Editors Note: There is approximately five minutes of audio problems during our segment on Pinal County Sheriff Julian Navarrette. We apologize for the inconvenience.
The show from April 21, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Seattle police used a large number of officers to shadow a small group of protesters, some in black bloc, in the hours after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis. In the moments after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second degree murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter, cheers erupted on Capitol Hill while fireworks went off on the eastside.
Protesters gathered at Cal Anderson Park and marched through downtown. The group was met by a couple of counter-protesters on Broadway, where words were exchanged when one person tried to drive through a car brigade. Seattle police appeared with a large contingent of officer, that was as large as the protest group.
Seattle Police repeatedly announced through LRAD for the protester to remain peaceful. There wasn’t any apparent damage done by the group, with a few moving traffic cones and temporary signs into the roadway. Two targeted arrests were made for pedestrian obstruction. The group then marched back up Capitol Hill to Cal Anderson. Seattle Police bike officers moved the group at a faster pace before disengaging.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”41″ gal_title=”Derek Chauvin Conviction Protest”]SPD shifted tactics in October 2020 ending the widespread use of pepper spray and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters. Data from the city attorney’s office indicates that pedestrian obstruction arrests will likely not end in criminal charges.
Earlier in the day, a consortium of city leaders and Black activists called for peace and calm at a hastily put-together press conference.
Derek Chauvin was filmed by a teenager holding a knee on the neck of George Floyd for more than nine minutes in May of 2020. The actions of Chauvin and the inaction of his fellow officers led to the death of Floyd, and Chauvin’s conviction in that murder.
The death of Floyd reignited the Black Lives Matter movement started in 2014 and forced a civil rights reckoning in the United States.
Derek Chauvin had his bail revoked and will have his sentencing hearing in eight weeks.
The show from April 19, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) For the second night in a row, activists protesting the death of Daunte Wright gathered in downtown Seattle. Seattle police arrested three people last night, two for graffiti and one for obstruction. Activists and independent journalists report that the “graffiti” was chalk art and spray chalk.
On the Seattle Police Twitter, an image showed a couple of dozen people gathered outside of the West Precinct. The picture appears to have been taken from the rooftop using a cellphone while others in the group appear to be filming. A candlelight memorial with sidewalk chart art near the curb can be seen.
Wright was shot on Saturday in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota by police officer Kim Potter. The shooting opened raw wounds in Minnesota, which is gripped by the Derek Chauvin trial and the death of George Floyd. The Chauvin trial entered its fourteenth day with defense testimony starting earlier in the week.
Former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned on Tuesday, stated that he believed the shooting of Wright was an accident, and that officer Potter had thought she was using her taser. Potter resigned from the Brooklyn Center police department on Tuesday in a two-sentence letter.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced that Potter had been arrested for the death of Wright. The Washington County Attorney’s Office will announce charges of second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, and Potter is currently being held at the Hennepin County Jail. If found guilty she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Wright’s shooting comes just days after the video emerged of a police stop of Caron Nazario in Windsor, Virginia. Nazario, a US Army second lieutenant who was in uniform, was held at gunpoint, threatened, pepper-sprayed, and beaten to the ground before being released with no charges. The traffic stop was for no visible license plate. Nazario was driving a newly purchased vehicle with a dealer-issued temporary tag visible in the back window.
A $1 million civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the city of Windsor, and Lieutenant Joe Gutierrez was fired for his conduct. The traffic stops of Wright and Nazario illustrate the use of pretext arrest by officers, which statistically target minority drivers.
The Washington Post reports that Nazario is related to Eric Garner, who died in New York in 2014 by a police chokehold for selling individual cigarettes.
Seattle police have been particularly aggressive with chalk art graffiti arrest at both the East and West Precinct. Other municipalities in the state, including some police unions, have made decisions not to take enforcement action because of First Amendment right questions. In Washington state, it is protected speech to chalk art on public rights of way such as sidewalks. It is not considered legal to chalk art buildings, while the legality of chalk art on temporary structures such as the wall around the East Precinct is questionable.
All three arrested last night were arrested under Seattle Municipal Code. Due to COVID, jail capacity, and budget issues, the city prosecutor office has indicated they are not actively pursuing charges for these types of arrests.
Update: Monday, April 12, 2021, 2:00 PM – a previous version of this story had misspelled Annaliza’s name. We apologize for the error.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Right-wing groups backed by extremists and neo-fascist organizations attempted to organize nationwide ‘White Lives Matter,’ rallies, including in Seattle, but were mostly no shows. In Seattle, a diverse group organized by Stand Against White Supremacy Coalition rallied in resistance to the ideas of white supremacy. In addition, the Youth Liberation Front in black bloc and Falun Gong protesters flanked the protest holding their own rallies.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”37″ gal_title=”White Lives Matter Counter-Rally”]“When we heard that there were folks planning white lives matter, you know we’re here to say that Black Lives Matter,” said Annaliza of the Comrades of Color Caucus. “We’re in a time where so many Asian-American people are being attacked, that is not acceptable to say, other lives don’t matter.”
Seattle police had no presence at the counter-protest. A single person from white lives matter drove by, with their vehicle followed by approximately 25 people dressed in black. That person drove their Chevrolet Suburban up onto the sidewalk at Westlake and 4th and turned northbound squealing their tires.
By 1:45 PM it became apparent to the group that no one else was coming in support for White Lives Matter, and the group started to thin. Members of the Youth Liberation Front discussed marching in the street but moved back into Westlake before dispersing.
In many cities, white lives matter rallies didn’t materialize or were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters. The one exception was in Huntington Beach, California, where a large group of counter-protesters met a smaller, but more aggressive group of white live matters protesters. The police declared an unlawful assembly and made several arrests.
Social media showed members of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group with over a dozen members arrested for the January 6 insurrection, with police officers. The rally in Southern California was organized by California KKK Grand Dragon William Quigg. Quigg was imprisoned in 2016 for stabbing multiple individuals at a different Klan rally and was spotted in the crowd.
The show from April 8, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
[KIRKLAND] – (MTN) Over the past year, racial incidents have occurred in multiple suburban school districts highlighting inequality in our schools. In Kirkland, old wounds reopened from an incident at Juanita High School, while in Marysville, an ongoing criminal investigation is looking into death threats at Pilchuck High School.
In Marysville, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department is investigating racist threats made by a relative of a Marysville Police officer. The unnamed 20-year old allegedly used the account of a Marysville High School student to send a Snapchat image holding a handgun, with the caption “Getting ready to kill minorities.” The Snapchat account used was the same account of a 16-year old student suspended earlier this year for making death threats to Black students in a Zoom meeting.
“You have our kids getting ready to go back to school. They’re going to be face-to-face, you’ve got people threatening their lives and there’s doesn’t seem to be anything happening,” said Dr. Janice Greene, President of the Snohomish County NAACP. “Children of color are going to [that] school. They don’t feel protected. They can’t. How do you learn in that environment?”
Located about 30 miles north of downtown Seattle, Marysville borders the Tulalip Indian Reservation. The community has experienced rapid growth in the last 20 years, with more than 65,000 residents calling the city home. Once known as Strawberry City with a quaint downtown, Marysville has transformed into a bedroom community next to a vast outlet shopping center and sprawling casino complex. Before COVID-19, bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged Interstate-5 with commuters, gamblers, and shoppers.
When Marysville officials learned that a police officer’s relative made the threat, the county sheriff department took over the case. Officials say that the investigation will conclude in April. However, Washington governor Jay Inslee has ordered a return to in-class instruction by April 19, 2021.
“You’re sending our kids back into school with threats hanging in the air,” Dr. Greene went on to say. “People are not being held accountable with that. People not having to deal with the consequences of their behavior.”
Dr. Greene also talked about the challenges for victims of racial incidents. “I’m concerned about the way we keep pulling our young people that are racially traumatized out in front of people to tell their story over and over again. So we retraumatize our children.”
She added, “I’m going to say Marysville right now is at the crux of it, but that’s not. They’re not the only ones.” To both those points, Kirkland’s Lake Washington School District highlights both of these challenges.
An incident at Kirkland Juanita High School has remerged. In early 2020, a conflict between students devolved into a Black student being called a racial slur. A school guard who intervened is also accused of using a racial slur in the incident. In that incident, it isn’t clear what action the District took against the guard or offending student. As COVID-19 gripped the region less than two-months later, community attention shifted to remote learning.
Over the summer, the high school wrestled with its mascot, “The Rebels.” Some viewed the imagery as too close to the Confederate flag. Historically, a rebel was picked as the mascot because Juanita High School was founded as an alternative learning school. During the 1980s, the artwork of the mascot was modified to add stars and bars with more than a passing resemblance to the Confederate battle flag. In the end, students voted to eliminate the mascots and become the ravens.
We reached out to the Lake Washington School District for additional information, and they released a statement. “Lake Washington School District has been made aware that there are concerns being shared in the community about an incident that occurred over a year ago at Juanita High School. The District is reviewing the incident in further detail and has communicated directly with stakeholders on this matter.”
“Lake Washington School District is committed to providing safe and inclusive learning and working environments for our students and staff.”
We reached out to the parties involved, but none of them wanted to comment on the record. Our ongoing investigation has learned that a public records request was recently made into the incident.
As for the next steps, Dr. Greene had a clear vision for Marysville. “We would like to see appropriate charges and actions for the young people that made the threats [and] for the 20-year old that was holding the gun. We’d also like for Snohomish County [to] put some type of oversight so that we can see what’s going on outside of the school districts. So you have a community-type oversight, so we can address these issues when they come up.”
In both communities, it appears fast action won’t be forthcoming. Students are returning to classrooms after a polarizing election year and George Floyd’s death. Protests in more than 650 cities and towns across the United States erupted – including Kirkland and Marysville. Students have interacted within tighter groups over the last year due to COVID. Polarized conversations on politics and race are unreconciled, just as children and teens are coming back together to learn. It can be a powderkeg, and historically, Marysville Pilchuck High School is no stranger to gun violence.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) A person is in custody after carjacking a black Honda, driving it through a group of protesters, and colliding with multiple parked vehicles. Two different events converged in downtown Seattle as Black Lives Matter protesters marched from the West Precinct into the Amazon South Lake Union campus.
The march was to commemorate 300 days of continuous protest in Seattle and started at Cal Anderson Park. About 200 peaceful protesters marched to the West Precinct, where several speakers addressed the group, including City Council candidate Nikkita Oliver. The group was followed by a heavy police presence, with over a dozen police vehicles visible on the surrounding blocks and many bike officers just out of sight.
As the group approached the intersection of Virginia, Fairview, and Boren, the carjacker attempted to turn on Virginia, finding it blocked. The carjacker struck a cyclist as protesters scattered. Seattle police bike officer following the protesters rode into the intersection to a scene of chaos. Police officers asked if anyone was injured. A destroyed bicycle lay on the ground, but there were no reported injuries to the officers’ amazement.
Video captured on the scene shows protesters running in two directions while a car brigade moves to protect the group. Another video shows a person narrowly missed by the fleeing car as it makes a u-turn on Boren. The driver then collides with several parked vehicles before wrecking at Denny and Fairview.
A diverse group of protesters representing Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and insurrectionary anarchists have been marching and engaging in direct action since May 2020. The three groups at times march together using different tactics and seeking a variety of goals. Last night’s march was Black-led, with organizers admonishing those in the group trying to take direct action.
[MARYSVILLE] Extracurricular activity can open doors for secondary education and help lay a foundation for continued growth. Online threats toward a target list of Black students in December 2020 have spilled over into ongoing hate speech and targeting through social media.
On December 14, 2020, in an Associated Student Body Junior Leadership virtual meeting, things took an ugly turn for Marysville Pilchuck High School students. Two students during a Zoom meeting stated, “let’s kill all Black people,” and then went on to identify several Black students by name in the call.
A criminal investigation followed, and Marysville police interviewed two impacted Black families. According to police and a press release from the NAACP, one family stated they did not want to pursue charges. The two students that made the statements received suspensions from school and transferred to a different facility.
On January 28, 2021, a different student came forward and provided images of Snapchat conversations. In one of the screenshots, one of the students involved in the December incident was brandishing a handgun with the caption, “killing minorities soon.” The student who reported this went on to state this wasn’t the first time this type of comment was made.
The Marysville School District released a statement saying in part, “[The Marysville School District] will absolutely not tolerate hateful, racist speech or actions. Our job is to denounce hate and intimidation where we work, create environments where students feel safe to learn, and hold students accountable for their words or actions consistent with the law.”
In a press release the Snohomish County NAACP wrote, “We call for the Marysville Police Department and the Snohomish County Prosecutor to pursue the issue as a hate crime and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent the law allows.“
Marysville Pilchuck High School is no stranger to gun violence. On October 24, 2014, 15-year-old freshman Jaylen Fryberg shot five, killing four, before committing suicide in the school cafeteria. A year later, his father, Raymond Fryberg, was arrested and convicted for illegally purchasing the gun used in the mass shooting.
In December of 2018, the school was placed on lockdown after a group of students got into a brawl. There was a large police response and the campus was closed at 12:45 PM in that incident.
It became a tale of two cities as vigils and protests in honor of Breonna Taylor swept the United States on Saturday. Seattle and Portland both had vigils and marches with two very different outcomes from Direct Action marchers.
In Seattle, activists gathered outside Cal Anderson Park for a candlelight memorial and chalk art before marching into downtown Seattle. SPD met the group with a heavy and aggressive presence as they marched downtown and to the waterfront. Smaller groups splintered off and broke windows. The Seattle Police used a level of force not seen since November, resulting in fourteen arrests.
Later on Saturday, Direct Action protesters gathered in Occidental Park, where one of the activists chastized the group for lack of planning and poor tactics. KOMO released the video on Monday, and an infiltrator of the group allegedly filmed it.
Disagreements between the various protest groups in Seattle are well known and have spilled over into the public view on social media. Direct Action marches are described as a “venue” and are considered leaderless. An increasing presence by the Youth Liberation Front, an organization born out of Portland, vacillates between allowing independent journalists to tell their story and threatening violence against reporters.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”35″ gal_title=”Breonna Taylor 365 Day Protests”]Black activists, including those within Direct Action, have expressed the frustration of the coopting of the Black Live Matters message with insurrectionary anarchist tactics. In January, Black leaders in Tacoma condemned a protest that tore through Black neighborhoods.
Black leaders have expressed that any property destruction caused by insurrectionary anarchists gets blamed on Black Lives Matter and the Black community. The court of public opinion frequently conflates Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and anarchists into the same grouping. In reality, they represent three different philosophies with overlapping goals but use divergent tactics.
For example, systemic racism against the Black community has roots within corporate America, especially in banking and financing. Acknowledgment, correction, and compensation for wrongs against the Black (and BIPOC) are common goals. Some groups seek reform, another dismantlement, and others destruction. These critical differences are often lost within the message and actions on the street.
In contrast, Black leaders in Portland assembled for a vigil for Breonna Taylor. A group of about 100 gathered outside while maintaining social distance for a candlelight vigil. The vigil featured live music, speeches from Black leaders, and impacted family members. The details of the actions taken by Louisville Police and the multiple policy violations were outlined with documentation. Candles and flowers surrounded a large painting of Breonna Taylor as people paid their respects.
The group then drove to the Blackburn Bridge, where activists released 60 lanterns into the Columbia River to commemorate Breonna Taylor’s life. With musicians playing, a group of about 100 marched over a mile to the Federal Courthouse. When they arrived around 10 PM, Direct Action protesters had already gathered outside the courthouse for a third day. On Thursday, federal officials used pepper balls and tear gas, while on Friday, Portland police kettled about 100 people, including journalists, arresting 13.
As the Direct Action protesters painted graffiti on the boards covering windows and columns and probed for weak points, Black leadership demanded they stop. A heated exchange exploded between the two groups, with Black leaders expressing frustration that Portland’s continued violence does not support Black lives. Black activists repeated words heard last year that Black voices should be listened to when protests are happening to support Black lives.
Like in Seattle, the fissure between Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and anarchists was on full display. Some pleaded for the primarily white audience watching and listening to intervene and stop the direct action group. Some people moved to the courthouse sidewalk, and gradually most left the courthouse perimeter.
After the exchange, many left the area. As the night progressed, tensions rose several times, with announcements from the courthouse that those on the sidewalk were trespassing and could be subject to action. The sounds of rocks hitting the wooden barricades and windows filled the air multiple times. Music known to result in DMCA takedowns played in an attempt to blackout media coverage. By 1 AM, most had left, and not one Portland Police officer or federal agent made an appearance.
Twenty-four hours later, Portland police declared an unlawful assembly as Direct Action hit the streets again. On Monday, a coalition of Black leaders condemned insurrectionary anarchists in particular and put out a call for the tactics of property damage and threats to end.
Many expect an increase and larger protests in the coming months. Better weather, the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, the imminent decision on charges against police officers involved with Manny Ellis’s death, and the Jeff Nelson trial are all on the horizon.
A variety of groups and tactics will continue to be employed by different factions. If there is one thing the media should strive to achieve in those coming months, it is clearly differentiating between the groups, their tactics, and their goals.
