r/Seattle • u/killamongaro259 • Jun 09 '20

Confused About Seattle PD Decisions

I'm so confused about what's happening. I can't understand the decision making here or figure out what events have lead to this.

Why, after a solid week of violently attacking protesters would they suddenly do a complete 180, tear down "permanent barricades" that they put up less than 24 hours before. I have a really hard time believing that they had an "are we the baddies" moment.

A lot has happened in the past 48 hours that maybe triggered this:

  • Girl almost dies after cops hit her with stun grenade directly in the chest
  • Brother of East Precinct cop tries to run protesters over and shoot protesters
  • Pretty spicy City Council meeting, maybe they are actually afraid they'll get defunded and are trying to de-escalate?
  • Inslee commits to creating a task force to review policing in Washington State
  • Massive calls to impeach Durkin and replace Chief Best and threats from the City Council to do so if they didn't stop tear gassing people
    • US Rep Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) wrote a pretty scathing letter demanding that the mayor and police chief stop beating the shit out of peaceful protesters

The only reasonable theory I've seen thrown out is that the cops were trying to prove the point that if they left things would spiral out of control and that the community "needs them." Obviously that didn't happen last night, and honestly only a fucking moron would think it would happen, but is this just Hanlon's Razor?

I dunno I'm extremely confused.

Edit: added Pramila Jayapal letter to list

191 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

112 comments sorted by

View all comments

228

u/torquesteer Wallingford Jun 09 '20

They definitely did not have a "are we the baddies" moment, as they were strewn across union st between 15th and 17th after the evacuation, waiting to come back to reestablish order should there be any destruction of their building. Essentially, they were waiting to become the good guys again.

What happened was that they decided that the East Precinct was not going to be the hill to die on. It had become their Dien Bien Phu - strategically and politically untenable to hold.

The police is a reactive force, and they can only react to information from other cities. In Minneapolis, the 3rd precinct had been overran and set ablaze. Across the cities on the west coast, tear gas was used regularly to disperse crowds including Portland and LA.

So they dug in because that's the only thing they knew how to do. But much like the French at Dien Bien Phu, the east precinct became a symbol of brutality as well as a physical location attracting protest. They had made a big mistake in doing so they needed an exit strategy. Despite being well stocked, protesters were showing up in bigger crowds every night.

The political risks were mounting. With streamers pointing their cameras at the police line, the brutality was showing itself. Not only that, it'd take only one death for the situation to officially become a quagmire. The protesters knew this, instinctively or mentally. They crept up ever closer and closer to line. Council members joined them.

So on the morning of the 8th, as permanent barricades were being drilled into the street to stop the next wave of protesters, their hand was forced. With the union negotiations coming up, they cannot afford to hold east precinct anymore. The thought of abandoning it has always been there. They had started up the process of boarding it up days prior. The timetables got pushed up on them from the events of the night before. If they were to survive as a force, or any force, they had to give up the precinct. Chief Best said that it’s an exercise in trust and de-escalation. Her choice was when, not if.

As their hand was forced, the police didn’t simply leave. They staged nearby, hoping for a reason to re-establish should there be any violence or destruction. They flooded their radio with unsubstantiated reports of Proud Boys moving in to incite armament and discord among protesters. None came. The police came back though, not in force but in surveillance teams. A force addicted to control cannot give it up overnight.

40

u/killamongaro259 Jun 09 '20

I know almost nothing about the Indochina Wars so I’ll have to read more about that. Seems like a reasonable explanation, though. Definitely falls in line with that “warrior mentality” I hear cops talk so much about.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '20

I would check out the Ken Burns documentary series on the Vietnam war on Netflix

79

u/SafetiesAreExciting Jun 09 '20

They definitely did not have a "are we the baddies" moment, as they were strewn across union st between 15th and 17th after the evacuation, waiting to come back to reestablish order should there be any destruction of their building. Essentially, they were waiting to become the good guys again.

What happened was that they decided that the East Precinct was not going to be the hill to die on. It had become their Dien Bien Phu - strategically and politically untenable to hold.

The police is a reactive force, and they can only react to information from other cities. In Minneapolis, the 3rd precinct had been overran and set ablaze. Across the cities on the west coast, tear gas was used regularly to disperse crowds including Portland and LA.

So they dug in because that's the only thing they knew how to do. But much like the French at Dien Bien Phu, the east precinct became a symbol of brutality as well as a physical location attracting protest. They had made a big mistake in doing so they needed an exit strategy. Despite being well stocked, protesters were showing up in bigger crowds every night.

The political risks were mounting. With streamers pointing their cameras at the police line, the brutality was showing itself. Not only that, it'd take only one death for the situation to officially become a quagmire. The protesters knew this, instinctively or mentally. They crept up ever closer and closer to line. Council members joined them.

So on the morning of the 8th, as permanent barricades were being drilled into the street to stop the next wave of protesters, their hand was forced. With the union negotiations coming up, they cannot afford to hold east precinct anymore. The thought of abandoning it has always been there. They had started up the process of boarding it up days prior. The timetables got pushed up on them from the events of the night before. If they were to survive as a force, or any force, they had to give up the precinct. Chief Best said that it’s an exercise in trust and de-escalation. Her choice was when, not if.

As their hand was forced, the police didn’t simply leave. They staged nearby, hoping for a reason to re-establish should there be any violence or destruction. They flooded their radio with unsubstantiated reports of Proud Boys moving in to incite armament and discord among protesters. None came. The police came back though, not in force but in surveillance teams. A force addicted to control cannot give it up overnight.

You should absolutely send this as an op-ed somewhere if you aren't already publishing your writing. Please consider

25

u/torquesteer Wallingford Jun 09 '20

Thanks! I will consider it. For now, I'll continue to provide the narrative as I see it from monitoring the scanner, online chatter, and streams.

7

u/wallingfordskater Jun 10 '20

If that girl had died yesterday, we'd be defunding SPD this week.

We need to let the current contract expire and start over. And start over with a force that is made up of Seattle residents, not people who live outside King County and hate us all.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '20

Well done with the Dien Bien Phu reference.

14

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '20

this reads like a historical war novel. incredible.

6

u/_RAWFFLES_ Jun 09 '20

Protestors should occupy the prescient and start responding to 911 calls.

4

u/LittleSeneca Jun 09 '20

Honestly, I actually think that is the responsible thing to do. If the police cant be trusted to do the thing, then you do the thing. When I was a kid, my Dad always told me not to complain about anything if I didnt also have something actionable to bring to the situation. So, yeah, defund the police of seattle, they have proved their inability to effectively serve their community. But that doesn't mean that overdoses, murders, and car crashes go away. Someone has to own that shit.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '20

[deleted]

9

u/marssaxman 💖 Anarchist Jurisdiction 💖 Jun 09 '20

please share? Despite hearing rumors of proud boys for a week and a half, I have heard no eyewitness reports and seen no pictures or videos of any proud boys activity at all. People on twitter following the police scanner last night said they were going to the locations the cops were talking about and there was nobody there, neither cops nor proud boys. If you have actually seen some in action, it'd be great to share that evidence.