SEATTLE — Poor communication, deception, bad judgment and a lack of city and police leadership contributed to tension, violence and two deaths during summer 2020 protests in Seattle, according to a scathing review of the city’s response to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone.
The 81-page report released Tuesday by the SPD’s Office of Inspector General is the third in a series of reviews of the police department’s response to the racial unrest following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. It focuses on 23 days in June: beginning when the SPD suddenly abandoned its East Precinct, leading to the formation of an eight-block “cop-free” zone on Capitol Hill, and ending two days after the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy — the area’s second homicide in days.
The first review focused on the need for SPD to revise its crowd control policies, and the second focused on rebuilding community trust.
In the third installment, the office concluded the unprecedented occupation revealed a deeply dysfunctional relationship between the city administration and police department. The OIG also found leadership failures within the SPD, including incidents where department brass misled the public, exaggerated dangers posed by protesters in order to justify leaving the precinct and employed a racist ruse in an apparent attempt to frighten and intimidate thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters.
The ruse involved fake radio chatter on public channels warning that an armed group of Proud Boys — a far-right group with a reputation for street violence — was gathering downtown and heading toward Capitol Hill. As a result, some protesters armed themselves and prepared for violence.
“Lying to the community in this way was not only contrary to policy, but it was also a poorly considered tactic contributing to the tensions in the CHOP,” the report said, referencing the Capitol Hill protest zone.
“Many panelists viewed this incident as an example of the way structural and internalized racism can coalesce in police decision-making and cause harm to the community.”
The OIG serves as an oversight and accountability mechanism for the civilian-run Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of police misconduct. The report notes that the OPA “did not fully acknowledge and explore issues of potential racial bias or systemic racism” when it reviewed the ruse and determined it was improper.
The OIG also raised concerns about the decisions by police and Seattle Fire Department medics to stand by at the CHOP perimeter after two fatal shootings, leaving treatment and transportation of the victims to volunteer medics and private vehicles while trained medical responders and ambulances were just blocks away.
The report also reviewed the impact of the decision to pull police protection on Capitol Hill residents and merchants, who “expressed concern and frustration with the lack of an organized response to the CHOP, as well as the delay or lack of response to 911 calls.”
The OIG and its panel of reviewers — which included police officers, community members, protesters and others — examined the SPD’s and city’s response to key incidents during CHOP:
- The June 8 decision to abandon the SPD’s East Precinct, which led to the occupation;
- Incidents on June 8 and June 10 where SPD lied or misled the public about the threat to officers and the public — the first involving the Proud Boy ruse, and the second involving unsubstantiated police statements about CHOP crime;
- The impact of the CHOP on Capitol Hill businesses and residents;
- Two fatal shootings on June 20 and 29.
The panel identified 54 contributing factors that led to those incidents, and made 34 recommendations to the city and police, including the need for SPD to do its job “despite criticism and anger from the community.”
“The response by SPD to the CHOP was characterized by a lack of evolution in response to a protest which had changed from a demonstration to an occupy-style movement,” wrote Inspector General Lisa Judge. “SPD personnel made several public statements, the accuracy of which was questioned by the community. Other tactical decisions made by SPD and the City further undermined public trust and safety and neither SPD nor the City was able to communicate effectively with the protesters or other community members in the area.”
The key issue, however, was a lack of “transparency and accountability” in decision-making and overall poor communication, including incidents when city and police officials gave the public misleading or false information, further undermining the SPD’s credibility after days of violent clashes between police and protesters.
The King County Sheriff’s Office, at the request of Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, later opened a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of text messages from the phones of city officials, including then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and then-police Chief Carmen Best, during the CHOP and the East Precinct desertion. That investigation is ongoing.
Police said during a June 10, 2020, news conference that CHOP leaders were extorting area business owners, protesters were stopping citizens at armed checkpoints and intelligence indicated the East Precinct could be burned down after one attempt was thwarted.
The OIG panel concluded that intelligence — a threat assessment from the FBI — was overstated. Police knew the checkpoint and extortion claims were false but continued to repeat them, hurting the SPD’s reputation and souring community trust, the OIG said.
Meanwhile, efforts by SPD and others in city government to communicate and negotiate with CHOP protesters were stymied by the “horizontal, leaderless-style” of the protest.
Business owners, many of whom supported the protesters’ cause, complained of mostly minor crime, inconveniences and first responders’ reluctance to attend to emergencies. The city now faces a proposed class-action lawsuit by Capitol Hill business owners alleging losses due to the city’s mismanagement of the CHOP.
Violence and crime, issues from the CHOP’s outset, escalated until the night of June 30, when 19-year-old Lorenzo Anderson was shot multiple times during an altercation. He was taken to a medic tent near Cal Anderson Park in the CHOP where civilian medics tried to stop his bleeding. Medics and firefighters — just blocks away outside of the CHOP — refused to respond to several 911 calls without a police escort, citing Fire Department policy.
Anderson was eventually loaded into the back of a truck and driven to Harborview Medical Center, where he died. His father has since sued, alleging the city’s leaders failed his son.
The deadly shooting prompted Durkan to begin moving to shut down the CHOP, but her initial attempts were met with resistance. Then, early June 29, someone in a white Jeep was reported to have fired shots toward Cal Anderson Park. As the vehicle approached a set of barricades on Pine Street, people believed to be armed, self-appointed CHOP security guards opened fire, killing the 16-year-old driver and wounding his 14-year-old passenger.
Two days later, police moved through the area and expelled the protesters.
“SPD officers are expected to be public safety professionals, ready to protect and serve the community,” the report concludes. “The community expectations transcend the circumstances of any particular moment, including situations where SPD is criticized or community members reject their presence as unjust and hurtful.”
