Incidents

September 7 SPOG Rally

I met up with other protesters in the International District around 4 p.m. on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2020. Organizers of the protest told us to avoid “starting anything” and reminded us that not everyone in the group was prepared to go toe to toe with “riot cops.” They handed out plastic bags and gloves so that we could pick up trash along the way to the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) headquarters on 4th Avenue in Sodo. I and others picked up trash as we walked to SPOG headquarters. Once we arrived, we left the bags of trash in front of the building, which was surrounded by a fence and was boarded up. I saw three officers on bikes visible, peeking out from behind an adjacent building. The protesters set up a line and did not advance. Music started playing, appearing to be transmitted from SPOG headquarters. It was a country music song, Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.

Suddenly, with no warning and with no provocation other than us having shown up at SPOG headquarters, approximately 30 bike cops came boiling out from behind the building and slammed into the line. When this happened, I had not been there longer than about 2 or 3 minutes. The bike cops advanced on us while screaming at protesters to get back. I saw clouds of spray, saw and heard flash bangs, and saw what I would describe as a dogpile of people. The force of the bike cops descending on this group created a pile of people who fell trying to get away. The pileup was created because people could not get out of the way quickly enough when the bike cops descended on the group. I was not in the dogpile but moved back, complying with the officers demands.

On the video that I took, you can hear me responding, “I’m moving, I’m moving.” (00:06 timestamp) (this video can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/we2tx1njxir5t0 m/Pepper%20Spray.mp4?dl=0).

A woman moved into the open space and was filming when an officer maced her in the face and she fell down. I rushed to help her get up so that she wouldn’t get hurt. (00:28 – 00:41 timestamp). After others helped her up, the bike cops continued to advance. I was moving backwards as fast as I could. People behind me were pushing this way and that. As I was backing away, an officer came at me and maced me directly in the face. You can see the orange spray cover completely the lens of my phone. The officer gave me no warning. (00:45 timestamp). The mace soaked my face mask, hair, and neck. The mace burned my skin. It made me cough. It made medisoriented.
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When the officer maced me, I was complying with the orders I had heard. I was moving backwards. I had one hand in front of me, filming with my phone. My other hand empty. I was peacefully engaging in protest and was documenting my experience by filming on my phone. I was complying. I had done nothing to harm anyone. I had done nothing to damage property. As I stated earlier, the officer maced me directly in the face.
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I don’t know why the officer maced me. A few minutes later, as we were being forced to move away from SPOG headquarters and along 4th Avenue, I recognized the officer who had maced me and I asked why he had maced me. I did not receive a response. at 2:42. After the immediate attack by officers in front of SPOG headquarters, the bike cops “pushed” protesters along 4th Aveune. They had teams moving ahead of us to block off the roads. None of us could leave because they blocked the roads along 4th Avenue. The repeated that we must “leave the area” and “move back” but I never heard a warning or statement that declared us to be an unlawfulassembly.
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They pushed us for over a mile. I shouted at officers if they had read the stipulated order and asked where we were going and how far we had to go. For the most part, I was ignored. One officer said that they would push us “as far as it takes.” Because officers were pushing the protesters, those needing aid had to receive it
as they kept moving because none of us were allowed to stop or slow down. As I was being forced to march away from SPOG headquarters toward an unknown destination, my skin burned progressively worse from the mace that was now dripping down my body. As I stated earlier, I have been participating in protests since near when they began. I participated in the protests on July 25, 2020. At the time, I thought that was bad. But from my experience on Sept. 7, I have never seen SPD act this way and I have never been as scared of the police as I was on Sept. 7. While I and others were being force marched from SPOG headquarters to Judkins Park, without any opportunity to leave, I felt so trapped and so scared that I texted one of my attorneys, asking what I should do. The only advice he had for me was to lay low, to try not to draw attention to myself, and that he would try to meet me near the protest to take me and others to safety. As it turned out, once we arrived at Judkins Park, the officers had no interest in engaging with us further.
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They left, allowing us to leave. It took me over 6 hours to get the worst of the mace out of my hair and off my skin; the officer had sprayed me so heavily that the water in the shower ran off me in an orange color. I had to decontaminate everything I touched, and I discovered remnants of the mace in my bag, clothes, and personal effects for days afterwards. It felt like the worst sunburn of my life.

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NG Declaration, May 30, 2020

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I have been a Seattle resident for the past six years and currently work as a journalist. Since May 30, 2020, I have been reporting on the City’s recent wave protests against police brutality. The information contained in this declaration is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, and I am of majority age and competent to testify about the matters set forth herein. At approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2020, I arrived at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle to report on the demonstration there. I understand that law enforcement had deployed tear gas shortly before I arrived, at approximately 3:45 p.m. The scene when I arrived was clouded by gas, with protesters scattering and sprinting away. The atmosphere was tense and frightening. I immediately felt the effects of the gas and began coughing. My eyes stung and watered. Although there did not appear to be any risk of violence from the crowd, law enforcement continued to fire flash bangs and tear gas, increasing the chaos. I took video footage of these protests and the violence that ensued. I was determined to continue reporting, so I began roving around the Westlake area, observing the scene. As I approached the corner of 6th and Stewart, I saw a group of protesters peacefully kneeling in the intersection as a speaker addressed them. I stood on the sidewalk nearby and listened to the speaker for a while, but then I heard an explosion from down the street. I turned and moved partway down the block to see what was happening, and then watched as a police line advanced down the street towards me, with other demonstrators fleeing in front of them.

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They deployed tear gas, which filled the street like plumes of smoke. It was not clear to me that the people fleeing the approaching police line and tear gas had done anything to provoke such an aggressive response. The protesters kneeling in the intersection, who were also impacted by the tear gas, had been completely peaceful. I did not see what happened next, but given the amount of gas in the air, I imagine that the kneeling protesters would have been forced to scatter. I wanted to continue to document the situation, but the gas reached me seconds later, and I had to leave. Its effects were so powerful, so painful, and so alarming that I was physically unable to remain in the intersection.

As a result, I was unable to continue reporting on that incident. Shortly afterward, on E Pine St, I saw a truck playing music, as protesters danced around it. It was an uplifting, joyful scene that contrasted with the warlike chaos of the panicked demonstrators and tear gas in other areas of the neighborhood. I paused to observe and record a video, when law enforcement threw a flash bang grenade into the crowd without warning. They deployed tear gas seconds later. The dancing protesters at first scattered, but then coalesced back into a group. Law enforcement pushed them back and continued to deploy tear gas and flash bangs. I was shocked and frightened by the consistently unprovoked, aggressive use of force by law enforcement officers on multiple different groups of peaceful protesters. I saw no evidence that any of these severe crowd-dispersal tactics were warranted, and there was never any warning before they were deployed. At this point, I decided to leave the area, because I feared for my safety. There was tear gas everywhere, flash bang grenades exploding in the street, and I was anxious that the police would further escalate their tactics. I decided that reporting on the situation was no longer worth the pain of enduring tear gas and the risk of suffering violence at the hands of law enforcement.

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On Tuesday, June 2, I was working at The Stranger’s office at around 11:30 p.m. The office is on the third floor of a building that has a clear view of the intersection at 11th and Pine in Capitol Hill, which has become a daily protest site. That night, I was recording the demonstration from the fire escape. The vast majority of protesters below had been peaceful, although a few individuals thrown water bottles, rocks, and at one point a traffic cone. Overall, the demonstration did not appear to be dangerous or out-of-control. The police made an announcement that I could not hear over a loudspeaker, and almost immediately afterwards removed their barricade so that officers on bikes could come streaming through into the crowd of protesters.

They also started firing tear gas. I was seriously alarmed by the sudden escalation, and quickly retreated back inside my office, where I shut the windows. The ground below was so immersed in gas that I couldn’t see the road. Some of it began to seep in to my office, despite the closed windows, and I began to cough. When the gas cleared enough for me to at last observe the street, I saw that a woman in a wheelchair had been left behind by the crowd as it fled. Police continued to stream past her, but no one stopped to help her. later, while I continued to record events below from the window, the police directed a large spotlight at me. I don’t know whether they knew my building was the Stranger’s offices; this is common knowledge in the neighborhood, but our name is not displayed prominently on the street. Whether or not they knew that I was a journalist, I don’t understand why they fixed their light on me, and it made me nervous. To be honest, I was frightened—it gave me the impression that I was doing something wrong, even though I knew that I wasn’t. Despite my intimidation, I continued to record. Witnessing the aggressive, indiscriminate deployment of chemical gents and flash bang grenades by police at these protests has made me reconsider how I approach my assignments. There is a new element of trepidation, anxiety, and fear to my experience of being a journalist. I am determined to assert my rights and do my job, so I will continue reporting—but I would not be surprised if other journalists felt that their ability report from the ground was significantly impaired by these law enforcement tactics. They are deeply disturbing.

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AW declaration, May 30th

I am a videographer and graphic designer residing in Seattle, Washington and I protested every day between May 30, 2020 and June 7, 2020. I am a twenty-eight-year-old black man and between Saturday, May 30, 2020 and Sunday, June 7, 2020 I was personally exposed to police violence for the first time in the form of tear gas, pepper spray, and flash bangs while peacefully protesting. On Saturday, May 30, I participated in protests in Seattle’s Westlake Park where police used tear gas and flash bangs. My partner and I arrived at Westlake Park around 3:00 p.m. to attend the peaceful protest. Around 3:45 p.m. we began hearing loud explosive sounds which I believe were flash bangs. A few minutes later we walked out towards the crowd gathering on Pine Street. As we reached the intersection of Pine and 5th with our hands up chanting “hands up, don’t shoot” tear gas was deployed near 3:54 p.m. on the north side of the intersection. We felt the effects immediately, burning eyes and hard breathing. We immediately soon after around 4:30 p.m. We were not being violent to anyone, and we were not destroying or threatening any property. But SPD still launched chemical agents at us, which I believe was tear gas.

Two days later, on Monday, June 1, the day began peacefully for my partner and me when we joined the protest at E Pine St and 11th Ave in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. We spent time walking around the demonstration, observing the different mutual aid stations that had been established, resting in Cal Anderson Park, and of course at the front line of the western facing barrier participating and voicing our demands. Near 9:00 p.m. my partner and I were returning to the western barrier on E Pine St and 11th Ave after grabbing snacks and water from a mutual aid station near E Pike St and 11th Ave. As we reached the corner of E Pike St and 11th Ave we were almost immediately met with flash bags and tear gas without any warning. I was stunned. People all around us began running and screaming. As my partner and I snapped back through the cloud of tear gas that had quickly engulfed us to escape. My partner began stumbling, choking on the fumes. The gas had effectively temporarily blinded her. I was slowly losing my sight and suffocating, but was trying to ensure that I could help my partner get far enough away from the tear gas. Five to ten minutes later we reached E Union St and 11th Ave where a civilian medic applied water and milk to my partner’s and my eyes. After receiving help from the civilian medic we rested at E Madison St and 11th Ave at the entrance of Seattle University campus. We sat there and regained our composure for about five to ten minutes before heading back down 10th Ave to receive other protesters fleeing additional tear gas and flash bang deployments. We did not return to protesting.

On Tuesday, June 2 we arrived at E Pine St and 11th Ave around 6:00 p.m. My partner and I heard from people on the ground and later confirmed that police officers had removed residents from the roof of the apartment building above E Pine and 11th Ave where a video was taken of the previous night’s tear gassing. We were nervous there would be another incident and this time it wouldn’t be as easily documented. We stayed at the East Precinct, Western Barricade for about 3 hours before we split with the half of the protestors towards the back and marched around Capitol Hill and First Hill. Along the way we lost our apartment key. When we arrived back at Cal Anderson Park, there were less people at the precinct, and we were tired so we decided to go home before realizing we were missing our apartment key. We were looking for our key, on 13th Avenue and E Olive St when we heard loud bangs. We ran to the intersection of Pine and 13th to see what was happening and there saw and heard at least ten more flash bangs and saw a cloud of yellow teargas floating into the air by the barricade and quickly left so as not to inhale any of the toxic smoke. As we left we heard more flash bangs going off behind us. Before this week of trying to protest, I only symbolically and systemically understood what George Floyd and Eric Garner must have experienced when they were screaming out “I can’t breathe.” When the tear gas engulfed me on multiple occasions this past week, the words “I can’t breathe” became more than symbolic.

I personally and physically experienced what it felt like to have police violence literally choke me to a point where I was uncertain if I would remain conscious. This experience has affected every part of my life. I can’t sleep because every night I’m not at the East Precinct I incessantly check Twitter and Facebook streams of friends and allies to ensure that they are still safe. And when wake up in the morning and I can’t work because my brain has been on overdrive worrying all night. Headaches are a constant. Appetite is at an all-time low. The pain and trauma of historical violence and oppression met with day to day to violence perpetrated by the Seattle Police Department has coalesced into what I might describe as one of the worst weeks of my life. I know that when I attend a protest where the Seattle Police Department is present I will never be safe. But I also know that these protests are important part of holding the City of Seattle and police department accountable. If I do not continue to exercise my First amendment right nothing will change so I will continue to protest, I will continue to protect my community knowing fully how this may adversely affect my health. But every day I participate in demonstrations where the Seattle Police Department are present, my anxiety undoubtedly increases. I begin to worry and prepare for the same suffocating feeling I experienced because of their use of extreme force and violence against peaceful protestors.

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A_E_2 Declaration, May 30, June 6, 2020

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I have shown up to protest every day since the killing of George Floyd in Seattle and Tacoma. I protest in Tacoma during the week and in Seattle on weekends. I often use a knee scooter to assist with my spinal
disability. While protesting during the weekends of May 30, 2020 and June 12, 2020 I saw the Seattle Police Department (“SPD”) use chemical agents including tear gas, mace, and possibly pepper spray, as well as flash bang
grenades against protestors—even a child— who were not doing anything other than refusing to go home. Saturday, May 30, 2020 On Saturday, May 30, I was on the front lines of the protest in Westlake when the Seattle Police Department began using less lethal weapons indiscriminately against
protesters. SPD deployed a chemical agent that I believe to be tear gas. This was not my first exposure to tear gas. While I was in the Navy, during boot camp, recruits were exposed to tear gas while we were wearing gas masks and told to puncture the seal so that we could feel what tear gas feels like.
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When the SPD deployed tear gas on May 30, the gas dispersed throughout the crowd, spreading well beyond the immediate vicinity where it was deployed. The gas made my eyes sting and triggered my asthma, causing me to have an attack. SPD also deployed flash bang grenades. I also saw an SPD officer mace a little
girl. The girl posed no risk to the officer. Saturday, June 6 On Saturday, June 6, I participated in a protest in Capitol Hill, at the corner of 11th Avenue and E Pine St. Police kept repeating that they wanted protesters to move back, but the crowd did
not move. My friend became nervous that the police might use force, which would cause protestors at the front of the crowd to flee towards the back, compressing the crowd and crushing us, so we moved off to the side of
the protest. Despite the SPD violence against protesters I had witnessed the prior weekend, I was shocked by the severity of the law enforcement response.
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I saw officers begin lobbing canisters of some kind of chemical irritant. The girl standing in front of me started choking on whatever chemical had been deployed, and she began screaming and crying. Even though I was not on the front line, my eyes began to water and sting. The light and sound emitted from weapons the SPD was using made me feel like I was back in Afghanistan again. The police response, and the panic it caused, felt like a war zone. On Sunday, I was still coughing from the chemical agent deployed against protestors the previous day.

I am furious about the police response to peaceful protests against police brutality. I didn’t serve my country to come home and have my friends tear gassed for standing up for what they believe in.

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When he learned of the death of George Floyd, X felt he had a responsibility to protest the injustice that caused it, often attending as many as five events per week.
X was at all relevant times a peaceful protester.
On May 30, 2020, around 3:30 pm, X was attending the BLM/George Floyd protest in downtown Seattle when he was suddenly and without provocation exposed to tear gas used by the SPD.
On July 25, 2020, around 7 pm, X was attending a protest near the intersection of 11th Avenue and Pine Street. Like many protesters, X wanted to have conversations with the officers, though most of the officers would not reciprocate. During one such interaction, another officer about six feet away raised and fired a weapon at him – presumably a rubber bullet/baton round – striking X in the abdomen. The projectile injured both his torso and his right arm.
As a direct and proximate result of the projectile used on him by the City and SPD, X suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: laceration on his ribcage, lacerations and contusions on his right arm, tissue damage, scarring, tingling sensations, restricted range of motion, disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating, depression, and symptoms of PTSD. X also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On May 30, 2020, GG joined several friends on Capitol Hill to attend a Not This Time anti-police brutality/Black Lives Matter protest. They walked downhill on East Pine Street, and eventually joined a group at Westlake Park on 5th Avenue and Pine St., where they stood listening to speakers.
At approximately 4:45 p.m., many people received notification on their phones that Mayor Durkan had sent out a curfew order.
The curfew was set to begin at 5:00 p.m. There was not enough time for GG and her friends to get back to their cars, and transit was shut down, which trapped them outside after curfew.
At 5:00 p.m. SPD and national guard troops started pushing people away from Westlake Park.
GG lost track of all her friends but one while the crowds were being pushed north on 6th Avenue.
GG was shoved backwards by an officer and pepper sprayed in the face by another. The pepper spray fogged her goggles and her eyes stung and teared up. She couldn’t see.
Disoriented, GG raised her hands in front of her. She was then thrown to the ground while multiple officers piled on top of her. Officers kneeled on her back and limbs.
The police tore off GG’s goggles and mask and an officer rubbed pepper spray in her eyes and mouth.
GG was placed in a police vehicle and transported to the West Precinct. She was briefly given a damp paper towel to wipe her face but was unable to properly wash and pepper spray residue remained on her face.
About an hour later, GG was taken to the King County Jail.

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Upon arrival, GG was taken to a small, curtained booth where a guard held open the curtain and ordered GG to remove all her clothes and bend over.
Around midnight, GG was taken in shackles from King County Jail to the Kent Regional Justice Center.
She was not told anything about where she was being taken or why, and no one had told her what she had been arrested for or what she was being charged with.
She was not told she was being held for assault until Sunday, May 31, in the afternoon.
At the Kent Regional Justice Center, GG was never given a change of underwear or socks.
She was never treated for her injuries, including burns on her face from chemical exposure.

She spent 22.5 hours a day alone in a cell.

By Sunday, she was experiencing increasing pain in her neck, and in her ribcage where police officers had piled on top of her.
GG is gluten intolerant and could not eat the peanut butter sandwich given to her at the Seattle jail. She told the guards at Kent RJC that she couldn’t eat gluten. A guard discouraged her from filling out a ‘kite’ to request gluten-free meals, saying “Don’t fill out a kite, it’ll take too long to process and you’ll be gone anyway.” GG was held for approximately 67 hours. During that time, the only food she was given that she could eat was raw carrots and packets of peanut butter.
During her time at the Kent Regional Justice Center, GG observed guards specifically following protesters around, saying that they are dangerous and that “They’ve looted five Walmarts already!” Guards made a point of telling GG and others held on protest-related charges things like “You don’t know what you’re talking about, there is no systemic racism.”

On Tuesday, June 2, GG was bonded out by her mother and released around 1:30 pm. The jail staff member processing GG for release told her, “If it was up to me, you wouldn’t be released. You’re destroying our country.”
During her 67 hours of confinement, GG was never taken before a judge. She was held without charge, without arraignment, and without ever being taken to court.
Despite never being arraigned or appearing in court on any charges, the prosecution made its own motion to dismiss the “charge” with prejudice for “proof problems.” That motion was granted.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force and chemical weapons used on her by the City and SPD, her unlawful arrest, and her unlawful treatment at the King County Jail and Kent Regional Justice Center, GG suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: neck strain, rib pain, disruption of her menstrual cycle, anxiety, insomnia, humiliation, depression, other symptoms of PTSD, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime she did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. GG also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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On May 30, 2020, MH, a 17-year-old high school student, went to downtown Seattle with their brother and brother-in-law, to protest the killing of George Floyd and support the Black Lives Matter movement. They arrived at Westlake Center around 1pm, where they listened to speakers and marched around downtown.  
MH was at all times a peaceful protester.
Around 4 or 5pm, the crowd they were part of was stopped by a police blockade. MH and the group knelt, with their hands up, chanting “hands up, don’t shoot.”  
Suddenly, one of the officers ripped someone’s umbrella from their hands, after which the officers began throwing tear gas into the crowd.  
The protestors, including MH, attempted to flee the area. MH became separated from their family members. They were anxious, fearful, and began to panic.  
Suddenly, while MH was running to put distance between themselves and the police, an officer threw an explosive device, striking MH in the hand. MH felt immediate pain but could not stop to see what happened, as officers were swiftly and forcefully advancing, corralling the crowd out of Westlake Center.  
As the police advanced, an SPD bike officer forcefully shoved MH, causing them additional trauma.

As a direct and proximate result of the City and SPD’s explosive device striking MH, MH suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: a partially amputated thumb and shattering of the bones of their forefinger. MH also suffered infringement upon their constitutional rights.

28-year-old JK, a welder who recently moved to the Seattle area, suffered injuries and damages at the hands of the City and SPD on two separate occasions.  
JK was at all times a peaceful protester.  
On May 30, 2020, JK went to downtown Seattle to peacefully protest the murder of George Floyd, and joined the crowds congregating near 4th and Stewart Street.  
At 5:00 pm, Mayor Durkan’s hastily announced curfew went into effect.
The protesters were not given sufficient notice about this curfew – many did not know about it until after it had already gone into effect.  
A bit before 5:00 pm, JK could see that the police officers were getting antsy, trying to corral people around.  
Public transportation and roads into/out of downtown also began closing prior to curfew, meaning protesters like JK (who lives in Spanaway) were stuck downtown.  
At 5:00 pm, the police started firing tear gas, flash bang grenades, blast balls, OC spray, and/or rubber bullets.  
Shortly after 5:00 pm, JK was standing with a group of protesters about 25 feet away from the police, when she was suddenly and without provocation hit in the stomach by a rubber bullet.  
JK paused briefly to retrieve the bullet that hit her. She then ran away from the police line into the crowd for safety, and then tried to get out of the downtown area, but could not leave due to the shutdown of public transportation and nearby streets.  
As a direct and proximate result of the police shooting JK with a rubber bullet, she suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: a large contusion on her stomach. JK also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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On June 7, 2020, JK went to Capitol Hill to peacefully protest with the Black Lives Matter movement near the East Precinct barricade. She began playing her drum/bucket and chanting with the crowd over her megaphone.  
Around 7:45 pm, police and National Guard started approaching the barricade and surrounding the protesters.  
Suddenly and without provocation, the police began to throw/fire projectiles into the crowd and pepper sprayed protesters in the face, causing panic within the crowd.
As this was happening SPD Officer Schoenberg approached JK, pointed at her, and yelled, “I’m gonna beat the shit out of you.” Another officer threatened to pepper spray her in the face.  
After this, JK continued peacefully protesting. Around 12:00 am, JK was in the front of the crowd, near the barricade, playing her drum.  
The police attempted to move the protesters back, but JK couldn’t move very far – stuck between a mass of protesters on one side and a line of officers on the other.  
Suddenly, an officer grabbed JK by the neck/collar and yanked her into the police line, knocking JK unconscious.  
JK does not know how long she was out. When she regained consciousness, she was lying on the ground, behind the barricade, missing all of her protest equipment.  
After EMTs provided her with some cursory treatment, the police moved her to a cell.  
JK was disoriented and on the verge of vomiting from the head injury she sustained, yet she was not provided with further medical treatment.  
While in the cell, an officer ripped away from JK a blanket she had been provided by the EMTs.
JK was also placed in handcuffs – while still being held in the cell.  
Eventually JK was moved to King County and released later in the day on June 8, 2020.  
JK was charged with failure to disperse and obstructing a public officer. Those charges were dropped.  
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force used by the City and SPD, JK suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: concussion with loss of consciousness, neck pain, back pain, wrist pain, finger numbness, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime she did not commit. JK also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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I remember trusting police as a child.
I remember getting stickers from them and being taught that they would protect me if I needed help. Unfortunately, I have personally witnessed law enforcement abuse of people with mental illness, and other incidents that have led me to the belief that police brutality is real, and that it must be stopped. I attended protests nearly every day between May 31 and June 7.
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On May 30th or 31st I attended a protest that took place at, among other locations, Westlake Park in downtown Seattle. National Guard soldiers began advancing toward me and other protestors. There was mace or gas discharged into the air. It was so loud I just put my hands over my ears. As I turned away, a National Guard soldier hit me in my back with a baton with so much force that I nearly fell to the ground. I could feel the Guard soldiers pushing me from behind. I was afraid that I would be trampled. I was assisted by an EMT and another protestor, who helped me to the side of the crowd and to safety. Also on that same day, at a different time, I was maced in the face by another law enforcement officer when I was with other protestors near Pike Place Market. There was no warning given and it was painful and disorienting.
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Even though these experiences showed me that I could not rely on the protection of the police, I continued to attend protests, as I felt urgency and necessity to address the issues, and prevent further police brutality. I have often been at the front of the crowd, because I wanted to show the police that we were peaceful and that we meantno
harm. I have tried to speak calmly to the police, to keep my voice level, and to make sure they knew that they did not need to feel threatened by us. In my class on Multiculturalism, I have learned techniques for how to engage in dialogue with someone in a non-threatening way, so that they feel comfortable. I tried to use those skills when I spoke with the police.
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I participated in a protest at Seattle’s Capitol Hill near 11th Avenue and Pine Street on Sunday, June 7. I arrived on Capitol Hill around 7 p.m. with several friends. We set up a very small grill and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers, which we passed out to protestors, along with chips and water. We were careful to observe personal protection protocols and wore masks and gloves. We stayed off to the side of the crowd, out of the way.
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Around 10:30 p.m., I could feel the tension rising between police and protesters. I could hear people yelling. I decided to walk to the front line to see if I could help diffuse the situation. At one point, they apparently mistook me for an activist ‘leader’ of the protests, so I attempted to speak with them. I tried to reassure them that we were unarmed, and that we were not a threat to them. I asked them why they felt threatened, and who they were fighting for, and they responded: Seattle government, and not for you. I was trying to show them that we were peaceful. Some time later, I heard people yelling, including the police. The police used a megaphone, and I remember them saying something like “We don’t want to have to use our weapons on you.” I was telling people not to appear violent, and trying to get them to mov e out of the way. Along with several other protesters, I was at the front, acting as a buffer between the police and the rest of the protesters. People behind us began opening umbrellas to protect against chemicals. The police were repeating that they would get out their weapons. One of my friends was next to me, and he was standing with his hands in the air, holding flowers. Another friend was kneeling. I began to kneel, and I put my hands in the chest with a flash grenade and another flash grenade went off at my feet.
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I got the wind knocked out of me completely. I couldn’t hear anything. My ears were ringing. I was hyperventilating, then I lost consciousness. I can remember smoke, and what seemed like fire. Protesters quickly closed in around. me and helped lift me off the ground and away from the frontline. No police officer attempted to provide assistance. I have since learned that police were talking about me over the police radio band, and were heard refusing to provide aid or respond to any calls for aid from protestors. I did not have a pulse. I understand that volunteer medics rushed to my assistance and started chest compressions to bring me back to life. I opened my eyes briefly but quickly closed them because they felt like they were on fire from the pepper spray. A medic called 911. It did not appear that an ambulance would get through the police line to assist me. Finally, my friend and several medics who had brought me to safety away from the crowd, and who had performed CPR even as I ‘flatlined,’ got me in a car and drove me to Virginia Mason hospital. They continued to perform CPR in the car, and medical staff continued to perform CPR on me at the hospital. I know this from talking to my friend and one of the medics.
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The next morning, I woke up in the hospital with a tube down my throat. A doctor walked into my hospital room and asked me for my name. He told me that I went into cardiac arrest on the street and that if the volunteer medics had not provided on-site chest compressions, I might have died. I also went into cardiac arrest at the hospital two additional times, for a total of three times that night. In other words, I ‘died’ three times that night. The doctor told me that cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, no matter how young, when they suffer such an impact to the chest. I was discharged from the hospital on Monday. Doctors advised me to stay an extra day for monitoring. For days following my discharge, my throat was very sore, and I tired easily. I couldn’t walk or stand for a long period of time without difficulty breathing. I felt like someone was standing on my chest. I have had vertigo and noises sound louder than usual. My chest still feels strange and hollow, and even wearing a seatbelt is uncomfortable. I wake up every morning with serious throat pain, possibly from being intubated because I wasn’t breathing on my own.
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I continue to experience trauma from that night. When I close my eyes, I see the police shields in my face. I am committed to ending police brutality. I do not want my story to detract from the message and the aims of the protests. I want people to listen to Black voices and understand that police brutality is systemic, and that it must be stopped. This story is not about me, it is about continued police oppression and the lives that have been lost. I hope that people continue to speak out and stand up for justice.

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On Monday, June 1, 2020, I went out to protest right after dinner. I did not expect any violence and prepared myself for a peaceful protest. I took a coat for the weather and wore a cloth mask per COVID-19 preventative recommendations. When I arrived at 11th Ave. and E Pine St. in Seattle, I went up to the front of the barricade created by law enforcement. There was about one to two feet between law enforcement and the protesters (including myself) at the barricade. Over time protesters filled in and we peacefully chanted. We were vocal and loud, but from what I saw the protesters were non-violent and peaceful. I did not see that either law enforcement or protesters throw any objects.
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Around 9:10 p.m., we were still nonviolent and police officers continued to avoid eye contact. I did not hear the officers issue any warnings, and they did not have any masks. But seemingly without any provocation, the police officers began pepper spraying me and other protesters at the barricade. I was not being violent, nor was anyone else around me being violent. There was pepper spray on the whole right side of my body, my eye, my ear, my hair, and my mask. It took almost a minute for the pain to take effect. After a minute, I could no longer see clearly. But I knew the police threw flash bangs grenades-because I could hear their loud bangs and see the bright flashes of light. Four young black men then grabbed me as I fell to the ground saying “It’s OK, we got you.” They carried me to an area protesters designated for medical assistance (there were many of these stations around the area). People poured milk in my head and liquid in my eyes to clear the pepper spray. I saw the police officers coming down the street. The four men and I moved to the Cal Anderson Park a few feet away, where I stayed for about another hour or so as I caught by breath and collected myself. The burning did not stop until the next morning. The next day I reviewed footage of the night posted by citizen journalist Omari Salisbury on social media.

In the video I can be seen from 2:33 in a blue coat, several people north of the pink umbrella. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IHbLRdi09Y&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3wlHLz7Ne2mOTNhRtKSJAFnuQFnJGSzPMup198El9b7zI5wCYw9oc9ZOQ
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I had to take a two-hour shower to get the burning pepper spray off my body. I had to throw my cloth face mask away. My doctor told me to throw all my clothes away, but I kept the coat I was wearing in case this happens again. I do not know what caused the police to start pepper spraying the protesters, so I imagine I would have no way of knowing when they would do the same again. If the police had announced they were going to pepper spray me, I would have moved back at least half a block away. I have protested at least one hundred times in my lifetime. But this is the first time I have been blasted with pepper spray by law enforcement without any notice. I went back to protest at the same location the next day on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. I went fully prepared with my respirator and goggles. I did not know what to expect. I went again despite the fear for my safety because I had the right equipment to prepare myself and as a white women in her 60s I know I have an obligation to show Washington and the rest of the country that my generation of white people supports the movement against anti-black racism and police brutality.

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I have lived in Seattle, Washington for five years. I live with my wife and our three-month old son. Our apartment is on the fourth floor facing north of a building is located on Pike Street between 11th and 12th Avenues.
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Every night since Sunday, May 31, 2020, large protests have been happening near or at the intersection of Pine Street and 11th Avenue, very close to our apartment. On Monday, June 1, 2020, at about 9:00pm, I heard loud bangs coming from the protest epicenter. From my window, I could see that protestors were running. I saw tear gas in the air coming into our apartment.
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We immediately shut all the windows to our apartment and turned on our air purifier to the maximum level. Our air purifier normally reads the air quality level as between zero and ten. It immediately went up to thirty-five, which means dangerous air quality. I immediately had trouble breathing and was coughing. My wife was also coughing. Both of our eyes were watering. We made the decision we had to leave immediately. We packed as quickly as we could, though we were very disoriented. We had to make sure we had what we needed for the baby.
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When we left the apartment, the air was even worse in the hallway. The tear gas had also gotten into the elevator and I continued to have trouble breathing. At this time, my three-month old son started to wake up. He started coughing and was turning red. He had mucous coming upas well.
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The garage is in the basement of our building and is quite small. We have to move the car from the parking spot before we have enough space to put our son into his car seat. Our son was getting worse and we knew we had to leave as quickly as possible. We did not feel like we had time to spare to put our son into the car seat, so my wife held onto our son in the front seat of the car while I drove. We have never driven the car without our son safely buckled into his car seat.
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Once we left the garage, my wife squirted breast milk into our son’s eyes, as she had heard that milk can help with tear gas. We went to a friend’s house on north Capitol Hill to stay the night. It took about twenty minutes for the effects of the tear gas to visibly dissipate for our son. I do not know if there were ongoing effects. I called my brother who is an emergency room doctor and he recommended that I call Poison Control. I called Poison Control and they said we did not need to bring our son to the hospital because we had been able to get out of the apartment building quickly, but they recommended monitoring him that night. My wife and I took shifts staying up all night to monitor our son’s breathing and make sure he was alright. The next day, June 2, 2020, my wife returned to our apartment to assess the damage.

She vacuumed the entire apartment, washed all the clothes, wiped all the counters, and threw away items that were exposed to the tear gas, such as diapers. That night, the police used tear gas on the protestors again near Pine Street and 11th Avenue.
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We continued to stay with our friends that night and through Thursday night. We returned to our apartment on Friday, June 5, 2020, after the mayor announced that tear gas would not be used for 30-days.
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When we returned to the apartment, we had to clean the entire apartment again due to the police using tear gas on the protestors again. Despite thoroughly cleaning the apartment, I still feel tears come to my eyes at random times while in the apartment. The tear gas has significantly reduced the quality of our lives. We have to keep our windows shut at night, with towels covering the edges of the windows. This prohibits fresh air from getting into the apartment, which is especially difficult on hot nights. We do not have air conditioning.
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I am worried about the long-term impacts of the tear gas on our son’s health. He has not been sleeping well since the tear gas exposure.
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Despite the Mayor’s statement that tear gas would not be used, it has been reported that it was used again last night, June 7, 2020, near our apartment.
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I continue to worry about the tear gas harming the health of my family.

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GH Declaration, June 1st

I am from and still currently reside in Seattle, Washington. I am thirty years old. I have been unable to join in recent protests because I have a chronic underlying medical condition which impacts my mobility and renders me particularly susceptible to
respiratory distress. However, I live about one half-block away from recent clashes between the Seattle Police Department and protesters and consequently have suffered health effects and trauma from my home. On Monday, June 1, at around 9:10 p.m., Seattle Police deployed tear gas that permeated my home and caused me to develop a severe cough and made it difficult for me to breathe. I took refuge in a neighbor’s apartment unit that does not have any windows and stayed sheltered in place there for a few hours. Eventually, to protect my health, I had to flee my apartment building and stay in a hotel in North Seattle that night.

The next day, Tuesday, June 2, I was in contact with my specialty care physician, who told me not to return home until I was sure that the use of chemical agents had stopped. I stayed in the same hotel again that night. However, I came home Wednesday, even though I was not sure that the use of chemical agents had stopped, because of the expense and inconvenience of sheltering indefinitely in a hotel.

On Saturday, June 6, I experienced stinging eyes from pepper spray bombs used by the Seattle Police. I am terrified that the police will again deploy tear gas and that I will not be able to get away from my apartment safely.

If a chemical agent entered my home again and caused similar respiratory effects, I would need to leave immediately. Prolonged exposure to chemical agents could cause severe negative health impacts. I do not have a car and I have limited mobility, so I am unable to evacuate to a safe place without assistance. I am also anxious about the possibility of the police line moving past my apartment building, in which case it would become even more difficult for me to evacuate safely during a confrontation. I feel trapped and unsafe in my own home. I have no good options: I can either stay in my apartment and risk being stranded there during a tear gas assault, or I can flee to a hotel, where I will have to pay nightly for the inconvenience of being forced from my home, and where I will not have access to basic necessities like laundry and a kitchen. I am further impacted by the constant explosions from the stun grenades/flash bangs, which are frightening, invasive, and disruptive.

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YSV Declaration, June 1 I am a Seattle resident.

As a Chicanx and first-generation American, I felt called to join the movement against police brutality, which was necessitated by centuries of systemic oppression and violence against Black people and sparked by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police. I attended multiple protests between May 31, 2020 and July 25, 2020. I am a healthcare worker and am certified in First Aid / CPR / AED. I have not attended the protests in clothing readily identifying myself as a medic, in part because I have seen medics targeted by SPD and partially because I have felt compelled to remain as close to the frontfacing line as possible. However, I have consistently brought my own first aid kit to the protests. I often act as a first-responder, providing first aid until one of the more qualified medics—who are often on the sideline or scattered throughout the crowd— can arrive. I have witnessed SPD targeting wounded protesters on multiple occasions. For example, on June 1, 2020, I came to the aid of a protester who fell onto the ground after being hit on the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet. They were blinded from all the tear gas in the air and could not stand on their own. After helping them move to the sidewalk so I could attempt to irrigate and wrap their wound, we were both shot at by SPD with what appeared to be rubber bullets and targeted with tear gas canisters, one of which exploded right next to us. I have been the victim of targeted and unprovoked violence by SPD prior to July 25, 2020. For example, on July 1, 2020, after hours of protesting, I began to leave with a group of three others. As we were walking away from the intersection on Pine and Broadway, SPD threw projectiles over the remaining protesters directly in front of them, and in our direction. One of the projectiles landed by the curb directly next to us, in front of the Walgreens storefront, which was across the intersection from where the officers were standing. It exploded next to our feet as we were walking away.

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On June 1, 2020, around 6:00 p.m. SW joined the protests in Capitol Hill just block from his house with his daughter.
Shortly after dark the police began launching projectiles into the crowd including pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash bang grenades.
SW retreated home and as he was about 20 feet from
his door an officer pepper spray him directly in his eyes.
On June 2, 2020, SW again joined the protests in Capitol Hill for several hours but at around 9:30 returned home at the first sign of the police escalation fearing excessive force by the police.
Officers launched pepper spray, tear gas, and plastic and rubber bullets into the crowd.
SW, who just returned home, opened his door to let the protesters in and an officer threw a tear gas cannister at him. The chemicals filled his apartment.
On June 7, 2020, SW returned to the protests to listen to the speakers and show his support when Nikolas Fernandez sped past him toward a crowd of protesters.
Later that day around 9:30 SW was on Broadway and Pine Street behind a medical tent, when officers launched projectiles directly into the crowd.
The police used much more tear gas on this day and SW was forced to retreat into his apartment.
The gas in his apartment lingered in the air for hours, aggravating his COPD and leaving a coating of chemicals throughout his apartment.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons used on him by the SPD, SW suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: intense irritation to his lungs and throat, difficulty breathing, chest pain, skin irritation, burning and watery eyes, and respiratory disfunction. SW also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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39-year-old DP came to Seattle to pursue his dream of becoming hair stylist in a diverse city. He regularly attended the BLM/George Floyd protests to witness and document the events, suffered injuries and damages at the hands of the City and SPD on three separate occasions.  
DP was at all times a peaceful protester.  
Each day followed a similar pattern. DP arrived to the scene of the demonstration, made his way near the front line where protesters were faced with police phalanxes, and began filming/broadcasting via Facebook Live.  
DP mostly stayed quiet – documenting the scene, sometimes joining in chants and expressing his feelings, but never speaking with or agitating police officers.  
On June 1, 2020, just after 9:00 pm, officers suddenly started using OC spray, tear gas, and flash bang grenades/blast balls.  
After stopping briefly to administer aid to people who were injured, DP ran away, up 11th Avenue toward the north end of Cal Anderson Park.  
Other protesters were around him also running, shouting “rubber bullets” as DP could hear the police firing their weapons.  
Around 9:45pm, DP made his way to the corner of 11th and East Denny Way, where officers once again fired upon the demonstrators.

On June 2, 2020, around 11:40 pm, DP was again peacefully taking part in the Capitol Hill protests.  
Suddenly, the police began to use tear gas, flash bang grenades/blast balls, and rubber bullets on the crowd.  
While fleeing, DP was exposed to various chemical irritants, which caused him to have difficulty seeing and breathing.  
On June 7, 2020, around 11:15 pm, DP was again peacefully protesting on Capitol Hill, when officers began hosing the front line of protesters with pepper spray.  
Just after midnight, a flash bang grenade/blast ball exploded mere feet in front of DP, stunning him.  
Shortly after that, DP was hit with
tear gas that exploded directly in front of him.
His eyes began to burn and swelled shut, temporarily blinding him. His nostrils and throat burned, and his skin was on fire.  
DP blindly ran from the scene, vomiting and shouting, “I can’t breathe.”  
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons used on him by the SPD, DP suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: difficulty seeing and breathing including exacerbation of his severe asthma, nausea, chemical burns, and PTSD. DP also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On the evening of June 2, 2020, GC attended a protest near the Annex Theater in Capitol Hill.

She was with a group that was setting up a support station.
At approximately 11:30 p.m., SPD officers began discharging tear gas into the crowd of protesters, including GC. GC helped guide people into the theater. The gas was thick and they were forced to seek shelter inside. GC choked on the gas as it burned their throat, eyes, and skin.
GC experienced weeks of physical reactions that required medical care. As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons used on them by the City and SPD, GC suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: facial irritation, skin blisters and burning, eyes swelling shut, body aches, menstrual complications, tremors, insomnia, panic attacks, and nightmares. GC also suffered infringement upon their constitutional rights.

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She has participated in multiple protests since the murder of George Floyd.
On June 2, 2020, MJ was with a group of protesters chanting in Capitol Hill, when SPD officers began firing tear gas and blast balls into the crowd. MJ’s eyes and lungs burned as she fled across Cal Anderson Park seeking safety.
On June 7, 2020, MJ was protesting at 11th Avenue and Pine Street when an SPD officer advanced on her and kicked at her chest, hitting a plywood sign she was holding, causing the sign to swing against her legs and severely bruise her shin.
An SPD officer then fired an explosive device that hit her in the thigh. The blast ripped holes in her pants and caused a contusion on her leg.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons, explosive devices, and violent physical force used on her by the City and SPD, MJ suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: burning of her eyes and lungs, bruising on her shin, contusion on her thigh, and PTSD. MJ also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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Abie Ekenezar Declaration, May 30, June 6, 2020

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I have shown up to protest every day since the killing of George Floyd in Seattle and Tacoma. I protest in Tacoma during the week and in Seattle on weekends. I often use a knee scooter to assist with my spinal
disability. While protesting during the weekends of May 30, 2020 and June 12, 2020 I saw the Seattle Police Department (“SPD”) use chemical agents including tear gas, mace, and possibly pepper spray, as well as flash bang
grenades against protestors—even a child— who were not doing anything other than refusing to go home. Saturday, May 30, 2020 On Saturday, May 30, I was on the front lines of the protest in Westlake when the Seattle Police Department began using lesslethal weapons indiscriminately against
protesters. SPD deployed a chemical agent that I believe to be tear gas. This was not my first exposure to tear gas. While I was in the Navy, during boot camp, recruits were exposed to tear gas while we were wearing gas masks and told to puncture the seal so that we could feel whattear gas feels like.
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When the SPD deployed tear gas on May 30, the gas dispersed throughout the crowd, spreading well beyond the immediate vicinity where it was deployed. The gas made my eyes sting and triggered my asthma, causing me to have anattack. SPD also deployed flash bang grenades. I also saw an SPD officer mace a little
girl. The girl posed no risk to the officer. Saturday, June 6 On Saturday, June 6, I participated in a protest in Capitol Hill, at the corner of 11th Avenue and E Pine St. Police kept repeating that they wanted protesters to move back, but the crowd did
not move. My friend became nervous that the police might use force, which would cause protestors at the front of the crowd to flee towards the back, compressing the crowd and crushing us, so we moved off to the side of
the protest. Despite the SPD violence against protesters I had witnessed the prior weekend, I was shocked by the severity of the law enforcement response.
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I saw officers begin lobbing canisters of some kind of chemical irritant. The girl standing in front of me started choking on whatever chemical had been deployed, and she began screaming and crying. Even though I was not on the front line, my eyes began to water and sting. The light and sound emitted from weapons the SPD was using made me feel like I was back in Afghanistan again. The police response, and the panic it caused, felt like a war zone. On Sunday, I was still coughing from the chemical agent deployed against protestors the previous day.

I am furious about the police response to peaceful protests against police brutality. I didn’t serve my country to come home and have my friends tear gassed for standing up for what they believe in.

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GH Declaration, June 1st

I am from and still currently reside in Seattle, Washington. I am thirty years old. I have been unable to join in recent protests because I have a chronic underlying medical condition which impacts my mobility and renders me particularly susceptible to
respiratory distress. However, I live about one half-block away from recent clashes between the Seattle Police Department and protesters and consequently have suffered health effects and trauma from my home. On Monday, June 1, at around 9:10 p.m., Seattle Police deployed tear gas that permeated my home and caused me to develop a severe cough and made it difficult for me to breathe. I took refuge in a neighbor’s apartment unit that does not have any windows and stayed sheltered in place there for a few hours. Eventually, to protect my health, I had to flee my apartment building and stay in a hotel in North Seattle that night.

The next day, Tuesday, June 2, I was in contact with my specialty care physician, who told me not to return home until I was sure that the use of chemical agents had stopped. I stayed in the same hotel again that night. However, I came home Wednesday, even though I was not sure that the use of chemical agents had stopped, because of the expense and inconvenience of sheltering indefinitely in a hotel.

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On Saturday, June 6, I experienced stinging eyes from pepper spray bombs used by the Seattle Police. I am terrified that the police will again deploy tear gas and that I will not be able to get away from my apartment safely.

If a chemical agent entered my home again and caused similar respiratory effects, I would need to leave immediately. Prolonged exposure to chemical agents could cause severe negative health impacts. I do not have a car and I have limited mobility, so I am unable to evacuate to a safe place without assistance. I am also anxious about the possibility of the police line moving past my apartment building, in which case it would become even more difficult for me to evacuate safely during a confrontation. I feel trapped and unsafe in my own home. I have no good options: I can either stay in my apartment and risk being stranded there during a tear gas assault, or I can flee to a hotel, where I will have to pay nightly for the inconvenience of being forced from my home, and where I will not have access to basic necessities like laundry and a kitchen. I am further impacted by the constant explosions from the stun grenades/flash bangs, which are frightening, invasive, and disruptive.

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Because her job became remote, every day at noon she was able to protest the excessive force police use against Black people.
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On June 6, 2020, Ms. Anderson went to Pine and 11th Ave with her boyfriend WP and friend KH. They distributed food and water to protesters.
Around 7:30 p.m. police began launching tear gas into Ms. Anderson and her friends. They all sheltered in Ms. Anderson’s car, but they could not leave the area because they were surrounded by police and other protesters.
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The police hit her car with the tear gas canisters causing a dent on the right side of her car. As Ms. Anderson waited for the crowd to disburse, the chemicals seeped into her car, exacerbating her asthma.
On July 25, 2020, Ms. Anderson and WP were protesting in Capitol Hill at the Youth Day of Action march to show solidarity with Portland protesters. They were both towards back of the march.
Around 4:00 p.m., as the march traveled past the East Precinct, the SPD indiscriminately began dropping flash bangs, tear gas canisters, and firing rubber bullets from the rooftop of the building.
Both Ms. Anderson and WP ran as the projectiles fell and exploded near their heads.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons used on her by the City and SPD, Ms. Anderson suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: intense irritation to her lungs, difficulty breathing, burning and watery eyes, and property damage to her vehicle. Ms. Anderson also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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NF participated in the BLM/George Floyd protests in Capitol Hill from June 2, 2020, to June 8, 2020.

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On June 6, 2020, NF was at the front of a protest, squeezed up against the riot shields of the National Guard, when he had flashbacks to the trauma of his experience growing up in Iran, specifically the military in the streets and the oppression of protesters at the hands of police.
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On June 7, 2020, NF witnessed the shooting of Daniel Gregory. NF helped stop the shooter’s car by placing a metal barricade in front of the vehicle. NF was badly shaken by the experience and troubled by the lack of response by SPD officers present at the scene.
At approximately 11:40 p.m. that night, NF was twenty yards away from the western barricade near 12th Avenue and Olive Way when he saw an arc of OC spray originating from an area near the generators powering the police light poles. Protesters rushed towards the 11th Avenue intersection. NF began to back away from the barricade near the corner of 11th Avenue and Pine Street, when a blast ball struck him in his left shoulder, and shrapnel struck him in the neck.
As a direct and proximate result of the explosive device used on him by the City and SPD, NF suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: contusion/abrasion to his neck with bleeding, hearing loss, and PTSD. NF also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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In the early morning hours of June 7, 2020, I participated in a protest against police brutality at the intersection of 10th and Pine near Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park. I was in front of Rancho Bravo restaurant, near a barricade line. On one side of the barricade, there was a crowd of protesters. On the other, there was a group of law enforcement officers. I stood at the front of the group of protesters with about six other people. Law enforcement was shining large, bright stadium-type lights in our direction, which made it hard to see. I had an umbrella that I was using to shield myself and the other six people in the front line from the glare. I had no reason to anticipate that the police would escalate to using force.

The protesters had been standing peacefully and chanting for about an hour with no apparent issues. Without warning, law enforcement began firing projectiles at us and deploying a chemical agent that I believe was pepper spray. Because I was already holding up the umbrella to block the lights, I used it to shield myself and the people near me from this assault. I was frightened and was trying to turn away from the advancing line of police to protect myself. I was then struck in the left thigh by a projectile. I think it may have been a rubber bullet, but the scene was so chaotic, and I was so frightened, that I couldn’t tell for certain. I knew I was not safe where I was, so I began to run. As I was running back from the barricades and the oncoming police, I was hit in my left lower back by another projectile. I felt astonishing pain in my back and my leg, and I was choking on the chemical agent that the police had sprayed me with, which also stung my eyes so badly that I could barely see. I kept running blindly until I got to Pike and Broadway.

At around Pike and Broadway, I was helped by a volunteer medic who washed my eyes out and then helped me walk home, because I still couldn’t see and was in a great deal of physical and emotional distress. My clothing was drenched in pepper spray and/or whatever chemical agent the police had used. I continue to suffer from the events of that night.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck on my left side. My lower back has developed a bruise that is worse than any I’ve ever had; it’s extraordinarily painful. At its center, you can see the mark where the projectile made impact. My left thigh also continues to hurt. I have a bruise there, too. I continued to suffer the after-effects of the pepper spray or other chemical agent that the police used on us. My eye sockets feel raw, and I’m suffering from persistent lung irritation.

This experience was shocking and terrifying. I had no warning and no opportunity to protect myself. I had to run blind and in pain through the streets of my own city until someone was able to help me recover enough to find my way home.

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On June 7, I attended a protest near the East Precinct police station on Capitol Hill. My partner and I were at the eastern barricade at 13th Avenue and Pine Street. My partner and I arrived around 7pm. We were sitting at the barricade with approximately 100 other people, most of whom were also sitting. The police near us were not wearing masks.At approximately 8pm, we saw police in riot gear and gas masks coming toward us. In response, most of the protesters stood up and opened up thier umbrellas for protection. The protest had been peaceful up to this point and I did not see anyone throwing anything. The police did not give any notice that pepper spray and flash bangs would be used. The cops with bicycles began pushing people and knocking them down with their bicycles.

The video of this encounter is available at: https://twitter.com/menilivne/status/1269831 790799159302?s=09

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LH attended many Black Lives Matter protests throughout Seattle with her partner AL.
On June 7, 2020, around 11:30 p.m., LH arrived at Capitol Hill and walked near Cal Anderson Park to the intersection of 11th Avenue and East Pine Street, where she and AL encountered a wall of police officers.
LH was about 100 feet from the police line when without warning SPD began launching explosives including tear gas and blast balls into the crowds.
LH attempted to back away from the area, when one of the many blast balls exploded on LH’s pelvic region – melting the jeans she was wearing and causing flesh wounds and heavy bruising.
As a direct and proximate result of the explosive and chemical weapons used on her by the City and SPD, LH suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: contusion, scarring, and decreased mobility. LH also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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JH went to Capitol Hill with his brother, BH, to protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
On June 7, 2020, JH was peacefully protesting at the intersection of 11th and Pine on Capitol Hill, when multiple explosives fired by the SPD discharged in his immediate vicinity. His bicycle was hit, and so was he, receiving two abrasions to his legs. JH attempted to take cover in an alcove as police officers shot more explosives at him.

On the evening of July 1st, around 11 p.m., JH and his brother rode their bikes to the BLM protests in Capitol Hill to the intersection of Broadway and Pine.

There was a line of riot police, standing just behind the white edge of a rainbow sidewalk, facing off with protesters.
The officers instructed the protesters to stay on the opposite side of the white edge of the sidewalk, and JH complied.
Suddenly, around 12:30am, a line of riot police rushed over the white line at the protesters, into the portion of the crosswalk where the protesters had been standing at the police’s instruction.

Multiple officers tackled JH, pinned him to the ground, and punched him.
While the officers were on top of JH, he heard his bicycle helmet crack and the weight of the officers pinning him made it difficult for him to breathe.

The officers finally pulled him to his
feet after he exclaimed “I can’t breathe.”
JH was arrested and told he “hit an officer” with his bike and “resisted arrest.” JH was booked and held for about 18 hours.
JH was charged with third degree assault and failure to disperse.
Those charges have been dropped.
As a direct and proximate result of the explosive devices and violent physical force used on him by the City and SPD, and his unlawful arrest and prosecution, JH suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: bruised and swollen hip, bruised/sprained right thumb, acute pain to his right ribcage, cuts and bruises over his entire body, at least one fractured rib, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime he did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. JH also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On June 7, 2020 around 6:00 p.m. MT joined the protest in Capitol Hill at 10th and Pine.
MT peacefully protested with the crowd until shortly after midnight when the police suddenly decided to pepper spray everyone, including MT. The police sprayed her in the eyes and she retreated.
As she was 20 feet from the police and backing away with her hands up, the police threw a flash bang grenade that exploded on her left shin.
MT ran around a corner to a medical tent to seek treatment, but the police followed her and sprayed the tent with tear gas.
Shocked and panicked, she began to hyperventilate and had severe burning in her throat and lungs.
In her state of panic, she fled through Cal Anderson Park and made it home where her mom tended to the wound on her leg.
As a direct and proximate cause of the police chemical weapons, explosives and impact projectiles used on MT, she suffered: pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: contusions on her left leg, chemical irritants in her eyes, throat, and lungs, and significant menstrual changes. MT also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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DG is the son of a career Baltimore police officer father and police dispatcher mother. He believes that police should be human first.  
On June 7, 2020, DG joined the BLM/George Floyd protest in Capitol Hill, like he had done on previous days. He chanted with the crowd and encouraged people to harness the energy they felt at these protests to go vote.  
Sometime after 7 or 8pm, as DG was sitting on the curb eating a hotdog, driver Nikolas Fernandez turned quickly onto 11th Avenue and drove down the street toward Pine – frightening many of the protesters and putting them at risk of being struck.

The intersection of 11th Avenue and Pine Street and the surrounding streets were crowded with hundreds of protesters. Being near the East Precinct, this area had been a popular protest site for several days.  
SPD made no attempt to prevent drivers from entering the area, or to protect peaceful protesters from reasonably foreseeable dangers such as vehicular traffic, counterprotesters, or other law breakers.  
SPD had erected barriers to protect SPD, but not the protesters.

The roadway had no guards, barricades, or even signs – allowing unfettered access by any negligent, reckless or criminally minded driver.  
The only thing restricting access down 11th Avenue was a city trash can and recycling bin, which someone had moved to the center of the crosswalk crossing that street.
DG heard people repeatedly shouting, “stop,” and quickly realized that the driver was threatening the lives of the protesters with his vehicle. DG was instantly reminded of the Charlottesville car attack of 2017, when a man intentionally rammed antiracism demonstrators with his car, killing one woman and injuring dozens more. Without a second thought, he dropped his lunch and ran straight for the driver.
DG caught up to the car and reached through the open driver’s side window to grab the steering wheel, shouting “stop” at least twice.  
Mr. Fernandez accelerated, forcing DG to let go of the steering wheel.  
DG caught up with the car again and attempted to stop the driver by force. Mr. Fernandez reached for his gun and shot DG.  
As a direct and proximate result of the City and SPD’s failure to protect the protesters by keeping vehicles out of the protest zone, DG suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: a bullet wound to the arm necessitating surgical removal of the bullet, the implantation of multiple plates and screws, and PTSD.

23-year-old JP is a multimedia journalist for The Daily – University of Washington’s student newspaper.
On June 7, 2020, around 7-8:00 pm, JP headed to the Capitol Hill area to photograph the protests.
JP was clearly visible as media – he had his front “media” tassel, as well as a labeled hat and backpack.  
About 10 minutes after he arrived the police deployed tear gas, dozens of flash bangs and/or blast balls, and started pushing the crowd towards Broadway. JP did not see what precipitated this response, but to his eye, the crowds were peaceful.  
JP was about 40-50 feet away from the police when a flash bang or blast ball exploded next to his foot.  
The crowd moved away from the police and JP moved with them, intermittently taking photographs.  
As he was walking on Pine Street between Broadway and 10th Avenue, JP was suddenly hit from behind by a baton round. At that point, no one was within 4-5 feet around him.  
JP fell over in pain and with tear gas in his eyes. Despite his pain, JP got up and continued taking photographs, but he kept his distance, wary of getting injured again.  
As a direct and proximate cause of the police chemical weapons, explosives, and impact projectiles at JP, he suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: contusions on his back and chemical irritants in his eyes. JP also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights, including his rights as a member of the press.

On June 7, 2020, around 7:00 pm, 35-year-old GW attended the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests in Capitol Hill at 11th and Pine near the police line. GW is a carpenter who teaches carpentry skills to Seattle high schoolers. She saw many of her students of color attending the protest and wanted to support them.  
GW was at all times a peaceful protester.
Around midnight, GW heard the police instructing the crowd to disperse.  
GW attempted to follow the order, but was confused about where to disperse, as the police did not direct the crowd.
GW was standing on the sidewalk, trying to get her bearing, looking for the best way to leave the area.  
Suddenly, before she could find a path out, the police began to deploy tear gas and other projectiles.
GW was hit multiple times – two projectiles exploded near her legs, one hit her forearm, and she was sprayed with green dye.

As a direct and proximate result chemical weapons used on her by the SPD, GW suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: a bone contusion, nerve damage, muscle damage, chemical burns, and PTSD. GW also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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CBB Declaration, June 8, 2020

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I am a Seattle resident and am employed as a journalist. I have been reporting on the recent protests against police brutality, which have largely taken place directly outside The Stranger’s offices overlooking 11th and Pine in Capitol Hill. Shortly after midnight on June 8, 2020, I was in the office with a group of coworkers and photojournalists from Reuters and KUOW, as well as a few freelance photographers. We were all reporting on the protests taking place outside our windows. On the third floor where we had all been working, my coworkers and I were celebrating the midnight hour as the date changed, because we hadn’t had a chance to celebrate the June 7th birthday of one of my coworkers. We had stepped away from the windows to take a quick break, blow out the candles on her cake, and enjoy each other’s company.
An armed man had driven his car into the crowd earlier that evening and had shot a protester, but the demonstration since then had been peaceful. I understand that the Seattle Police Department released a statement saying that another armed man had entered the area at some point around midnight, but I did not observe that. My impression was of a relatively uneventful demonstration. Very suddenly, chaos exploded outside.

My coworkers and I stopped the birthday celebration and ran to the windows to observe and record. A true and correct copy of this video footage is posted on my Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/chaseburnsy/status/1269888560129208323.

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Law enforcement had deployed a shocking amount of tear gas, which quickly rose through the air and began to permeate our offices. The visiting photojournalists put on gas masks provided by their employers. My coworkers and I did not have that kind of protective equipment; our newspaper is small and community-based, and we can’t afford it. Even all the way up on the third floor, my coworkers and I began coughing, struggling to breathe, and crying from the burning in our eyes. My boyfriend, who was in the office keeping me company, had to take shelter in a windowless bathroom because he felt like he was having an asthma attack. The pain and discomfort we experienced were incredible given our distance from the center of the action. We soon realized that, despite being closer to the mayhem on the ground, the second floor was less impacted by the gas because its windows were more thoroughly sealed. My coworkers and I decided to take shelter below. The other reporters, with their gas masks, were able to continue reporting from the third floor. With better windows keeping out the gas, my coworkers and I recovered and were able to begin reporting again. We documented the scene below over the course of the next three hours, as law enforcement continued to deploy tear gas, flash bangs, and
what appeared to be rubber bullets against an increasingly scattered crowd. The explosions were incessant.

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During this time, I felt like I was reporting on a war zone: there were constant deafening booms, flashes of bright light, screams, and a haze of choking tear gas drifting over it all. At one point, I witnessed a protester drop to the ground after being struck by a projectile. Other protesters rushed to give aid, but the police did not pause their assault. I recorded this incident. A true and correct copy of this video footage is posted on my Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/chaseburnsy/status/1269890344331571201.

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I filmed as law enforcement aligned themselves in the street below as if in a battalion. I observed an armored vehicle. Police on bikes moved briskly through clouds of gas as protesters continuously scattered and regrouped. A true and correct copy of this video footage is posted on my Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/chaseburnsy/status/1269891485941460992.

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Those of us in the building remained huddled inside, documenting as much as we could from the windows. At around 2:30 a.m., we considered trying to leave and go home, because it seemed like the chaos might finally be subsiding. Just before we left, however, the police again began deploying tear gas and flash-bangs. We feared for our safety on the street, so we decided to stay sheltered in place. At approximately 3:00 a.m., we were at last able to exit and hurry home. After over two hours of listening to and observing law enforcement’s assault on the protesters, I was shocked and upset. It remains unclear to me what triggered such a severe police response. Again, I did not observe anyone below who appeared to have a weapon, although the fog of gas could have obscured such a person. Regardless, I am deeply concerned that a prolonged attack on a largely peaceful crowd in a residential area was not a proportionate response. I do not understand why the presence of an armed man would justify the indiscriminate use of chemical agents and projectiles against an otherwise peaceful crowd for three painful, frightening hours. This experience, and others like it from this past week, have fundamentally changed how I view my role as a journalist. I no longer feel safe reporting from the ground.
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Even journalists from larger news organizations who are equipped with gas masks do not feel safe reporting from the ground—which is why they have been sheltering with us in our offices. I am committed to delivering news to the public, so I will continue working as best as I can from my vantage point in The Stranger’s building. But my experience as a journalist is now characterized by anxiety, and a need to balance my own safety with the interest of delivering valuable information to Seattleites. Reporting has become a nightly exercise in fear, anxiety, and frustration for me as I prepare myself to endure gas and explosions, and to watch from my office as the people below me suffer these militaristic tactics in even greater proximity.

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EF Declaration, June 8, 2020
Since the pandemic started EF has documented the lives of Seattle residents. And after George Floyd’s murder, he began to participate in and photograph the BLM protests.
As EF walked from his apartment to the East Precinct around midnight on June 8, 2020, he could smell the tear gas and hear flash bangs and munition cannisters exploding. As he arrived, EF saw around 50 officers lined up on 11th & Pine and took a couple of photos.
Around 12:55 a.m., EF continued to document the demonstration while walking on the south side of the sidewalk near Rancho Bravo. Without warning, as he stood about 50 feet from the nearest policeman, an officer launched a blast ball at him.
The device exploded at EF’s feet, knocking him to the ground where he lost consciousness.

Two protesters nearby came to his aid—gathering his belongings and taking him to the volunteer medic tent.
The volunteer medic, a doctor from Children’s Hospital, determined EF needed emergency medical attention and accompanied him to Harborview Medical Center.
As a direct and proximate result of the explosive device used on him by the City and SPD, EF suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: loss of consciousness, temporary loss of hearing, lost wages, and property damage to his camera. EF also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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I’m twenty-five years old. When I was in college, a classmate was killed by deputies from the County Sheriff’s Office. He was arrested on his birthday for being drunk and transported to jail in handcuffs, face-down on the floor of the police van, where he suffocated. The police who killed him are being tried for manslaughter. I know the families and friends of many darker skinned Black people killed by police each year don’t get to see the same justice. This is the main reason I have been out protesting in the streets since police murdered George Floyd. In May and June, I was shot with less lethal projectiles, tear-gassed, and pepper sprayed by police. I protested outside of the East Precinct every day until police abandoned it and CHOP was created. But Saturday, June 25, 2020 was the most violent and aggressive police treatment of protesters that I have seen at any point since the killing of George Floyd. I arrived to the Seattle Central lawn in the early afternoon. And I didn’t leave the protest until around midnight. I was probably at the protest for 10 or 11 hours that day. The crowd was overwhelmingly made up of peaceful protesters. The first explosions I heard were when our march turned a corner and saw a large group of bike police up the hill unleash a round of flash bang grenades onto the street at the top of the hill before chasing everyone down the hill.

The police deployed this first round of less-lethal weapons in an empty area—unlike later rounds that were thrown directly at protesters—seemingly to create a lot of noise and scary smoke as they charged down the hill at us. This police charge came out of nowhere. It was honestly terrifying. I’ve never seen anything like it. Protesters walked briskly down the hill, pushed by a line of bike officers, but I did not see any protesters leave the protest because of this.
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Later, police started throwing blast balls and flash bang grenades indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters. My impression was that they were increasing the level of violence and intentionally terrorizing people to try to make us go home. A pattern emerged where the bike police would aggressively push the protest backwards like a block and a half, throwing explosives at protesters’ feet and rolling canisters of OC spray into the crowd. One officer had a special gun that fired foam-tipped projectiles. I could hear the distinctive click of his weapon—it sounded like a souped-up Airsoft gun—as he would fire five rapid shots at a time, shooting atprotesters.
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I had multiple explosives land and explode at my feet. I got hit in the face with a large piece of the shell from a blast ball that exploded at my feet. I got chemical burns all over my face. I was really scared because I thought I had been hit directly in the face with a projectile, and I’ve seen pictures of people who lost eyes that way. There was so much smoke in the air. The clouds of smoke were three or four times thicker than I’d seen at earlier protests. Multiple different colored chemicals hung thick in the air. The rate of deployment and the volume of weapons was much greater than I’d seen at earlier protests. I can’t think of a better way todescribe the Seattle Police Department’s use of force than “unhinged.” It felt like they’d been let off the leash, and were taking advantage of some newfound freedom to use less-lethal weapons. It was absolute chaos. This was a greater level of brutality than I’d seen at earlier protests in May or early June.
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Another thing that distinguished this protest from earlier protests was that there didn’t seem to be any precipitating event that would set off the police violence. At earlier protests, I could usually identify a catalyst: a thrown water bottle or an umbrella poking over a police line or something. Here the
violence seemed to start out of nowhere. It seemed random. And it was indiscriminate. A couple times, after really egregious police use of force when they would hit us heavily with grenades, I saw a protester respond by angrily throwing a plastic water bottle near the police. This would then trigger an even more exaggerated and violent police response. I once saw three officers holding grenades in the air, poised and waiting, and then saw them launch all three grenades when a protester tossed a water bottle in their direction. I don’t think people should throw things at the police, but the SPD’s response was just consistently and wildly disproportionate.

I also saw Seattle police absolutely drench people in pepper spray simply for not moving fast enough. saw one girl standing peacefully with both hands on her bike at the intersection of Pine and Broadway. An officer ordered her move back, and as she started to move, he pepper sprayed her in the face. I went over to assist her.
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I also saw an officer absolutely drench a male protester in the face with pepper spray. The protester was standing with both hands on his bike, and when he wasn’t moving quickly enough away from the police, an officer emptied what seemed like half a can of pepper spray in his face. The
protester’s face was so thick with the orange chemical spray you couldn’t see his skin tone through it.

I grabbed him with both my arms to try to help him to safety since he clearly couldn’t see. My arms were bright red and burned for two days afterwards from the exposure to pepper spray dripping down this person. It felt like I’d rubbed hot sauce into a terrible sunburn. I tried to avoid touching anything or using my arms. My lips and eyes and face also burned, like I had spicy food all over that I couldn’t wipe off. It was painful. I stayed at the protest until close to midnight. By the time night had fallen, the crowd was much thinned out. Eventually the chants stopped and the protest was mostly people standing silently, eye to eye with the police.

Twice during this later phase of the protest, police with batons appeared, and just shoved the crowd back a block or so for no apparent reason, only to then immediately retreat to where they’d started and resume their original position. Protesters would eventually fill in the gap, and the police would wait about 10 minutes and then shove us all down the block again. If anyone didn’t move fast enough, they got hit with batons. It seemed so unwarranted. It seemed like intimidating us through violence was the goal.

I had not been actively protesting since the police abandoned the East Precinct, but since the extreme police violence on July 25, I have been back out protesting regularly because it seems even clearer now that we need to demand serious change.

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I have attended approximately 25 protests in Seattle since May 30, 2020.

I was exposed to tear gas at protests on several nights in early June, as well as pepper spray from blast balls. I attended the protest march on Saturday, July 25, 2020, that started near Broadway and Pine Street at Seattle Central Community College. I joined the march around 1:30 p.m. We marched down to the youth jail and then back toward Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. Once we got to the East Precinct at 12th Avenue and Pine Street, the police started throwing flash bangs at us. The police forced the portion of the protesters that I was with westward on Pine Street, past Rancho Bravo. No instructions or warnings were given before the grenades started going off. There were no dispersal orders.

I saw police officers throwing blast balls overhand into the crowd indiscriminately. I was standing about ten rows back in the crowd of protestors, approximately ten feet from the front line. The entire crowd was trying to move back away from the police and the explosions, and I was also retreating. I was terrified of the number of blast balls and explosions going off, which were more than I had seen at any other protest this summer. Suddenly, a blast ball came from overhead and landed on my leg right as it exploded. The force was strong enough that it knocked me to the ground and ripped holes in my jeans, shirt, and jacket. This was approximately 4:40 p.m. I was momentarily stunned and had to scramble to get off the ground and figure out what had just happened. I went to Cal Anderson Park and saw what looked like a bloody hole in my leg. I rinsed it with water. It burned, but I had too much adrenaline to really feel the pain at that time.
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While we were retreating from the blast balls, the police kept grabbing whomever they could from the front of the retreating line and were arresting them. It looked haphazard, like they were grabbing whomever was closest to them. About two and a half hours later I was able to find a bathroom to remove my pants and look at the wound more closely. I saw that both my thighs were covered with blood and burns. You can see the explosion pattern of the blast ball in the bruises and burns. That night I was in severe pain in my legs due to the blast ball explosion. When I woke up the following morning, my legs had very tight pain, and occasional very sharp pains. Given the pain and the burns, I called my health insurance company’s nurse-line, and the nurse recommended that I go to the ER, which I did. The doctor told me that I have first and second degree burns on my leg. The doctor also said it was difficult to tell what was a burn and what was an injury from the impact of the hit. The doctors and nurses said they had never seen anything like my injury. They had to teach me how to clean and dress the wounds. I attended the protest on July 25, 2020, with seven other people. Though we were not at the front of the protest and were all about ten rows back, four of the eight of us were hit with projectiles in some fashion.

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I became active in documenting the Seattle protests after witnessing the police tactics used against peaceful protestors.

Between June 6 and June 10, 2020, I documented the protests from my residence, which is on the street level and faces East Pine. I repeatedly suffered exposure to tear gas and pepper spray in my home. On July 1, I started working with Converge as a producer, primarily supporting Omari Salisbury while he’s reporting. The most significant and by far the worst use of force against protestors I’ve witnessed occurred on July 25, 2020.

On July 25, I was out on the street with Converge documenting the protests. I was standing off to the side of the street with a group of members of the media, and I had my press badge clearly displayed. The police began deliberately attacking our group by throwing blast balls right at us, even though our group only contained members of the media. The police repeatedly lobbed explosive devices far into the crowd that seemed to explode at shoulder or head level. One blast ball exploded very close to me, and a piece of shrapnel hit me in my neck and on my arm. Even though I was wearing a neck covering, I felt extreme pain and I had to be helped to the group because I could barely stand. I still can’t hear correctly out of my right ear due to the explosion. Within two minutes after being hit, my colleagues and I began quickly moving away from the area and away from the advancing officers. There was a large crowd in our path as we retreated, so we could only move as fast as the people in front of us. I held my press badge over my right shoulder to make sure the police could still identify me as press. As I was walking away, the police started quickly advancing on us and pulled out OC spray. I did not hear a dispersal order or any warning, and the police began indiscriminately spraying blue dye OC spray into our group. I was sprayed by blue dye OC spray on my face and arm.

The dye also completely covered my press credentials. After being sprayed in the face with blue dye OC spray, a colleague attempted to administer saline solution and water to flush my eyes. The police forced us to keep moving and wouldn’t let us to stop so I could get medical aid. The OC spray the officers deployed on me caused a painful burning sensation for days. It felt worse than any sunburn I’ve ever experienced; it felt as if my skin was on fire. Additionally, the spray stained my skin for days. I took over a dozen showers to try to get the blue off, and showering only increased the pain of the OC spray and spread the burning sensation to different places. I still have remnants of the blue dye on my fingers. In addition to causing physical pain, the blue due of the OC spray is humiliating and made me feel as if I was being “marked” by the police in a way that is both dehumanizing and meant to keep me from attending protests. I also fear retaliation if I’m seen in public with the blue dye. Because my residence is located next to the East Precinct, I live in constant fear. I have underlying sleep problems that have been exacerbated by my fear of law enforcement during the protests. I’m afraid that officers will see me (stained in blue dye) and retaliate against me at night. Since July 25, I take sleeping medication nightly and I still only average around four hours of sleep a night.

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On July 25, 2020, I joined the protest at Seattle Central College sometime between noon and 1pm. I marched with others, going south on Broadway and then onto Boren Avenue, then turning left onto 12th Avenue. During all this time, the march was non-violent and I heard no sirens and I did not see police officers until we got to 12th and Pine when we came upon a huge crowd of bike cops. With no warning, the cops began throwing flash bangs and pepper balls at us. Though I had a mask on, the smoke from the pepper balls made me cough and my skin burned. I saw a person get hit in the back of the knee with a projectile, and another person, hit in the back. It was around 4pm by now, and the police kept pushing the line, using pepper balls and there was a lot of white gas or smoke. At previous protests, I had heard warnings, a notice to move, and dispersal orders. At no time on July 25, 2020, did I hear a warning or dispersal order. I then heard calls for a medic. Though I don’t consider myself to be a medic, because I’m trained in administering first aid and am CPR certified, I ran toward the calls. I came upon JW in an ally where people had taken him to get him away from the police.

I could see him visibly shaking. His face was red and he couldn’t open his eyes. Fortunately, others came with supplies and flushed his face and eyes with various solutions until, it seemed like 20 minutes later, he was finally able to open his eyes. I then returned to rejoin other protesters. At one point, I was near the intersection of Broadway and Pine. The group I was with was sandwiched between two lines of police. I did not see what weapons the police were using. All I know is that there was lots of gas, lots of smoke. It felt like my skin was burning. I inhaled gas and it caused burning in my lungs. I could feel my chest tighten. I began coughing. The group I was with was engaging in non-violent protest. We posed no threat to anyone. Things were calm before the police began using flash bangs, pepper balls, and other devices. The next morning, Sunday, July 26, 2020, I had very unusual menstrual bleeding. I have not seen my doctor yet, but I’m deeply worried that this was caused by chemicals in the gas I breathed in. I am worried about long term effects I may suffer.

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I am a Seattle native. I’ve been out protesting in defense of Black Lives regularly since late June.
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On Saturday, July 25, 2020, I arrived at the rally right before the group set off on the march. There was a large and diverse crowd of people there to stand in solidarity with Portland, stand up for Black lives and against police brutality both federally and locally. I did not see anyone in the march engage in violence or property damage. Just as the protest was passing through the intersection of 13th and Pine, about a block away from the end point of our march when everyone would disperse and go home, SPD bike police attacked us. A peloton of police on bikes came down 13th, splitting the crowd and causing a lot of confusion. I was at the back third of the crowd, directly in the intersection. The atmosphere was hectic and stressful. I heard no warnings or audible orders or directives to disperse. It felt like an ambush. With no apparent provocation, the police began using munitions on the crowd-I believe flash bangs. I felt an explosion at my feet and lost feeling in my feet. At that point, I fell back west down Pine and called for a medic.

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Whatever hit me injured a large area on each of my ankles, causing both lacerations and chemical burns. Whatever chemical irritant I was hit with got in my open wounds. I had to be carried out of the crowd. A medic treated me at Cal Anderson park, quickly rinsing and bandaging my wounds. Police were advancing towards us, and I was worried that police would assault me even though I was unable to move and posed no threat. I couldn’t walk at all for about an hour after I was injured, and I’m still struggling to walk a day later. From what I’ve read, I understand that the chemical burns I sustained will likely take several weeks to heal, and will likely result in permanent scarring.

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I have been consistently protesting police violence against Black lives since the protests began in Seattle after the police killed George Floyd. On at least three previous occasions, I have been subjected to flash bangs, pepper spray, and tear gas. On those three previous occasions, I remember intensely inhaling chemical irritants, tear gas and/or pepper spray from blast balls. On July 25, 2020, I participated in a march in support of speaking up against police brutality. I joined the march around 2:40 p.m. The march started on Broadway and East Pine Street, in Capitol Hill. The path of the march took the group in a large loop past the youth jail and then toward the East Precinct in Capitol Hill.
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When the group of people I was marching with got to 12th Avenue and Pine, we turned a corner and were met by law enforcement officers who used physical force to split the group. The group I was with moved to Cal Anderson Field, from which were told to disperse.
I had previously been separated from my parents but met up with them again near 12th Avenue and Olive. They said that they weren’t near the edges of the group and had flash bangs and blast balls directs at them. Then, as we were walking down a hilly street, without any warning, the police came quickly from behind us, rushed us and used flash bangs, blast balls, and pepper spray. All of us were peacefully marching. At one point, I was one of the few people with an umbrella and I held it open, facing the police to try to shield myself and those around me from pepper spray. Flash bangs were rolled toward us, and one detonated approximately 12 inches from my foot. When I saw it by my foot, I reacted by trying to shield my eyes with my arms, but when it detonated, what I believe to be a piece of shrapnel blasted into the side of my head.
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The shrapnel impact to my head left me disoriented, and I was unable to hear out of my left ear for a brief period. Fellow protesters assisted me out of the street and towards volunteer medics who provided me aid. After I had recovered, I left the march and walked home.

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Before Saturday, July 25, 2020, I participated in protests in Capitol Hill against police violence on several days, evenings, and nights in early June. I have never seen police violence like I experienced and witnessed when I participated in the protest on July 25, 2020. On that day, I was at the protest from approximately 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. On Saturday, July 25, 2020, around 5 p.m., I was near the front of the protest lines at Broadway and Pine.

Along with others, I was chanting. Without any warning and without any order to disperse, police started using some kind of chemical gas and people started running. I stayed where I was because I had goggles on and I wasn’t as impacted. Someone handed me a leaf blower and I used it to try to blow the gas away from protesters.

Then I got hit twice, extremely hard, by projectiles, one in each thigh. I couldn’t tell what they were but the left huge tennis ball sized lacerations. I ran away to avoid getting hit again and stopped on the hill in the park by Seattle Central College. While checking my wounds, I got hit again in the back. This time, it was from further away so the impact wasn’t as bad. I ran again to get further away. My leg wounds hurt a lot and I had to sit down and get a street medic to check them out and dress them.
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Later, my thighs swelled a tremendous amount and turned black and blue. They swelled up even more the next day and are still very swollen today. I didn’t seek additional care, but I consulted with my brother-in-law who is a medical doctor. After reviewing the photos, he told me how to care for the wounds, including what to look for that might indicate that I needed to go to urgent care or the emergency room. My injuries, sustained over a week ago, continue to cause me pain. Since being injured, I have mostly stayed at home.

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On July 25, 2020, I participated in a march in support of speaking up against police brutality. I arrived between 1:30 and2:00 p.m. at East Pine Street and Broadway on Capitol Hill to join the march and waited for less than an hour for the march to begin. When the march started, I followed the crowd marching along the route on Capitol Hill. I do not know the exact route the march took, but I believe it covered a few miles and ended near the East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department.
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When the group of people I was marching with approached the East Precinct, we started to turn a corner when I heard what sounded like loud firecrackers and saw smoke. I saw that the police were throwing what looked like grenades into the crowd. I did not know what they were at the time, but I have since been told these were flash bangs. The smoke seemed similar to tear gas. Before the flash bangs were thrown, I did not see any of the protesters do anything other than peacefully protest. I also did not hear police officers ask protestors to do anything, or stop doing anything, nor did I hear the police give notice that they would
throw the flash bangs. As we turned the corner, the crowd was forced to split into two groups. I was in the middle, where the group divided, and I was hit with something on the back of my leg. There was a line of police officers about half a block away throwing flash bangs at us indiscriminately. I linked arms with the protesters next to me.

One of the people next to me was hit in the back with a projectile. This person posed no threat. After I was hit with the projectile, I quickly moved to a nearby alleyway to get behind the crowd. The back of my leg was read and stinging. Although the injury did not draw blood, I had to limp to walk, and it was very painful. The injury caused a bruise about the size of a softball. I moved to a nearby bench where someone brought me an icepack. I continued to hear near constant sounds, like firecrackers, which I now believe were flash bangs.
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I posed no threat. I was not breaking anything, hurting anyone, or threatening the police. I was exercising my rights to protest and to assemble. From the alleyway, I made my way to Cal Anderson Park. After watching the protest for a few more minutes, I left the march and returned home.

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On July 25, 2020, the Seattle Police Department (“SPD”) unleashed the worst use of force I have seen since the initial demonstrations in May 2020. SPD recklessly and indiscriminately deployed canisters of chemical irritants and projectiles at protesters.
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The march was very large. I would say it was one of the top three largest days of protests I have been involved in in Seattle since the killing of George Floyd. It was also generally peaceful. I was in roughly the middle of the crowd as we marched. When approximately forty percent of the protesters had passed the East Precinct, I heard large bangs, and chaos ensued. Shortly thereafter, officers in riot gear deployed onto the streets.
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I did not hear a dispersal order and had not received any order or directive from ant SPD officer. Amidst the chaos, I saw police officers shoot rubber bullet rounds at protesters. I saw blast balls explode indiscriminately in the crowd of protesters, exploding shrapnel throughout the protest. There were large clouds of chemical irritants that made my eyes and skin burn. At times it was hard to see through the clouds.
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Something-I believe it was a blast ball-exploded so close to me that it injured my leg in two places through my pants. The larger injury is on the outside of my right leg on my thigh directly above the knee. The smaller one, which looks more like a faded bruise, is on the inside of my right shin. At the time I was injured, I was merely standing in the street, at lease 50 feet away from any police officer. When the explosion occurred, I felt a sudden, searing pain over my thigh. My thigh felt like it was burning for several seconds afterwards. In the moment, the pain in my shin was obscured by the greater pain in my thigh. I saw other blast balls explode so close to other protestors that I assume they were injured as well. I also saw others react in pain to gas canisters and mace deployed by police officers.
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The next day, my thigh still hurts. The injury has affected my gait and the way I sit.

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On July 25, 2020, I joined a protest march against police brutality which began in Capitol Hill. As we passed the East Precinct, the police descended upon the crowd. It seemed to me that they had been staging somewhere nearby and were waiting until we approached the precinct to make their presence visible.
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The police formed a line and pushed our crowd of demonstrators back down Pine, past Cal Anderson Park. Due to our experiences in June, protesters with umbrellas, goggles, and other protective gear knew to move to the front of the group to shield other, more vulnerable individuals behind them. I had an umbrella, so I moved forward.
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When I reached the front of the crowd, I witnessed law enforcement grabbing protesters’ umbrellas aggressively, ripping them out of their hands with enough force to in one instance-rip the umbrella in half. The umbrellas are not weapons, and are purely defensive. They are meant to black the gas and projectiles that the police have been using against protesters. In the sense, they are like the masks we wear. Without any warning, an officer seized my umbrella and tore at it, destroying it, and leaving me vulnerable against their chemical agents.
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We were protesting, but we were not aggressive or violent. It was a sudden conflict provoked by the police for no reason. Simultaneously, law enforcement began shooting canisters full of some kind of chemical agent into the crowd, where they began emitting gas. These canisters are shot with extreme force and at a close range. One of the canisters struck me in the leg, causing serous pain and leaving a significant bruise. The chemical agent wafted into the air and began burning my eyes. Thankfully, I was wearing an N95 mask as a COVID-19 precaution, so I didn’t suffer respiratory irritation, although others around me did. The abruptness and severity of law enforcement’s assault against us was shocking to me. I heard no warning, and I saw no indication that protesters were being antagonistic or threatening; we were just marching. I have come to expect to unprovoked aggression from the Seattle Police Department-so, although deeply startling and upsetting, my experience was not altogether unexpected. I now expect the police to attack protesters, which is a sad commentary on the state of affairs. With my eyes stinging, my umbrella crumpled, and me leg throbbing in increasing pain from my injury, I decided that it was no longer safe for me to stay and that I needed to get home to my children. I managed to limp out of the crowd and started to head back to my car.
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As I continued back towards my car, I passed the restaurant Rancho Bravo. The situation behind me seemed to be escalating. The protesters were screaming, and the explosions were getting louder. This increased my urgency to leave the area, and I hurried back to my car. The aggression with which we were forced back with chemical gasses and sprays, stuck with projectiles, and physically pushed to retreat was so intense that I was injured almost instantly. It was not an environment where I could continue protesting without further risking my safety. I continue to experience pain and severe bruising from my injury.

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On July 25, 2020, I chose to take part in the march against police brutality and in solidarity with Portland.
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After the march had arrived around the perimeter of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, our group had been split into two and there were too many officers to continue marching forwards on Pine St. The group then circled around the block to meet up with the rest of our group from the march on 11th and Pine St. Officers were stationed in a line on every intersection around the East Precinct.
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At the time we walked up, we heard explosives going off at the intersection of 11th and Pine along with the others, even though there was no violence from protestors that we had seen directed at the police. I was towards the front line of the protestors facing a line of officers with their bicycles. Those of us up front only had umbrellas to protect ourselves and the people behind us from the tear gas that we expected would be deployed. After only one minute of standing there, and without any provocation, officers, without providing any warning, began indiscriminately throwing blast balls and flash bangs into tight groups of people. The smoke that came from the blast balls caused us all to cough because we did not have respirators.
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The officers began to advance by pushing us forward with their bikes. They began violently grabbing people’s umbrellas and pushing them and pepper spraying people directly in the face. Other officers continued to throw flash bang grenades and blast bombs. I was complying with the officers and was backing up slowly. The group was tight, and many people were scared, so we had to be careful not to cause a stampede. At this point, I was directly in front of an officer. I was pepper sprayed directly in the face for no reason. I became disoriented and realized that I could not see. I knew my brother and roommate were somewhere near me, so I yelled out, “I can’t see!” Even after I had been pepper sprayed in the face and though I was yelling, “I can’t see,” and was disoriented, the police threw a blast ball directly at me which exploded on my ankle. I felt immediate pain.
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My brother and a woman next to me grabbed me and led me out of the crowd as we yelled for a medic. My brother kept the umbrella held up behind out heads, which is the only thing that saved us from being hit in the head by other explosives they were throwing, as I heard multiple objects hit the umbrella. Once we found a medic, he began washing out my eyes. However, even though I was injured, the officers continued to advance on us. I was still unable to see, but the people I was with told me we needed to move because more officers were coming. I walked back to the area the protest began where everyone was regrouping, but quickly realized that my ankle was becoming more painful. I was forced to leave the protest because I could no longer walk well enough to be able to escape quickly to avoid future injury. The next day, the injury seems to be mostly internal, but the pain, swelling, and bruising continues to increase. I now cannot walk without limping due to the pain and swelling in my ankle.But when I can safely walk again, I will return to the protests, continuing to assert my First Amendment rights.
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The actions of SPD on July 25th were terrifying. SPD left no chance for a peaceful protest at the East Precinct; the officers escalated the protest with their chemical agents, brutality and projectiles that were immediate, constant, and without provocation.

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I have spent the last two months documenting police interactions with protesters by livestreaming those interactions as a freelance journalist. Because of my consistent presence documenting the protests, and because I wear a distinctive jacket, I have become well known to the group of independent media with whom I often find myself when I livestream the protests. I gave also become well-known to protesters, and it would not surprise me if many Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers are aware that I am part of the independent media. In my two months of documenting police interactions with protesters, I have never witnessed police targeting independent media with the crowd control weapons I have seen them use against protesters. But Saturday, July 25, 2020, was different. I was standing on a corner with other independent media, like I had countless times before. Police targeted us with blast balls, firing them directly at us, even as I and others shouted “Media, media.” The blast balls and other crowd control weapons forced us to move. As I retreated, I said to the officers, “We’re moving back, we’re being peaceful, we’re moving back, we’re being peaceful.” I posed no threat. I was not hurting anybody, destroying anything, or otherwise acting in a threatening manner. Despite this, while I was on stair steps, an officer shoved me, and then shot pepper spray into my mouth. At this point, we were a full block away from where the police started pushing the protesters.
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I said, as documented in my livestream, “I just got shoved and sprayed in the mouth, [screaming] I’m being attacked, I’m being attacked.” But the attack would not end there. I was pepper sprayed again, directly in the face. I was blinded and could not see. I yelled, “Help, help … Somebody help me, somebody help me, please help me.” A blast ball was thrown at my feet, and when it exploded, I felt the heat run up my body. While I was disoriented from the blast and blind from the pepper spray, I tried to make my way away from the protest, looking to find safety.

Most of this interaction can be viewed in this clip:
https://www.facebook.com/724170490/posts/10158290622165491/?d=n

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I yelled for help repeatedly after being pepper sprayed and experiencing the blast ball’s explosion. One or more people guided me half a block away, into an alley, and treated me with saline, milk, and water. My face felt like it was on fire. It was the most excruciating pain I have experienced in my adult life. I could not open my eyes for at least 15 minutes. My neck and arms also felt like they were on fire. As soon as I was able, I made my way back home. I took a shower to wash away the pepper spray. As the water washed the pepper spray over my scalp and body, I experienced the burning again, until I was able to wash all of it away. In the nearly two months that I have been documenting and livestreaming these protests, I have sometimes encountered the effects of pepper spray or blast balls, direct against others. Saturday, July 25, 2020, was different. Other independent media and I were targeted by officers who used painful crowd control weapons against us.

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On July 25, 2020, I walked with my sister, CA, and my girlfriend to the protest area in Capitol Hill. We arrived on East Pine Street between 10th and 11th Avenues around 8:30 p.m. When we arrived, protesters were chanting and playing music. Occasionally, one of the protesters would talk to the police officers. Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers were standing opposite the crowd in riot gear. Neither side crossed the invisible line that separated them. At approximately 9 p.m., protesters began to run away as police officers rushed forward into the crowd. I looked back and saw one protester dragging another protestor away from the officers. I then looked to my left and saw my sister standing between another protester and about four other officers. I rushed to her side, and an officer hit me twice on the arm with a baton. As I backed away, another officer sprayed me directly in the face with pepper spray. At that point, my eyes were beginning to swell, and I was having trouble blinking.
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My entire face was burning. Within a few minutes, my eyes were completely swollen shut.

I am wearing a white helmet in the video posted on twitter at: https://twitter.com/daeshikjr/status/1287288 994057732098?s=20

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I posed no threat. My sister posed no threat. We were simply protesting. But SPD attacked us for no reason other than the fact that we decided to exercise our right to demonstrate. I saw no action by protesters that caused the SPD officers to rush forward. Neither I nor my sister did anything to provoke them. There was no warning to protestors before their rush into the crowd.

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I participated in the march on Saturday, July 25, 2020 until I was injured by a police explosive of some sort and had to go home.
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When the march began, my friends and I were in roughly the middle of the crowd. The march was peaceful. I did not see any protesters throw anything at the police or do anything else to provoke a violent police response. When we rounded the corner of Pine near the East Precinct, I saw police officers moving quickly down the hill on Pine towards us. With no warning, police started firing a massive number of chemical weapons and projectiles at us. The amount of force they unleashed on us out of the blue was overwhelming.
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At the time, my friend and I had our arms linked. We got hit with some kind of explosive that seems to have contained pepper spray. I felt pain in my left leg, but I could not see anything on my leg through my jeans. I looked around and saw other protesters with holes ripped in their clothing and blood seeping through. A canister dispersed a thick cloud of a chemical into the air that made us cough, made it hard to breather, and made my eyes sting.
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I stepped off the march route into Cal Anderson park as police were pushing the protesters down Pine to try to wash out my eyes and regroup with my friends. Throughout the march, police were firing projectiles and explosives indiscriminately into the crowd with no warning or clear objective. Of my group of 8 friends, half of us got injured by police weapons.
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None of us was violent, or posed any threat. We were there to protest, to assemble, to exercise our rights. We were there to demonstrate against police violence. And we were met with police violence. There were a few lines of protesters between me and the police. Police started to push us back again aggressively, but we could not move back fast enough because some people behind us were not moving, or not moving quickly enough. Some people tripped over traffic cones or other people who had fallen. I was extremely terrified, and believed that I was going to be caught in a stampede caused by the sudden police encroachment.
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Although I had linked arms with my friends so we would not get separated, in the pushing and pulling of the crowd caused by the police, I began to lose my friends. I was scared to stay at the protest without my friends, so I returned to my vehicle to go home. In the car, my sweat mixed with the pepper spray that was still on my skin making my eyes sting. It was very hard to see well enough to drive and made me very anxious I would not be able to get home safely.
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When I got home and undressed, I saw that the projectile that hit me had left a large welt on my thigh and a chemical burn through the first layer of my skin. Eventually the welt turned dark purple and spread across about six inches of my leg. One week later, my injury is healing, but is still visible and painful.

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M Declaration, July 25, 2020 I am 30 years old and live in Seattle. On the evening of July 25, I helped a protester in a grey shirt, bike helmet and royal blue backpack after I saw that she had been maced in the face.

I later saw what had happened to that protester in the following twitter video: https://twitter.com/daeshikjr/status/1287288994057732098?s=20
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When my two other friends and I saw her, it was obvious she had just been maced. Her face was red and her eyes were swollen shut. We pulled her to the side. She was clearly distraught and overwhelmed. After treating her with saline for a few minutes, she was finally able to open her eyes. We had to use so much saline to flush her eyes out that her shirt and pants became completely drenched. I offered her a set of dry clothes I had brought for a situation exactly like this because I was concerned that she would become cold if she stayed in her wet clothes after the sun went down.

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On Saturday, July 25, 2020, I was assigned to take pictures of the march that was happening in the afternoon on Capitol Hill.
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I was wearing my press badge on a lanyard around my neck at all times. The protest had already moved away from Capitol Hill, and I followed behind to the youth jail and ultimately back to the East Precinct, taking pictures. I introduced myself as a member of the press to some of the police and to a SWAT team member in an armed vehicle. I am a transgender woman who weighs over 350 pounds and moves at the pace of a turtle. I do not feel like I pose a threat to anyone, and still made sure to clearly identify myself to the police as a member of the press. Shortly after arriving at the East Precinct, a commotion broke out, with the police forming a line to push people back and firing flash bangs at them near the intersection of 11th Avenue and East Pine Street.
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At one point, a blast ball went off near me and caused me to cough and my ears to ring. I also assisted a woman who was having an asthma attack as a result of all the chemicals. The action was moving away, so I decided to go rest. I went to a fire escape near 11th Avenue and East Pine Street. I had gone up a few steps and was sitting about halfway up to the landing, or maybe 10-15 feet in the air.

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While I was sitting there, the police started pushing the protestors down 11th Avenue again, using explosives of some kind. At this time, I was still sitting on the fire escape taking pictures and wearing my press lanyard. I was the only person on the fire escape and in my immediate vicinity. I was not protesting, shouting, or otherwise engaging with the police. I was filming with my DSLR camera, and I do not think the police realized I was filming video rather than taking only still pictures.
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While I was filming, a bicycle officer got off of his bike on 11th Avenue and walked a few steps toward me. He was not looking at me and did not say anything to me. When he was near me, and still without looking at me, he nonchalantly tossed a blast ball in my direction. I braced myself for the explosion, much like you would do right before a car crash. I don’t recall seeing the blast, but I remember coming out of it really disoriented, choking, and with ringing in my ears. I twisted my knee while trying to protect myself and was shocked and stunned. After the blast and once I was able to stop coughing uncontrollably, I was too scared to come down off the fire escape. The police were still there, and whereas with my press pass I had felt safe behind the police line before taking pictures, I no longer did. I did not know what to do, so I stayed on the fire escape.
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The attack by the police office was premeditated and unprovoked. I was so shocked by the police officer’s actions that I had to watch the video several times to confirm that what I had experienced actually happened.

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I attended the protest march on Saturday, July 25, 2020 that started near Broadway and East Pine Street. I was near the front of the march, and right after we passed the East Precinct at 12th Avenue and East Pine Street, I heard explosions behind me. I heard a protester shouting for white bodies and people with shields to move toward the front. I ran back with my umbrella to the line where the protesters were exposed to the police officers. Two women were talking with the police officers when one of the officers stole the shield from one of the women. I jumped in front of her with my umbrella to try to protect her as the officers pepper strayed her.
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One of the women and I were hit with pepper spray. I had pepper spray on my arms and my face. I was wearing goggles and a mask, and the pepper spray completely soaked my mask, which I had to throw away. I left the group of protestors in search of a medic and got cleaned up. After cleaning off the pepper spray, putting on a new mask, and getting another umbrella, I joined the group at Broadway and East Pine Street, where there was a faceoff with the police. There were police officers wearing gray coveralls and tactical vests, rather than the normal police uniforms. I believe those officers to be SWAT members. These officers were firing baton rounds – rubber bullets or sponge-tipped bullets – indiscriminately into the crowd. A SWAT member in gray coveralls who was about 10 feet away from me fired a baton round at me, hitting me directly in the right thigh. I posed no threat. I was not breaking anything, hurting anybody, or threatening the police. But they still shot me in my leg for no reason. The pain was significant and will be long-lasting.
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The baton round hit my thigh so hard that it ricocheted off of it and hit my left leg with enough force to bruise it as well. The police were throwing blast balls deep into the crowd, indiscriminately. They were not just throwing them at the front. I was slowly backing away from the police with the rest of the crowd when a police officer in a typical Seattle PoliceDepartment uniform threw a blast ball at me. There was a small pop, and then an explosion. The blast ball landed against my left ankle and when it exploded, it knocked me off my feet.
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I was wearing work boots, which protected me from the worst of the damage. I have a contusion on my ankle, and it hurts to walk. The blast ball also contained pepper spray, causing me to struggle to breathe, to cough, and to have a lot of mucus, even though my vinegar-soaked bandana. At no point during the protest did I hear the police give instructions to the protestors. There was no warning to disperse. When I saw how bruised and bloody my leg was, I went to the emergency room for treatment. The doctor showed me how to care for the wound and change the dressing. He recommended wearing extra protection over the wound, as reinjuring it could cause complications.

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I have participated in protests in Seattle against police violence since the beginning of June. When participating at protests, I used to wear regular street clothes. For example, on the afternoon of July 25, 2020, I participated in protests that took place during the afternoon. I was not worried about any violence that might be directed towards me. It being a warm summer day, I wore a tank top and shorts. When I was near SPD’s East Precinct, I heard flashbangs and saw a line of police coming from my right. Officers used explosive devices and pepper spray that eventually forced me to Volunteer Park where I and other protesters regrouped. From there, officers chased us down to the interstate. The force used by SPD has led me to dress differently for protests and I now bring protective gear, including goggles, a helmet, and earplugs.
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August 26, 2020, Vigil for Summer Taylor On August 26, 2020, I attended the vigil for Summer Taylor that took place near the Washington State Patrol headquarters. I was near the back of the crowd when tow trucks came. Things were peaceful until officers broke the windows of a car in a brigade of cars that was placed to ensure that no motorist would drive their car into people attending the vigil. Once police escalated things, a group of protesters created a shield wall. Officers responded by spraying individuals with what appeared to be pepper spray. After four or five protesters were arrested, and it appeared that the violence was getting worse, I walked away.
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September 7, 2020, Labor Day SPOG March On September 7, 2020, I marched with others to SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue. When I got there, someone handed me some chalk. I began writing “Take accountability.” While I was writing, a country music song began blaring from the SPOG building. I didn’t think much of it and kept writing. I had gotten to “b” in “accountability” when, with no warning, there was gas, flashbangs, and police on bikes. Chaos ensued.
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Officers on bikes aggressively “pushed” protesters north along 4th Avenue. If protesters weren’t moving quickly enough, they were pepper sprayed or the police used flash bangs. As I moved along 4th, I feel like I didn’t take a breath. I felt like I was chased by the police for at least a mile and a half. Eventually, the police funneled the protesters into Judkins Park. At Judkins Park, I saw older and less physically able people and others who had been hurt receive medical attention. The police then left. I don’t know what the police felt that they had accomplished in chasing me and hundreds of others from SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue all the way to Judkins Park. But now that they were no longer forcing us anywhere, I walked away from the park and got a Lyft to Capitol Hill.
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I feel that the violence by officers against protesters is getting worse. Though I continue to protest, I am fearful when I do. I suspect, though, that as a white woman, I am less likely to be on the receiving end of brutal police violence.
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On September 7, 2020, if, instead of the country music song, police had issued through loudspeakers from the building a declaration of an unlawful assembly and issued a warning that force would be used if people did not disperse, I would have walked away. At the very least, I should have been given the choice and opportunity to comply before force was used.

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I work as a home healthcare aid and am licensed by the Washington State Department of Health. I primarily work with adults with developmental disabilities in a nonclinical setting. Much of my work involves administering non-traumatic first aid as well as emotional de-escalation. Given the nature of my profession, I am used to working in stressful situations, aiding patients in regulating their emotional response to stressful settings, and navigating patient care in challenging environments. Because of this expertise, I felt called upon to help administer medical aid during the Seattle protests. I have been involved in the Seattle protests since May 30, 2020. In June, I began working as a medic administering first aid to protesters. In July, I began taking specific shifts with a medic collective to provide first aid to protesters at designated places and times.
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July 25, 2020 Protests On July 25, I was working as a medic for a march from Capitol Hill to the Youth Jail, and back. As the march arrived at the East Precinct, SPD started to deploy gas on protesters. Most—if not all—of the protesters were operating peacefully, and still SPD used gas indiscriminately in the crowd. SPD continued to deploy gas and pepper spray on protesters even when they were trying to comply with orders and disperse. In the afternoon of July 25, a police line formed on Pine Street near the East Precinct and moved between Tenth and Eleventh. At this time, I stayed back from the line so that I could administer medical treatment to protesters affected by gas or OC spray, or injured by shrapnel, blast balls, or other uses of force. Later in the afternoon, the group of medics I was with followed a large group of protesters to Volunteer Park to administer aid to protesters attempting to rest and recuperate away from the front lines. We were away from the primary police line for about an hour.
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When we returned to the Cal Anderson Park area, the police tactics seemed noticeably different. The police quickly charged at the protesters and began marching them around the residential blocks near Harvard. We had remained to the back of the crowd, which meant we were immediately in front of the police line when police changed directions. In this position, I had a clear view of the protesters. I witnessed the crowd moving as quickly as possible—indeed manypeople were winded—and the police were physically pushing the line of protesters to get them to move faster. If anyone fell, they would fall directly into the police line. I was directly proximate to the police line with other members of the medic collective. Each of us had our hands up in a defensive position. Even after doing so, I was OC sprayed from behind. The spray ran down the back of my head and neck. Because I was being forced to move so quickly and was sweating, the spray spread more quickly and soaked into the pores of my arms and hands.
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I wasn’t able to flush my skin with saline for some time, and my skin continued to burn until I went to sleep that night. It looked like had a bad sunburn the next morning. I was also hit in the back by police batons as well as the wheels of police bicycles. I had a bruise on the back of my left calf from this that lasted for three weeks. My teammate on the medic collective also had a flashbang deployed at her face. It bounced off her safety goggles, and I saw it explode right in front of her. What struck me about these tactics was how egregious the use of force was and how fast the police forced protesters to march, as well as the duration. Protesters quickly became exhausted, and yet the police continued to use force in an indiscriminate way even though the protesters did not have the capacity in that situation to do anything unlawful. Everyone was just trying to move as fast as they could.
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After the crowd was driven back to Cal Anderson, my medic team members and I decided to leave the protests to regroup and administer medical care to our own team. At around 8 or 9 p.m. that night, we returned to the streets to treat lingering injuries but the protesters had largely dispersed. The tactics of the police throughout the day made it extremely difficult for my team members and I to successfully administer medical aid to injured protesters. For example, on several occasions we would be in the middle of treating a patient and the police line would advance quickly. We would have to leave the patient mid-treatment, which kept us from providing much-needed first aid. Directly prior to the police line driving the protesters around near Harvard, I had started administering aid to a man who was slumped over on a bench in a busstop. He had a laceration on his neck which required immediate attention. As I was taking gauze out of my bag to treat his wound, the police line rapidly advanced and I had to leave the area. I don’t know what happened to that man, and I still worry about him. The medic collective follows the principle that if we are unable to continue to provide medical care due to the circumstances of the protest, we should leave and find an environment where we can continue to provide medical aid. Several times throughout the day, I was unable to administer aid to protesters who were injured by the police’s use of force because of the police’s continued use of force. I was unable to administer medical aid when I was a direct recipient of the police’s use of force, and when I had to leave the field to attend to my own injuries.
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Prior to July 25, I believed that the Court’s restraining order would help keep me safe while operating as a medic. Now I’m not sure what will happen when I attend a protest as a medic. However, even though I am less comfortable attending protests after what I experienced on July 25, I’ve learned firsthand how critical it is to provide aid for others who continue to be hurt by the police, especially those at high risk of police violence. Because of this, I plan to keep attending the protests. SPOG Labor Day Protests On September 7, 2020, I worked as a medic for a peaceful march to the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (“SPOG”) headquarters. I deliberately identified myself as a medic on my arms, chest, and on my backpack.
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I showed up to the light rail station with a group of other medics, around 10-15 minutes before the march began. People were peacefully gathering in the plaza of the station and obeying all traffic signs while crossing the streets. There were all kinds of people gathered, including parents with small children and senior citizens wearing sandals. Protesters moved peacefully towards the headquarters. I observed no property destruction and no violence. When we arrived at SPOG, the building was boarded up with a chain link fence around it. Soon after we arrived we heard a very loud country song blaring from what seemed to be the speakers of the headquarters. All of a sudden, a large number of officers on bikes came around one of the corners and confronted the front line of protesters. I had positioned myself off to one side to make clear that I was there as a medic, not a protester, and to be available to the protesters in case the police deployed force. They did.
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Immediately upon confronting the protesters, the police began pushing bikes into the crowd, deploying mace, and grabbing at people. My field partner and I moved back quickly and crossed the street to another parking lot. The police started to use gas to push the crowd to this parking lot. I was extremely concerned because the lot was blocked by buildings on all three sides. The risk of trampling was severe, as people who were pushed in were cornered with no way out.
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I also witnessed the police moving people extremely quickly. I heard people yelling “I’m on the sidewalk!” while being forced forward, and heard police yelling at them to move faster. These people were already moving at a very fast pace. It seemed like the officers were trying to get them to run.
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Shortly after I started attempting to treat people as best as I could. I stood on a rock behind a telephone pole so I had a better view. I saw many people pass by with very clear irritation on their faces and eyes from the chemicals deployed, and I performed a number of extremely brief eye washes. Everything had to happen on the fly because the police were pushing the protesters so rapidly, there was no time for thorough treatment.
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While heading north I encountered a woman who complained of an injury to the back of her thigh. She had been hit with something that left powder marks on her leg as if hit by munitions. She asked if she was bleeding. When we determined she was not, she declined any additional treatment. She felt it was more important—and safer—to get out of the area and away from the police line than the obtain treatment. We felt that way too.
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After this, I ran into a friend and colleague who was protesting at the event. She had been pepper sprayed so severely that her hair and clothes were completely drenched in spray. September 23, 2020 Protests On September 23, I worked as a medic at a march following the announcement in Breonna Taylor’s case. That evening, protesters gathered in Cal Anderson park for a peaceful march. As we marched towards downtown, we were followed by a brigade of police SUVs with lights flashing and a patrol of bike cops.
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At one point, the crowd turned back up towards First Hill and within a block SPD began quickly advancing on the crowd. SPD pressed the protesters up against the and there was little room for them to escape. I saw a handful of arrests made. The crowd began moving quickly
back towards Capitol Hill to avoid further contact with the officers. Things were calm for a while, but around 11:30 p.m. SPD began advancing on the protesters gathered about half a block from the East Precinct. Bike cops began moving the protesters and detonating flash bangs, pepper balls, and a lot of pepper spray.
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I became busy treating protesters who were sprayed by SPD. It was clear that they had been sprayed directly in their face and eyes, and the eye washes took a long time because of the extensive amount of spray. Their hair was completely soaked and their faces covered in spray. The officers were pushing the crowd further down Broadway, and I joined a group of medics providing first aid to someone near Pine and Broadway. My field partner and I were standing near this group, attempting to provide a privacy shield for the patient being treated. SPD officers stood nearby, shining their flashlights on us. I saw at least one SWAT officer pointing a gun directly at us. We were clearly marked on our arms, backpacks, and fronts with medic symbols. But we were terrified and put our hands up. I wasn’t sure what type of gun it was, but my field partner later told me it appeared to be an impact munitions weapon.
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Later that evening I came upon a person who was lying on the ground. They had been drenched in pepper spray and were unable to move. We started to administer an eye wash, but the police line advanced rapidly and we had to leave the area. We had to run away from the officers, because they were advancing so quickly on bikes. SPD was deploying blast balls and spray at the retreating protesters and us. It became clear to us that the crowd was being moved so fast by the officers that we would be unable to continue providing first aid, and we left the area.

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I was at the protests on July 25, 2020 and September 7, 2020 (Labor Day) when SPD used less-lethal weapons without warning to aggressively and indiscriminately push peaceful protesters back. July 25, 2020 Protest I was at the large protest on July 25, 2020. I felt really safe in the march at the outset; there was not much of a police presence. I don’t remember seeing a single officer until we turned left onto Pine Street as we passed the East Precinct on 12th Avenue. Suddenly, I saw people further up the street at the intersection running, followed by a lot of police, including bike police and patrol cars. In an instant, police were firing less-lethal weapons at us. There was no warning, no unlawful assembly announcement, just a sudden onslaught of police violence, and chaos. My partner and I were further in the back, and caught the first wave of explosives. Police threw flashbangs at us that exploded at our heels.
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At 11th Avenue and Pine, we saw police pushing a group of protesters about 100 feet away from us, macing people and throwing flash bangs. We cut across Cal Anderson to try to move further back in the protest, and ended up on Broadway and Pine. For about an hour, police would hit us hard with less-lethal weapons to back the crowd up, then back off, and the protest would eventually move forward again, only to be violently pushed back again. People started spilling onto the lawn on the Seattle College campus. We saw a guy crumpled face down, not moving, covered in orange mace, his shirt soaked. I thought he was dead. When we came closer, we saw that he was alive, and snot was dripping from his mouth and nose, and his leg was bleeding. We called for a medic but no one came running so my partner and I and another woman pulled him onto his feet and walked him over to a ledge to sit on, away from the police action. Flashbangs exploded in the background. I kept whipping my head around to see if we were going to be kettled. I ran to the hill behind us, making sure we had an exit. The injured person kept asking for water to drink and water to flush out his eyes, which were squeezed tight. Eventually a medic showed up with saline. I watched the medic peel open his eyes, listening to him curse in agony as saline was sprayed into his eyes. My partner rubbed his back as he fumbled for the water bottle again to take a drink.

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He told us that the police had pulled his goggles off as they maced him in the face. This news chilled me to the bone. The medic then fixed up his leg, which he said had been hit with a flash bang. The medic eventually had to leave to help someone else who we were told was lying on their back, bleedingThe injured person said the pepper
spray was burning his hair. My partner pulled out a hair tie to fix his hair. He dumped more water onto his face, and said his eyes were still burning. After he took a moment to breathe and mentally prepare for the painful experience of having his eyes open, I peeled his eyes open, while the other woman squirted saline into his eyes out of syringes she carried with her.

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I noticed his collar was orange. The chemicals were no doubt burning his chest, so my partner and the other woman helped me take off his mace-soaked shirt and put my flannel on him. He was wobbling and fumbling while on his feet. As we treated him, we heard flashbangs exploding again and again in the background. As soon as the flannel was on, we saw the crowd pushing back towards us, in a panic, pouring further down Pine and onto the campus. The flashbangs seemed closer and louder now. We had to move. We all feared the cops would not spare us; it was widely reported among protesters that SPD targeted medics, helpers, and injured people. We quickly gathered our things and raced out of there, fleeing. After touching his clothes, my partner said her hands had started to burn. I helped him down the steep hill and I felt my hands burn too.As we walked down the hill, he cried out in pain and asked for more water, which he poured down his pants to wash the pepper spray off of his burning genitals; it had soaked through his pants and underwear. At the bottom of the hill, we ran into people who recognized him, who took charge of getting him home. As we said goodbye, he poured more water down his pants. I dumped water onto my partner’s burning hands. She did the same for me.
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When he left and I was no longer in emergency mode, I was hit by an intense wave of nausea, worse than I’d ever felt before. My hands started shaking, and I couldn’t stop dry heaving. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The air tasted spicy, and my eyes
were watering, and I wanted to scream and cry. I took a moment to sit and take off my mask and just breathe. But then we had to\ keep moving away from the approaching flashbangs.
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I looked back to see a flashbang explode right where we had parted ways with the injured person a few moments ago. The explosion was the brightest, sharpest light I had ever seen. We rejoined the protest again on Harvard, west of Seattle College and then got back into the intersection of Broadway and Pine with the crowd for a while before the Police again pushed us around with flash bangs and canisters of gas. The crowd moved back onto Harvard.
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We passed a medic van, where medics were treating people for minor injuries, washing out eyes, and offering people food and water. But as police aggressively pushed the protest backwards onto Harvard, the medics had to make a mad dash to put all their supplies in the van and quickly leave. We kept moving back until eventually there was a clear decision to just evacuate. We ended up in Volunteer Park, where my partner and I were able to leave by a residential side street. As a white, cisgender man, this was the first time I had personally seen police violence up close and personal. I understand that making it this far in life without fearing police will hurt me is a massive privilege. I have been out protesting in order to use that privilege to stand up for Black lives. September 7, 2020 - Labor Day SPOG Protest
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I was also at the Labor Day march to the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG). My partner and I gathered with other protesters at the ID light rail station before the march to SPOG. The organizers made a point to say that we were not going to do anything on the way there that could give police any reason to engage with us; we were not to throw things, break things, or spray paint. It probably took us an hour to walk to SPOG. On the way there, we picked up trash. Everyone I saw was peaceful and heeding the organizers’ instructions not to start anything. Our group included kids—I saw at least a couple kids under 10. And it included people with disabilities, including one guy using a knee scooter.
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We arrived at SPOG a little after 6pm. My partner and I were south of the SPOG building, a little bit behind the front-line protesters with shields and umbrellas who were standing in a line ready to defend the group from police weapons. There didn’t seem to be any police officers in the SPOG building. It was boarded up, with a chain link fence around it. It had kind of an eerie vibe to it. As people settled in, we suddenly heard “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” playing very loudly from the building that I had thought was empty. We were all really confused by the music—where exactly it was coming from, who was playing it, and why. Suddenly, while the song was still playing, a ton of bike police exploded from the alley, riding towards our group. When the police attack came, my partner was bent down, writing a message in chalk. I pulled her up and told her we had to get the hell out of there right now. It was an ambush. As they rushed us, SPD tossed gas canisters at us. I started choking on a billowing cloud of stinging gas.

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This protest felt different from some others I had attended because we hadn’t done anything other than just arrive at SPOG when police came at us with weapons, driving us away. It happened so fast. We came with sidewalk chalk, and they gassed us immediately. Officers went around the wall of shields and moved into the middle of the group. As we started to move back, I saw an officer point at someone near me and yell “YOU” and then lunge at that person and try to wrestle them to the ground. Protesters tried to de-escalate the situation and get people out of harm’s way, but more gas rolled in, and incessant flashbangs.

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I felt someone pull on my backpack and move me out of the way as an officer rushed towards us holding a can of bear mace. I have bought bear mace before for camping; this looked like a can of bear mace. I ducked my head down, preparing to be maced.
I had not done anything at all to provoke this police attention, and I was not dressed for this level of engagement with police weapons. I was wearing a COVID mask, not a respirator. And I didn’t have a helmet.

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SPD sprayed us with chemicals. My eyes burned, and I started coughing. It felt like my body was rejecting the space it was in, and I knew I wasn’t safe, and wanted to get out, but there was nowhere to go to escape, and we just kept getting gassed. SPD pushed us back and split our group. I was with about 20 people in the south group. We were totally isolated. Four lanes of traffic separated us from the rest of the group, and we were penned in on several sides by a wall of bike cops.

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Eventually we managed to run across the street to a parking lot to join up with a concentration of protesters there. I saw a lot of people lying down, in pain, getting mace flushed out of their eyes by other protesters. This felt like a war zone.

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The air was smoky and spicy. It felt like complete chaos. I watched SPD officers calmly walk towards protesters and then suddenly break into a sprint and rush us, aggressively tackling random people and wrestling them to the ground. My partner bent down to tie her shoe and I tried to pull her away, telling her she didn’t have time, worried she would become the next victim to be sprayed, tackled, and arrested.

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Police pushed us up against a wall, then funneled us out back into the sidewalk, screaming at us to stay on the sidewalk, making a wall with their bikes. Almost no police officers were wearing COVID masks but they certainly weren’t maintaining any kind of physical distance from us. Officers told us we had to leave, but when we tried to get back into the street to leave, they would charge us again. No protester was throwing anything or doing anything destructive or violent; we got gassed for just standing there. I believed that if we stopped moving, we would be attacked, and there was nothing I could do or say to stop that. That was the scariest part of the experience: realizing that we could only leave if the police let us leave. They were very effective at showing their power, their brute force. If they had wanted to, they could have backed us into a corner and gassed and maced and beat us until we were unconscious. I saw a lot of injured people, and I really believed I was going to be injured. I heard one person say “I am in so much pain right now, I feel like I can’t breathe” as they were being carried by two friends.
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We eventually ended up back on Fourth Avenue. When we were back on Fourth, that was the first time that SPD toldus to disperse, that this was an unlawful assembly. I saw police roll a lot of canisters of stinging gas at protesters and I saw SPD officers toss explosives overhand a few times. They didn’t seem to be directed at any particular person, just lobbed into groups of people. I saw things explode underneath people; the canister or blast ball or flashbang would make contact with them, blow up, and send shrapnel everywhere.

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Over the course of the protest, I would estimate that police threw at least 20-30 explosives at protesters. Police kept doing this intimidation tactic where they would be calm and casual and then suddenly race towards us without warning, trying to send protesters running in fear. At this point, we were just trying to leave. We got separated from our friend, which was really scary. I was really worried my friend had been taken by the police, even though I knew they hadn’t done anything illegal. Eventually we turned right onto Holgate. There I saw another cloud of chemical gas.
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SPD wouldn’t stop following us. The vehicles following us had their lights flashing and sirens wailing. Bike cops blocked off all of our possible dispersal routes. Police had told us to disperse, and we were trying to leave. We had walked a really long distance from SPOG and wanted to go home, but they were blocking our exit and attacking us. It felt like torture. They told us to leave but then were not letting us leave. I noticed that a ton of the bike cops who were flanking us had their hands on their guns. I took this as an implied threat, a reminder that they could kill us dead in an instant if they wanted to. It seemed like the fear we felt was SPD’s entire goal. My partner desperately wanted to leave. I also started to become very scared that the police were trapping us. I just wanted to go home. We’ve been protesting together since June and were a really good team. I felt absolutely terrible as I told her that I thought we had to stay with the group, because if we left the group or approached the cops at all or tried to talk to them we would be targeted. I had seen so many protesters picked off by police and hurt or arrested when they got separated from the group or tried to leave. The police really put the fear of God into me that day.

I really believe that in Seattle right now, safe protest doesn’t exist because of SPD’s tactics. What they did to us on Labor Day was such an excessive use of force, unchecked, and completely unprovoked. I don’t want to let the police scare me out of protesting with their overwhelming show of force, but I have to assume now that at every protest, SPD may attack us, and will not treat us like human beings with civil rights.

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I'm a 51-year old disabled resident of Capitol Hill. I have persistent asthma. I take two to three daily medications to keep breathing. I also have a hereditary disease called spastic paraparesis, which affects my leg muscles (I use forearm crutches), my hands and my grip, and my eye muscles (so I cannot get a driver’s license).
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I completely, 100% support the Black Lives Matter movement. But I have not been out protesting as much as I would like to because I am afraid that the police violence could kill me. The chemical weapons the Seattle Police Department has used against protesters could trigger a deadly asthma attack. I participated in a couple small, calm daytime protests in June, and made my own one-person protest in front of a police barricade one day. Instead of going out in the streets, I have tried to support the Black Lives Matter movement by donating to people of color providing supplies to protesters on the front lines.
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I have now suffered hours-long asthma attacks several times in my home because of the huge volume of chemicals that the Seattle Police Department has released into the air after using chemical weapons against protesters in Capitol Hill—three times in early June and again on July 25, 2020.
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My asthma is bad enough that I own several inhalers, a nebulizer, respirator masks, and I bought a gas mask last year during wildfire season. This summer, I had to buy a special filter for my respirator to try to filter out the chemicals from the Seattle Police Department’s chemical weapons. The filter I had bought to filter out wildfire smoke doesn’t filter out these chemicals. Whenever there is a large protest planned, I keep an eye on livestreams and Twitter to find out whether the police are using chemical weapons nearby that could hurt me in my home.
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Saturday, July 25, 2020 was my birthday. My asthma and spastic paraparesis make me at high risk for COVID-19, so this year I stayed home, celebrating my birthday with friends on Zoom. Because I knew there was a large protest scheduled half a mile away, I kept an eye on livestreams and on Twitter. I saw some indications online that there were some chemical weapons being used near Pine and Broadway, but I thought that was far enough away that I didn’t need to close my windows. Around 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., I noticed that the air smelled bitter, like almonds and burnt hot sauce. My eyes started tearing up, my nose started running, and I started wheezing. I closed the window right away. and took my inhaler right then, then put my gas mask on. I wheezed for about an hour. During that time, I had to take my emergency rescue inhaler 3-4 times.
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I had planned to go out briefly for ice cream, but I couldn’t because of the chemicals in the air. I couldn’t even chill and eat pie because of the gas mask. Instead of celebrating my birthday in any of the quiet ways I had planned, I spent two hours in asthma hell, struggling to breathe because of the chemicals that wafted in through my window. Because I am vulnerable to COVID- 19 and cannot drive because of my eye condition, I can’t go anywhere else to escape the gas.

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I am a Seattle resident residing in Capitol Hill. I live in a multi-generational household with my 83-year old father, my husband, and, during the summer before she returns to college, my daughter SB. Before Saturday, July 25, 2020, I participated in protests against police violence in Capitol Hill. I only did so during the day because I felt that it was safer then. I have asthma and I was fearful that tear gas and pepper spray might trigger an asthma attack. I was also fearful that tear gas and pepper spray would increase COVID spread, something I was particularly concerned about because of my 83-year old father who lives with us. I felt safe, though, when I participated in the silent march organized by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County that took place on June 12 after Judge Jones issued his temporary restraining order. On Saturday, July 25, 2020, after dropping election ballots off, my husband, SB, and I were dropped off near Broadway and Madison sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 3 :00 p.m. I was wearing a yellow shirt because I wanted to identify as a mom and express solidarity with other moms. I didn't participate, though, with the Wall of Moms. We joined the crowd that was marching south on Broadway. At this point in time, we were at the front of the march. We continued with them, turning left on Boren Avenue, and then turning left and marching north on 12th Avenue.

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I witnessed no violence. Everyone I was with was peaceful. We continued on, and around 4:30 p.m., we progressed past the East Precinct. We were near the back of the march at this point. My husband and I had gotten separated from SB, who by this point, was near the front. I saw officers on the roof of the East Precinct.
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I was at 12th and Pine when I began hearing explosions. No warning had been given by the police. I was caught in that intersection and started to run up Pine Street away from the East Precinct. I then saw what looked like a line of officers coming down Pine, from the intersection of Pine and 13th. They came toward us rapidly, rolling flash bangs toward us. I ran back the other 26 way and encountered a line of bike police who had cordoned off Pine at 12th. It was pandemonium. No order to disperse had been issued. I didn't know what the police wanted us to do. I felt panicked because I didn't know where my daughter was. I feared for my safety. I feared for her safety.
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At 4:26 p.m., I got a text from my daughter asking, "are you okay?" She texted that she was good and that she was at 11th and Olive. I was at 12th and Olive and we reunited around 4:40 p.m. We then went through Cal Anderson Park and met up with Sam Sueoka. He had pepper spray in his eyes and I helped irrigate his eyes with saline. I met another protester how was crying and vomiting. I helped irrigate his eyes with saline and then led the person to an area where street medics had set up in a treed area near the northwest comer of Broadway and Pine.
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I then joined the back of the group near Pine and Broadway. SB was moving toward the front with an umbrella that she was going to use to defend herself and other protesters from pepper spray. I followed her. SB was a couple people from the front line when I saw her fall. She had been hit by a flash bang or some other device. I saw that she had a head injury. People in the crowd helped move her to a grassy area where I and others tried to assess if she had suffered a concussion. We decided we had had enough. We decided that we needed to leave. We were walking away on Broadway, between Pine & Pike, near the Mud Bay store, when we encountered a cloud of white gas. I began coughing uncontrollably. My lungs seized. There was a moment when I felt like I couldn't breathe. After I recovered sufficiently, we went to a bathroom in a nearby restaurant where my friend works. After we cleaned up as best we could, we returned to our home in Capitol Hill.
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I feel like a fool. I thought that my family and I would be able to protest safely during the day. Things had really seemed to calm down after the Judge Jones order. I thought that, at the very least, the police would issue warnings before using flash bangs, chemical irritants, and projectiles. I was wrong. I can't describe the emotions that ran through me when I saw my daughter fall after getting hit by shrapnel from SPD's projectiles.
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Despite these concerns, I still intend to participate in protests. The violence inflicted upon me and my family has convinced me even more that I need to continue protesting if police violence is going to stop. I have now purchased respirators and goggles to better protect myself and my family members.

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After the killing of George Floyd, I joined protests in Seattle to stand up for Black lives. When I attend protests, I often try to provide support to other protesters. I have walked protesters to their cars, given people rides home, and flushed eyes with water medics were not available. When I have seen people upset, I have tried to de-escalate and calm situations. I also try document the protests when I can. Because I have been tear-gassed and fired upon with munitions at earlier peaceful protests when I did not have such equipment—and I have seen the damage caused by these tactics—I have now begun to bring a helmet and gas mask to protests. I wear clothing that will best protect me from injury: long pants, a jacket, and heavy boots.

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I arrived at the march on Saturday, July 25, 2020, around 2pm. I attended on my own. I wore pants, a jacket, heavy boots, and carried my gas mask in my backpack in case of worst-case scenario. I had ridden my scooter to the protest and carried my helmet with me.
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The police were much more violent than I was expecting, and the violence was indiscriminate. When I heard booming noises from Pine Street, I put on my gas mask and helmet. Throughout the afternoon, it seemed like SPD was looking to fight, intent on using their weapons. I did not see violence from protesters. Occasionally, during a period of police violence, I would see some object sail back towards the police over the crowd or see a plastic water bottle land near police. I saw a few TNT-brand novelty smoke fireworks that release colored smoke placed between the line of protesters and SPD officers. I saw an officer pick one up and toss it into the back of a civilian pickup truck.
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At some point, a flash bang grenade exploded right at my feet. The police had thrown it into the crowd, but as it was thrown into an umbrella, it bounced back and exploded on my feet. I flailed around, disoriented. I could feel it explode between my feet. My pants and boots were covered in white powder from the explosion, but they protected me from injury. The explosion was so loud that my ears began to ring significantly. Worried for my hearing, I took a break to step out of the protest to put in ear plugs that I keep in my bag. I also saw a police officer escalate tensions by walking forward to forcefully snatch away a protester’s umbrella for no apparent reason and smash it. The protester carrying it was walking backwards, as instructed by police. Moments after this, another officer pepper sprayed in the direction of someone who was filming and the person next to him, who had yelled towards the police in response to seeing this happen. It looked to me like the police were retaliating against protesters. I did not take this video, but I was standing near the person filming, and the video accurately portrays what I saw. One notable trend from the July 25 protest was how often police would use force—often handheld pepper spray— against someone retreating as the police line advanced, seemingly for not moving out of the way fast enough. I saw this happen many times.

At some point, I saw someone with a blue backpack sitting on a wall on the side of the road, yelling that he could not see and needed help. He seemed disoriented. The police line was advancing with officers walking close to the wall, so he was sitting in their path. He seemed unaware of the approaching police line and I knew he would be hurt by police if he did not move. Another protester in a black helmet and khaki jacket tried to help him. I had seen this person guide others away from the police line earlier in the day. I moved forward to see what the situation was but did not immediately get involved as he was providing assistance and I imagined they needed space. I was immediately pushed back by an approaching officer. The protester told the officer that he trying to move this person who couldn’t see, and I believe the officer was aware of the situation. The two of them immediately began to move backwards, arm in arm, away from the police, but were thrown off balance when the officer then shoved the person he was assisting. As the protester providing assistance regained his balance, and while moving backwards attempted to collect his own belongings, the officer continually grabbed and shoved him.
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I stepped forward to try to help the person in the blue backpack, who was still in harm’s way. I took hold of his arm and tried to guide him out by the shoulder, telling him that he was okay and that I was going to guide him out. A different officer aggressively approached us and cross-checked us with his baton. We went flying onto the concrete sidewalk and against the bus shelter. Another officer pepper sprayed the area all around us. I could not fathom any legitimate reason the police would push us to the ground and pepper spray us. They were not attempting to arrest anyone—not the person in the blue backpack who needed help, nor any of us who tried to pull him out of the path of the police. People were not grabbing back at police as they were being grabbed or resisting in any way; they were just trying to move. After initially getting the person in need onto his feet, we were moving backwards at all times. Shoving us did not make us get out of the way any faster or save the police any time. If police had paused for five seconds to let us help injured people out of the way, the police line could have moved forward faster and with less injury.
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After shoving and pepper spraying us, the officers moved on. I was eventually able to lift the person in the blue backpack up, walk them to the back of the crowd, and find him a medic, although we were shoved by police officers more on the way. Even though I was wearing protective
clothing and a gas mask, I ended up with bruises on my right shin, scrapes on my left elbow, pepper spray in my arms and mouth, and chemical burns on my arms from this incident. The pepper spray got into my coat pockets, soaking my COVID mask, which I didn’t realize until I tried to put it on my face later and it experienced burning. I did not have a second mask and this made wearing mine painful for the rest of the protest and on my ride home. I was re-exposed to the pepper spray the day after the protest when I reached into my jacket pockets, which were still lined with pepper spray. My hands and wrists burned for hours, into the night. Today, more than a week after the protest, my shin remains bruised and my hip and back are still sore from being thrown by police.

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https://imgur.com/a/bwUBbPW. I am visible in the video, wearing a white helmet and olive jacket, attempting to assist the person in the blue backpack after police attacked the first person who tried to render aid (wearing a black helmet and khaki coat).

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I have protested in Seattle beginning on May 30, 2020.

On July 25, 2020, I attended a march in Seattle with friends. At the conclusion of the march, the group that I was with reached Cal Anderson Park and was told to disperse; my friends and I left the area from the southwestern side of the park and ended up at the Shell gas station on Broadway and East Pike Street. Within 10 minutes of our arrival, we heard chaos unfolding outside the store. We rushed back outside to find injured people in the parking lots being treated by street medics. I went up the street and discovered a standoff between SPD and protesters on Broadway and East Pine Street. There was a lot of gas in the air, and there were flash bangs going off. I had goggles that protected my eyes, but it was impossible to avoid inhaling the gas. It made my face burn. My throat and nose stung badly, triggering coughing fits. It felt similar to what I experienced when I was tear gassed at previous protests. Police were holding a line across Broadway, many of whom had their mace canisters in hand. The rest of the protesters were pushed farther down East Pine Street; the sound of flash bangs and gas drifted back from this area. I saw one man being arrested and held down by several officers. One officer appeared to have a knee on his neck. Eventually the protesters were allowed to continue east on East Pine Street. After a significant amount of confrontation, SPD fell back and established a line at 11th Avenue and East Pine Street.

I was at the front of the protester group, directly in front of SPD, and I did not see any projectiles thrown at the police. There was a gap of about 3 feet between the protesters and the police. We were there for about 20 minutes without incident. Then someone started a chant of “A-C-A-B all cops are bastards.” This is a verbal taunt, not a physical threat. In fact, I saw no projectiles or any threat whatsoever from the protesters. But within moments, and without any notice to the protesters, the SPD mobilized and forcibly pushed the group down East Pine Street. One man in front of me did not move quickly enough and was assaulted with anofficer’s bicycle.
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As we were pushed back, officers in riot gear and holding batons used copious flash bangs to move the crowd. I was hit several times with small pieces of shrapnel; my friend was hit badly enough to leave a bruise. Every time a flash bang went off near me, I had to fight down the panic and the thought that people have been seriouslyinjured after being hit by one. As we moved down the street, there was a woman in front of me wearing a leg brace. She struggled to keep pace with the officers, and they were not allowing her to slow down. I moved to get between her and the police and told them that she was moving, and that she was wearing a brace. An officer responded, “then maybe she shouldn’t be here.” The police did not slow their pace. We were able to disengage and get her to safety at the southwest corner of Cal Anderson Park.

I joined a group of protesters at the corner of Broadway and East Pine Street. We witnessed two people being arrested. A group of officers in riot gear with their batons in hand gathered just south of our group and began chasing us north on Broadway. They were physically pushing any protester who was not fast enough to keep up with the group. Even though people were complying and moving away from the SPD line, officers physically pushed and used flash bangs and chemical irritants on anyone who was not moving as quickly as the officers wanted them to move. These people were not threats; they just weren’t fast enough. But the police indiscriminately targeted them with flash bangs.

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The officers turned the group east on East Denny Way and drove us into the park. I saw an officer step forward and reach out to shove a man who was walking in front of him with his arms up. Another officer was kicking the back tire of a man with a bike who was walking in front of him. Protesters scattered into the park and then reassembled at 11th Avenue and East Pine Street. In an attempt to locate my friends, I walked north on 11th Avenue. There, I encountered an officer in a BearCat threatening a woman in a truck with arrest if she did not move her vehicle. I stepped into the street to film. The woman eventually slowly withdrew, and I held my ground. The officer in the BearCat was announcing that the street was closed to vehicular traffic. I sat down about 15 feet in front of the vehicle. I was the only person in the street. I remained there peacefully for about 5 minutes before a large group of officers approached me from behind and told me that if I did not move immediately, I would be subject to arrest. I moved because I did not want to get arrested.
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Although I will continue to exercise my right to protest, I do so with the knowledge that I may be gassed, maced, menaced with batons, shot at with flash bangs and foam bullets, or arrested for doing so. Since my involvement with the protests and interactions with SPD, I have had frequent nightmares and jump at everyday loud sounds. I do not believe that any person who wishes to peacefully protest should have to face these threats, although I will continue to protest against the police brutality that is aimed at my Black friends and neighbors.

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I am a Seattle resident, and have lived here for the better part of the last nine years. I work as a journalist.

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On July 25, 2020, I was reporting on the anti-police brutality protests taking place in Capitol Hill. I arrived at the protest at approximately 2 p.m., when a march was scheduled to begin from Seattle Central College, and observed from various vantage points for the rest of the afternoon. The situation was peaceful for approximately the first two-and-a-half hours, during which the protesters left and then returned to Capitol Hill on a march through the city. By around 4:30 p.m., we had returned to Capitol Hill. I was with a crowd of protesters on 12th street, between Pine and Pike. Law enforcement emerged from the nearby East Precinct and began deploying blast balls with some kind of gas or other chemical agent—I don’t know what it was, but it stung my eyes, caused them to water, and irritated my airways. Later, on 12th Ave., 11th Ave., and Pine St., I found spent blast balls that release OC gas, which stings eye sand irritates airways.
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The escalation seemed unprovoked; I did not see anything that caused me to think that an aggressive police response was imminent or necessary. I also did not hear any warning from law enforcement. A brief video clip capturing the immediate aftermath of this initial assault is on my Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1287167791569620992.

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The protesters fell back to Pine and 11th, just below The Stranger’s office buildings. I moved inside and continued reporting from the third floor, where I had a clear aerial view of the situation outside. A police line was at 11th, holding the protesters west of the intersection on Pine along the side of Cal Anderson park. The crowd seemed content to hold its position in the street. Protesters with umbrellas had moved to the front, shielding the others from potential pepper spray and gas. I did not see any protesters throwing projectiles or otherwise behaving in a way that seemed to warrant a violent response. Nonetheless, one officer rolled a blast ball towards the crowd. A protester kicked it back towards the police line before it could detonate, and the officer diffused it with a blast of pepper spray as it began to smoke.
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You can see this in the top left corner of a video clip I posted to my Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1287169805456257024.

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The officer’s unprovoked use of the blast ball seemed to frustrate some individuals in the crowd. A few protesters threw objects towards the police line and began moving garbage bins in what seemed possibly like an effort to form a barricade.
https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1287170621747560448.

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Then things really began to escalate. The police forced the crowd back further and began indiscriminately pepper spraying protesters who were trying to shelter behind an umbrella off to the side of the road. These were not the individuals who had thrown projectiles at the police line. From my view, they seemed completely nonthreatening, but law enforcement still repeatedly doused them in copious amounts of pepper spray as they tried to shield themselves. I have reviewed my footage of this confrontation and still have no idea why these protesters were targeted. The amount of pepper spray and the OC gas from the blast balls was significant enough that I could feel its effects on the third floor of my office building across the street.
https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1287172691540115456.

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Only a few minutes later, I watched as a woman was tackled to the ground, restrained, and ultimately held down and arrested by four officers who yanked back her arms, held down her head, and knelt on her shoulders and neck. I may have missed something, but I did not see any indication that this woman posed a threat or did anything to warrant arrest. Certainly, once she was on the pavement it did not seem at all necessary for four officers to pile onto her and restrain her. The amount of force used to detain her struck me as alarming and whollydisproportionate.
https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1287176053073408000.

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The clashes between police and protesters continued from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m., approximately. Law enforcement was surging forward in a major assault on the crowd, which attempted to hold its position but continued to be forced further west down Pine, and eventually seemed to disperse. Police deployed enough chemical agents that I began coughing and had to step away from the windows to recover. Shortly after 5:30 p.m., I left The Stranger’s offices and went back outside to track the crowd and continue reporting. I followed one group of protesters to Harvard and East Olive, where they met a line of police at approximately 6:00 p.m. Officers were pointing guns—what I believe were rubber bullet guns—at protesters. Tensions were high, but the situation did not escalate into a confrontation. I heard protesters saying, “It’s not worth it,” as they backed away.
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After that, I continued reporting but did not observe any further major clashes, although I did see a few more arrests that made me feel uneasy—unnecessarily forceful, and for no apparent reason. My experiences on July 25th were upsetting, but would have been much more disturbing at any other time. After the events of the past few months, I am no longer shocked by local law enforcement’s aggressive tactics; it just seems par for the course. But while I am not shocked at what happened, it is shocking in a broader sense. It is shocking that I am no longer surprised by the Seattle Police Department indiscriminately attacking nonviolent protesters with mace as they try to shelter behind a rainbow umbrella; it is shocking that I have become so accustomed to seeing police march through our streets in riot gear, as smoke and gas clouds the air.
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In June, when we experienced night after night of violence, I began to feel myself cracking. At one point, I cried from sheer exhaustion. I’m not at that point yet, but I can see myself burning out again—it strains my emotional and physical capacity to function in this environment for extended periods of time. And what I find most disheartening is the cyclical nature of law enforcement’s aggression. As long as the police continue to brutalize Seattleites, the people of this City will protest. And as long as they continue to protest, it seems that they will be brutalized. The cyclical nature of these attacks from police also make my job much more difficult. At least a dozen protesters refused to speak with me for a story during the march. The ones who told me why they wouldn’t speak essentially said they feared police would target them if their name appeared in an article about the protests. This concern was amplified after police deployed dyed pepper spray or mace on the crowds. Protesters said they felt they were being targeted for being on the frontlines, and that they’d be apprehended later or singled out for attacks. I’m concerned these police responses have a chilling effect on people, especially people of color.

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Between May 30, 2020 and July 1, 2020, I protested every day in Seattle. Most of June I protested in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. I also participated in two marches downtown in June, the large silent march organized by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County on June 12, 2020, and the march to the Central District on June 19, 2020. In July, I have been protesting about twice a week on average. On Saturday, July 25, 2020, I participated in the “WallofMomsSEA” and the “Bike Brigade” protest and march that began at approximately 1 p.m. near the intersection of Broadway and East Pine Street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We marched south on Broadway to the youth detention center at approximately 12th Avenue and Alder Street, and then back to Capitol Hill near the East Precinct at 12th Avenue and East Pine Street.
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I participated as part of the bike brigade. The bike brigade includes individuals who form barriers by standing with their bikes to protect the marching protesters from cars on the streets. At approximately 4:15 p.m., I was standing peacefully using my bike as a barrier with the bike brigade at 13th Avenue and East Pine Street ensuring that cars did not go down East Pine Street, as the protesters were coming up to 12th Avenue and East Pine Street, when at approximately 4:20 p.m. several police SUVs pulled up. The police exited their cars and charged the bike brigade line. They did not say anything before charging, and it was so sudden and surprising that we did not understand what they wanted us to do. I and the protesters I was with could not get out of the way quickly enough. A woman next to me was on her bike, but not moving or riding it, when the police charged. She posed absolutely no threat, she was just standing there protesting and protecting protestors from traffic. But they pushed her down to the ground and continued moving over her, breaking her bike. Other members of the bike brigade had to pull her away. I was standing next to my bike and not on it, so I was able to pick it up and move back fast enough to not get trampled. I do not know why the police charged us. We posed no threat, we were not violent, and we were not disorderly.

We were simply protesting. We were exercising our rights under the Constitution to demonstrate, to assemble, and to petition our government. And we were punished for doing so. No instructions were given to the bike brigade. We had experienced no conflict with the few officers seen before the police SUVs arrived. The purpose of the bike brigade is well-known to anyone who has experienced protests before. Later in the afternoon at approximately at 5:26 p.m., I was at the intersection of 11th Avenue and East Pine Street protesting. The police would push the crowd down 11th Avenue away from East Pine Street by throwing flash bangs and so-called sponge-tipped rounds at and into the crowd— indiscriminately firing these weapons at protesters. They would not say anything in the process. After the crowd was pushed down 11th Avenue approximately a block or so, the police would retreat back to East Pine Street, again without issuing any instructions to protestors. The protestors would slowly move back toward East Pine Street and refill the space, and we were not instructed not to do so. After waiting some time, the police would again move the crowd back, without instructions, by using multiple and repeated flash bangs. This happened numerous times. There were so many flash bangs and other explosions that I lost count—they were just throwing them indiscriminately, creating so much gas that there was a cloud in the air. I do not know if there were chemicals in the cloud, but it obstructed visibility and burned my eyes.
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During one of these “pushbacks” by the police on 11th Avenue, I filmed the exchange for approximately 7 minutes and livestreamed it on Twitter. The video is available at
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1vAGRrpXMlDGl.

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This video is typical of the repeated pushbacks the police performed. The video starts with the police in the intersection of 11th Avenue and East Pine Street. There were countless bangs as the police fire into the crowd, and there were clouds of smoke or gas. In the video, you can hear people coughing. There was about a half a block of distance between the main crowd and the police. From approximately 1:40 to 2:00 in the video, the police fired several flash bangs at us, without provocation. From 2:15 to 2:45 in the video, you can hear approximately 18 blasts of flash bangs being fired indiscriminately into the crowd. At the 2:42 mark in the video, an officer threw something overhand into the crowd on East Pine Street, approximately a third of the way down the block. At the 3:00 mark in the video, police officers with bicycles joined the group of police in the intersection of 11th Avenue and East Pine Street and faced the crowd of protesters on 11th Avenue, where I was. The police immediately started firing flash bangs at us, without issuing any instructions to move back. The video captures the sound of approximately 13 flash bangs fired into the crowd in the first 20 seconds alone. The protesters ran away from the police who fired on them.
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The police moved the crowd back for approximately one minute using bicycles as barriers and by shooting flash bangs at the crowd. At approximately the 3:57 mark in the video, the police stopped advancing and held their line of bicycles. At approximately the 5:27 mark in the video, the police began advancing on the protesters again. The protesters were peaceful. No instructions were given by the police. As the police with bicycles began advancing, the police began shooting flash bangs at the protesters again. The flash bangs seemed intended to move the crowd back and were not targeted at particular protesters, as far as I could tell. At the 5:43 mark in the video, as I was
retreating with my bicycle, a flash bang hit my arm, fell to the ground and exploded right next to me on the street. The camera moved a lot as I got my bearings, and another protester asked me if I was okay. I was not doing anything to deserve being targeted with violence. I was only demonstrating at a protest against police brutality, and for doing so, I was met with police brutality.

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The video shows the police continuing to push the crowd north on 11th Avenue away from East Pine Street with their bikes and without issuing any instructions. Of all of the protests I have attended this year—and I have attended well over 30—the police violence on July 25, 2020 was the worst and most indiscriminate. I did not understand why the police plowed over the bike brigade team, as we move when instructed, or why later we were fired upon. The violence did not seem targeted in any way. Additionally, while on 11th Avenue protesting, I believe the police sprayed paint or dye on some protesters as a method of identifying us later. I had red coloring on my body and bike, and I witnessed a number of cars damaged with the paint.

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I am a mother.
Since the nation began stepping out in support of Black lives following George Floyd’s murder in May, I have attended a handful of protests in Tacoma. All of these remained peaceful. I had not protested in Seattle until July 25, 2020, when a friend of mine invited me to join her there as part of the “Wall of Moms” group, which originated in Portland, Oregon. The group has become a means for mothers to more tangibly support the antiracism, anti-police brutality movement by shielding other protesters who might be more readily targeted with aggressive law enforcement tactics. My friend and I arrived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle at around 1 p.m., with about an hour to meet other moms and listen to speakers before the protest march was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. I’m not very familiar with Seattle, but I know that we first gathered near Cal Anderson park. From the time we arrived until about 4:30 p.m., the protest was peaceful and uplifting. We listened to speakers at the park, marched through the city, and then returned to Capitol Hill. Along with the others in the Wall of Moms, I marched at the front of the crowd, enjoying the atmosphere of hope and solidarity. We did not have weapons, we did not destroy any property, and we did not hurt anyone. We posed no threat to anyone. We are moms standing up for racial justice, and exercising our constitutional rights. That’s all. As we re-entered Capitol Hill, I noticed some smoke in the distance behind us, but I didn’t know what it was and didn’t notice any disturbance. At that point, I didn’t think there was any reason to expect a confrontation with police; I expected to complete our march, say goodbye to the
people I had met, and head home to Tacoma.

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As we reached Cal Anderson park at about 4:30 p.m., it seemed like that would be the order of the day, but I suddenly heard explosions. I had not been aware of a police presence all day. Now, abruptly, law enforcement emerged in force and began deploying flash grenades indiscriminately into the crowd. I was stunned. In Tacoma,
our protests have always had a visible police presence, but this felt like they had been hiding or lying in wait until our march concluded, only to attack us. I was terrified and disoriented by the sudden chaos and the barrage of flash grenades. My friend told me that we needed to place ourselves between the police and the other protesters—that’s what the Wall of Moms was there for. I was truly petrified, and honestly do not think I would have had the courage fulfill that role if it were not for my friend. But she led me through the crowd, and I followed.
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We, along with a few other moms, positioned ourselves at the front of the crowd where it now faced a line of cops, who looked extremely aggravated and angry. They were yelling at the crowd and throwing more flash bang grenades, which were hitting people. We linked arms to form our wall. I was between my friend and another young woman, who was shaking in fear. I told her that she shouldn’t stay if she didn’t feel comfortable, but she was determined. I held her hand for a moment to help her through it, as neither of us knew what to expect. The police were lobbing flash bang grenades at our feet. One hit my foot and detonated, causing smoke or gas to rise up around my legs, but thankfully I wasn’t hurt. My friend began kicking them back towards the line of cops, until one detonated at her feet and injured her. We stayed at the front but saw that the police had pulled out their pepper spray cannisters. We raised our umbrellas to shield ourselves and the people behind us. The police began grabbing the umbrellas and trying to wrest them out of our hands, all while also pushing and shoving us back. Our refusal to drop the umbrellas or step back seemed to really anger the officers. They began spraying mace wildly at us and telling us to stay back, but we had not been moving forward.
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I had to peek around my umbrella from time to time to see what was happening; otherwise, in the chaos, I had no idea what was going on. As I lowered my umbrella briefly, a cop pepper sprayed me full-on in the face. I was totally incapacitated. With my eyes, face, and lungs burning, I staggered blindly back and out of the crowd. I called out to my friend that I’d been hit to let her know that I needed to move to the sidelines. Neither of us could hear well because of the noise from the flash bangs, and I don’t know if she heard me. One of the other women from the Wall of Moms grabbed me and took me aside, where she helped flush out my eyes, and reassured me that she and the
others would take care of me. I was so thoroughly incapacitated that a saline rinse didn’t help; the woman assisting me had to keep helping me retreat as the crowd was gradually pushed further and further back. As we retreated, at least seven to eight other protesters helped rinse my face and eyes, but it still took at least thirty minutes before the intense burning receded enough for me to open my eyes. Because I had to remove my contacts, I was unable to see clearly for the rest of the day. I was hit with the pepper spray, I lost my friend, and I couldn’t find her again afterwards. Several other women from the Wall of Moms stayed with me as I recovered and tried to help me find her, but we couldn’t.

Eventually, six or seven hours later, after waiting all evening, I knew I had to go home and try to reconnect with her the next day. A new friend from the Wall of Moms very kindly drove me back to Tacoma.

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I’m still in shock from this experience. It was appalling. I have never experienced anything like it. It seemed like the police wanted to attack us. They seemed angry and fixated on hurting us; it was like they wanted to provoke a reaction from the crowd so that they could retaliate. Several officers were jeering, egging us on, and grabbing our umbrellas; they shoved us repeatedly, despite the fact that we were only standing there, trying to shield ourselves. I was absolutely petrified and am struggling to process it all. I also have not fully physically recovered. I am still coughing from the effects of the pepper spray.

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I have been out protesting to defend Black lives and oppose racist police brutality since the killing of George Floyd. I have seen many people show up to protest who never protested before. The folks I have marched with in Seattle give me hope for positive change. As a member of the queer community, which has also historically been victimized by police brutality, I am terrified of police violence every time I go out and protest. But I’m also terrified when I am not there, because I feel like I have to be part of the fight against police brutality. This feels like a “now or never” moment to demand change.
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On Saturday, July 25, 2020, I arrived around 2 p.m. to Broadway and East Pine Street to join a march for solidarity with the protesters in Portland who were met with horrific and scary violence by federal agents. Our group had protesters of all ages from many different backgrounds. We held a rally, and some people led trainings on how
to keep each other safe. At approximately 3 p.m., we started marching around the neighborhood. We were chanting “Black Lives Matter” and our five demands for police reform. The crowd was energized and excited. At no point did I see anyone in our march do anything violent or illegal. I was not in the front of the protest, but I could see the front. As we turned left at a corner near the East Precinct, we saw a line of police in sand colored military uniforms with rifles coming down the hill, rushing towards us from the side, trying to split the group in half. There was no warning at all before the police rushed us. We had not done anything to provoke them. It felt like an ambush. We yelled to warn the protesters behind us that the police were charging. The Seattle Police Department (“SPD”) started rolling and throwing flash bang grenades into the crowd. Protesters started screaming in terror and running.
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Several lines of protesters behind me were attacked. I avoided getting hit at the time because my part of the march had already turned the corner before the police arrived. Our group had been separated from the rest of the march, so we paused at Cal Anderson Park to regroup for a while. Some protesters left. I went back to join the other protesters. A pattern started where a line of police would suddenly—without any warning or apparent reason—start to advance on the protesters, and push us back, accompanied by a large armored vehicle (a Bearcat) with an officer sticking up out of the hatch, pointing a rifle at us from the top of the vehicle. We would move back, and the police would eventually stop, reverse their armored vehicle, and retreat. Eventually protesters would fill in the space the police had left behind. Then the police would randomly start advancing on protesters again. The police advances seemed entirely unprovoked. Sometimes protesters were just sitting in the street, peacefully demonstrating, when police rushed in at us. Every time the police advanced on us, they would start rolling canisters dispersing gas every 10 seconds or so. Police were throwing flash bang grenades constantly. It felt like one exploded just about every second.
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They were not responding to any individuals threats of violence—they were targeting peaceful protesters. Police were also constantly releasing cans of colored smoke that stained people’s clothing and bodies. At some point, people yelled “moms to the front” and a “Wall of Moms”—a group of mothers clearly wearing yellow shirts (in
solidarity with the Wall of Moms in Portland), marching with linked arms— moved towards the police. I watched SPD use hand-held pepper spray to mace the Wall of Moms as they moved to the front of the crowd. Right after Wall of Moms was maced, SPD pushed the protest all the way down back to East Pine Street and Harvard Avenue, crowding everyone into a small street. SPD basically trapped us so we could not disperse. We were packed in extremely tightly with nowhere to go.
After the police created this bottleneck, they started grabbing people and arresting them, and throwing flash bang grenades overhand into the crowd, indiscriminately.
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I saw at least two flash bangs detonate in the air right near someone’s head. I was almost hit with shrapnel from a round metal canister with orange labels that exploded right by someone’s face. Police were also using guns to fire what I believe were pepper balls at the front line of protesters as we were retreating. SPD also released more canisters of gas, some of which got on me. The gas burned when I breathed. I am glad that I had goggles on to protect my eyes. Because of the wind direction, a lot of the gas floated away from the protest, towards nearby homes on Harvard Avenue where people had their windows open on a beautiful day. We yelled at these neighbors to close their windows so they didn’t choke on the chemicals floating towards them. The police never gave us any warnings before advancing on us or using weapons against us. No one in our group was being violent.
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I read the Seattle Police Department’s Tweets about alleged protester misconduct. I can’t believe they are describing the same event I was at. It seems like they declared our march a “riot” before they even came into contact with us.

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On July 25, 2020, I participated in a march in support of speaking up against police brutality. I joined the march around 2:30 pm. The march started on Broadway and Pine Street, in Capitol Hill. The path of the march took the group in a large loop, starting at Broadway going south, then going north up 12th Avenue. Around 4:15 pm, law enforcement began to discharge blast bombs and pepper spray near 12th Avenue and East Pike Street. The blast bombs were being thrown at protesters, and pepper spray was being discharged from handheld devices. I was with a group of around 50 people. The pepper spray and blast bombs forced us to move east up East Pike Street. I was wearing a 3M half face respirator when the pepper spray was discharged. The pepper spray caused me tochoke and cough profusely. I also needed to rinse my eyes and face with saline in order to keep the pepper spray from dripping into my eyes.
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Around 5:00 pm, most of the group made its way to 11th Avenue and East Pine Street. Law enforcement came up quickly behind this group I was with, and with no warnings, began to discharge blast bombs and pepper spray and pushed the group West towards Broadway. I saw nothing that could have provoked this response. During this incident I witnessed several people who needed medical attention. I saw two individuals with open wounds on their shins who were receiving medical care. Around 6:30 pm, law enforcement, again from behind a group already moving in this direction, began to push the group further down East Pine Street. During this incident I was approximately 10 feet away from the front line. Law enforcement pushed the group using their bikes as a moving barrier. Law enforcement was throwing blast bombs at the crowd and several detonated in close proximity to where I was. Law enforcement was also discharging pepper spray and grabbing people’s umbrellas out of their hands.
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The environment during this incident was extremely dangerous and chaotic. Because law enforcement was pushing the group down a steep hill at a high speed, people began to panic and run. This caused people to trip over one another and fall. People were yelling and trying to disperse as quickly as possible. Law enforcement was detonating the blast bombs so frequently my ears began toring, and I became disoriented. It is difficult to give an estimate of how many blast bombs were thrown at the group because of the sheer frequency of them going off. I also experienced a severe headache several hours after I left the protest. This experience will serve as the most
terrifying moment in my life. I cannot get the image of sheer panic out of my head. I hope that those who got injured by law enforcement’s use of blast bombs and pepper spray were able to return home safely like I was able to. What occurred on July 25th, 2020, in Capitol Hill was deeply disturbing.

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EB declaration, July 25th

I am a resident of the Capitol Hill neighborhood and have lived in Seattle since I moved here from Texas in 2011. I am a registered nurse. Previously, I worked as an ICU nurse, primarily with patients who were critically ill, has suffered traumatic injuries, or were undergoing major thoracic procedures such as open-heart surgery. On July 25, 2020, I attended a protest against police brutality in Capitol Hill as part of an organized team of healthcare professionals. Our purpose was to provide medical assistance to demonstrators. We are not protesters. We do not participate in marches, we do not join in chants, and we do not otherwise engage with the demonstration; we attend solely and specifically to provide medical support. At this protest, our team had based itself on the lawn at Seattle Central College, located at Broadway and Pine. I arrived and joined the group at shortly before 5 p.m. I was wearing my nursing scrubs to make myself readily identifiable as a medic to protesters and law enforcement. Not long after I arrived, I observed police pushing protesters west on Pine. They were deploying batons, pepper spray, and flash bang grenades.

At one point, I heard someone from the crowd calling “Medic!” so I broke off from my group and walked a little way down the sidewalk alongside the retaining wall, which supports the elevated lawn, towards Pine to see if I could identify who was shouting for help. The police line had moved past that point so I returned to the lawn. At that point, I saw a man being pinned against the retaining wall. He was being shoved with a baton by an officer, but he couldn’t retreat any further because he was trapped against the wall. Part of my responsibility as a medic is to defuse dangerous situations by removing injured protesters from the center of the action. This is especially true when an injured protester is unable to obey police orders to disperse because they have been incapacitated in some way. I saw this as a situation where a man was injured, clearly suffering further harm as the officer continued to aggressively push him, and struggling to retreat because he was pinned against the retaining wall. It was my duty as a medic to help him. What happened next unfolded in a matter of seconds.

The scene was chaotic and frightening, but I did my best to follow the de-escalation training I’ve received as a nurse and demonstrate that I was not a threat. My goal was to get the protester to safety while avoiding engagement with the officer. I approached with my hands out and visible, my fingers widespread so that law enforcement could see that I wasn’t holding anything. I didn’t reach toward or even make eye contact with the officer pinning the protester, or with the other officers near him. I just crouched down and began to try to pull the protester up the retaining wall and onto the lawn, where I could get him away from the crowd and assess his injuries. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. Someone had hit me hard enough to knock me over. In the chaos of the moment, I see who it was, but when I later reviewed video footage of this incident, I saw that it was likely the officer adjacent to the one beating the protester, holding a canister launcher. At the same time, the officer beside him-who had just watched me be pushed over-pepper sprayed me directly in the face. I was not a threat, I was not dangerous, I was not breaking anything, or hurting anybody. I am a nurse. I had taken thorough coronavirus precautions and was wearing an N95 mask and a pair of ski goggles, which thankfully protected me from the worst of the spray’s effects. But even so, I was blinded: it coated my goggles, and the skin of my face began to burn. Somehow, I still managed to get ahold of the injured protester and drag him by his armpits onto the lawn. We then staggered away to safety, and another medic rushed over to assist him. I took a moment to recover on my own. A video recording of this incident was posted on Twitter by a journalist.

https://twitter.com/SimoneReports/status/12
87197567772553216.

Once I was satisfied that the protester was safe, I again began observing the ongoing conflict as law enforcement continued to force protesters west. The police were using an astonishing amount of force. To me, the crowd did not appear threatening; it seemed like the officers were being aggressive purely for the purpose of forcing protesters to retreat. Within two minutes of the first incident, I was approached by the journalist who had filmed me getting pepper sprayed. I exchanged a few words with her, but immediately heard more cries of, “Medic! Medic!” and I ran to assist. The protesters had been forced off Pine and onto Harvard, where more people were pinned against the retaining wall, which is higher and steeper on that side of the lawn. A few protesters had been blinded by pepper spray and were trying desperately to scale the wall and clamber onto the lawn to safety. Some kind of chemic agent hung noxiously in the air above the crowd; it began to burn my throat even through my mask. Flash grenades exploded in rapid succession amid the retreating demonstrators. I was horrified to see as two people were hit in the chest and back by flash bangs; it seemed like they had been aimed at their torso.

The situation was obviously devolving. I jumped off the lawn and onto the sidewalk, where I began helping the blinded protesters hoist themselves up the retaining wall. But the police kept advancing and shoving us back further down Harvard. I was caught at the back of the crowd, being physically pushed forward by the line of law enforcement thronging behind us-the same end of the line that had pepper sprayed and struck me earlier. They clearly wanted us to move faster, but we couldn’t. the crowd in front of me was bottled too tightly to move at full speed-I couldn’t do anything about it, but I kept being shoved forward and into the wall, again and again. Finally, I turned my head to look back at the officers pushing me and say, “I’m going as fast as I can!” immediately, they pepper sprayed me directly in the face. I posed no threat. I was not wielding or brandishing a weapon. Again, I am a nurse. And I was in fact complying with the police’s order to retreat, but they still attacked me with pepper spray for no reason. This time, the spray completely saturated my mask. My goggles were oozing with it; I could not pull air through my soaked mask, which collapsed against my mouth with each attempt at a breath. My eyes and face burned, and I nearly fell as I struggled to breathe. Fortunately, I knew there was a stairwell shortly ahead, and I managed to lunge for it and escape. Desperate for air, I removed my mask and goggles. The full, powerful impact of the pepper spray and noxious smoke hit me. Despite my pain and disorientation, I managed to fumble my way back to my team on the lawn for treatment, where I spoke with the journalist from before and requested a new mask. As I waited for more PPE, shaken but determined not to leave, I realized that pepper spray had saturated my scrubs and my hip and leg ached where I had been pushed down. I rinsed my clothing as best I could, masked back up, and grabbed extra saline before returning to the injured. It was clear that people would continue to be seriously hurt, and that medical assistance was critically needed on-site.

Just over an hour later, at approximately 7 p.m., skin still burning from pepper spray, I was caught up in a group of protesters who were being pushed down the hill on East Denny, towards downtown. Law enforcement was being astonishingly, indiscriminately violent. They used a constant barrage of flash bang grenades and pepper spray to forcibly corral the crowd further and further out of Capitol Hill. At one point, I witnessed a woman shot at close range in the chest with some kind of gas canister. The force of the impact was incredible, I examined her later and I suspect the hit broke her ribs. Many people in the crowd were suffering from injuries at this point; those who fell back were surrounded by knots of police. As we were forcibly marched along, I collected a group of four protesters who had been absolutely drenched with pepper spray, blinded, and were not literally screaming in pain. I tried to lead them out of the crowd so I could treat them with saline solution, and eventually I managed to steer them into an alleyway off Boylston, where I had them lie down on the pavement so I could rinse their faces and eyes. One of them, the woman who had been struck with the canister, couldn’t stop screaming. Another, a man, was in such pain that he began retching; then he vomited.
As I was treating them, a small group of cops from the back of the line paused at the mouth of the alley. They told us that we had to leave immediately or we would be
arrested. This was the last straw. I had been repeatedly doused in pepper spray.

I had witnessed nonviolent protesters being continuously assaulted with batons, pepper spray, and flash grenades for no other reason than their inability to immediately comply with law enforcement’s demands while under assault. I had seen multiple people struck at close range with projectiles that could have easily shattered their bones. I now had four prone, incapacitated, helpless people with me, screaming and vomiting from pain on the ground. I was furious. I stayed calm, but told the officers that I was a nurse and that I needed to treat these people. They were suffering; they were in pain; I would not abandon them or force them to move when they could barely stand. The officers continued to threaten me and my patients with arrest. But I could not back down without violating my duty and my conscience. I kept repeating, “Please, let me do my job. I’m a nurse. Let me treat them. Let me do my job. Please.” Finally, the officers backed off. They left the alleyway and followed the retreating crowd. I-still stunned and horrified by the encounter-was able to return to treating my patients. My experiences on July 25th were deeply upsetting. None of this was entirely unexpected, as I have followed coverage of the recent protests and seen how the police have treated my own neighbors; I expected to be exposed to chemical agents and possibly even targeted by law enforcement. But I struggle to find words sufficient for the intensity of unjustified violence perpetrated by SPD on the streets of my own neighborhood. To me, the force they used felt retaliatory. It felt angry-like law enforcement was venting their frustration and rage by brutalizing people who posed no threat, making impossible demands for the satisfaction of punishing their victims for inability to comply. It felt like they wanted to restore their sense of control by pushing the people of Seattle beyond mere compliance into total, instant, unquestioning submission. And it felt cruel. Targeting retreating protesters with flash grenades and rubber bullets, dousing them with pepper spray for the slightest perceived infraction, threatening them with arrest when they’re screaming in pain and awaiting treatment by a medic-it was all incredibly cruel. I will continue supporting these protests because I believe that doing so is critical. I believe in the right of Seattle’s citizens to exercise their rights without the threat of violence from police. I know my skill set is needed, and I will make sure that I’m available to help those who are hurting. But I am sickened and horrified by what I know I can expect to see as I continue these efforts. The police have been brutal.

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CA declaration, July 25th

I have lived in the Seattle Metropolitan area my entire life. I currently live in Capitol Hill. I have attended several Black Lives Matter protests since the end of May.
On July 25, 2020, I turned on livestreams of the day's protests while at work. I was upset by the level of force the Seattle Police Department ("SPD") seemed to be using. When I got home from work, my partner and I decided it was important that we show support for the protest, so we walked down to 11th and Pine to join protesters. We arrived about 7 p.m. We were about 30 feet behind the intersection. It appeared as if there was a line between protesters and Police and for the first 25 minutes or so both SPD and protesters seemed to stay on their side of the line. At no time did l observe protesters throw anything, cross the line, or do anything other than chant and shout at SPD officers. At about 7:25 p.m., we saw some protesters at the front start running toward us and saw that SPD had begun to advance in a line toward where we were standing. As we
began to back up, we heard what sounded like blast balls going off every few seconds. Several came within about ten feet of us. I saw the blast balls exploding in the air. It quickly became clear that the blast balls were filled with some sort of gas which filled the
air around us. There was no order from SPD to disperse. There was no warning that they were going to begin to advance. There was no warning that they were going to use blast balls or gas. Their actions came as a complete surprise. I saw no provocation whatsoever. I saw no one do anything to physically threaten any police officers or property. The blast balls were thrown indiscriminately into the crowd.

We were both coughing hard and having trouble breathing, so we ducked down I 0111 Street and away from the advancing SPD line and the rest of the protesters. We walked home, but at about 8:30 p.m., I went back down to the protest, this time with my brother, CA, I had some swim goggles that I use for lap swimming and brought them with me, as I heard that they can protect from gas and spray. I also borrowed my partner's bike helmet. Once we arrived at the protest, the police line had retreated back to a where it was earlier in the day. We assumed a similar position to where I had been standing during the first incident, about 30 feet from the police line on the same side of the street. The atmosphere seemed similar among the protesters as it had been earlier in the day. There was chanting and some protest songs. I did not witness anyone throwing anything or any kind of physical provocation. At about 9 p.m. I saw officers rushing the crowd from behind the police line. I scrambled to put on the swim goggles. I was otherwise unprotected and had a t-shirt on, as it was a hot day. I could see people falling, and the police were hitting them with batons and mace as the police quickly advanced. Police were chasing people, and spraying people with mace, and hitting them with batons as they ran away. The people being hit were not threats-they were trying to escape. I saw one person get hit with a baton when they tried to help a fallen individual up. That person getting hit fled and dragged the fallen individual to safety with them. Another policeman ran adjacent to them continually spraying them directly in the face as they ran away dragging the fallen person. I saw a different person running toward me get hit with a baton and fall to the ground. I saw my brother lunge forward to assist the person who had fallen. At that point, police sprayed my brother in the face with mace. The person on the ground was lying on the pavement in tbc fetal position, and an officer was drenching him with mace as he lay on the ground.

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I stepped forward to try and help the fallen person and was crying for the officers to "STOP." I was sprayed in the face. I think I turned away but didn't want to leave the fallen person because they needed help, so I tried to stand my ground. I had no weapons, l didn't throw anything, hurt anyone, or destroy anything. But I was still
pepper sprayed simply for trying to help someone who had fallen on the ground. Someone came in from the side and began helping the fallen person to safety. As they scrambled away, I got my bearings and I stood over them and tried to insinuate myself between them and the police while the officer drenched me with mace. I was carrying a cardboard protest sign and used it to try to shield myself and others from the spray. At that point the police pushed me from behind. I fell on the fallen protester and people trying to help them up. After I fell, the Police continued to spray me with pepper spray. I stood up and yelled at the police who had sprayed and pushed me. I said, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I took my goggles off so that I could see, as the goggles were covered in mace. They readied to attack us again. A medic came and stood in front of us, at which point the police formed a line.

This incident is captured in a video that was posted on Twitter. It can be found at https://twitter.com/daeshikjr/status/1287288 994057732098?s=20.

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My shirt and undergarments were soaked with mace. I could feel mace dripping out of my hair and down my neck. A Black community elder came to the front where I was standing and told us to hold our ground and not be afraid. So, I chose to stay where I was standing in front of the new police line. There was perhaps five feet between the police and us. My brother's girlfriend, was standing beside me. She was worried for my brother and told me that she was going to go find him. She handed me her umbrella for protection. I saw that the officer in front of me was not wearing a mask. I was furious that he would have so little regard for the safety of people who may get sick. I told him multiple times to put a mask on. He looked at me but did not put his mask on or say anything. There was another officer who had no identifying badge number or name. I asked him for his name. He pointed to a white sticker on his chest. It was the type of l/4in x l in sticker that you use to label a file folder and it was written on in pencil. I told him that I couldn't read it from that distance (I'm nearsighted) and I needed him to tell me his name. He just pointed at the sticker again. At this point the mace dripping from my hair and bike helmet dripped into my eyes. It became difficult to see. My brother’s girlfriend came back and told me that she had found my brother and that he was being treated by a medic.

She asked if I was okay. I said that I didn't want to leave the line. She offered to take my place, so l gave her the umbrella. I began walking away from the front but quickly realized I was completely blind and helpless. I called out to the crowd and asked if anyone could escort me to a medic station. I asked a second time at which point a group of medics approached me and offered me assistance, rinsing my eyes out. The rinsing was extremely painful. Someone sprayed something on my face that neutralized the mace and it helped a lot, but my clothes, hair, and arms were completely soaked and my whole upper body was burning. Shortly after being treated by the medics I began shivering uncontrollably and my teeth were rattling. I did not feel cold and was fearful because I was surprised by the response my body was having. I had carried bear mace before on hikes and thought about how terrible I would feel if I had ever used it on a wild animal. I walked home, which is a mile from the precinct. It was extremely uncomfortable but tolerable. When I got home, my dogs tried to greet me, but I was afraid to touch them because I didn't want them to be affected by the mace. I was shaken and wanted to cuddle with my dogs and hug my partner but had to tell my partner to restrain the animals and stay away from me. I took a photo of my back taken after I got home showing what appears to be a bad sunburn but is actually a result of the mace. I then took a long cold shower. The shower was more painful than any other kind
of physical trauma I have experienced, including broken bones and third-degree burns.

Though the shower was cold, it felt like I was being drenched with boiling water. The pain was the worst on my neck, ears and arms-where the spray had direct contact with my skin but was also present on my back, legs, feet, chest, stomach, armpits, and genitals. Throughout the night I woke up because of pain in my hands and ears. The next day I put my feet in the water during a lunch break, and the mace was reactivated, and my feet began burning. I have not taken another shower since that evening and I am afraid to shower again lest there be any remaining mace in my hair or on my skin. This was an extremely disturbing experience for me. Aside from my own treatment at the hands of the City, I am even more outraged by the direct harm done to my unarmed immediate family and neighbors by people who take my tax money and are too cowardly to even tell me their names. In processing this event, I have occasionally become tearful and have accidentally gotten residue from the mace in my eyes, causing the physical trauma to start all over again. This is unfit treatment for even the worst criminals in our society and it seems to be reserved for Black and indigenous people and those standing up for Black and indigenous issues like Black Lives Matter and No DA PL. I plan to continue protesting it.

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AO declaration, July 25

On July 25, 2020, at approximately 6:30 p.m., I arrived at the protest at Pike and 11th in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle. I joined a group of demonstrators that was facing east towards a police line, chanting and clapping. I didn’t see or hear anyone in the crowd behaving in a threatening manner. The situation appeared peaceful and under control. Things remained calm until about 7:25 p.m. At that point, law enforcement suddenly began lobbing flashbang grenades into the crowd. There was no warning. I was positioned near the front of the demonstration and was close enough to the police line to hear a dispersal order or announcement, had one been given. But the sudden assault took me by surprise. Police threw the flashbang grenades seemingly at random. It was not clear to me who, if anyone, they were targeting. A few flashbangs struck protesters directly. I saw at least one protester suffer a leg injury after being struck by a grenade. The assault caused the crowd to retreat onto Broadway, and then downhill at Denny. As we fell back, the police continued to throw flashbang grenades into the crowd, without targeting anyone in particular. From my perspective, the crowd posed no threat. We retreated further, onto Boylston, still pursued closely by police on foot. At that point, the front line of police began pepper spraying people caught at the rear of the crowd. The spray drifted south with the wind to where I was, and I felt it begin to sting my eyes and irritate my lungs—even though I was twenty to thirty feet removed from the individuals being targeted. Again, I didn’t witness anything to suggest that the protesters being sprayed had done anything to threaten the police. I left the protest after that and went home. I continued to experience eye and lung irritation for half an hour after I left.

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SK declaration 7/25/2020

Before Saturday, July 25, 2020, I participated in and observed protests against police violence in Capitol Hill on numerous occasions. But the police violence I experienced and observed on July 25, 2020, was the most I have ever seen and experienced in all the protests I have ever attended. I had never seen or experienced anything like what the SPD did that day. Beginning at roughly 4 p.m., Seattle Police Department (SPD) began throwing different forms of incendiary devices (grenades with pepper spray, flash-bangs) into the crowd of people indiscriminately.

I began on 11th Ave, just north of the intersection, where a smaller group of protesters were facing the police. I remember the chaos of what appeared to be over a hundred police arrive quickly and aggressively begin assaulting protesters. I left the location due to the larger group of protesters being pushed back on Pine towards Broadway. I was concerned for my own safety in a smaller group with such a large police presence and their reputation for violence. When I arrived at Pine and Broadway, police began indiscriminately tossing different forms of incendiary devices at the crowd. The first volley lasted for roughly 5 minutes of consecutive tossing of different types of grenades. To my recollection, everything thrown at the protesters were circular grenades which explode. I do not recall seeing anything thrown at protesters that was designed to remain intact. After the first 5-minute round of grenades, the police officers walked back towards the East Precinct on Pine. Protesters followed from a quarter of a block distance. As the cops were at the intersection of 11th and Pine, SPD again began to throw incendiary devices into the crowd indiscriminately, one after another. Protesters had pulled a dumpster into the street for protection against rubber bullets that SPD began firing in their direction and a few protesters began throwing plastic water bottles at the police. For what felt like 10 minutes, SPD sent volley after volley of grenades at the protesters. I witnessed SPD officers conversing with each other about where they would be sending each grenade, pointing at individual protesters in the middle of dense crowds. I saw other times when it felt as if SPD officers threw grenades at random due to the consistent volley simultaneously thrown at protesters. Rarely were the grenades thrown in front of the crowd of protesters.

SPD threw grenades into densely packed areas that were already well blanketed in gas or smoke. I could not tell what kind of chemical irritant was being used. Due to the massive crowd of individuals (roughly 750), every grenade thrown at protesters exploded near hundreds of people, with shrapnel hitting any protester in the vicinity. I was personally hit more than 10 times in the legs, hand, chest, and head. I also witnessed journalists hit by the explosions. Police would then shoot rubber bullets into the crowd. As police came closer to protesters, they would then fire industrial pepper spray at protesters. This was sometimes targeted, but more often it appeared to be sprayed indiscriminately back and forth across the crowd. For the next 2 hours, as I recall, the pattern continued of SPD marching forward, sending volleys of grenades for 5-10 minutes, retreating, then resuming volleys of grenades 15 minutes later. Protesters antagonized police with words, plastic water bottles, trash, occasional firework, and unexploded the protesters (i.e., throwing back to SPD the very devices they had thrown at protesters).

At roughly 6:30 p.m., the police then began pushing protesters through residential neighborhoods. Starting at Pine St. and Broadway, police began chasing protesters on Broadway towards E. Howell St., then down Boylston Ave., up Pike St., back down Broadway Ave., and then up Denny Way. Police chased protesters down these streets, with police occasionally stopping and both sides regrouping, then returning chasing protesters. As this occurred, police indiscriminately threw grenades into the crowd. As most protesters were running away from the police, I cannot think of any legitimate reason for using force other than intentionally trying to scare and harm protesters who were trying, at this point, to get away from police. I was hit roughly 10 times by grenade fragments. Lasting effects include a small laceration on my lower right shin, a large purple bruise on my upper thigh, a burn and swelling on my left-hand knuckles, and consistent ringing and pain in my right hand ear. The ear pain is the result of a number of grenades exploding within an arm’s reach from my ear. On Sunday, July 26, I awoke with pain in both legs, left hand, and right ear.

I received an informal phone consult from a friend (licensed MD, general practitioner) who advised me to seek medical attention. I saw a doctor at UW Neighborhood Clinic Ravenna Urgent Care on July 26 at roughly 3:30 p.m. The doctor documented my bruising, first degree burns on my hand, and referred me to see an audiologist at Harborview Clinic. I was prescribed silver sulfadiazine topical cream for the 1st degree burn on my left hand. The Harborview Clinic was not open for scheduling on Sunday, July 26. I was able to get an appointment for Wednesday, July 29. The doctor administered a comprehensive hearing test, concluding a “moderate sensorineural hearing loss notch centered at 4kHz in the right ear” and “mild sensorineural hearing loss threshold at .5 and 4kHtz in the left ear.” I was told that there was a “sudden change in hearing following noise exposure, and slight asymmetry between ears R>L.”

I was told that I needed a follow up assessment and care. On July 31, I saw a doctor (Otolaryngology). The doctor prescribed prednisone (60m daily x 7 days) and pepcid (for acid reflux resulting from prednisone) in the hope of repairing some range of hearing. The doctor informed me that there is some evidence that prednisone can repair acute hearing loss, but it is not a certainty. I began medications on Saturday, August 1. As of Saturday, August 1, the pain in my right ear has continued. I am unable to sit in a room without some form of sound (fan, music) due to tinnitus and pain in my right ear. It has made schoolwork incredible difficult and has deeply impacted my ability for continuous focus. The pain in my ear makes it difficult if not impossible for me to conduct my approved research as a participant-observer, at least until my ear is sufficiently healed.

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YSV Declaration, Jul 25th

I attended the protest in Capitol Hill on July 25, 2020. At around 4:30 p.m., we were slowly marching towards the end of the protest at Cal Anderson, where the demonstration was set to disperse. SPD attacked our group of approximately 1,000- 2,000 protesters. I did not hear a dispersal order or announcement and neither did the people near me. SPD’s attack seemed unprovoked and coordinated. After witnessing police attacks at previous protests, I had brought a gas mask, helmet, and heat resistant gloves in my backpack on July 25. I did not have time to put any of this protective equipment on because SPD attacked so quickly. I am a healthcare worker, so I was wearing an N-95 mask for personal protection from COVID- 19. Prior to the attack, I had noticed police officers on rooftops above Pine, aiming what looked like guns at protesters. I did not see any officer besides those on the rooftops above us. As I was walking along Pine, less than a block away from Cal Anderson, I heard several flash bang grenades go off all around me and in quick succession. I was hit directly on the top of my left foot with a projectile that exploded on impact.

Although I was wearing thick leather boots, I felt sudden and extreme pain along the top of my foot as soon as the projectile landed on top of it. The simultaneous explosion caused me to lose my balance and the sudden influx of pepper spray all around me left me briefly disoriented. Putting any weight on my injured foot was very painful. I limped behind a nearby bus shelter and ducked down next to one of the cars parked next to Cal Anderson. I had no idea which direction the projectiles were coming from, since at that point I still hadn’t seen any police officers on the ground. I stayed hidden long enough to put on my helmet and gloves. The air was already so thick with pepper spray and gas that I did not have time to put on my gas mask. I also had a leaf blower in my bag. I took it out of my bag and limped back towards the group of protesters on Pine, between 11th and 12th Avenues. Eventually, I stepped away to drink water and change into my gas mask since the chemical irritants had seeped through my N95 mask and I had started coughing uncontrollably. For the next several hours, SPD deployed projectiles and chemical irritants directly at whoever was nearby, including the group of live streamers and corporate media off to the right of the front-facing line, and legal observers who were stationed on the left side and throughout the crowd.

The media and legal observers were all clearly identifiable. I saw them target the media and live streamers with what appeared to be pepper spray containing blue dye, which was a different color than what they seemed to be using on the rest of the protesters. At one point, SPD attacked one of the live streamers next to me, pepper spraying him directly in the face and the phone he was using to record from less than 10 feet away multiple times in quick succession, as he was backing away from the officers. At around 5:30 p.m., I was hit by another projectile directly on the left knee. At that point, there was a gap of about 20 feet between the officers and the line of the closest protesters. I stepped forward to blow away the chemical irritants from a canister with my leaf blower. I was about 30 feet from SPD. While I was there, SPD threw a projectile directly at me. It hit me on the knee, bounced onto the ground, and exploded. Not long after, the battery in my leaf blower died, so I stepped away into an adjacent parking lot to put the leaf blower away. While I was there, I briefly removed my gas mask to drink water. Even though I was far enough away from the line of officers that I could no longer see them, the air was so thick with chemical irritants that my gas mask quickly filled with pepper spray, so that when I put it back on it was difficult for me to breathe. Around 7:00 p.m., during one of SPD’s pushes, they corralled us down a side street towards Olive.

We were backing up and complying with their orders. The entire time, they kept pushing us with their bikes and then would suddenly break formation and charge at us. There were so many bodies there, that those of us who had been on the front-facing line and were therefore closest to SPD had no way of going faster and nowhere else to go. SPD advanced as a wall and would push quickly, faster than the crowd could safely move. Officers shoved retreating protestors with their bikes, pulled away any umbrellas and protective shields within their reach, and indiscriminately dragged people onto the ground and violently arrested them. At one point, I tried to turn away from SPD in order to comply with their directive to walk faster. This was difficult to do because walking on an injured foot and knee made each step agonizing, and with so many bodies pressed in around and behind me my movement was extremely limited. As I slowly turned away, one of the officers swung his bike at me and used the tire to knock me off my feet. I was pulled by other protestors back into the crowd and away from the advancing line of officers, but I struggled to stand back up. I was terrified that I would be trampled. The actions of the officers very easily could have started a stampede. After months of protests, during which I’ve experienced and multiple unprovoked and violent attacks by SPD, this was the most afraid I’ve been so far. I genuinely thought I might die. I started to have a panic attack.

I began hyperventilating and dry heaving and wanted to take off my gas mask. I knew from experience that removing the mask would assuage the symptoms of a panic attack, but was unable to do so due to the residual chemical irritants in the air. My foot and knee were becoming more painful with each step and I had difficulty walking. I wanted to leave the crowd at this point, but I had to stay with the crowd of protesters because I was afraid that if I broke away from them I would be targeted by SPD. I stayed with the group until a friend could pick me up, about 30 minutes later. I left around 7:30 p.m. The next day, I reached out to my doctor because my toe and the top of my foot was purple, swollen, and painful. I had an XRay performed on Tuesday and met with my doctor on Wednesday.

I have not been able to work since Saturday’s protest due to pain and difficulty walking. My doctor informed me that my toe is broken, and that the location of the fracture shows that it was broken by an object hitting it from above. He explained that the bone would have broken in another specific way if the impact had been from the side of my foot. My doctor also diagnosed me with Menorrhagia, since I have started having heavy, irregular periods for the past two months, despite the fact that I have had an IUD for two years. Prior to the protests this summer, I had experienced regular and consistent periods because of the IUD. He told me that my Menorrhagia could be the result of stress or from chemical exposure. I haven’t been able to return to the protests this week because I haven’t been able to walk without pain. Since being attacked by SPD, I have experienced an upswing in C-PTSD symptoms. This is a condition for which I have been receiving professional treatment for over a year and a half, and I had been declared by my mental health provider as “in recovery from C-PTSD” prior to the protests this summer.

My symptoms have returned swiftly and exponentially since witnessing frequent and consistent violence from SPD over the last two months. It is difficult for me to fall asleep or stay asleep, and I often have nightmares that I am being chased or shot at. I have experienced a heightened sensitivity to sound, temperature, smells, and lighting. I am more easily startled, feeling anxious and jumping at any unexpected noise or touch. I have experienced an upswing in my chronic shortness of breath and shallow breathing, which has been aggravated by my asthma. This is noticeably worse on the days following tear gas and pepper spray exposure and is compounded by wearing a surgical mask for 10 hours a day as a healthcare worker. I have started to experience bouts of physical numbness along my body, more frequent panic attacks, and daily flashbacks. The flashbacks are disorienting and are both auditory and visual in nature, with intrusive memories of SPD deploying flashbang grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters, and protesters screaming in fear and pain.

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He has attempted to protest almost every day since the beginning of the BLM/George Floyd protests.
On July 25, 2020 starting around 12-1 pm, IG attended a protest on Pine Street between 11th and 12th Avenue with his girlfriend, his 19-year-old daughter, and his 17-year-old son.
Around 4:30 pm, while attempting to gather his family so they could go home, IG heard explosions, and police came charging out of the East Precinct. SPD officers began launching blast balls and firing rubber bullets indiscriminately into the crowd, with no warning or provocation. During the confusion, IG was separated from his girlfriend and daughter. IG attempted to use a sandwich board from a nearby hotdog stand as a shield to protect protesters from the constant barrage.
Without warning or justification, an officer came through the police line and fired rubber bullets at IG, hitting him repeatedly as he ran from the officer – once in the hip, and once in the right leg, breaking the skin.
After reuniting with his family members, IG sought treatment at the Swedish Emergency Room. He was diagnosed with an open ulnar fracture and underwent surgery
to put three pieces of bone back into place.
As a direct and proximate result of the projectiles used on him by the City and SPD, IG suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: laceration
on his right calf, ulnar fracture of his dominant right arm requiring surgery, scarring, disability, pain, and anxiety. IG also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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The death of George Floyd struck a chord with CH, and they attended BLM/George Floyd protests two or three times a week to speak out against police brutality.
On July 25, 2020, CH was participating in a protest near 11th Avenue and Pine Street. Between 5 – 5:30 p.m., they were tightly squeezed into a crowd of people being pushed backwards by SPD officers who were using blast balls, pepper spray, and rubber bullets against them. CH couldn’t move because SPD officers had pressed the group together so tightly.
Suddenly, an SPD officer directed a long stream of OC spray at CH’s face. Before they could recover they were hit with the shockwave of an explosive device that went off directly behind them. Yet another device struck them in the shoulder less than an arm’s length away from his head.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons and explosive devices used on them by the City and SPD, CH suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: injury to their lungs and sinuses, laceration on their right shoulder, bruise and laceration on their left buttock, hearing damage, recurring tinnitus, sleep disruptions, sensitivity to sounds, and stress. CH also suffered infringement upon their constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020 Jake was with his brother his brother’s fiancée. During this incident Jake was hit with a stream of pepper spray discharged by an SPD officer.
When his brother’s fiance was lying on the ground injured, Jake attempted to prevent other retreating protesters from trampling her by using his body as a shield. Jake had his back to the advancing SPD officers.
Without warning the police forcefully pushed Jake back, and he felt an officer grab him by the neck. SPD officers spun him around and tackled him to the ground, causing scrapes to his right knee, left elbow, forearm, and bruising to his head. An officer ground his knee into Jake’s back as he was handcuffed.
Jake was given no orders and no opportunity to comply before he was tackled.

Jake was not told that he was under arrest. Jake did not resist the arrest.

Upon arrival at the King County Jail, Jake was first placed in a room with a puddle of urine on the floor.
Jake was then placed in a very small
cell overcrowded with nine other people.
Despite signs stating that masks are required due to COVID-19, only about half of the jail staff were wearing masks.
After being fingerprinted and photographed, a jail nurse cleaned an injury on Jake’s knee.
Neither SPD nor King County took photographs of his arrest related injuries.
Jake was not provided food for over 12 hours of detention.

Arrestees were told by jail staff they could not call their attorneys until “after the cell was cleaned.”
When an arrestee asked when the cell would be clean, a jail guard pointed to a bucket and a mop and said, “The mop’s right there.” Another prisoner began mopping, and Jake participated in cleaning by sweeping the cell.
When the arrestees were finally allowed to use the phones, the PIN numbers for the phone system didn’t work. Jake gave up one of his three allotted calls so another arrestee could make a call.
Jake was released on July 26, 2020, around 1:15 p.m., after his wife posted bail.
Jake’s arresting charge was “Failure to disperse.”
Prosecutors declined to file any charges.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons and excessive physical force used on him by the City and SPD, his unlawful arrest and prosecution, and his unlawful treatment at the King County Jail, Jake suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: lacerations on his knee, elbow, and forearm, bruising on his head, wrist and shoulder, exacerbation of an existing back injury, burning pain from exposure to chemical irritants, disrupted sleep, anxiety, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime he did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. Jake also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020, EL marched with BLM/George Floyd protesters from Seattle Central Community College to the East Precinct.
Upon arrival at the intersection near the precinct, EL immediately heard flash bangs. He did not hear any warning or request for dispersal before police began using explosive munitions on the crowd.
Look began filming as protesters ran from the police. SPD officers began forming a line across 12th Avenue, pushing protesters south.
Look was retreating backwards when
he heard some commotion behind him.
Suddenly, an officer shoved EL and knocked him backwards to the ground, knocking his phone out of his hand.
As he reached for his phone, still on his hands and knees, another officer grabbed it from his hand.
An officer then smashed his face to the pavement while others kneeled on his back, legs, and arms. They then handcuffed him, cut his backpack off him, and transported him to the West Precinct.
At the West Precinct, EL was denied water for about three hours.
An officer yelled in his face when he asked why he was being held.
He was eventually transported to King County Jail.
Upon arrival at KCJ, the officers escorting EL inside slammed his body into the door between the jail and the garage.
A jail guard slammed his head into the surface of a desk, breaking his two front teeth as depicted below.
Look spit out pieces of his two front teeth. The guards then covered his entire face and head with a “spit sock.”
He was yanked up by the shirt and shoved into a chair.

A jail nurse asked EL a few questions but did not clean, treat, or photograph his injuries.
EL was released on July 26, 2020 at approximately 1 p.m.
EL’s arresting charge was obstructing a public officer.
Prosecutors declined to file any charges.
Ultimately, EL underwent dental surgery at the University of Washington dental clinic. He has lost feeling in his two front teeth.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive use of force used on him by the City and SPD, his unlawful arrest, and his unlawful treatment at the King County Jail, EL suffered pain, injury, scarring, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: anxiety, humiliation, depression, other symptoms of PTSD, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime he did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. EL also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020, at approximately 3:00 p.m. KMD peacefully participated in the protest that marched to the youth jail and returned to Capitol Hill. After the march reached the East Precinct the police split the protesters in two groups.
KMD was part of the smaller group that was faced by police in riot gear on 11th Ave and Pine Street.
Protesters began to open umbrellas in anticipation of a police attack to protect themselves, and someone handed KMD a plastic bin lid as a “shield” and a leaf blower.
Without verbal warning or provocation, the police began firing tear gas and throwing flashbangs into the crowd.
A flashbang exploded near KMD, causing his ears to ring.
Immediately after the explosions, he was hit on the hip by a tear gas canister which exploded, coating his clothes in an orange powder.
KMD retreated north on 11th Ave and was about halfway between East Pine Street and Olive Way when the police shot him about five times in his legs with explosives—again with no warning.
On November 4, 2020, at approximately 11:30 p.m., KMD was protesting near the East Precinct on 12th Ave when an officer slammed him to the ground.
His head hit the pavement hard enough for surrounding witnesses to hear the crack of the impact.
KMD did not move after that assault. Multiple officers began to pile his face down, motionless body while preventing anyone from coming to his aid.
The protesters yelled at the police to call an ambulance to help KMD.
Approximately 15 minutes later the

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Fire Department arrived and attended to him for about 15 minutes before taking him to Harborview.
He was unconscious and intubated for about 24 hours at the hospital.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force and chemical weapons used on him by the City and SPD, KMD suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: leg and hip lacerations, loss of hearing, kidney function disruption, scar tissue in both legs, prolonged loss of consciousness, and PTSD. KMD also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020 around 11:00 a.m. AR went to Westlake Center in downtown Seattle to march with thousands of other protesters. The protest was to show solidarity with Portland BLM protesters who had been tear gassed by federal agents the week prior.
AR marched to 11th and Pine in Capitol Hill around 3:00 p.m. where he noticed SPD officers were coming out with gas masks, shields, and padding. He put on his helmet, gas mask, knee pads, and pulled out an umbrella for his protection.
AR joined other protesters on the street outside of Seattle Central Community College. He was on the front line facing the police approximately 10 feet away.
Without warning, the police began shooting projectiles into the crowd and pepper spraying protesters at the front of the line. AR held his umbrella for protection while the police pepper sprayed, tear gassed, and pushed him back.
A projectile hit AR’s knee which had been previously injured. This forced him to the ground and blood began to seep down his leg.
Protesters nearby pulled AR from the scene toward volunteer medics and drove him to the emergency room at Harborview Medical Center, where doctors determined he needed arthroscopic surgery on his knee and treatment for a deep laceration on his leg.
AR’s injuries have impaired his ability to participate in protests or seek employment due to his mobility related disability.
As a direct and proximate result of the chemical weapons used on him by the City and SPD, AR suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: deep laceration on his right leg, injury to his knee requiring surgery, loss of mobility, and lost employment opportunities. AR also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020, at approximately 2:00 p.m. TVM and her husband joined the protests in Capitol Hill near East Pine Street.
When they arrived, police were already using force against protesters, and shrapnel from a flashbang hit TVM in her calf. Shrapnel from the same blast hit her husband.
At approximately 6:00 p.m. they were at 11th Ave and East Pine Street when they saw a man step into the street while recording the protests. A police officer ran over the man’s foot with their bike causing him to fall.
Her husband tried to help the man to his feet but was tackled to the ground by the police.
As TVM reached for her husband to
help him she was also tackled by an officer.
Multiple officers piled on top of her back, pinning her face down, and at least one officer kneeled on her neck with intense pressure.
The officers tore off the motorcycle helmet she wore without loosening the chin strap, causing her neck to wrench, and her facemasks to dislodge and cover her face.
Officers also cut the straps of her backpack with a knife and took it.
She was then handcuffed and transported to the East Precinct where she was kept in handcuffs for four hours, until approximately 11:00 p.m.
TVM felt pain in her shoulder, wrists, back, and neck. She was not able to hold her head upright.
Officers asked if she was injured and she said “Yes,” but they did not evaluate her, send a medical professional to see her, or check her handcuffs.
At approximately 11:00 p.m. she was transferred to King County Jail.

She told the staff her neck was “hurt really bad,” but she did not receive any medical treatment.
On July 26, 2020, in the morning a jail nurse evaluated her neck and told her that she should be sent to the hospital because of the swelling.
Another nurse disregarded this advice and handled TVM’s neck very roughly causing intense pain, acknowledging her neck was swollen but denying its severity.
She was released from jail around 1:00 p.m. and she waited for her husband until he was released around 5:00 p.m. By this time, she could not move her left arm.
At the hospital, TVM was diagnosed with bulging disc between her C-5 and C-6 vertebrae, with severe swelling in her neck.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force and chemical weapons used on her by the City and SPD, her unlawful arrest, and her unlawful treatment at the King County Jail, TVM suffered pain, trauma, chemical exposure, wrongful arrest, and other damages, including but not limited to: neck injury, calf injury, loss of mobility in the left arm, bulging disc, neck swelling, PTSD, and the effects of being accused of a crime she did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. TVM was unable to work for over a month following this assault. TVM also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

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On July 25, 2020, CP left home to join the PDX Solidarity BLM march around 1:15 p.m.
Later, CP found that he was next to a line of police with what looked like a grenade launcher, firing rounds into the crowd.
He got off his bike and started walking, afraid that he would get hit by a flashbang grenade.
CP held his bike up in front of him to try to block any launched munitions from hitting him.
A SWAT officer aimed a large munitions launcher in his direction. CP was then shoved by another SWAT officer.
Another officer tore his bike from his hands and threw it to the side.
He was then tackled by several officers and knocked to the ground.
CP was bleeding from his shoulder, elbow, and knee. He was arrested for “investigation of assault on an officer.”
He asked police to lock up his bicycle or take it with them, but they left it in the street when he was taken to the West Precinct.
CP’s injuries were photographed but he was not given any medical attention nor allowed to clean his abrasions.
CP was kept in handcuffs for approximately seven hours, until midnight, causing pain to his wrists and shoulders.
He requested water but did not receive any for over three hours.
He was not given any food for 14 hours, until the next morning at King County Jail.
When he arrived at King County Jail, CP was kept in handcuffs for at least another hour, while waiting in a holding room with a puddle of urine on the floor.

He asked to speak to an attorney repeatedly and was repeatedly told he would not be allowed a phone call.
When he sent a “kite” requesting an attorney, the kite was returned saying “You are under investigation for assault on an officer. NO BAIL.”
Also at King County Jail, CP was subjected to an illegal anal cavity search.
As he was changing into his jail jumpsuit, a guard stood in the doorway, inappropriately watching him change clothes.
The guard then penetrated CP’s anus with his fingers. There were no medical personnel present.
CP was released without charge after
53 hours. He has still not been charged.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force used on him by the City, and SPD, his unlawful arrest, and his unlawful treatment at the King County Jail, CP suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: shoulder, wrist, elbow, knee and hip bruising and abrasions, assault, humiliation, fear and anxiety, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime he did not commit, including but not limited to injury to reputation. CP also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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On August 16, 2020, at approximately 10 p.m., NF was protesting at SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue South and Lander Street. The police told protesters that they had four minutes to evacuate. They were directed down an alleyway.
As NF backed up, the police charged forward. Someone tripped behind NF as they were backing up, causing NF to trip and fall to the ground. NF was arrested before they could stand up.
NF was cuffed while on the ground. Once NF was handcuffed, the police tore off their gas mask and kicked away their helmet that had fallen off their head.
NF was on the ground for approximately five minutes, and then waited about thirty minutes on the curb before being transported to the West Precinct at approximately 11:00 p.m.
NF was handcuffed differently than other people. Their hands were tight together behind their back, with the backs of their hands pressed together.
NF was held for two hours, handcuffed, in pain. They informed officers that their arms hurt, but nothing was done.
When NF was transported to the county jail and uncuffed, they realized they could not bend or raise their left arm.
When NF reported the injury to the jail nurse, the nurse did not examine NF’s arm and failed to detect what medical providers later found: that NF’s arm was broken.
On August 17, 2020, NF was released at approximately 10:30 p.m. They sought medical treatment at Zoom Care the following morning. X-rays revealed a radial head fracture at NF’s left elbow.

NF’s arresting charge was failure to disperse. Prosecutors declined to file any charges.
As a direct and proximate result of the excessive force used on them by the City and SPD, the unlawful arrest, and the unlawful treatment at the King County Jail, NF suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: delayed medical treatment, exacerbation of a radial head elbow fracture, pain, anxiety, depression, other symptoms of PTSD, unlawful detainment, and the effects of being accused of a crime they did not commit, including but not  
limited to injury to reputation. NF also suffered infringement upon their constitutional rights.

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I’ve been heavily involved in protesting since late May. On August 26, 2020, I attended a vigil for Summer Taylor next to an office of the Washington State Patrol. I arrived at around 9 p.m.; people were chanting outside the building and staging cars to protect protesters. After Summer was killed, we’ve made sure to use a car brigade to protect protesters. At the vigil, the organizers were very purposeful to not block off traffic or block the fire station access. The car brigade was positioned on one side of the road so that traffic could still pass and emergency vehicles would be able to get in and out of their station.
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During the vigil, the police started to mobilize into a police line. They formed a line of officers across the fire station’s driveway. The majority of protesters were seated peacefully in a circle, trying to have a moment of silence. Some protesters stood up and spoke to or yelled at the officers, but I did not see anyone do anything violent. People were angry because the officers stood around talking and laughing during our vigil, but no one was violent. Soon after the police began to mobilize into an aggressive formation. They started yelling at protesters to move back, actively pushing protesters with their batons. Up until this point most of the protesters were on the sidewalk. The protesters only started spilling out onto the street once the police started rapidly pushing us back - it was chaos, and people were just trying to get out of the way. I did not hear a dispersal order to the protesters.
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The police were using flashbangs and pepper spray to move the crowds. They pushed us up towards the highway where we were then met with police cars staged in a way to block our path. We were forced up a hill, and the police deployed a “spicy” gas that burned my lungs and eyes and more flashbangs. I didn’t know what the gas was, but it filled the air and I felt the effects. It made it really painful to breathe, and there was no warning given and no way to get out of the area. Around this time was the first time I actually heard a dispersal order. Immediately after issuing the order the police did a “bull run” right at the protesters, rapidly advancing on us.
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I’ve been protesting consistently for months, and I’ve never been scared of other protesters. The marches I attend are peaceful, and I feel safe when we have a car brigade and bike brigade to protect us. I’m only concerned for my safety when the police are present, and I feel much safer when no police are present. I’m scared of the injuries I’ve sustained—and continue to sustain—while attending protests. I’ve had blast balls explode at my feet, been affected by chemical gas, and seen people hit with rubber bullets and cannisters. Even though I’m scared, this treatment of peaceful protesters by the police only makes me want to protest more

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I am a disabled veteran living in Seattle. I served in Afghanistan as a medic in the U.S. Army. I have degenerative arthritis in my knees, hips, back, and shoulders, as well as hearing loss, tinnitus, and PTSD from my nine years of military service. I joined my first protest on May 31 in Seattle to check out and lend my support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

I observed widespread violations of civil rights by police. Watching police in Seattle and around the country use military-style weapons against civilians to try to dictate when, where, and how protesters can express their First Amendment rights has made me more dedicated to protesting. Vigil Outside Washington State Patrol My partner and I were near Volunteer Park recording police harassing protesters when we received word that a ton of police officers had descended on the vigil for Summer Taylor outside of the Washington State Patrol and were forming a line, and that additional bodies were needed to protect the protesters at the vigil. So we headed towards the Washington State Patrol building. The events at Volunteer Park and at the Washington State Patrol building were unrelated and organized by different groups. We turned onto E. Roanoke St., where the vigil was, from 10th Street, but we were separated from the rest of the protest by a police line blocking Roanoke west of Broadway. SPD officers were also blocking the sidewalk and driveway of the fire station next to WSP.

There was a very significant police presence for such a small and quiet protest. On the other side of the police line, we saw protesters laying candles in a circle in memory of Summer Taylor, who was murdered during a protest on I-5 after Washington State Patrol allowed a car to drive into the protest.
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Police shoved us to the other side of their line, with the rest of the protesters. Most protesters were sitting down at the vigil, having a moment of silence, when police formed a line very close to the protest. Suddenly the police line started pushing protesters back by pressing their batons forward and yelling “MOVE BACK.” They shoved my partner, who fell but managed to get back up again. It was impossible to comply with the police order to move back because the protesters were crammed in tight behind us. As police began shoving peaceful protesters back for no discernible reason, I saw a police officer spray a stream of pepper spray upwards into the air. It wasn’t directed at any particular person, just into a cloud over the group. Police had not given us any dispersal order or warning at this point. 10. I saw an officer throw an explosives—a blast ball or a flash-bang grenade—with an overhand lob into the middle of a crowd of retreating protesters. This was clearly not targeted at any particular person; there was no way police could have even seen who they were going to hit when it landed.
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As I have seen them do at other protests, SPD officers began grabbing and arresting protesters who didn’t move back quickly enough.
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I saw an officer place a can on the ground that began releasing smoke into the air near where other officers were arresting one protester, making it impossible to observe the arrest.
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At one point, my partner went over to help a protester who had fallen and police arrested both the person who had fallen and my partner. As they pinned her down, police pepper sprayed the area around her. Further, I observed, and recorded, an officer wearing the gray police uniform move forward and place his knee into the back of my partner’s neck. Upon noticing me recording his action, we locked eyes and he removed his knee from my partner’s neck. I was astounded at the brazen and excessive use of force against someone who had already been detained and subdued. I felt powerless to do anything for the person I love.
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I understand that the City has claimed that some of the SPD’s use of less-lethal force was justified because protesters assaulted police with umbrellas. I did not see any protester assault a police officer with an umbrella or with anything else at this event. I did see an SPD officer reach out and grab a protester’s umbrella and yank it away, however.
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After police had already started pushing us back, using pepper spray, andgrabbing and arresting protesters, police finally gave a dispersal order. We did not have anywhere to disperse to; we were penned in on almost every side by the landscape or a police line. Police pushed the protesters up Harvard Street, chasing us around the corner, towards where cars were entering the freeway. Police continued to pursue us as we tried to leave, forcing us all to move increasingly quickly.
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I personally have trouble moving quickly because of the injuries I sustained in Afghanistan and during my military service. I saw many other people struggling to move as quickly as police were forcing us to move. There was a constant implied threat that police would arrest us or deploy chemical weapons against us if we stopped moving or tried to peel off from the protest; we had already seen police use these tactics repeatedly against protesters who posed no threat.
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The unnecessary and immediate police show of force at an entirely peaceful vigil seemed designed to completely shut down protest outside of the Washington State Patrol. This kind of authoritarian response to the exercise of free speech is completely at odds with the freedom I fought to protect while I was in the Army. Labor Day SPOG Protest On Labor Day, I attended the march to SPOG. Before the march, organizers called on us not to incite violence or destroy anything. The roughly 1.5-mile march to SPOG from the ID light rail station was pretty uneventful. I did not see anyone damage any property or do anything to threaten public safety. SPD SUVs and approximately two dozen bike cops trailed behind us.
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As we got closer to SPOG, I could see more bike cops along the railroad tracks. The police vehicles that had been following us peeled off and went in that direction. About one minute after we arrived at SPOG, the song “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” started playing loudly. It seemed to be coming from the SPOG building. Suddenly, bike cops rode up and charged the crowd. They immediately began pushing protesters, grabbing away shields and umbrellas, spraying pepper spray, and arresting people. There had been no dispersal order. I had not seen protesters do anything to justify such a response. The crowd was peaceful. I saw at least one child under age 10 in the crowd outside of the SPOG building when the police attacked us. People began to panic at this new and violent police tactic of immediate ambush. As they tried to run, police tried to shove everyone—a crowd of at least 300 people—towards the sidewalk. It felt like police were treating us like cattle as they used force to pack us into a small area. I saw officers throw explosives overhand into a crowd of protesters. I also saw officers roll canisters of gas underhand so they would deploy behind a shield wall, gassing people who the police could not see.
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Police threw a flash bang grenade that exploded so close to my partner that she touched her ears to see if they were bleeding and complained of not being able to hear. An officer threw a blast ball that exploded near me. As he threw it, the wind changed and blew the chemical gas back in the direction of the police. I heard officers start coughing as they were gassed by their own weapons.
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After police had moved enough protesters onto the sidewalks, they gave a dispersal order, and immediately began using their bikes to shove protesters along. If protesters tried to link arms and form a line, police would rush the line on bikes to break up the protest line.
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I saw SPD officers repeatedly pepper spray people for not doing what the police wanted them to do. I saw many people hesitate, confused about what they were supposed to be doing, only to get maced for not complying quickly enough. It seemed like police wanted us to start running. Because my knees were ruined serving my country in Afghanistan, I could not move as fast as the police wanted me to, and my partner and I lagged behind. Officers threatened me and my partner with arrest several times for not walking fast enough. As police marched us up 4th Avenue, they would not let anyone turn down any side streets. Some protesters tried to turn in order to disperse and go home. Others tried to step onto a side street just to pause and rest and let the bike cops go past so they would not have to keep moving at biking speed. Some legal observers and journalists tried to briefly step back onto a side street to record what was happening on 4th Avenue. But police responded to any attempts to step off of the march path by shoving protesters with their bikes to move them back onto 4th Avenue and threatening arrest. I witnessed a police officer strike a legal observer with his bicycle; it seemed knowing and willful. My partner and I did manage to duck out of the forced march into a convenience store around Holgate, where we bought drinks and waited for the police line that had been chasing us to pass. When we emerged after the police had passed, we saw an unfamiliar person throw a flaming bottle at the police as they forced protesters to turn onto Holgate St., near the Jack in the Box. Police quickly extinguished the fire. September 23, 2020 Breonna Taylor Solidarity Protest
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On Wednesday, I joined approximately 300 other protesters in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill for a protest after a grand jury decided earlier in the day not to charge Louisville police officers for killing Breonna Taylor. We marched around Capitol Hill and down to downtown.
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The protest was predominantly peaceful. Although I’m aware that a few protesters vandalized a few Starbucks along the way, the overwhelming majority of protesters I saw were just marching. I saw one protester try to throw rocks at a Bank of America, but the majority of protesters intervened to stop them. There were a lot of bike police patrolling the protest. Eventually, police vehicles began following behind us with their lights flashing.
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My partner and I were walking towards the back of the protest when, out of nowhere, bike cops ran in and tackled and arrested a few people. I began to record the police. SPD officers told me to move back, so I stepped onto the sidewalk. My partner was standing next to me with an open umbrella to block us from the pepper spray that SPD inevitably uses at protests. An SPD officer grabbed her umbrella and destroyed it, ripping off the fabric. Eight to twelve SPD vehicles then began blaring their sirens. It was deafeningly loud.
We marched around Seattle for awhile until we came to a dead end street where we could disperse onto the sidewalk and cut over to Cal Anderson Park to take a break. After decompressing, hydrating, and eating snacks, we marched to 11th Avenue and East Pine Street.
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We waited at 11th and Pine for awhile, occasionally chanting or shouting. Some people built a mini-barricade in the road. A few people walked up ahead to the East Precinct, a block away. I heard a firework explode near the garage next to the East Precinct, further up the block. Roughly 15 minutes after the firework exploded, SPD decided to rollin
and arrest people. Bike cops came in out of nowhere. SPD pushed some people back, spraying mace as they pushed them. More SPD officers arrived, and they made a huge surge towards the crowd. SPD officers formed a line on the sidewalk and into the street. One bike officer road fast towards a person who he appeared to have targeted, but slipped on the sidewalk and fell over on his bike.
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The officer stood up and franticly began spraying pepper spray in every direction around him. It wasn’t targeted at anyone in particular; it was indiscriminate.
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I got hit with some of the spray. I had my gas mask on so it didn’t burn my eyes but my hands and forehead were very spicy for awhile.
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None of the people the officer pepper sprayed had touched the officer, approached him, or done anything that would suggest they posed a safety threat. I was just standing by recording. One person who got hit with the spray didn’t seem to have even realized the officer was there until he turned and got pepper sprayed directly in the face.
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Protesters stayed in the intersection at 11th and Pine, banging on trash cans, playing instruments, and chanting. We decided to leave, and headed back to our car. As we were leaving, SPD deployed a couple explosives filled with OC spray. They did not seem to be targeted at any particular person, just launched into the thick of the crowd. The air filled with chemical gas. Once we reached my vehicle, I checked Twitter and saw that SPD had issued a dispersal order.

SPD started heavily bombarding protesters with concussion grenades and explosives filled with OC spray. There was a loud explosion approximately every two seconds for about fifteen minutes. We drove around looking for protesters who needed to be evacuated. We saw a small group walk-running, as if in a panic. One of them had a very red, swollen face and was coughing—the telltale signs of having caught a heavy blast of pepper spray directly in the face. He also seemed to be unable to move around on his own; his friends supported his weight as they moved. We asked if they needed to be evacuated, and they jumped in the back of my vehicle. His friends appeared to have been pepper sprayed, too, but were not injured to the extent he was.

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Conclusion

The immediate, overwhelming, and violent police response at the August 26 vigil and Labor Day SPOG protest seemed designed to send the message that there are simply locations that police have decided are off-limits to all protesters. SPD’s response to the September 23 protest in solidarity with Breonna Taylor likewise seemed more about brutalizing protesters than protecting public safety. I didn’t fight in a war so that the police could indiscriminately use chemical weapons and explosives against protesters and arrest them to prevent them from protesting.

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I am a teacher and have been protesting in defense of Black lives in Seattle since the murder of George Floyd. August 26, 2020 Vigil for Summer Taylor On August 26, I arrived at the vigil for Summer Taylor around 10:15pm. There was a very significant police presence when I arrived. I saw a lot of police officers, including State Patrol and SPD, standing in a half-circle around the vigil. The vigil was very peaceful. Everyone was seated around a makeshift memorial to Summer on the grass. Organizers with the Every Day March (EDM) were talking about Summer and their feelings.
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During a moment of silence, SPD officers were loudly talking and laughing. Their radios kept going off, and the volume was very loud, so some protesters asked them to turn down their radios. Suddenly, SPD formed a line in the street near the vigil and began to march. I don’t know what prompted SPD to suddenly begin to forcibly move the vigil. The vigil was on the sidewalk, away from the firehouse. The Car Brigade, which sometimes blocks an entire street to protect protesters, had only blocked one lane of traffic at the vigil in order to leave space for vehicles, including fire engines, to pass by. Police vehicles were blocking the fire house driveway, but no protesters or Car Brigade cars were.
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Police formed a line in the street between the Washington State Patrol office and the fire station, blocking the fire station. Many protesters who had gear to protect themselves from less-lethal weapons—like respirators, high quality goggles, shields, or umbrellas—got up to form a front line near the police line to protect the others who did not have any form of protection from the weapons that we knew from experience were going to be fired at us once the police lined up in the street.
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I had given my umbrella to another protester, and I did not have a lot of protective gear. The person to whom I had given my umbrella later told me that police had reached over the police line, grabbed the umbrella, broke it, and ripped away the fabric. For several minutes, police just stood there. Protesters asked them what was happening, why they were forming a line, what we were doing wrong. No police officer would answer or communicate any information to us about what they wanted from us.
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At one point, a protester tried to cross the police line to make her way to her parked car, and police stopped her, preventing her from leaving. Eventually they let her through the police line so she could get to her car.Then an SPD officer gave the other officers an order, and the police line began to move. They were doing their “move back” routine, which can be seen at 05:46 in this video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkQZhlmKQbI

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Police started to push protesters back so that police were between the protesters and one of the Car Brigade cars. Once they had isolated the car, an SPD officer broke the window and arrested the driver. SPD’s police line stretched across the sidewalk and eventually moved through the grassy area where protesters had set up a memorial to Summer Taylor, who was killed during a protest on I-5 by a driver who Washington State Patrol had allowed to drive through the protest. Protesters had spelled out “Summer” and made a heart out of tea lights and placed flowers nearby. The police trampled this memorial. A true and correct depiction of an SPD stepping on the memorial is available at the 1:05 time stamp in this video:

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https://www.facebook.com/melissabaumgart9/videos/10220237851311049

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The police line pushed protesters back again so that another Car Brigade car was now behind the police line. I saw a passenger emerge from that vehicle, crying. At this point, police had pushed protesters all the way to the corner of E. Roanoke St. and Harvard Ave. E. We had nowhere left to go; we were right by the ramp to the freeway. As SPD pushed us around the corner, a bottleneck formed, making it impossible for certain parts of the crowd to move out of the way of advancing police because people behind them hadn’t figured out where to go yet and were in the way.
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I got knocked over. I feared that police would arrest me. It seemed like SPD was arresting anyone who they could separate from the crowd, so falling down was a huge risk factor for arrest. Luckily, I managed to turn over onto my hands and push myself back up.
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As they pushed us around the corner, SPD deployed pepper spray at people who could not move out of the way fast enough. I saw many people whose helmets were marked with orange dye from the spray, including the person I had given my umbrella to (who no longer had the protection of my umbrella because SPD had taken it and destroyed it). SPD arrested two other protesters, pinning them down roughly. It was only after SPD had pushed us all the way around the corner of Harvard that SPD declared the vigil to be an unlawful assembly. I heard an officer shouting (without a bullhorn or amplification device) that this has been declared an unlawful assembly, and he said something about property damage.
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SPD’s claim that the vigil participants had damaged property was a lie. There had been no property damage by protesters at the vigil—not even graffiti. I felt really angry that SPD was just straight up lying, and many other protesters began to yell at the officer that we hadn’t damaged anything, although the police had damaged plenty; they had trampled the memorial, smashed a car window, and ripped apart umbrellas, among other things. The protester response to SPD’s lie about property damage was so immediate and loud that it was impossible to hear the rest of the officer’s announcement. But my understanding was that SPD wanted us to keep moving back, which we were doing. Moments after declaring an unlawful assembly, an officer took aim at a shield near me and threw a blast ball at the shield from about four feet away. The blast ball bounced off the shield back at the police line. It exploded at the officer’s feet.
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The explosion was painfully loud, even though I had ear plugs in. My eyes burned and I began coughing from the OC gas in the blast ball. The section of the crowd where the blast ball had been deployed began backing up more quickly.
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As we moved back, medics tried to attend to the people who had been pepper sprayed, washing out their eyes. As police pushed us back, at some point, an officer said “double time,” and the police line started running, forcing us to run to stay out of their way. I saw a journalist get knocked over. A true and correct depiction of the “double time” police push is visible at 28:08 in this video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkQZhlmKQbI

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Many people struggled to maintain this grueling pace. I heard a protester yell “WHY?” but we got no answer. SPD would yell at us to move faster and protesters would respond that we were going as fast as we can. At some point, police paused before an alley off of Harvard. The crowd began to peel off into the alley. From the alley, we turned left at the next T intersection, emerging onto Edgar St.
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As we moved through the alley away from police, people called for medics to treat injuries that protesters had sustained from the police. I saw people getting their eyes washed out and I saw someone holding an ice pack to their face.
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When we emerged onto Edgar, a police line was waiting for us, making it clear that they were not going to allow us to just disperse – they were going to continue chasing us. We turned down Broadway. On Broadway, I opened an eye wash and applied it to the eyes of a girl who had been treated with eye wash already but whose eyes were still burning.
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The stretch of Broadway we were on has a big hill; we were heading downhill. We tried to slow down to prevent people from falling, but police were still chasing us, so we had to move at an unsafe speed to avoid being grabbed, pepper sprayed, and arrested by police for not moving fast enough. We tried to stick together and not move any faster than our slowest person to protect them from becoming the next police victim for falling behind. But the police were jogging, so we had to start jogging.
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We were no longer walking backwards facing the police line; we were facing forwards, running away. Police chased us down more hilly streets, including one with a very steep incline, which was scary. There were many people who simply could not keep up with the police pace through the hilly streets. We had been jogging for about 15 minutes. I saw one girl being supported by two other girls as they ran. I was exhausted, and struggling. I couldn’t breathe well. I pulled my COVID mask off to try to be able to suck more air. Someone offered to carry my backpack for me.
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I knew I would not make it up another hill. Luckily, SPD stopped jogging, and I found a staircase descending down the side of the hill, where I was able to split off from the group and escape down the staircase. September 7 SPOG Rally I was at the Labor Day protest outside of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG). The plan was to go to SPOG and chalk messages on the street and make signs. The march ended up being big—approximately 400 people—but the crowd was peaceful. It included kids, including one child in a wheelchair, and a group of disabled veterans. I did not see anyone damage any property or do anything violent. The police presence was huge; there were probably 100 officers staffed to the protest.
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When we arrived at SPOG, people had chalk in their hands and were beginning to write messages on the sidewalk and street when dozens of SPD bike officers charged us without warning, just as a country song (“Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”) began playing out of speakers in the SPOG building. SPD broke through the protest line at the corner nearest the SPOG building. As they did that, I saw a big cloud of gas or smoke go up into the air and they began arresting people and shoving the crowd away from SPOG.
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I wasn’t near the shield wall part of the protest that SPD initially attacked; I was near the back of the crowd, further north up Fourth Avenue where people were more spread out, chalking. A five-year-old child was near me when SPD attacked. His mother grabbed him and ran, but I learned later that the child caught some of the pepper spray in the air. After police forced their way through the protest crowd and split us into two groups, the group I was with ended up in a big nearby parking lot.
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Police pushed us back onto Fourth Avenue The few people who still had shields formed a protective line, but police continued to pepper spray the front line and snatch any shields and umbrellas they could get ahold of. I spoke with one protester who told me that an SPD officer had grabbed their goggles off before pepper spraying them in the face. SPD threw explosives at us indiscriminately. Things were exploding at our feet, even though none of us were damaging property or doing anything to threaten anyone’s safety.

I faced away from SPD, and tried to stay close to the other protesters I was with to avoid being separated, but it was very hard with explosives detonating at my feet. I did see some protesters toss objects like water bottles or traffic cones in the general direction of the police in anger after having less-lethal weapons fired at them. But none of these objects was actually capable of injuring a police officer in riot gear or anyone else.
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As police forced us down Fourth Avenue, periodically, SPD would ride towards the group in an arrow formation, target a person, lean over their bike and bearhug the target and then surround them and pile on top of them. Whenever this happened, I would see a group of protesters suddenly run forward (north) as bike cops rode at the crowd.
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Police forced us to march for what felt like a very long time. At every intersection, they would block off all side streets so we could not go any way other than the route police wanted us to go on. There were officers on both sides of us and vehicles behind us.
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At some point, SPD flanked us and re-routed us to force us onto Dearborn, where the Goodwill is. I watched SPD turn around an ambulance that was trying to cross by us during our forced march. We would have stopped to let the ambulance through, but SPD would not let us stop. I had no idea how long police would keep marching us or where they wanted us to go.

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Police eventually pushed us onto Rainier Avenue, a very busy street. Bike officers occupied the sidewalk, forcing us to walk in the street during heavy traffic. The streets we had walked in on the way to SPOG had not been busy; the only time we ended up on busy streets was when police pushed us there.
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We finally made it up a steep hill to Judkins Park. At the top of the hill, several people collapsed. I saw between 50 and 100 protesters that day who had clearly been pepper sprayed or affected by gas deployed by police. I gave eye wash to one man who was having trouble seeing. I helped another girl who had been badly pepper sprayed in the eyes. I walked with another person who was having trouble seeing and keeping up. I gave water to one guy who looked like he had breathed in some gas and was having trouble keeping up on a hill. I saw one guy with very bloody hands call for a medic. One girl told me that she had been hit with a blast ball in her arm and would have been badly injured if she had not already been wearing an arm brace. And I saw so many others in passing who were visibly in pain with red, swollen eyes or were marked with dye from the police weapons. I never heard a dispersal order until police had already chased us away from SPOG and begun pepper spraying and firing less-lethal weapons at us. Even if they had given a dispersal order before attacking us, we would probably not have been able to hear it over the loud hype music SPD piped out of SPOG.

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I have been to more than 100 protests in Seattle in defense of Black Lives since the murder of George Floyd, including the vigil for Summer Taylor outside of Washington State Patrol and the Labor Day march to the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG). My son, E.R., age 5, has joined me for roughly half of those protests, including the Labor Day march to SPOG. E.R. only protests when he wants to, and only during the day (never at night). Most of the protests he has attended were organized or promoted by the Every Day March (EDM), a group that vocally advocates a nonviolent approach to protest. EDM has been very supportive of me and E.R. and adapted their messages to make them more kid-friendly. At many of the protests E.R. has attended, there isn’t any police presence at all. Although police violence has broken out at other protests E.R. and I have been at, I have always been able to leave with him at the first signs of escalation. But at the Labor Day SPOG protest, police attacked us with chemical weapons without warning, before I could remove E.R. to safety. E.R. got OC spray in his eyes from the immediate and indiscriminate police use of this weapon.

I wanted to participate in the Labor Day event to honor the sacrifices of the labor activists who endured police violence fighting for the right to collectively bargain, and to protest violence against Black people by the officers represented by the police union. The Labor Day event was supposed to have been a joyous occasion. There were people of all ages in attendance. I saw two children other than E.R. in the crowd, and heard there were other children present. My friend brought her parents, who are in their 70s.
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Before the protest began, organizers made clear that no one should engage in any kind of property damage or violence or give the police any reason to attack us. We picked up trash as the group made our way to SPOG from the meeting point near the International District/Chinatown light rail station. When we made it to SPOG, E.R. and I stopped in front of the SPOG building towards the right side. Organizers handed out chalk to draw messages in the street.
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E.R. crouched in the street, writing “No more youth jail” in chalk. His favorite chant at protests is “What’s outrageous? Kids in cages.” After carefully printing each letter in the words “no more,” he took a break to blow bubbles. E.R. was blowing bubbles when I saw the first puff of spicy gas go up into the air. The police had shown up out of nowhere, mere minutes after we had arrived, and immediately started deploying less-lethal weapons indiscriminately, without provocation.
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I immediately grabbed E.R. and sprinted to the nearest Car Brigade car, which evacuated us eventually after 30 minutes of circling to find a way to get past the police perimeters created by vehicles and lines of bike cops. As we fled, we heard flash bang grenades. In the car, E.R. cried and rubbed his eyes in pain from the pepper spray that had gotten in them. He was a ball of emotions: confusion, disappointment, anger, and fear. He was disappointed he didn’t get to finish his chalk message. And he asked about the loud bangs he had heard. “Were the police shooting at me?” he asked. We assured him they were not, but didn’t hide the truth from him. He was extremely angry when he heard about the weapons the police had used against protesters. He is also now very afraid of the police. He had understood himself to be
protesting to help protect Black children, but before Labor Day, had not felt himself—a white child—to be in danger from police. For 24 hours after the protest, E.R. continued to complain that his eyes hurt and his eyes continued to water from the pepper spray. I am in the process of finding E.R. a child trauma therapist who can help him process his many continuing negative feelings stemming from the police violence he experienced and observed on Labor Day.

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I have been out protesting in defense of Black lives since June 1, 2020. I am white, but as a queer person with a tough childhood, I am no stranger to dehumanizing police conduct. After the murder of Summer Taylor, I started protesting regularly with the Every Day March (EDM). I have also been to protests with the ENDD crew. At protests, I mostly just play a drum and keep my head down, and wash people off when they get hurt with chemical weapons. The front line is not for me. Even though I try hard to stay well away from wherever the police are at protests, I was so many people injured and in pain during the Labor Day SPOG march. It was super peaceful but as soon as we arrived, the police started chasing us and firing lesslethal weapons at us as we retreated. September 7, 2020 – Labor Day SPOG March
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I arrived at the SPOG march gathering place (the international district light rail station) around 4:45. There was a good mix of people there, including people in black bloc, normal folks, medics, bucket drummers. There was not much of a police presence there. As we got ready, an organizer told us we would keep it professional, chill, and that no one should break stuff. We understood that if there was a riot, it would be because the police started one. As we walked, I was about threequarters of the way towards the back, with the bucket drummers. I had little Latin handbells. A line of police vehicles followed us at a distance.
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I saw little kids marching with us. As we walked, there were no sounds of destruction. People just picked up trash. By the time my part of the crowd made it to SPOG, country music was playing out of the SPOG building, loud enough that I had to raise my voice to talk to people near me. I ended up by the southeast corner of SPOG. Almost immediately, I heard a commotion and saw white smoke go up into the air, and then heard a flashbang, which was deafening. I had heard flashbangs at other protests-in June one had exploded so close to me that I had ocular pain, light sensitivity, and headaches for a while afterwards-but I had forgotten how loud they are. I quickly put on my gas mask, goggles, and ear protection that I keep in my bag. I saw clouds of gas in the street and heard a lot of frantic calls for medics. I sprayed off a woman with black gunk smeared under her eyes.
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I heard another call for a medic, an saw a woman whose leg had been injured laying on the ground being attended to by medics. I later saw video of the police charging at them and arresting bystanders who stepped forward between the injured woman on the ground and the rushing police. Across from SPOG, police made us file along a building, near the parking lot. I applied saline to several more people who the police had sprayed with chemicals, but it didn’t do much to help. Police marched us away from SPOG without letting up. I’ve been at other protests where police push us back, then eventually back up; this time, they pushed us for several miles without stopping. Police pushed us much faster than people were comfortable moving. It was really tense and exhausting. As they pushed us, SPD fired flashbangs and other explosives at us. Even though I was pretty far away from the police line as they pushed us, the explosions were loud and scary and seemed to never let up. I saw lots of chemicals released, hovering in clouds above protesters, accompanied byloud bangs. I saw people struggling to keep up while others warned them that they needed to move faster. I saw people limping along being supported by their friends. I saw people with red faces and swollen eyes from chemicals. I saw people wince and break into a run when things exploded behind them.
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I was pretty close to where someone threw a Molotov on Holgate. I did not see who threw it, but that was extremely at odds with the general vibe of the protest. I heard lots of people around me yell “NO!” in response. As we passed the stadium, all of the police vehicles turned on their sirens as loud as they would go. It felt designed to stun and intimidate us. People clearly wanted to disperse and go home. It was awful being stuck on a forced march. I was out of water. The smoke in the air was bad. I didn’t want to be there. But police were surrounding us. So I kept playing my handbells. Keeping a beat seems to help people stay calm.
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As we turned right onto Rainier from Dearborn, one of the protest leaders said this was a good place to disperse. But all of a sudden, SPD charged us, and split our group up. The bigger group stayed on Rainier. I ended up with the little group that turned at the gas station and went up into the neighborhood.
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People were desperate to escape the police who had been chasing us for more than two miles at this point. Eventually the protest groups joined up at Judkins Park. I drank from someone else’s water bottle, even though there’s a pandemic – I was just so deeply thirsty. I stayed for about 10 minutes before heading home. For days after the protest, I was incredibly sore, exhausted, and sensitive to sound. The trauma from the police violence at protests is really taking a toll on me. I’m terrified of being arrested at a protest. I have PTSD from childhood trauma, but I didn’t have to start taking nightmare medications until June, when I started having nightmares about police attacking me. I ended up quitting my job in part because I couldn’t fall sleep and was exhausted all the time. It’s affected my stomach. And it’s made me irritable and desperate to find peace and quiet. I keep protesting to stand up for Black lives and try to end the ongoing police violence. I don’t have much faith in the
of the legal system, politics, or nonprofits to change anything. But maybe all of us together in the streets, united, might accomplish something.

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I have been peacefully protesting in defense of Black Lives in Seattle since May 30, 2020.
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I was at the Labor Day march to the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG), the police union. The march to SPOG was calm and uneventful. The crowd did not give the police any reason to take action against us. When we arrived at SPOG, a line of protesters linked in arms in the street facing SPOG. My partner, MLH, and I were further back in the crowd; I was in the third row, with MLH a row or two behind me. Almost immediately, we heard the country song “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” by Big & Rich being played loudly from the direction of the SPOG building. As we were wondering what that was about, a huge wave of SPD officers on bikes-roughly 80 officers rode into the edge of the protest line. They arrived in a staggered manner, with the first bike officer hitting the right side, the next officers hitting close to that one, and so on down the line. They dismounted and raised their bikes in the air, and immediately began shoving and bludgeoning the crowd with them, pressing their bikes into the crowd at head height.
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I saw a canister of gas go off in the crowd. I don’t know what kind chemicals it contained, but ochre-colored gas was spewing upwards with extreme pressure. It was not directed at any particular person; it formed a cloud that covered a fairly large swath of the protest. Although I was wearing goggles and a respirator, the goggles were vented, not air-tight, and some of the gas got into my eyes. I lost vision in my right eye due to chemical irritation-it was inflamed, teared up, and I began blinking rapidly for about 30 seconds.

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Police also almost immediately began coating protesters’ umbrellas and shields in pepper spray and then snatching away the umbrellas and shields and spraying the nowdefenseless front line of protesters with pepper spray. I saw SPD do this at 3 or 4 different points along the crowd during their initial attack. SPD’s advance crushed the crowd of protesters into a wedge. People were moving in panic with nowhere they could escape to, tripping and falling. My partner and I got separated in the chaos. The police began pushing protesters near me into a parking lot across the street from SPOG, and formed a police line to funnel protesters onto the sidewalk, pushing us north. We were caught between lines of bike cops and a wall. Further north, protesters had moved back out into the street and we were eventually able to join them after the line of bike cops pushing us onto the sidewalk ended. While police were shoving us around, I felt like livestock. There was a sense of impending doom as we moved through the thin funnel police were moving us through. I saw police grabbing people who fell and arresting them. I continuously felt like Iwas in danger of being pepper sprayed and arrested if I got separated from the crowd. SPD formed a line along half of Fourth Avenue, forcing the protesters to occupy the other side of the street and start moving down Fourth. Bike police kept moving ahead so that they were always ahead of us as we approached an intersection, blocking off any escape route. At one point while we were retreating, I was in the back row facing the police line and walking backwards as fast as I could. Officers grew impatient with how slowly we were moving and kept ramming their bikes into our shins.

I had linked arms with another protester, who put his hand in his pocket. I watched an SPD officer grasp his service pistol with his thumb on the holster release, ordering my fellow protester to get his hand out of his pocket. A few blocks away from the parking lot, I was able to reunite with my partner, MLH, on Fourth Avenue. She had been pepper sprayed. She didn’t have on as much protective gear as I did, and she was really injured. She was screaming in pain because it was in her eyes. And she’s asthmatic, and began to wheeze.
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I saw approximately five people identifiable as medics at the protest, and other people with saline, but the police were forcing us to move so quickly that for a while no one could pause to rinse MLH’s eyes out without risking falling behind and getting arrested. I felt so powerless to help her. Police clearly did not care about anyone’s injuries, and wouldn’t even let us help each other. MLH had difficulty walking because of the combination of difficulty breathing, difficulty seeing, and pain. I held her arm for most of this time to support her and guide her around obstacles and curbs that she could not see.
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Eventually, when we reached S. Holgate St., a volunteer medic with a spray bottle treated her eyes while walking backwards and watching the police. At some point a different medic approached us to ask MLH if she was okay. She started to cry and said she was not. While we continued to walk, the medic walked backwards with us, watching the approaching police line of bikes and patrol vehicles, trying to decide how to extricate ourselves from the forced march so we could take care of MLH. Eventually, since MLH was having too much trouble breathing to continue, the medic told us to sit by the edge of the road and hope for the best. At this point, we were on S. Dearborn St., more than two miles from SPOG. He flagged down another medic to examine MLH. Five SPD officers quickly encircled us, telling us we needed to keep moving. One of the medics said we needed EMS, and the SPD officers finally stopped harassing us and allowed us to stay on the side of the road while everyone else moved forward.
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We rested on the side of the road to await EMS. The volunteer medics were trying to keep MLH vocal because she kept lapsing in and out of consciousness. We waited for between 5 and 12 minutes. While we waited, MLH suddenly lost muscle control and become 100% dead weight. A medic palpitated her chest until she sputtered and sat up. The medic, clearly very concerned about her condition, told MLH “don’t do that to me again.” The medic listened to her heart, her breathing, and administered an Albuterol inhaler. The medic asked MLH about her medical history.
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Finally an SPD medic responder showed up. I had a short conversation with him and one of the volunteer medics. The volunteer medic asked the SPD medic if they had any oxygen, and the SPD medic responded that he had it but wasn’t trained or certified to use it in the field, so the volunteer medic would have to be the point of care. The volunteer medic administered the oxygen, which resulted in slight recovery, and another hit of the inhaler. The SPD medic attempted to do an eye tracking and dilation test with a flashlight, but MLH could barely hold her eyelids open. After a few more minutes, the oxygen and rest helped. Finally, Medic One – the Fire Department ambulance – arrived with two doctors who talked with the volunteer medic about how to treat MLH. As we rested, MLH began to improve. We declined to go to the hospital, preferring to go home where we had a nebulizer. At home, MLH seemed very tired and out of it, and went to bed early. There was no reason for SPD to use less-lethal weapons at this protest.

There was no reason for police break up the protest. SPD didn’t give us a dispersal order before attacking us, and when we were trying to disperse so we could go home and tend to our injuries, they wouldn’t let us. And there was no reason to make us march more than two miles away from SPOG. To me, it seemed that the message police were sending was just that we do not have the right to protest outside of their union.

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I am a freelance independent journalist and have been covering the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) evolution and escalation of police violence in response to protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. On some occasions, I have left my camera at home and personally participated in protests. Since June, I have noticed SPD increasingly taking a hardline stance against protestors and certain groups of protesters in particular.
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I have observed disproportionate responses by the police on multiple occasions. I have witnessed them react aggressively without reason, create arbitrary lines, and fail to declare an unlawful assembly or give an order to disperse until after they initiate a confrontation August 26, 2020 Vigil for Summer Taylor On August 26, I arrived at the vigil for Summer Taylor outside of the Washington State Patrol building around 9:45 pm. I was there exclusively to cover the event as a journalist.
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During the moment of silence, Washington State Patrol and SPD were chatting audibly and the volume on their radios were loud. One of the organizers asked officers to show some respect and be quiet. Around 10:16 pm, SPD and Washington State Patrol moved into a riot line formation in the street after they made an announcement that Car Brigade needed to move vehicles because they were impeding traffic and preventing the fire department from responding to calls.
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I thought the police’s claim about the safety threat posed by the Car Brigade was overblown because Car Brigade was only set up in the one lane closest to Washington State Patrol. If an emergency vehicle needed to get through, it would have been very easy for them to get past Car Brigade. I did, however, see a city bus that was creating traffic issues at an intersection to the west. I also saw officers impeding residents’ access to the area. I saw SPD more than once tell local residents who were clearly not protesters that they could not walk through the area and had to go all the way around the block. After the announcement, SPD started to make arrests. They even broke out a Car Brigade window to arrest the driver. I did not see anything thrown at officers. I did not see a protestor do anything to provoke this response. No unlawful assembly had been declared at that point. Around 10:20 pm, SPD made their first push using batons.

I took a video of this push, which can be viewed at 0:01–0:06 at https://www.dropbox.com/s/pfnkriepihy71p4/2220_A26EDM.MOV?dl=0
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At that point, I saw smoke or gas deployed. The gas appeared yellow in color, but I am not sure if the gas itself was yellow or it appeared yellow due to the streetlights. At approximately 10:35 pm, SPD finally gave the dispersal order. Then they began to push everyone northbound on Harvard towards I-5. One officer rolled what appeared to be a blast ball. It bounced back off one of the protesters’ shields and landed back at the feet of the officer that threw it, exploding and releasing gas. The pace at which SPD was pushing the group was grueling. It was difficult for people on foot to keep pace with the bike cops herding them along. I also heard SPD officers making snarky comments towards protestors to antagonize them and making jokes about protestors as they were chasing them. Overall, the aggressive police response to the vigil seemed wildly uncalled for. I believe that if officers had not initiated the confrontation, I believe that the protesters would have peacefully dispersed shortly after their candlelit vigil was over.
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September 7 SPOG Rally On September 7, 2020, I attended the Labor Day SPOG rally. I was there exclusively to cover the event as a journalist. I was carrying my DSLR camera. As we walked to SPOG, there was a lot of community support for the protest on display. Employees at the Taco Bell were cheering, and USPS employees were waving to show their support. The walk was peaceful and nonviolent. A couple of minutes after arriving, we heard the song, “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy by Big & Rich being amplified from the building.
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I was standing in the parking lot when suddenly I saw 25-35 bike cops coming from the west side of the building. It took about ten seconds before they charged into the crowd and started making arrests. It struck me as nearly impossible that SPD could have spotted individual protesters in the middle of the crowd who they were targeting for arrest; my impression was that they were just breaking up the protest and arresting anyone who got in their way. I could see SPD liberally and seemingly indiscriminately spraying pepper spray into the crowd. As far as I could tell, SPD did not communicate with the crowd at all before they started making arrests and deploying pepper spray, forcing the crowd away from SPOG. As police pushed the protest away from SPOG and down 4th Avenue, I ended up behind the police line. I heard several flash bangs go off into the retreating crowd. During the first ten minutes, I saw approximately ten people who appeared to have gotten pepper sprayed getting saline applied to their eyes to soothe the burn. I also saw SPD throwing blast balls filled with OC spray. My throat and eyes started to burn. The gas was much more irritating to my system than regular flash bang smoke. It was a familiar sensation because on July 25, I got caught in gas from a blast ball that SPD rolled right into my back area of the crowd.
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Another twenty or so police cars arrived with sirens blaring as they pushed the crowd aggressively. SPD did not declare an unlawful assembly until we had been aggressively pushed about two to four blocks north of the SPOG building. As we were getting pushed back, my eyes started to sting. SPD continued to spray the spicy gas a few blocks away from the SPOG building.
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I saw SPD SWAT officers with paint ball-type rifles scanning them along the crowd, and occasionally shooting into the crowd. This sometimes seemed to be in response to protesters tossing a traffic cone or water bottle towards the police, which seemed like a disproportionate police response. I observed people trying to leave. I saw some older people and people with disabilities who could not keep up with the pace. SPD responded by pushing protestors with bikes and batons—sometimes pushing them to the ground—when they fell behind. I heard protesters find out where SPD wanted them to go. It seemed SPD was trying to keep the protestors from dispersing into residential areas and keep them corralled in the street, which seemed unsafe at times. SPD’s tactics and demeanor at the Labor Day SPOG rally struck me as overwhelmingly unprofessional. I observed SPD officers yee-hawing and bobbing to the country music they played as they attacked the protest. I saw officers laughing at protesters who had fallen, and, as they aggressively pushed protesters away from SPOG, giving each other a thumbs up and smiling. It did not seem like SPD feared any imminent threat to their safety. They seemed cheerful, celebratory.

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I have been protesting in Seattle as part of the Black Lives Matter movement since early June. September 7, 2020 – Labor Day March to SPOG We set off for the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) from the international district light rail station shortly after 5pm. Our protest was only a few hundred people—maybe 350, tops—but I noticed a heavy police presence for a daytime march, with police vehicles and bike cops following us and flanking us the whole way. When we finally arrived at SPOG, the building was completely boarded up, but identifiable from the Blue Lives Matter flag on it.
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Country music started playing. At first I assumed a protester was playing it, but the song choice—“Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”—was confusing. Then we realized it was coming from the police guild. Everyone turned to face the SPOG building. A little after the lyrics started, dozens of police officers on bikes came out of an alley where they had been hiding and rode directly into the protest, attacking us from several sides, including from behind. I realized in abject horror that they had been waiting in ambush for our arrival, and that the music was a signal, and this was the song they were going to beat us up to. The line of protesters at the front where the police rode into the crowd started collapsing under the bikes skidding in. SPD officers were grabbing at people’s bodies, yanking shields out of people’s hands, trying to pull people to the ground, and yelling at us to move back.
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Almost immediately there was a large white cloud of gas or smoke that went up from the middle of the protest, multiple SPD officers started pepper spraying protesters, and SPD threw loud explosives into the crowd as they pushed us away from their building. The street was immediately filled with chemicals. I had on a respirator, and didnot get targeted with the pepper spray directly, but the exposed skin on my arms burned pretty badly from the thick cloud of OC gas in the air. The things I was wearing were covered in spiciness. At some point I briefly removed my respirator to scratch my face, and my face started to burn.
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We had not done anything remotely unsafe, threatening, or illegal. I did not see a single act of property damage. The police weapons did not seem to be directed at anyone in particular. The police attack did not even seem like a response to anything that had happened; it seemed like a premeditated strategy to shut down a protest outside their property.
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SPD pushed us back with bikes and pepper spray into the parking lot across from SPOG. It felt like we were being herded like cattle. It was very dehumanizing. They funneled us across a narrow sidewalk next to a building flanked by police officers. It was very scary to see 15-20 police officers waiting for us to pass them in a group that was only about 4 people wide. When we were able to get back into the street on Fourth Avenue, they continued to chase us. Lines of bike cops would ride in, skim their bikes as close to the protest as they could, shoving us forward. I was trying to walk away from the police line but unable to walk fast enough to satisfy SPD. As they pushed us up Fourth Avenue, SPD threw more explosives that were loud, like concussion grenades. I saw one bounce and explode near me and then heard and felt the shockwave. I could hear the cries of “medic!” as people were hit with shrapnel.
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Two or three SPD officers in grey uniforms were positioned on either side of the road with 40mm launchers aimed at us to keep people from dissipating onto the sidewalks or slowing down. Although I did not observe anyone getting shot with these launchers, I spoke to one protester who said they were shot three times. SPD forced us to march for more than 2 miles after they attacked us. As they used force and the threat of arrest to push us down 4th Avenue, they would continuously send patrol vehicles and many bike cops to ride ahead of us and block off our access to any side street. I watched SPD yell at people who tried to turn instead of continuing forward and intimidate them to keep them moving with the large group. I don’t think SPD ever gave us a dispersal order. I don’t remember hearing one. They clearly did not want us near their property, but would only let us disperse in a very particular way. I did not feel free to leave until we had walked all the way to Judkins Park—more than two miles from SPOG—and SPD finally allowed us to slow down and disperse.
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There was absolutely no legitimate reason to shut down our protest or use less lethal weapons against our retreating crowd. I had not done anything to justify it, and I did not see anyone around me do anything that could possibly have necessitated a potentially lethal response. It was a peaceful march. Thankfully this time none of the explosives exploded directly on me. At a protest in early June, SPD shot a rubber bullet directly into my hip. On July 25, an SPD officer tackled me and I landed on a concussion grenade that exploded on the same hip that had been injured in early June. Both of these police-inflicted injuries left me with fist-sized deep purple bruises on myhip
that took weeks to fade. When I think back over the events of Labor Day, each small detail of SPD’s violent response to our protest is bad, but when you add them all together, they seem like a Lovecraftian horror. In contrast, SPD’s mood seemed jubilant. I saw officers smiling as they threatened us with force and forced us to march. It seemed like this was a game to them, and they were using all of the weapons in their arsenal to try to demoralize us. September 23, 2020 – East Precinct Protest On September 23, 2020, I joined a protest in solidarity with Black communities in Louisville. Throughout the night, we chanted “Say her name: Breonna Taylor.” Early on in the march, SPD started following us very close—like half a block behind us. They quickly started grabbing protesters. They grabbed protesters as we were rounding a corner downtown, then again as we were going up a hill. It seemed like they were grabbing anyone they could pick off from the crowd.
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We marched back to Cal Anderson park. The police left us alone there. We regrouped for 30 minutes or so, then made our way towards the East Precinct. SPD quickly began indiscriminately pepper spraying and throwing flashbangs at the crowd aggressively to push us back. It was very reminiscent of early June, but with fewer protesters on my side, so I felt less safe. I was near the front line. SPD bike officers rode at us, then began swinging their bikes into us. One officer was shoving his handlebars into people’s faces. There was no justification for this; we were moving back as fast as we could. It is difficult to move back when there is a crowd of hundreds behind you.

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SPD pepper sprayed us 2-3 times from close range. One of the people I was with ducked his head down as an officer unleashed a torrent of pepper spray into his face from about one foot away. The force from the pepper spray moved his goggles out of place, and the goggles began filling full of pepper spray. SPD was throwing flashbangs into the middle of a crowd. They were not throwing them at the empty area between the police and the protest, they were throwing them into the middle and back of the crowd.
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Flashbangs were exploding all around me—near my feet, near my head. It felt constant. I can remember at least three that exploded within a few feet of me; there may have been more. As the flashbangs flew at me, I could see the orange sparks flying off the grenades while they ricocheted into the air. I could feel the violent concussive blast as an immense pressure blew past me. Some of the shrapnel hit me. Had I not been wearing extensive protective gear, this could have really injured me, but I had learned my lesson from my injuries in early June.

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I was not wearing earplugs that night, and it felt like my head was going to explode for a second—like my ears filling up on an airplane, but without the pop that relieves the pressure. SPD has thrown so many explosives at me over the past several months that I have the symptoms of tinnitus constantly.

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I don’t know from where SPD was throwing the flashbangs. There have been protests in the past where SPD threw them off rooftops. But that night, they hit with such force that they ricocheted off the ground high enough to reach my head, and I am 6’3”. There were many shorter people at the protest whose heads were in even more danger than mine. The flashbangs were very disorienting, especially combined with SPD bike officers hitting people with their bikes immediately afterwards. The bright light and deafening sound of the flashbangs are especially traumatic for people like me with neurodivergence who are more sensitive to sensory-tactile things. I have autism.
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SPD also deployed a cloud of gas so dense that it made me cough and choke when I walked through it as we moved back towards the intersection after SPD had pushed us away. It was a thick, creeping cloud that hung low to the ground. It made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. I have a respirator, but had not been wearing it because the respirator makes it very hard to breathe, and it is hard to remove a respirator quickly if you are wearing a helmet. A couple times, SPD began to make some kind of announcement, but the PA system was rigged in such a way that on the front line, it was virtually impossible to hear the announcement. I did not hear any dispersal order until after SPD had started pepper spraying everyone, shoving us away from the East Precinct, and detonating a vast number of flashbangs. My overwhelming impression from this protest was that SPD doesn’t see protesters as people. Their conduct seemed so brutal and dehumanizing. I haven’t been sleeping well because of the SPD’s violence against protesters. I have constant nightmares and wake up sore. I’ve lost a lot of weight. I don’t believe I will ever be able to call the police for help again. And I know I’m not alone. I believe that every person at the protests is fundamentally changed by the experience, and will never be the same.

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I have been peacefully protesting in Seattle in defense of Black lives since May 30. In that time, police have teargassed, pepper sprayed, and arrested me, and nearly hit me with a car, all without justification. I have also tended to many other people’s injuries caused by police. September 7, 2020 Labor Day SPOG Protest.

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I attended the Labor Day protest outside of SPOG. SPD officers launched blast balls at me, maced me in the face, and forced me to march quickly while I screamed in pain, unable to seek treatment for my injuries. The police weapons and forced fast march triggered an asthma attack, causing me to pass out on the side of the road. Before marching to SPOG, the protest organizers told the roughly 500 protesters in attendance that we should not give the police any justification to take action against the crowd.
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When we arrived at SPOG, my partner (AE) and I were positioned roughly in the middle of the protest; AE was in the third row of protesters, I was in the fourth or fifth. All of a sudden, we heard the country song “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” by Big & Rich start playing from the SPOG building. As the song began, dozens of bike cops appeared seemingly out of nowhere and rode their bikes fast towards the front line of protesters and began wedging themselves in between protesters, making their way into the crowd from the left and the front. Suddenly, a canister of gas went off in the crowd. The air became quite spicy and filled with an opaque cloud of gas. My eyes began to lightly burn.

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I was caught off guard by the police force directed at the middle of the crowd. In my experience, protesters are often relatively safe from police weapons in the middle of a crowd, so I was not wearing goggles or a respirator to protect me from gas, smoke, or pepper spray. I saw no conduct by protesters that should have provoked such a police response. I had seen no property damage, no graffiti, nothing remotely violent. There had been no dispersal order, or police order of any kind. We had just arrived, and the police ambushed us and started using less-lethal weapons immediately. People tried to flee the gas, but the police had positioned themselves in a fewdifferent places to cut off access to anywhere we could possibly go to escape the gas, compressing the crowd of protesters into a wedge shape. Many people tripped and fell. In the pandemonium caused by the police attack, AE and I got separated.

Police threw blast balls indiscriminately into the middle of the densely packed crowd. Two of them exploded near my feet, painfully hitting my feet and leaving burn marks on my sneakers. It was very scary. I didn’t see them coming. I wanted to run away from the resulting gas, but we were corralled in tightly with one another so there was nowhere to go.
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Police pulled the part of the crowd where I was into a parking lot across the street from SPOG. I thought SPD might allow us to disperse and go home from there but they did not. Instead, they began funneling protesters into a thin line, about three people wide, and shoving us down the sidewalk and eventually back into the street with their bikes and with regular, seemingly indiscriminate blasts of mace at anyone who fell out of line. During this push, police threw another blast ball that exploded at my feet. The blast ball was completely unwarranted; we were complying with the police officers’ orders. The explosion made me jump and the gas irritated my eyes and throat.
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While police were pushing us down the street, I saw a police officer wrestle a shield from someone’s hands and take the shield. I had a brown and white umbrella open for protection from the police weapons, and police blasted it with pepper spray so hard that it turned orange. Then a police officer grabbed my umbrella and took it from me. I linked arms with a random stranger to keep from falling and being snatched by police as SPD shoved us along. Police were spraying protestersindiscriminately with handheld pepper
spray. It coated my glasses and my face and got on my arm. My skin and eyes were burning, and I couldn’t see at all out of one eye.
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Police forced us to march north on 4th Avenue while they rode their bikes behind us. Police were forcing us to move at a slow bike pace. Many people had to jog to keep up. I saw police shove people with bikes and threaten them with arrest because they weren’t moving fast enough. I walked screaming in pain because of the mace in my eye, crying for help. A stranger held on to my backpack to help push me forward so I wouldn’t be in danger of falling behind and getting even more hurt by police or arrested. Eventually, I reunited with my partner.
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There were plenty of medics nearby with saline to treat people who had been pepper sprayed, and I desperately wanted something to help the burning, but it was nearly impossible for the medics to treat people because of the fast pace that police were forcing us to move at and the threat of police force or arrest if anyone lagged behind.
I saw a multitude of other people with open wounds, including a person whose hand was covered in blood. It took more than twenty minutes of forced marching before someone was able to pause long enough to pour saline into my burning eye, which had to be done while we were still in motion. I was screaming in pain and people around me had to continue to push me along so that I wouldn’t stop moving and potentially be arrested. Even after my eye was washed out with saline, the burning would flare up again every time we walked through a patch of strong sunlight.
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I am an asthmatic. I began wheezing from the combination of having inhaled a lot of pepper spray, being forced to move so quickly, and not being able to stop to rest for even a moment. My chest began to tighten and breathing became painful. After the police had forced us to march roughly 2.5 miles, I began to get lightheaded. In my oxygen-deprived state, I decided the best course of action was just to lay down in the grass alongside the road and allow myself to be arrested while my partner kept going. As I stumbled, one of the medics approached and asked if I was okay. I told him I was not okay, that I was wheezing and struggling to breathe. The medic hesitated, unable to decide what to do because we all feared that we would be arrested if we stopped. We decided to stop anyway because I was in really bad shape. Immediately, approximately five SPD officers encircled us and began harassing us, yelling at us to keep moving. One of the medics told the officers I needed EMS. The police finally stopped harassing us and called EMS.
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My memory of what happened next is fuzzy. My partner told me that I lost consciousness. I remember being treated by a volunteer medic, who administered oxygen obtained from an SPD medical responder on the side of the road. I remember sweating mace into my eyes while my partner supported me sitting up, burning my eyes again. It was difficult to speak, but the volunteer medics kept trying to keep me talking. I had trouble parsing their questions and then forming words to respond. Eventually, after medical care and rest, I began to feel better. My oxygen readings returned to normal and the medics said I was stable, and I declined an offer of ambulance service and AE and I went home. After the event, I showered off the mace, reactivating the chemicals in it, which rendered me unable to see for 3-4 minutes left me in extreme discomfort for 10-20 minutes.
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For several days after the protest, my throat still burned from having struggled to breath, my under-eye skin was very raw and sensitive, and my arm still hurt where it was burned by the pepper spray. I also later had an asthma attack from residual mace on my clothes. Since being exposed to chemical weapons on Labor Day, I have found it harder to control my asthma than I previously did, even though I continue to take a daily controller medicine.
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At no point during the Labor Day protest did I pose a threat of violence, do anything illegal, or disobey any police order other than by not moving fast enough because I wasn’t able to. SPD still injured me quite badly. September 23, 2020 Breonna Taylor Solidarity Protest Around 11pm on Wednesday, September 23, I got a message that I was needed to evacuate injured protesters from the Breonna Taylor solidarity protest on Capitol Hill.
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I drove to Capitol Hill, driving one block over from the protest, parallel to the marchers. I could hear the thunderous booms of police explosives and caught glimpses of the protest being pushed by police; it seemed chaotic.

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At one point, I got out of my car on an empty street to ask some stray protesters if they needed to be evacuated. The air was so thick with chemicals it looked foggy, even though it had been 5-10 minutes since the police and protesters had walked down that block. I had to put on my respirator just to talk to people in the street. One person I picked up had several shrapnel wounds on his arms that he said were from a blast ball. Luckily he had been wearing a sleeveless Kevlar vest so his chest was protected. His wounds were bleeding, but the cuts were not so deep that I thought he needed to go to the hospital for stitches. I retrieved the first aid kit I keep in my car and cleaned his wounds and then dressed them with gauze and wrapped them in bandages. All three people I picked up had been affected by pepper spray. SPD had clearly sprayed one of them in the face with handheld pepper spray; his skin was orange with it. All three of them had pepper spray on their clothes. I gave them face wipes to remove the pepper spray from their foreheads so they wouldn’t sweat it into their eyes; I had learned that lesson from my own experience on Labor Day. The chemicals coating them were so thick they perfumed my car, and I began coughing, sneezing, and my throat hurt just from being in the car with them. All three of them were in distress and crying. A couple times, someone began dry heaving, and I asked if they wanted me to pull the car over so they could vomit. But we kept going.
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Some of them lived quite far from Capitol Hill, and I could tell they were in too much pain to make it an entire car ride without any relief, so we stopped and used the water jug I keep in my car to wash their eyes out again. The whole time I was out, I felt afraid that the police would stop us and arrest us, even though I had not done anything other than help injured protesters. A patrol car followed me at various points during the night. This is common for cars that are associated with Car Brigade.

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I am a Seattle resident, and have lived here for the better part of the last nine years.Labor Day SPOG ProtestOn September 7, 2020, I was reporting on the police brutality protests near the Seattle Police Officers Guild (“SPOG”).

I arrived at the light rail station in theInternational District at approximately 5p.m., where a crowd of between one hundred and two hundred people had gathered. It seemed like a broader coalition of protesters than at other events over the past few months;I saw parents with children, and quite a few people who looked like relatively inexperienced protesters based on their clothing choices and lack of protective gear.At about 5:30 p.m., the protesters began marching, led by a handful of individuals with bullhorns. Protesters at the front of the crowd held makeshift shields—such as umbrellas or pieces of particleboard—and wore goggles or other protective gear. In addition to myself, I saw a few other journalists also documenting as the crowd made its way down 5th Avenue, and then 4th Avenue.

To my observation, the march was peaceful. I did not witness them being destructive during the course of the march.The march headed to SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue and gathered in front of the building. Within minutes of the protesters’ arrival, the song “Save a Horse,Ride a Cowboy” started playing on loud speakers as a group of 30-40 officers on bikes suddenly charged the front line of the crowd. This did not seem to have been spurred by any actions on the part of the protesters; I witnessed no precipitating acts of violence, intimidation, or property destruction, and the police issued no warning before surging forward.

The combination of the music and the simultaneous, unprompted, and sudden police assault gave me the overwhelming impression that the whole scene was premeditated. To me, it seemed like an effort at “trolling” the protesters rather than responding to any actual threat—the entire setup felt choreographed, as if it had been decided in advance that these officers would charge the crowd, regardless of what the protesters did or didn’t do.

The force and abruptness of the charge caused chaos in the crowd. Cops used their bikes to push people back, away fromSPOG headquarters, and began making arrests. None of the arrests I witnessed had a readily apparent justification; to me, they all seemed random.The police managed to split the crowd and began deploying blast balls and pepper spray to further push people back.Although I wasn’t directly hit with anything, my eyes began stinging from the amount of chemicals in the air. I couldn’t discern any rhyme or reason to the use of the blast balls or the spray—just like the arrests, it seemed completely random tome, and targeted less at any specific individuals than at simply disrupting and further splitting the group.

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I shared a brief video clip of this initial police charge on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303155617209577472

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I caught sight of a protester who had clearly been hit by some kind of chemical weapon—swollen eyes, crying, in need of assistance—in the parking lot across the street from SPOG headquarters. With my eyes still stinging, I left the main body of the crowd and walked towards her, but was blocked by a police officer as I tried to enter the lot. He grabbed me by my shoulders ands moved me back out onto the street.As the crowd of protesters was pushed further down the street from SPOG, a line of police cruisers and a bearcat vehicle appeared and began rolling slowly towards them.

As these vehicles advanced, I finally heard the first dispersal order. Immediately, protesters began exhorting each other to start moving and clear the area; I remember repeated yells of, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. ”Some protesters were trying to make their way back through the crowd to help injured friends, but protest leaders were adamant that everyone keep moving. This is consistent with my understanding from protest leaders in similar situations, who make it the primary goal for the crowd to stick together and retreat safely, without being forced to split into smaller segments.

Hectically, the crowd moved north, complying with police orders.I captured footage of the front line of bike officers continuing to push this retreat while grabbing umbrellas and shields form protesters and throwing blast balls at the crowd.

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I posted this video to my Twitter feed.

https:/ /twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303162681663262727

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As the crowd retreated, police formed another bike line and followed, yelling,“Move, move, move!” Protesters continued to hurry north, but officers began arresting people even as the group complied.SPD officers also occasionally deployed blast balls or pepper spray into the ranks of the crowd, which caused episodes of brief chaos as people screamed, tried to shield themselves, or tried to protect others.Every now and then, officers would also snatch umbrellas or makeshift shields out of protesters’ hands, or shove stragglers at the back or outskirts of the crowd.

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On myTwitter page, I shared a video clip of officers yanking umbrellas from retreating protesters and firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303163450248450049

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A few people at the rear of the crowd would sometimes walk backwards, facing the line of police bicycles and filming as the group moved north. These bike officers would frequently ride rapidly towards the back line of the crowd and then abruptly turn their bikes and skid to a halt less than a foot before the retreating protesters, many of whom were filming.

I could discern no purpose for this other than intimidation, as it didn’t speed the crowd up, and the officers often only narrowly avoided hitting the individuals they had charged towards.

I posted a brief video clip documenting an example of this behavior on my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303185246372769793

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The police kept the crowd moving a ta brisk pace. When one protester collapsed on the side of the road, breathing heavily and seemingly suffering from an injury, others stopped to help but were shooed along by the police, who insisted that they would take care of it. From this, I got the impression that if anyone fell behind, they would be separated from others in their group while the crowd continued to be herded forward.As I marched along at the back of the crowd, using my phone to film clips of the ongoing retreat, I experienced a startling act of police hostility. Even though I was wearing a visible press badge and was clearly documenting the protest, an officer on a bicycle veered suddenly towards me, said,“Get the hell out of here!” and smacked my phone out of my hand. It tumbled to the ground, and he rode off. I was stunned—this officer had gone out of his way to aggressively, physically prevent me from doing my job. Despite my clearly visible press credentials, and despite the fact that I was doing nothing other than filming while continuing to retreat, he struck my phone out of my hands and cursed at me while telling me to leave. This aggression seemed to be directed at me for no other reason than that I am a journalist documenting the police.

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A video clip of the officer knocking my phone out of my hands can be found on my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303183854669160453

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I have never experienced this kind of direct, targeted aggression from police before. In previous situations, I have felt or inferred a latent distaste for the press, but it has never been made explicit or channeled in such a way as to impede my ability to do my job.

I am highly disturbed by this development, and, for the first time since these protests began, I now feel the need to wear protective gear while reporting. It is clear to me the at the police’s posture towards these demonstrations, and towards the journalists covering them, is becoming increasingly belligerent. I do not intend to let this kind of intimidation prevent me from doing my job, but I am now aware that I need to take precautions; my press badge may be more provocation than protection.

The forced retreat concluded two miles away from SPOG, in Judkins Park. The police had kept the crowd moving at a brisk pace the entire time, arresting people sporadically throughout and occasionally charging the outskirts of the crowd with their bikes. At the park, both police and protesters finally dispersed. I was left to contemplate the newly emboldened displays of police aggression that I had just witnessed.

I continue to feel that the police response at SPOG headquarters was a dark, real world version of “trolling”—violence set to a soundtrack, and maybe even laughable to those orchestrating it. It certainly seemed as though the police did not take the evening’s events seriously. It felt like a twisted, punitive game.

They had the song queued up, and they had a plan that they were clearly determined to execute, whether or not protesters remained peaceful. In the end, its truck me as a winking nod to their own impunity—they can blare music while they charge a peaceful crowd and fire chemical weapons at nonthreatening protesters, all while resting secure in the knowledge that they will face nothing other than, at most, a slap on the wrist.

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On September 23, 2020,

I again reported on a protest event. This one took place in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and was organized largely in response to the news that Breonna Taylor’s killers had not been indicted for her death.I joined a group of approximately one hundred people at 7 p.m. in Cal Anderson park. At around 8:15, the group began marching; they left the park and headed weston Madison Ave. towards downtown.

The crowd was followed by three protest vehicles as part of the “car brigade,” and approximately six police cruisers, which remained about a block away as they tailed the march.The vast majority of the marchers were peaceful and non-destructive. I witnessed a few individuals engage in targeted property damage, such as by smashing parking meters, but the police following the crowd did not engage these individuals. When the march reached 4th Ave. at approximately 8:45 p.m., one or two people smashed windows at a nearby Starbucks.

By this point, more police vehicles had arrived, as well as a unit of officers on bikes. A garbled dispersal order was issued by someone who self-identified as a commander. I heard this order because I was reporting from behind the crowd, right next to the police line, but the sound was muddled even at close proximity. I thought it was unlikely that the protesters—who were a half a block to a block away—would be able to hear it.The police then marshaled around one of the three cars making up the small car brigade. They cut off the vehicle and arrest edits driver. I did not observe anything that might have precipitated the arrest. Shortly afterwards, a few officers on bikes moved in on the crowd and arrested two people. Again, I did not directly observe anything that precipitated those arrests.The crowd seemed distressed by the conflict with police, and a few individuals toppled signs or garbage cans into the road as the march looped back towards Capitol Hill, but the overwhelming atmosphere at this point remained peaceful. When the crowd reached a residential part of the First Hill neighborhood, the police suddenly turned on their vehicles’ lights and sirens and began slowly circling nearby streets with lights flashing and sirens wailing.

They did not otherwise engage with the protesters, and Idid not witness anything that seemed to necessitate the display; to me, it seemed like an effort at intimidation, asserting the force of their presence. The march continued back to CalAnderson park in Capitol Hill. The police continued the display of lights and sirens but did not make any further arrests or otherwise interact with protesters. At the park, the group debriefed and listened to a few speeches; a few people danced, and at least one person played the flute. After a while, at approximately 9:45 p.m., the group decided to go out on another march, this time on a shorter route through Capitol Hill.

The march departed from CalAnderson park, chanting Breonna Taylor’s name, and circled through residential CapitolHill. As it passed beneath apartment buildings, some residents called back in support or stood at their windows with fists raised in solidarity.

The march made its way to the intersection of 11th and Pine after completing a short loop through the neighborhood. The group set up a light barricade in the intersection; some people were playing improvised instruments. Police officers stationed themselves nearby at the precinct on 12th and Pine and about a block further up the hill on 13th and Pine.

A small group of three to four protesters broke off from the crowd and approached the open garage at the police precinct, where officers were stationed with bicycles. One of those individuals appeared to throw a firework into the garage, prompting the officers stationed at 13th andPine to issue an instruction against any further pyrotechnics. I did not see any action taken specifically against the individual who threw the firework.A little while later, another small group of protesters approached the police stationed by the precinct. Out of curiosity, I followed them. They yelled at the officers fora minute or two, and then walked back to rejoin the main group.

Although taunting, they did not seem threatening.Shortly after this interaction, the police vehicles that had been stationed at 13th and Pine drove up to 12th and appeared to observe the scene. A moment later, the police on bikes charged towards the crowd at 11th and Pine, deploying pepper spray at anyone who didn’t move out of the way quickly enough; the protesters retreated while trying to shield themselves with umbrellas. I am not sure what caused the sudden push, as it did not appear to have been in reaction to any immediately preceding property damage or threats.

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I posted a brief clip of the officers’ use of pepper spray to my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1309011578705137664

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Eventually, the police retreated somewhat, and the protesters reformed their line at 11th and Pine. Down the block, more police cars had massed and were flashing their lights and sirens. Officers were now issuing regular orders to disperse, calling the protest an “unlawful assembly,” but the crowd was unwilling to leave.A few protesters set up a light barricade again and used trash from nearby garbage cans to light two fires in the street.The fires appeared to be controversial—I overheard disagreement about whether they were appropriate, with some protesters admonishing those lighting the fires to stop it and put them out.

Shortly afterwards, the police abruptly advanced again, deploying pepper spray around the barriers and throwing blast balls indiscriminately into the crowd.

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I posted a video clip of this to myTwitter page, where the use of a blast ball being thrown overhand into the group of protesters is documented at 0:13.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1309022066566463488

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The police pushed the crowd downPine to Broadway, where they then forced the crowd out of the intersection and onto the sidewalk. Officers used their bikes to shove protesters out of the way, yelling, “Move back!” The scene was chaotic—there was too large of a crowd to fit easily on the sidewalk, and protesters were jostled hectically together as they tried to comply despite having limited room to move. I was caught in a tight pocket of the crowd and was unable to observe the full scene due to my vision being partially obscured by a protester’s umbrella, but I remember that as we were pushed back, an officer attempted to seize the umbrella of another individual near me. I had my phone out, attempting to film despite the poor light and frenetic atmosphere. There was a brief struggle, and the protester holding the umbrella fell to the ground. An officer immediately used some kind of rifle to fire three rounds of rubber bullets into the downed protester at close range.

This can be witnessed in a clip I posted to my Twitter feed at the 0:07 mark.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1309041882929008642

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By this point, the aggression with which the police were treating the crowd struck me as tinged with genuine anger. I have since learned that, earlier in the evening, an individual had broken away from the main body of the crowd and struck an officer in the head with a bat. In hindsight, I wonder if the force of the police response at Broadway andPine was a reaction to that assault—it certainly felt as though a switch had been flipped, and the officers were suddenly and markedly more violent than earlier in the night.Police continued to deploy pepper spray and blast balls. I also witnessed several more arrests before the protest group split into two and both began moving on different routes through Capitol Hill.

They continued to be pursued by police, but I was too exhausted to continue reporting. I walked back home, picked up my laptop, and then walked to my partner’s home nearby to begin writing up my notes. As I headed to her apartment, I continued to hear blast balls detonating in the distance and felt the lingering effects of gas and spray in the air even though I estimated that it had been at least a half hour since the protest had been nearby.I am disheartened by the cycle of conflict that I continue to witness at these demonstrations. Further, I am concerned that attitude of the Seattle Police Department towards protests is worsening, not improving.I see very little that might make them change.Rather than expect them to change, I feel resigned to the violence, and realize that I will need to adapt my own behaviors to account for their increasing aggression as I continue to report on these issues.

To my observation, the march was peaceful. I did not witness them being destructive during the course of the march.The march headed to SPOG headquarters on 4th Avenue and gathered in front of the building. Within minutes of the protesters’ arrival, the song “Save a Horse,Ride a Cowboy” started playing on loud speakers as a group of 30-40 officers on bikes suddenly charged the front line of the crowd. This did not seem to have been spurred by any actions on the part of the protesters; I witnessed no precipitating acts of violence, intimidation, or property destruction, and the police issued no warning before surging forward.The combination of the music and the simultaneous, unprompted, and sudden police assault gave me the overwhelming impression that the whole scene was premeditated.

To me, it seemed like an effort at “trolling” the protesters rather than responding to any actual threat—the entire setup felt choreographed, as if it had been decided in advance that these officers would charge the crowd, regardless of what the protesters did or didn’t do.The force and abruptness of the charge caused chaos in the crowd. Cops used their bikes to push people back, away fromSPOG headquarters, and began making arrests. None of the arrests I witnessed had a readily apparent justification; to me, they all seemed random.The police managed to split the crowd and began deploying blast balls and pepper spray to further push people back.Although I wasn’t directly hit with anything, my eyes began stinging from the amount of chemicals in the air.

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I couldn’t discern any rhyme or reason to the use of the blast balls or the spray—just like the arrests, it seemed completely random tome, and targeted less at any specific individuals than at simply disrupting and further splitting the group.I shared a brief video clip of this initial police charge on

Twitter.https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303155617209577472

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I caught sight of a protester who had clearly been hit by some kind of chemical weapon—swollen eyes, crying, in need of assistance—in the parking lot across the street from SPOG headquarters. With my eyes still stinging, I left the main body of the crowd and walked towards her, but was blocked by a police officer as I tried to enter the lot. He grabbed me by my shoulders ands moved me back out onto the street.As the crowd of protesters was pushed further down the street from SPOG, a line of police cruisers and a bearcat vehicle appeared and began rolling slowly towards them. As these vehicles advanced, I finally heard the first dispersal order. Immediately, protesters began exhorting each other to start moving and clear the area; I remember repeated yells of, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”Some protesters were trying to make their way back through the crowd to help injured friends, but protest leaders were adamant that everyone keep moving. This is consistent with my understanding from protest leaders in similar situations, who make it the primary goal for the crowd to stick together and retreat safely, without being forced to split into smaller segments. Hectically, the crowd moved north, complying with police orders.I captured footage of the front line of bike officers continuing to push this retreat while grabbing umbrellas and shields form protesters and throwing blast balls at the crowd.

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I posted this video to my Twitter feed.

https:/ /twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303162681663262727

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As the crowd retreated, police formed another bike line and followed, yelling,“Move, move, move!” Protesters continued to hurry north, but officers began arresting people even as the group complied.SPD officers also occasionally deployed blast balls or pepper spray into the ranks of the crowd, which caused episodes of brief chaos as people screamed, tried to shield themselves, or tried to protect others.Every now and then, officers would also snatch umbrellas or makeshift shields out of protesters’ hands, or shove straggler sat the back or outskirts of the crowd.

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On myTwitter page, I shared a video clip of officers yanking umbrellas from retreating protesters and firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303163450248450049

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A few people at the rear of the crowd would sometimes walk backwards, facing the line of police bicycles and filming as the group moved north. These bike officers would frequently ride rapidly towards the back line of the crowd and then abruptly turn their bikes and skid to a halt less than a foot before the retreating protesters, many of whom were filming. I could discern no purpose for this other than intimidation, as it didn’t speed the crowd up, and the officers often only narrowly avoided hitting the individuals they had charged towards.

‍

I posted a brief video clip documenting an example of this behavior on my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303185246372769793

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The police kept the crowd moving  ta brisk pace. When one protester collapsed on the side of the road, breathing heavily and seemingly suffering from an injury, others stopped to help but were shooed along by the police, who insisted that they would take care of it. From this, I got the impression that if anyone fell behind, they would be separated from others in their group while the crowd continued to be herded forward.As I marched along at the back of the crowd, using my phone to film clips of the ongoing retreat, I experienced a startling act of police hostility. Even though I was wearing a visible press badge and was clearly documenting the protest, an officer on a bicycle veered suddenly towards me, said,“Get the hell out of here!” and smacked my phone out of my hand. It tumbled to the ground, and he rode off. I was stunned—this officer had gone out of his way to aggressively, physically prevent me from doing my job.

Despite my clearly visible press credentials, and despite the fact that I was doing nothing other than filming while continuing to retreat, he struck my phone out of my hands and cursed at me while telling me to leave. This aggression seemed to be directed at me for no other reason than that I am a journalist documenting the police.

A video clip of the officer knocking my phone out of my hands can be found on my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/richsssmith/status/1303183854669160453

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I have never experienced this kind of direct, targeted aggression from police before. In previous situations, I have felt or inferred a latent distaste for the press, but it has never been made explicit or channeled in such a way as to impede my ability to do my job. I am highly disturbed by this development, and, for the first time since these protests began, I now feel the need to wear protective gear while reporting. It is clear to me the at the police’s posture towards these demonstrations, and towards the journalists covering them, is becoming increasingly belligerent. I do not intend to let this kind of intimidation prevent me from doing my job, but I am now aware that I need to take precautions; my press badge may be more provocation than protection.The forced retreat concluded two miles away from SPOG, in Judkins Park.

The police had kept the crowd moving at a brisk pace the entire time, arresting people sporadically throughout and occasionally charging the outskirts of the crowd with their bikes. At the park, both police and protesters finally dispersed. I was left to contemplate the newly emboldened displays of police aggression that I had just witnessed.I continue to feel that the police response at SPOG headquarters was a dark, real world version of “trolling”—violence set to a soundtrack, and maybe even laughable to those orchestrating it. It certainly seemed as though the police did not take the evening’s events seriously. It felt like a twisted, punitive game.

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I have been out protesting state sanctioned police violence against Black Americans since June. I have witnessed SPD commit terrifying, unjustified, and cruel violence against protesters on many occasions, and myself have sustained injuries from SPD’s use of less-lethal weapons several times. Every single time I have witnessed a protest become violent it has been at the hands of SPD.

September 7, 2020 - Labor Day SPOG Protest I participated in the Labor Day march to the Seattle Police Officers Guild (“SPOG”) office which called for the abolishment of the SPD’s police union. Police unions serve to protect murderers and criminals from being held accountable. We couldn’t have been there for more than 2 minutes before SPD came at us with force. There was zero violence from protestors. SPD gave no dispersal order and made no attempt at communication before attacking a crowd of peaceful people. It was almost immediate and completely unprovoked. They indiscriminately used flashbang grenades, pepper balls, pepper spray/mace, and gas. SPD loudly played the country song “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”—a song I think is misogynistic—which seemed to psych them up to attack the protesters. Within 2 minutes of hearing the music and standing in the street in front of the SPOG office, dozens of bike officers rode at us quickly. Officers rode into protesters and others jumped off their bikes and swung them into protesters. They began pepper spraying and grabbing people and throwing them down for arrest.

I had a pretty good view of this. Protesters were being pushed together and backwards and getting pepper sprayed. We all just tried to stay upright and together as we got pushed back from the building. Flashbang grenades were deployed at this point and either canisters of gas or pepper balls as well. This was all within the first 5 minutes of engagement by SPD. As SPD shoved us and pushed us back from the SPOG building, many protesters ran from the grenades and gas and were now on my far left down the street. SPD further separated the two groups by deploying pepper balls between them.
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Many people needed medical attention due to the gas and pepper spray. Because SPD’s attack was so unexpected and immediate, some people had not been prepared with their safety gear on. While protesters tried to regroup, SPD continued coming forward. We were being squished against a building and funneled into a narrow line headed down 4th Avenue S. I could hear protesters at the back screaming and more flashbang grenades exploding. SPD deployed more choking gas into the air. It was unnerving to be trapped against the wall with bike cops in a line on our left. Eventually the protest group was able to move back into the street and continued moving north down 4th Avenue S. I think we were near the Denny’s (near Lander Street) when SPD rushed at us again in another violent attack. We had been moving away as quickly as we could and as soon as we had a safe distance, maybe 50 feet from the police, we moved back into the street from the sidewalk. Right after, the police rode their bikes into us, many hitting protester’s bodies. Now we were being forced to engage with the officers again, toe-to-toe. They did not want us to get away, they wanted to continue brutalizing us.
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I saw an officer snatch someone’s umbrella and then pepper spray them in the face. They threw flashbang grenades and pepper balls into the retreating crowd that exploded near our feet. SPD bike officers rode past the now completely fractured protest group on the far left. Because of SPD’s movements, the left frontline fell back and what had been more of the middle section of the crowd suddenly became the front line, at an angle such that I could see the line of cops pushing protesters back to my left. There was a protester near me who didn’t have any safety gear on and seemed pretty scared to have suddenly ended up on the front line.
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Officers started pepper spraying us in the new front line. We tried to run backwards away from the police faster but some people couldn’t. I believe more gas and approximately 5 flashbangs were deployed again at this point. While I was still retreating, an officer maced me in the face with a can of handheld pepper spray from about 2 or 3 feet away and lunged their bike at me. The mace on my goggles made it difficult to see. I almost fell, and I couldn't keep running backward so I turned around and jogged a short distance up. The person next to me at this moment got hit with pepper spray too, and it caused her exposed skin to blister. As SPD pushed us up on 4th Avenue, they threw more pepper balls at us which exploded and released a spicy gas. People with and without respirators coughed when this gas got to them. The smoke and the explosions caused confusion and chaos; at one point officers pushed me onto the sidewalk, then a flashbang exploded nearby and another person and I tripped over a fire hydrant we couldn't see.

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Around this time I heard the sound.of SPD SWAT officers, who I had seen in grey camo, firing some kind of BB gun or Airsoft rifle into the crowd. I couldn’t see who they shot or what they were shooting out of the guns, but the sound was really distinct and alarming. It was only after this big police rush that I heard the dispersal order announced by SPD because we were allegedly creating some kind of public safety concern. The only people I could see threatening public safety were SPD officers. SPD’s use of mace, pepper balls, and flashbang grenades seemed totally indiscriminate. They were absolutely not targeting particular people who had committed crimes or anything like that. As SPD chased us away from the SPOG building for several miles, I felt constantly in danger of being arrested even though I had not done anything illegal. I saw SPD hit protesters with their bikes or skid extremely close to them, and then arrest the protester for (instinctively) grabbing onto the handlebars to keep from being hurt.

I saw SPD grab people’s shields, and then arrest them for not letting go of the shield immediately. I saw them arrest people for falling behind or getting disoriented and not moving out of SPD’s way fast enough. I saw SPD arrest a woman with her hands up who appeared to be differently abled who was struggling to walk and clearly needed to sit down and take a break. SPD told her to move faster, she said she couldn’t, and SPD arrested her. I saw SPD arrest a medic helping someone who was injured. SPD pushed us at a really intense pace for more than two miles. I am 25 years old and though I am in fairly good health, I have a pre-existing lung condition and it was downright unhealthy and dangerous to push my lungs so hard through the gas and the residual mace on my ventilator. Part of the route they forced us along was hilly, and I was fighting off an asthma attack the whole time we were going uphill. I saw other people walking up the hill with their hands on their heads to open up their airways. My friend and I couldn’t drink water because we both had ventilators on, and we couldn’t take them off because the air was still thick with gas. My friend, who has a heart condition, was wheezing, actively suffering an asthma attack, and getting increasingly anxious. My friend and I fell behind. A medic came up to us and warned us that police could
attack us at any time because we were in the very back. We were advised to use all our stamina to jog forward and keep from getting picked off.
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SPD did not just direct protesters away from the SPOG building, they were relentless in their violent attacks and chased us away at an intense pace for several miles. They also split up protesters at several points, even though we were all headed away. It seemed like SPD enjoyed inflicting violence on us and the cardio-intense march gave them the opportunity to arrest us if we slowed down.
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September 23, 2020 - East Precinct Protest I joined the Solidarity with Louisville protest at Cal Anderson park in Seattle on September 23, 2020, around 7pm in response to the failure to charge or indict the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor. That night, I experienced more intense and
aggressive violence by SPD than I had at any other protest before. Specifically, I noted that SPD deployed far more flashbang grenades (and in rapid succession) than “normal.”

Around 8pm, a group of protesters marched north on Broadway. We crossed over I-5 on what I think was the Seneca Street bridge, and stopped to remember Summer Taylor, a protester who was killed on July 4th protesting on I-5. Then the group turned north and several police cars began following us with their lights on. As we headed north on 4th Ave, bike cops suddenly came up fast on the left side of the front line of protesters, jumped off their bikes and began swinging them. High. Very high. Usually cops swing their bikes at protesters’ waists or legs, but these cops were holding the bikes above their own heads and swinging them down onto protesters. I saw multiple officers’ hands holding their bike above their own heads. They smashed them down onto people, not pushing against them like “normal.”
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While some cops were bashing protesters with the bikes, others sprayed mace from as little as 1-2 feet away, directly into people's eyes. Several protesters were incapacitated by this and I saw multiple people thrown down by officers and several arrests. There was lots of smoke and pepper spray in the air. I think there may have been flashbangs fired as well, but it is hard to remember because there were so many more later in the night. I did not see any provocation by the protesters and do not know why SPD suddenly attacked us.
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Around 10:30pm, we paused to regroup, rinse people’s eyes out, catch our breaths, and figure out who got arrested. Because it was still early and most of us were not hurt, the group decided to do a peaceful neighborhood march. We discussed the fact that September 23rd was also the 65th anniversary of when Emmett Till’s killers were acquitted. History repeats itself unless we force a change, and we wanted to remind our neighborhood of that. We started marching and had reached 11th Avenue and Pine Street, when some organizers suggested staying there for a moment. They had seen activity at the East Precinct a block away that had spooked them.
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Suddenly bike cops and police SUVs behind them came down Pine Street to the intersection at 11th Avenue. The cops threw pepper balls and gas canisters into the intersection. Some people began to run away. Then the flashbangs started. Officers were throwing explosives far back into the crowd behind us. The person in front of me got maced in the face. I put my head down and some exposed skin on my neck got hit with the pepperspray and started to burn.
I have heard people say that this push by SPD was in response to a single firework being thrown by a protester near the precinct garage entrance, but I did not see a firework. Even assuming this were true, though, the group of protesters attacked was a full block down from the garage entrance.
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Some time passed and a new protest line formed at 11th and Pine. Then SPD began what I think of as their third and most brutal charge that night, which lasted from approximately 11:30pm until 1am, and pushed us all the way west on Pine to Broadway, north up Broadway, and then west and eventually south down dark, residential streets. SPD deployed many more flashbang grenades and pepper balls than they had at any other protest I had attended. Starting at 11th and Pine, the police threw at least six flashbangs at us in rapid succession as they pushed us down Pine, chasing us with bikes. SPD also deployed some kind of gas.
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I saw a protester, known as “Trumpet Man” because he peacefully plays the trumpet at protests, laying down in the street. I watched one of the cops running next to his bike intentionally angle his bike so that his bike rode over the protester’s head. Both wheels ran over his head. People screamed. I gagged in my mouth. The cops were jabbing us with the bikes, pushing us backward. Being hit with the bikes hurt. They were pushing us hard and yelling at us to move back, but it is impossible to move that quickly backwards in the gas.
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A SWAT officer pointed a spongetipped projectile gun with a very bright light on it into my group. I know they use that light to target protesters for arrest, so I got scared my group would be attacked. A group of bike cops rode and attacked the entire group to the right of mine. More flashbangs and pepper balls exploded everywhere and it was chaotic and smoky. We hadn’t made it too far up Broadway when the police surrounded us. I saw SPD douse a lot of people in pepper spray in a group to the right of me that had been separated from us. I also heard someone yelling in pain that the cop had pulled down his goggles. I believe around this point I heard a cop’s rubber bullet gun being fired, though I did not see it. We continued retreating north many blocks, and eventually we went west, trying to escape the police. The group had become smaller by now, maybe around 75 people. As we began quickly moving down a dark, narrow, residential street with lots of tree coverage, SPD unleashed a large amount of flashbang grenades— approximately 25-30 over several blocks— directly into our crowd. Their escalation was not a response to any protester actions. The police announced that all of us had been at the illegal assembly and still had not dispersed, and that we were all subject to arrest and less lethal munitions. Some people—especially those with asthma—were struggling to breathe due to the pepper spray and forced march by the police. There were a ton of SPD officers throwing flashbang grenades at us while we were running away. I saw more than five flashbangs explode in front of me and I heard another five explode elsewhere. I was trying to put more distance between me and the police line, but the flashbangs were exploding everywhere. In rapid succession, one flashbang bounced off my backpack, another dexploded close behind us to my left, another hit my friend’s backpack, and yet another flashbang hit my right shoulder blade. I cried out in pain as it exploded around me.

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This was not the first time SPD has hit me with a flashbang. At a protest near the East Precinct on Sunday, June 7, 2020, SPD threw a flashbang grenade directly at me that exploded on my chest. That was the same night another girl’s heart stopped beating after SPD hit her in the chest with a flashbang. It was super terrifying and very
painful, and left a welt, a big bruise, a burn, and a tear in my skin. I had not been wearing any kind of protective clothing back then. The cops also used some kind of gas on the crowd. I am not sure what it was. You can usually see through a cloud of OC spray, but this cloud was really thick and hard to see through, and wasn’t as “normal” to me. There were also pepper spray balls exploding. All of us who were able to run kept running to try to get out of the smoke and the police were now chasing us in double-time. I feel bad that those who could not keep up or were differently abled got left behind, but it was so chaotic and we were all trying to escape the explosions and find breathable air. I ended up back near the community college, just west of it. The cops were still just behind us on bikes, with a full slew of SUVs behind them. Once we reached the intersection near Broadway and Pine Street, the police that were already at that intersection stopped and let us pass and go into Cal Anderson park. People were tired from being chased for so long and hurting from the OC spray and flashbangs.

Once we were all in the park, we saw over 25 police cars surrounding the park. More unnerving, we saw about 50 bike cops around the east and west edges of the park, as if they were going to ride in. We had not seen this before (outside of sweeps of the park attacking our unhoused neighbors) and people started to freak out. The park has been protesters’ safe space to regroup after police violence and receive medical care. SPD officers rode into the park on their bikes and it was chaos. People sprinted away in all directions. I ran north and hid in a bush. I saw a few cops jumping off their bikes and taking people down. I saw more officers on foot with batons coming into the park. Lights and sirens were going off all around the park. I had to stay low and hide in the dark while I found my people. We managed to escape the park together. It was approximately 1am.

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The night of September 23 felt like another noticeable escalation in violence from Seattle Police Department, like the Labor Day march at SPOG or the candlelight vigil at WSP headquarters. The sheer number of flashbangs and other explosives the police fired at us and how rapidly they were doing so—as we retreated from them—was unlike my other protest experiences in the last several months. The degree to which individual officers were violently going after people also felt increased. It was not just the SPD front line against the protesters’ front line, but it was smaller groups of officers targeting areas of protesters and brutalizing us directly.

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ZA regularly attended the BLM/George Floyd protests since they began on May 30, 2020.

On September 7, 2020, ZA attended a protest march at the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) headquarters. She was wearing shorts and wore a backpack that held water and first aid supplies.

When ZA and the group of protesters arrived at the headquarters, SPD officers flooded out from behind the building, without issuing warnings, commands, or dispersal orders. The officers began launching gas canisters and blast balls. A blast ball struck ZA left foot and then exploded, knocking her back and injuring her foot. Her shoe was scorched from the explosion. As a direct and proximate result of the explosive device used on her by the City and SPD, ZA suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: a bone bruise, swelling, difficulty wearing shoes and walking requiring use of a cane, disrupted sleep, depression, and PTSD. ZA lost wages and was compelled to take disability leave from work because of these harms. ZA also suffered infringement upon her constitutional rights.

On September 17, 2020, JR arrived at the International District light rail station to a join a BLM protest headed to the SPOG headquarters. About 30 seconds after their arrival, police came out from behind the building and began discharging flashbangs, blast balls, and tear gas.
JR heard no dispersal orders.
He was walking backwards when the advancing officers accelerated.
He felt the shockwave of a blast ball or flash band grenade explode near his head. It hit his right hand and exploded.
JR knew he was hurt but kept moving as police charged at him. He was in shock as felt blood soak through his jacket. Police did not render aid.

A fellow protester saw JR’s hand and called for a medic.

Police would not allow them to stop to bandage the injury, so JR had to keep moving while medics assisted him.
At one point, the group was forced to run while the medic radioed to the truck used for medical transport. The exit to the parking lot was blocked by the police.
Once JR arrived at Harborview, he was so weak from blood loss he could barely get out of the truck.
The blast ball nicked an artery and JR was hospitalized for several days because the doctors could not stop the bleeding.
JR lost half an inch of nerve in his right hand.
On September 18, 2020, he had nerve graft surgery. He still cannot feel parts of his hand.
As a direct and proximate result of the explosive and chemical weapons used on him by the City and SPD, JR suffered pain, trauma, and other damages, including but not limited to: hand and nerve injury and disfiguration; temporary disability of his dominant hand; potentially life-threatening blood loss; PTSD; and emotional distress. JR also suffered infringement upon his constitutional rights.

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Pictures below----------------------------------------------

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Declaration, September 22, 2020 I heard about the protests in the news in early June and how the Seattle Police were tear gassing people. On a whim, I went to a protest in early June. There was a standoff between protesters and cops, and while there I got tear gassed. Once I had the experience of witnessing police brutality that was completely pointless, I became fired up and have turned into an advocate and regular protester. Before, I hadn’t realized that in the city I live in, the cops can and do brutalize people. Since my first protest, I have been going to protests regularly, and about every other day for the past month. Most of the protests I have attended have been on Capitol Hill.
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On September 22, 2020, I went to protest on Capitol Hill. I was protesting in favor of defunding and abolishing the Seattle Police Department (SPD). That night, the Seattle City Council had overrode the Mayor’s veto and voted to cut the SPD budget by about 5%. The police were very angry and defensive that night. The protesters were marching peacefully through Capitol Hill. There were police following us. Some police were on bikes, some on foot, and most of them in cars. Every now and then we would push back on the police following us if they were getting too close – we would reverse the direction of our march back toward them, and they would back up. We were trying to create space between us. There was not any physical contact between the protesters and the cops during the march. A group of 20-30 of us had been marching north on 12th Avenue. There were police cars behind us and in front of us. Eventually, we headed back south toward SPD’s East Precinct, on 12th Avenue and Pine Street. There were lots more police cars near the precinct.
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As we neared the precinct, I saw that there was a female bike cop and male bike cop on foot, right at 12th and Pine intersection. We reached the intersection and kept protesting. The crowd was not violent and was not throwing things. We had only been there a couple minutes when suddenly and without warning, I saw the female cop throw an explosive right into the intersection and at our group. I was somewhat incredulous and surprised. There was a person lying on the ground within the group of protesters and the explosion happened right near her. This person had not been doing anything wrong prior to the blast. We continued marching east on Pike Street, with police cars still following us.

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Around 10:30pm on September 22, 2020—hours after the City Council voted to cut the Seattle Police Department budget by less than 5%—I heard sirens. I grabbed my camera and ran out of my house to film what turned out to be the police response to a very small protest. The protest was only about 20-30 people, but there were about 14 police cars accompanying them. Every single police vehicle seemed to be making as much light and noise as possible—lights flashing, every kind of siren sound blaring. It felt like SPD was conducting its own counter-protest to drown out the “Black Lives Matter” chants. The sound from the police vehicles was so torturously loud that my ears were ringing for about an hour after I went back inside. I can’t imagine a single resident of Capitol Hill could have slept through SPD’s sirens.
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I watched the protest for about 45 minutes. I did not see any protester do anything remotely destructive or violent. They were just chanting and walking in the empty streets. The only cars in the streets were police vehicles, and I saw very few people other than the handful of protesters and roughly equal number of police officers. SPD patrol cars surrounded the protesters the whole time. At first the SPD vehicles slowly chased them north on 12th Avenue. In addition to the patrol cars pushing the protesters north on 12th, there were other police vehicles further up 12th driving backwards in front of the protesters, trapping the protest on 12th in between two sets of police vehicles.
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I watched an SPD vehicle drive slowly but then, with seemingly no justification, floor the gas, suddenly, loudly, and menacingly accelerating towards the protesters. It did this at least twice. This struck me as patently dangerous police behavior intended to scare the protesters. After SPD pushed the protesters north for three and a half blocks, both sets of SPD cars switched direction and began pushing the protesters back south. At one point, SPD tried to use the loudspeaker to tell protesters to stay away from their officers’ cars that SPD had driven into the protest and cornered the protesters with, but SPD’s sirens were still blaring, so their message was barely audible. SPD was also making it impossible to avoid their vehicles; they had closed in on the protest from every side and blocked protesters’ path. As I approached the northwest corner of 12th Avenue and East Pine Street, I watched a police officer standing still on the southwest corner of the intersection, seemingly waiting for the approaching protest. A protester laid down in the street, and almost immediately an explosion went off right next to the person on the ground. A piece of shrapnel flew towards me.
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I was initially confused about what exactly had caused the explosion, but I knew that no protester had set off the explosion because I had been watching them, and no one did anything like that. I can now tell from video captured by another bystander that the police officer I had seen threw a blast ball. This video captures the police officer throwing the blast ball at a person lying on the ground:
https://twitter.com/MarcusKulik/status/1308671251594977280

I am visible in the video after the explosion, standing on the northwest corner of 12th and East Pine holding a camera. A version of the same video in slow motion, zoomed in on the officer throwing the blast ball, is available here:
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1308859475428806657

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I saw absolutely no protester conduct that necessitated the use of force, let alone potentially lethal force aimed at a vulnerable person on the ground. The protesters were just walking and chanting. Moments after throwing a blast ball at peaceful protesters, SPD gave a dispersal order, announcing over the loudspeaker to protesters “you’ve committed an unsafe act, you’ve put officers’ lives in jeopardy. You’ve created a safety hazard. You’ve limited the movement of police vehicles. Do you understand? I’m giving you an order to disperse. Failure to disperse could result in the use of munitions, and/or your arrest.” SPD was using an explosion that I knew protesters were not responsible for to justify dispersing the protest.
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SPD blockaded the road and had a standoff with protesters at 11th Avenue and East Pine Street, then eventually retreated. Protesters then returned to the East Precinct and chanted for a short time before the police re-emerged to chase around the block, their sirens still blaring, blocking off entire roads with SPD vehicles. Eventually the small protest dispersed. I have been part of, or recorded, many police protests in Seattle in defense of Black lives since the murder of George Floyd. The SPD tactics I witnessed on September 22 felt
extremely familiar to me and consistent with the SPD response to other protests I have been at. This is not the only time I have seen SPD using potentially lethal weapons against peaceful protesters, and falsely claiming that protesters had created a safety hazard; using lights, sound, force, dispersal orders, and baseless arrests to chill people from exercising their First Amendment right to protest; and seeming to take a zero-tolerance approach to BLM protests outside of police buildings, breaking them up immediately and aggressively.
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After the protesters went home, I went back to the spot where I had seen the explosion to hunt around for evidence of what had caused it. I found a thick black plastic ring and a metal handle with a numbered label on it that I identified after a quick Google search as the fuse block and pull handle from a blast ball grenade.

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I have been out protesting police brutality in Seattle since early June. I am a transgender person, so I know what it’s like to be discriminated against and treated unfairly. The injustice we’ve seen lately isn’t new, but it needs to end. When I go out to protest, I am thinking not only about Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, but about all of the Black trans women who were murdered who gave me the right to be who I am. When I protest, I protest in their memory.
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On Wednesday, September 23, the night after prosecutors in Louisville decided not to charge Breonna Taylor’s killers with murder, I protested in Capitol Hill. That night, the Seattle Police Department hit me in the head with a flashbang, choked me with pepper spray and gas until I could not see or breathe, chased me until I had a panic attack and thought I would vomit and pass out, and badly injured many people around me. I’ve been to many, many protests since the killing of George Floyd, including several with heavy police violence like the protests in early June and on July 25, but SPD’s response on September 23rd felt especially brutal.
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There were about 400 of us out protesting at the beginning. For awhile, SPD followed behind us in their police vehicles, their lights flashing. At some point, SPD started aggressively pushing us back, as they always do. I was fairly close to the police, trying to move back, but with a huge crowd ahead of me. We yelled “move, move” at the protesters in front of us, trying to get them to make space so we could move. But at one point the crowd was just so backed up that we couldn’t move at all, which was really scary.

SPD started throwing an inordinate number of flashbangs at us when we got to Broadway. They threw so many at us that a woman on the sidewalk who was just walking by starting yelling at thepolice to stop it and stop terrorizing the neighborhood. Next thing I knew she was on the ground being dogpiled by a bunch of SPD officers.
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SPD bike officers rode along the sidewalks, corralling us in the street. When we got to Seattle Central, SPD allowed us to disperse onto the campus. Many of us went into Cal Anderson and regrouped, then went back onto 11th Avenue to continue marching. We ended up back at 11th Avenue and Pine. Our numbers were smaller now, though—maybe 200 of us. We stood there for awhile, waiting for another protest group to join us.
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A couple people built a barricade and lit it on fire. Other than this, the only time I saw a protester damage property that night was when someone spray painted a vehicle and immediately got arrested. The vast, vast majority of the crowd was not doing anything destructive or dangerous.
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Some people went towards to the East Precinct, a block away. I heard an explosion of some kind happen at the East Precinct, and all of a sudden, protesters came running back down towards us, followed by bike cops. The bike cops moved around the fire onto the sidewalk and started pushing us back, pepper spraying the entire front line of protesters. They must have directly pepper sprayed 20 people who hadn’t done anything other than put their bodies on the front line.
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I was a short distance behind the front line as SPD maced them all. A girl in front of me turned around, screaming that she couldn’t see. I grabbed her and tried to moveher towards Cal Anderson, and used eye wash to wash her eyes. My impression was that she had not intended to put herself on the front line—she just happened to be standing where police had decided to plant themselves. One of her friends took her to find a medic. I went back to join the other protesters at the intersection. Police started throwing flash bangs indiscriminately and using some kind of chemical weapon that released a thick stinging gas. I had on goggles but my eyes hurt so badly I couldn’t see. I could hear someone yelling at me “don’t touch your eyes!” I had on multiple masks and I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to vomit. I staggered off to the side.

The protesters I was with were backing away from the police, facing the police. I didn’t want to leave the group but I was terrified and injured enough that I felt like I needed to put more distance between myself and the police, so I turned around and started walking away faster, with my hands up.
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SPD continued to lob explosives at the retreating crowd. Some people were panicking and running, so the crowd was moving faster now, and it was hard to keep up.
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At Broadway and Pine, I watched an SPD officer roll his bike over the neck of a protester laying in the street. It was absolutely horrifying. I started screaming, pleading “Somebody do something!” I wanted to run over and help this seriously injured person but I knew from experience that if I did that, I would be arrested. I felt so helpless. The inhumanity of the SPD officers who did this and who watched it happen nonchalantly was just staggering. SPD started throwing an incessant stream of flashbangs at us as we retreated. The bangs were coming like every 1-2 seconds. It felt nonstop. SPD was throwing the flashbangs into the air, and they would fall randomly in our crowd of 150-200 people. It seemed completely indiscriminate, not targeted at anyone in particular. The flashbangs would click, and then explode, and the explosions were so loud it always sounded like they were exploding right near me. It was disorienting and really, really scary.
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At an intersection, a car pulled forward and stopped, separating the police who were attacking us from the protest. Almost instantly, a cop punched a hole through the window. I felt someone pulling me backwards fast. Several NLG legal observers wearing lime green helmets tried to record the police interaction with the driver, but the cops pushed them away and wouldn’t let them observe.
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SPD kept throwing flashbangs at us. One hit me in the head. I felt something heavy hit my helmet at a really fast speed, as if someone had thrown a rock at my head as hard as they could. When I got home later that night, I saw several long gashes in my helmet where the flashbang hit me.
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I heard the girl behind me yell “I think I’ve been hit.” I turned around, and she was holding her head, and seemed really disoriented. She pulled her hand away from her head and even in the dark, I could see that it was covered in blood, and blood was in her braids. She seemed to be in shock. Her friends started screaming at the top of their lungs for a medic.

A video of these events is available here:
https://twitter.com/JonathanLit/status/1309079252013375489.

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Her friends rushed her to the front of the protest to get her medical attention. The next time I saw her, an evacuation truck had pulled up, and she had her head wrapped in a pressure bandage. The medics put her in the back of the truck and took her away. SPD gassed us again. There was so much gas that I could not see or breathe. I couldn’t see both because my eyes were swollen and stinging from the chemicals and because the air was opaque, thick with a cloud of gas and smoke. I was disoriented and stumbling. A friend of mine grabbed me and helped carry me along. It took me awhile to realize it was my friend because I couldn’t see anything.
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All I wanted was to leave, but SPD wasn’t letting us. I started crying out, “I just want to go home.” My friend tried to convince me to run so I could leave, but I was afraid if I tried to leave, SPD would arrest me. I can remember at least three people I saw at this protest who tried to peel off and got arrested. SPD so often arrests people who try to leave the crowd that when we see someone peel off to the side, the crowd usually starts screaming “don’t leave, don’t leave” out of concern for their safety. Someone in the crowd reported that SPD had started firing rubber bullets. At this news, I started having a panic attack. I thought I was going to pass out. I spoke later with several friends who said they were hit by rubber bullets.
A medic found me struggling to breathe and on the verge of collapsing and tried to evacuate me, but there was no way out. As we made our way through residential streets, I scanned the doors to see if there was a building that was open that I could escape into to hide, but there was nowhere. We were trying to get to Cal Anderson in the hopes that police would let us disperse there and stop brutalizing us. When we reached Nagel and Pine, at the corner of the park, SPD started making us again. I watched them soak one protester in such a thick coat of pepper spray that he staggered into the park and started vomiting. In the park, I saw SPD vehicles, including the paddywagon, circling the park. People started running and yelling “the cops are coming,” freaking out. I saw officers walk through the park and start grabbing people in the houseless encampment area and arrest them. Given how brutal and relentless SPD had been that night, it seemed like the most likely scenario at that point was that they would arrest us all. I was so sick with fear that I briefly contemplated whether I should try to take shelter in a tent in the encampment, but I realized that would just endanger everyone else there.
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I found a group of friends at the top of the hill. My car was parked close by, but I was too scared of the police to walk to my car on my own, so I stayed with the group until an evacuation car got us and dropped me off at my car.
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That night, I had so many nightmares that I woke up several times screaming. I am still having nightmares four days later and I feel jumpy at loud noises and paranoid when I see police cars.

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