Capitol Hill Organized Protest

Capitol Hill Occupied ( now called Organized) Protest is evolving as I write, so this is simply a report that will have to be updated. Everyone heard about the tear gas confrontation from Sunday June 6-7 and the departure of the police from 10th precinct, the “zone” as it was called then. I went down there twice on June 12 and June 17 to document mainly the visual aspect of the protest. While I was there on June 12 I was fortunate to witness an interview between Omari Salisbury and TraeAnna Holiday on what was happening there, what the principles of the protest were, as well as their goals (demands). Omari has been on the ground with his Converge Media since May 29 reporting day by day developments. The link is his morning update show. Here I got caught on camera during the show on June 12. That’s TraeAnna Holiday speaking on the mike.

TraeAnna and Omari were talking about offering an alternative to the news bites of sensationalist mainstream media as citizen journalists. ( All most people know about this protest is the tear gas on the first night).

TraeAnna is an activist as well as host of the morning show on Converge She is a community organizer for the Africatown Community Land Trust that “empowers Black residence by fostering land ownership.” Her emphasis is on the hope for equity and coalition of the like-minded to dismantle the racist system. She spoke of resilience, peace, and community as the guiding principles as well as a community based process for transferring property.

Omari has captured the critical moments in the day to day events there, most dramatically, and featured on Democracy Now, when the police simply left the precinct.

So what do you see if you go there? Here are some images on the street, a giant Black Lives Matter mural: each letter painted by a different artist with photos by my partner Henry Matthews.

This is the most formidable accomplishment, but there is art everywhere. The second most impressive work is the monument to those who died by police violence.

This is the longest list I have seen, although oddly it leaves out Charleena Lyles who died in Seattle. Here is a separate monument to her that I posted on my previous blog on the marches. I listed the names and ages of all the people listed below there. Here they are again. I feel it is important to name their names as often as possible. Yesterday I heard a wonderful poem that took each name as a poetic verse : George FLoyd age 46, Breanna Taylor age 26, Ahmad Aubrey, 25 Eric Garner 43,Michael Brown 18, Tamir Rice 12, Freddie Gray 25, Philando Castille 32, Stephen Clark 25, Trayvon Martin 17, Manuelle Ellis 33, Charlene Lyles 30

So now we will go back to where the street was blocked on 12th and Pine (the barricade is no longer there, it was removed by a nearby resident)

This is what the corner with the police precinct looked like on June 12 and a few days later. Around the corner were the demands on the plywood

1 Defund the Police by 50 per cent 2 Fund Community Restorative Justice, Housing, Healthcare 3 Freedom for all Protestors.

Note the three planter boxes and the pile of dirt in the foreground. Planting gardens is part of the activity. Here is a view of what Omari calls the “chill” zone on the North side of Cal Anderson Park with more planters.

Speaking of food here is the No Cop CO-OP with lots of donated food from local bakeries and restaurants

And then there are the many protest murals everywhere

I was happy to see this connection to the Gezi uprising in Turkey and the call for freeing Demirtas. Selahattin Demirtaş is a Turkish politician of Zaza Kurdish descent, member of the parliament of Turkey since 2007. He was co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. He has been imprisoned since November 2016.

 

Hugo House is a writers center across the street from the encampment. It used to be an old house here, now it is the first floor of an upscale apartment building.

Then there are the COVID 19 murals I documented in a previous post which have now been graffittied. The artist with green hair here was showing her work. I pointed out to her that she perfectly matched the colors in the mural including the new message.

See below for another update of this mural site on June 22. .

This is an evolving situation as I write. I will add an update once I get the final information about what happened today. Tragically two people were shot. One of them died. I think this is the beginning of the end of the CHOP. Very sad.

Part II

I went back today June 22. We were in search of a totem pole we read about in the Seattle Times,but no one knew anything about it. John T. Williams was a native carver killed by the police in 2010. ( That’s a link to my blogpost about it). His grandson was creating a totem for the CHOP zone according to a photo from the Seattle Times, but it has also vanished from the newspaper! There was a native drum circle in support of CHOP which I didn’t see, so I will add a photo of a BLM Native Drum circle from my first march, see post above.

The mood now is entirely different. I am still depressed by it. The spirit of the confrontation seemed more dispersed, less clear about the purpose of the protest, less protest, more sort of people hanging out and a huge amount of graffitti. But there were more people. There are for sure, more tents. Some BLM people feel this occupation has diverted attention from the main issue, but here it is, front and center, another young black man killed.

The site of the shooting of the young man, Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr. had a memorial right in front of the COVID 19 mural that I have documented as it was first installed and its earlier graffiti ( above). Now it has a whole new layer of graffiti. I am not sure this was the actual site of the shooting as it took place outside the CHOP. And Lorenzo was not part of the CHOP either. We still don’t know who the shooter was and there was another shooting last night. Lorenzo had just completed his diploma the day before. Apparently Lorenzo was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, code for a gang confrontation, but he was not part of a gang according to his family.

I will take you through our walk from Broadway and Pine around Cal Anderson Field. The graffitti feels angrier, less skilled, and generally it was defacing everything, rather than suggesting a concentrated political message.

This was clear, but perhaps unrealistic. It is impossible to defund the police by 50 percent over night. “Defund the police” was the former cry and it is crucial to do that! But the process is going to be difficult. Mayor Durkan said she didn’t want to reduce “her officers”. We need to keep on with the pressure, but maybe this street occupation is not the most effective way to achieve the goal.

“Cops aren’t workers” ? Not sure who created this slogan.

You can see the beginning of the giant Black Lives Matters mural here ( see above). The wooden boxes were put up by the City and they have all been covered with art. I was too depressed to carefully document all of them.

On top of the structure was a man on a microphone preaching about Jesus Christ!

This was a really positive place, Decolonization Cafe. The Seattle Times had good coverage of the CHOP today, June 23 with more engagement with the conversations at the Decolonization Cafe as well as in general. The sign reads “1 What are examples of racism overt and systemic in Seattle today? 2How has today’s BLM movment transformed you and your views on racism 3 How is today’s BLM Movement different from past Civil Rights Movements 4 What gives you hope we’ll create lasting change through this movement”

So I didn’t stop and ask myself these questions and I didn’t sit down and talk. Why didn’t I? They are clearly directed to all of us. What are we individually doing to change the systemic racism of our society?

Storme Weber is a well known poet in Seattle “I told a story until it transformed, I sang a song until the melody lifted, rose from dirge and I could feel the grace notes.”

Somehow this misty image seems appropriate as a way to end. We will see what happens next. The city mayor and police chief, after another shooting, are now wanting the police to come back, and the area to be closed overnight. Hopefully, it can peacefully transition. According to the Seattle Times article cited above, many of the organizers agree with that idea.

Aftermath

June 26 the city brought in Seattle Department of Transportation workers to remove the street barriers. The Mayor and Chief of Police also engaged in dialog with the protestors in a nearby AMC Baptist church ( the oldest black church in the city). Converge Media documented it afterward. They are responding to the demands.

July 1 CHOP highlilghts the ongoing problems in this city, racism, police violence, homelessness, lack of services for addicted and people with mental health problems, gang violence. We had another shooting incident on Tuesday, another young black man killed. Of course it was outside CHOP and blamed on them, but actually this is the same issue over and over. Having police there would only have made it worse, and of course we have the gangs operating all over Seattle all the time and the killings are not investigated by the police. Gangs are also a result of lack of opportunity to be constructive members of societ, poor education, all the problems that could be mitigated with more money in the community.

July 1 midday the police have moved in with teargas and rubber bullets. They are already whitewashing the police precinct. Durkan issued an emergency order at 2am. But as Omari said on Converge Media, this is not going to be the end of the story. The issues are still there.

August 12

Our African American Chief of Police Carmen Best has resigned. I find this depressing. The print headline says ” Budget Cuts, disrespect drove her decision.” The City Council approved cuts in the police department and her salary without consulation.