In a surprise announcement yesterday, SPD Interim Chief Adrian Diaz announced that he has overturned a finding by the Office of Police Accountability that a police supervisor violated department policies last June when he ordered a crowd of protesters to be dispersed with blast balls, pepper spray, and tear gas.
Continue readingTag: protests
Judge dismisses challenge to Durkan emergency order during protests
The city got a legal win in court today, as U.S. District Court Judge Brian Tsuchida dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Mayor Durkan’s May 30th Emergency Civil Order violated the plaintiff’s constitutional right to carry a gun.
Continue readingOPA releases its second batch of SPD officer misconduct reports stemming from protests
This morning the Office of Police Accountability released its second batch of closed cases from investigations into alleged SPD officer misconduct during the pat summer’s protests, just over a month after its first round was released. This batch contains five additional cases, two of which resulted in OPA sustaining charges of misconduct.
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 readingOPA releases first set of findings from investigations into SPD officers’ misconduct at protests
This morning, the Office of Police Accountability released its first set of “closed case” summaries for five cases lodged against SPD officers related to misconduct during this past summer’s protests — including two incidents from May 30 that went viral on social media. Also: here is my in-depth Q&A with OPA Director Andrew Myerberg, where we touch on the issues raised by these cases, the status of OPA investigations into police misconduct at the protests, and many other topics related to police accountabilty.
Continue readingQ&A with OPA Director Andrew Myerberg
In anticipation of today’s release by the OPA of its first batch of findings from complaints arising from this summer’s protests, OPA Director Andrew Myerberg graciously sat down with me yesterday for an interview. Here is the full interview, lightly edited for clarity. Kevin Schofield: How do you feel that the investigations are going so far? Andrew Myerberg: I think they’re going well. As you can imagine the cases, they kind of range in complexity. Using the pepper spray case for an example, it was an easier case in some respects to start to isolate the video, because there …
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 readingJudge denies “protest tax” plaintiffs a temporary restraining order
This afternoon, Judge Richard Jones weighed in for the first time on the “protest tax” lawsuit filed against the City of Seattle, denying the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order.
Continue readingNew lawsuit filed against City of Seattle over SPD response to protests
Yesterday five Seattle protesters filed a lawsuit against the city over alleged SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons at protests, in particular the protest-turned riot on July 25th. Their allegations, as well as their requests for the court to take action, are similar to the case filed by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and the ACLU — so similar, in fact, that it’s questionable whether it will be able to continue as a separate case.
Continue readingBlack Lives Matter asks court to find SPD in contempt for violating restraining order (UPDATED)
This afternoon, attorneys for Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County filed a motion with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones asserting that the Seattle Police Department violated his preliminary injunction last Saturday during the evening’s protests, and asked the judge to find the city in contempt. Update 7/28/3:30PM: see below Update 7/29/20 9AM: Judge Jones has moved the City’s filing deadline to 5pm Wednesday, and has set a hearing for 9am Friday 7/31.
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