You may recall that last June the City Council rushed through a near-total ban on SPD’s use of several so-called “less lethal” weapons, including pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and blast balls after several nights of confrontations between protesters and police officers. Several weeks later, U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who oversees the 2012 Consent Decree imposed upon SPD, tossed the Council’s ordinance, for two reasons: because it did not follow the process prescribed in the Consent Decree for modifications to SPD’s use-of-force and crowd-control policies; and because in his view it reduced public safety by removing SPD …
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Catching up on court cases: January 8, 2021
It’s time for a quick catch-up on three court cases: the Sawant recall petition, the ACLU/Black Lives Matter crowd control weapons case, and the landlords’ challenge to the city and state eviction moratoria.
Continue readingJudge holds city in contempt for violations of crowd-control injunction
This morning U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones issued a highly anticipated ruling in the contempt charges against the City of Seattle for SPD’s alleged violations of the judge’s injunction restraining the police department’s use of crowd-control weapons.
Continue readingCity responds to BLM contempt allegations
Earlier this week, the City of Seattle filed its response to allegations from Black Lives Matter and the ACLU that it should be held in contempt for violating a preliminary injunction placing restrictions on SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons. The city’s response is a strong defense to the contempt charge, but it raises many additional questions about the way that SPD handles protests.
Continue readingUpdate on court cases – October 19, 2020
It’s been a busy day for the city in court. Here are four updates — if nothing else, reading the briefs might just cure your insomnia.
Continue readingContempt charge against SPD for violating crowd-control weapon injunction inches toward evidentiary hearing
This morning U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones held a status conference with attorneys for the ACLU, Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and the City of Seattle. They met to hammer out some of the details of an evidentiary hearing on whether the city should be found in contempt of Jones’s preliminary injunction restricting SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons. But those details, as it turns out, are messy.
Continue readingCity, DOJ formally sweep SPD’s crowd-control controversy into consent decree process
This summer there have been two legal threads related to SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons: two similar lawsuits asking for restrictions; and the Department of Justice asking for and receiving a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking implementation of the City Council’s ordinance prohibiting the police department’s use of crowd control weapons. Earlier this week there was activity in the first thread; today there was an important update in the second.
Continue readingPair of lawsuits over SPD’s crowd control tactics both ask for new injunctions over recent incidents
You may recall that there are two pending lawsuits charging SPD with violating protesters’ constitutional rights for its crowd-control tactics and specifically its use of crowd-control weapons. This week both have filed new motions with the court asserting recent violations of the injunction already in place.
Continue readingCouncil discusses crowd-control weapons with CPC, OPA, OIG
Friday morning the City Council’s public safety committee met with leaders of the city’s three police-accountability organizations to discuss their recommendations on SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons, in a follow-up to their written reports from three weeks ago.
Continue readingRecommendations on ‘less lethal” weapons highlight difficult policy tradeoffs for SPD in use of force and crowd control
On Friday, the three accountability bodies that watchdog the Seattle Police Department — the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), the Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG), and the Community Police Commission (CPC) — released their written recommendations on SPD’s use of so-called “less lethal” weapons such as tear gas and blast balls. Taken together, the reports make it clear why it’s so difficult to make policy around the use of these weapons for crowd control and other purposes.
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