SEATTLE — Activists who won a U.S. court order restricting the Seattle Police Department’s use of chemical weapons for crowd control say the department should be held in contempt of court for violating it in a “vengeful outburst” over the weekend.
In June, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones issued an order forbidding Seattle police from using “chemical irritants or projectiles of any kind” against people demonstrating peacefully. But in a motion filed Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and other groups representing Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County said that on Saturday, the department shot pepper spray and blast balls indiscriminately into a crowd after a small number of protesters engaged in property destruction.
“Two days ago, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) ambushed peaceful protesters with a level of violence that surpasses that seen in early June,” the motion said. “Protesters were indiscriminately hit with blast balls, pepper spray, and blunt force objects. Journalists were trampled. Medics were maced for attending to patients. Legal observers were shot at close range. The injuries were extensive.”
Seattle police said they declared the demonstration a riot after several people set fire to the construction site of a new youth detention center and set off explosives at the department’s East Precinct building. They arrested 47 people and said 59 officers suffered injuries including scrapes, bruises and burns.