill

    by Rich Smith • Friday at 1:55 pm

    The operation at Vermillion.
    The operation at Vermillion. RS

    On Tuesday, Carolyn Hitt asked her boss if she could hand out water to the demonstrators protesting police brutality on 11th and Pine, just a block down the street from Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, where Hitt works as a bartender. Diana Adams, who owns the venue, said "Sure, no problem."

    Next thing Adams knew, the bar became the headquarters of a "very last-minute, loosely organized," artist-led mutual aid network built to sustain protesters fighting against police brutality.

    Rancho Bravo, Blue Cone Studios (which Hitt runs), Bang Seattle, Annex Theater, Optimism Brewery, SeattleShare, and others have since joined the cause. Each place offers different services at different times—water, bathrooms, food, phone charging stations, first aid.

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    Music • EverOut

    Support Black Music: A Guide to the Seattle Artists You Should Be Streaming Right Now

    by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 1:49 pm

    Rising star Parisalexa will headline a benefit concert for Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County tonight, June 5.
    Rising star Parisalexa will headline a benefit concert for Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County tonight, June 5. NIKO SERPANOS

    Supporting black artists (and black-owned businesses) is essential every day, and Seattle is brimming with talented black performers and bands that Stranger critics have written about again and again, from sibling duo the Black Tones to jazz institution Industrial Revelation to young star Parisalexa. With nationwide protests demanding justice for black lives, the online music publishing platform Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share from midnight to midnight on Friday, June 5, and again on Friday, July 3, meaning that all proceeds will go directly to artists. (Plus, while you're writing down dates, know that Bandcamp will also donate 100% of their shares to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in honor of Juneteenth on Friday, June 19. Below, we've rounded up active Seattle musicians whose music you can buy directly on Bandcamp and other platforms (meaning we haven't included artists like Jimi Hendrix and Riz Rollins, whose work is also essential to Seattle's music scene). Did we mention that June is also Black Music Appreciation Month? Go forth and buy tunes.

    We've done our best to make this post as comprehensive as possible, but please email us at calendar@thestranger.com if we're missing anyone!

    Afrocop
    Afrocop is a spectral jazz trio whose sounds go into outer space, with moods and styles varying greatly, from cuts that feel like they should be scoring the chase scenes in the original (1980s-era) Terminator (like “Sci-Tropics”), to “Upward Bound,” which starts out with vague NOLA jazz vibes before venturing into cosmic grooveland. LEILANI POLK
    (Originally appeared in a November 2019 Timbre Room show preview. Founding member Noel Brass Jr.'s solo work is also available on Bandcamp.)

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    News • Coronavirus

    Welcome to Modified Phase 1, King County

    by Nathalie Graham • Friday at 11:40 am

    Be kind to the people in the industries that will start to reopen in King County while were still in a public health crisis.
    Be kind to the people in the industries that will start to reopen in King County while we're still in a public health crisis. ZORAN ZEREMSKI/GETTY IMAGES

    King County has been approved to move into the next phase of reopening and will be relaxing some of the COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place since mid-March. We're not technically in Phase 2 yet since our case numbers haven't met those prerequisites outlined by Gov. Jay Inslee. But, we're in modified Phase 1. Or, Phase 1.5. And it doesn't seem half bad.

    Phase 1.5 is basically Phase 2 but with less capacity allowed for pretty much everything. Businesses will reopen, haircuts will be allowed, you can even go to restaurants! However, you can only shop in retail stores for 30 minutes and only 15 percent of capacity will be allowed at once. Similar rules apply for restaurants (50 percent capacity while outdoor dining, 25 percent while indoor dining) and hair cuts (25 percent of shop capacity).

    While this feels like a win, it's a complicated song and dance to reopen the economy safely.

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    Coronavirus

    Protesters, Here’s Where You Can Get Free Coronavirus Tests in Seattle

    by Matt Baume • Friday at 10:52 am

    Its pretty hard to stay six feet apart when youre protesting.
    It's pretty hard to stay six feet apart when you're protesting. Photo by Chase Burns

    If you’ve been at a protest in the last week, should you get a coronavirus test? That depends on whom you ask. Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman says not necessarily; Minnesota says yes; and CDC Director Robert Redfield says everyone who’s been to a protest should say, “Hey, I was out, I need to go get tested.”

    As luck would have it, Seattle is opening two new free testing centers today, with plans to test 1,600 people per day.

    In addition to the existing test sites downtown, at the baseball stadium where the Mariners play, and at Rainier Beach High School, one of the new locations for free tests is in Northgate next to the Home Depot; the other is in SoDo (oddly, also just a few blocks from another Home Depot). You’ll need to make an appointment to get tested before heading down, which you’ll be able to do soon at http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/covid-19 (as of writing, the appointment function hasn’t been added to the site yet, but it’s expected to go online today).

    In addition, there are a couple of steps you can take to protect yourself when you go out to protest again:

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    Cops • Slog AM/PM

    Slog AM: Economy Adds 2.5 Million Jobs, Trump Says George Floyd Is In Heaven Celebrating the Jobs Report, "Where Is the Love?"

    by Chase Burns, Jasmyne Keimig and Charles Mudede • Friday at 8:30 am

    The crowd as of 2 am.
    The crowd as of 2 am.

    George Floyd Tested Positive for coronavirus on April 3: But he had no symptoms, and the hard-to-figure-out disease had not damaged any of his organs. The more we examine Floyd's life and death, the more he appears to be the man of 2020, the most horrible year of this new century.

    The Media's Focus on the Murder of George Floyd: Is throwing a bright light on other recent cases of police brutality that were ignored by officials, the press, and the public. One such case concerns an arrest that occurred in Tacoma on March 3. A black man, 33-year-old Manny Ellis, who was restrained by police officers, died from respiratory arrest. A woman, Sarah McDowell, recorded a significant part of the incident on her phone, but the footage, which captured Ellis making the same plea as Eric Garner and George Floyd, "I can't breathe," never reached the surface of the public's attention. The police department's official account of the incident (a crazy black man, suspected of being a thief, walked up to their patrol car and began banging on it for no good reason) was pretty much going to be end of the matter had history not taken an unexpected turn on Memorial Day. The forgotten video is now on the web. Now we see the official account of Ellis's last moments in this, our one and only world, does not jibe with that of the visual record. Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards is now demanding the firing and arrest of the officers "involved in the death of Manuel Ellis."

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