Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has changed her tune about the city’s police-free protest zone after two shootings over the weekend killed one young man and injured two other people.
Then: In an appearance on CNN on June 11, Durkan scoffed at President Donald Trump’s demands that she “take back” her city from anti-racism activists, whom she had recently allowed to take over six-blocks of the city surrounding an abandoned police station.
- Durkan said CHOP, or the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, had “a block party atmosphere” and posed “no threat to the public.”
- When anchor Chris Cuomo asked Durkan how long the CHOP would last, she said, “I don’t know, we could have the summer of love.”
- After pushback from Cuomo, Durkan assured him, “The police will be policing in there.”
In response to Trump’s mockery of her comments on Twitter the next day, Durkan replied: “Seattle is fine. Don’t be so afraid of democracy.”
On local TV last Thursday, before the shootings, Durkan said her “summer of love quip” was obviously “in jest” while admitting “it probably was not the smart thing to do.”
Now: Durkan announced at a press conference on Monday the city would move to close CHOP, though she did not provide a timeline.
- She said, “It’s time for people to go home,” and “it is time to restore order and eliminate the violence on Capitol Hill.”
- Durkan said police would be returning to the abanonded East Precinct in the “near future.”
- The mayor claimed it has always been her policy that “there should be no place in Seattle” that law enforcement cannot go.
Durkan said she would not send in police to clear out the zone, and was instead “working with black-led organizations and some of our partners in de-escalation” to convince the activists to leave.
- But she warned of “additional steps to ensure community safety” if necessary.
- Going forward, she promised to “rethink and reimagine policing” and to “fundamentally reform every other component of our society” to correct the racism that “permeates our society.”
Also at the press conference, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best noted that police had been blocked from entering CHOP on Saturday morning to respond to a deadly shooting there, which she said prevented medics from treating the wounded.
- Best blamed the Seattle City Council for last week banning police crowd-dispersal methods, saying the decision may have cost the life of Lorenzo Anderson, a 19-year-old aspiring rapper, who was black.
- In addition to the three weekend shootings, Best said police had received reports of “a rape, assaults, burglary, arson and property destruction.”
Some CHOP activists on Sunday distributed a letter calling for limited access to the zone outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- But organizers of CHOP blew off a scheduled meeting with Durkan on Monday morning, and after the press conference released a statement saying they distrust her and she should resign.
- One activist told local media, “We gon’ make sure they don’t take back the precinct.”
- Asked what would happen if police tried to return, he said, “Good luck.”
