SEATTLE, March 7 — The struggle in Washington against racist police violence has continued at a high level since the decision not to indict the Ferguson kkkop who murdered Michael Brown last August. Rallies of 50 to 100 people have been held weekly in the downtown area of the city. When others — particularly people from the Black community — have been in charge, events have drawn much larger numbers.
The Martin Luther King day march on January 19th brought out the largest crowd in years as organizers and speakers spoke directly to the problem of police violence. A multiracial crowd of 15,000 people marched through Seattle stopping at the youth jail, the courthouse, and the former Yesler Terrace housing projects — the first racially integrated housing projects in the U.S. Demolition of Yesler Terrace began last year as part of an effort to gentrify the traditionally Black Central District neighborhood. Marchers joined in as we shouted “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police” and “Racism Means, We’ve Got to Fight Back!”
After the march, a series of exposés in a local paper kept racist policing on the front burner. A video was released of police attacking marchers at the end of the MLK march. A teacher from Garfield High School — a predominantly Black school in the Central District — who had led students in walkouts was pepper sprayed by police in a targeted attack. In another post-march attack police attacked marchers after claiming a marcher had assaulted a cop. Later The Stranger, a Seattle newspaper, released surveillance footage that revealed the cop injured himself when he tripped and fell chasing a marcher. Those arrested for assault were quickly released without charge.
Later on Jan. 28, The Stranger obtained camera footage of a kkkop arresting a 69-year-old William Wingate for walking while Black. The cop fabricated a story that Wingate swung a golf club at her — an accusation easily disproved in the video — and then prosecutors conned Wingate into signing a plea for misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon. The ruling was dismissed only after public outcry.
Further revelations showed that the arresting cop had a history of making racist comments online, and attacking people in the street. The cop pleaded with prosecutors to throw the book at Wingate. Far from being a “rogue cop” this cop actually had served as a training cop for the department for years.
City officials are reeling from the Wingate controversy, the released video from the MLK march, the video released of a kkkop punching a handcuffed and restrained Miyekko Durden-Bosley so hard that he shattered her right orbital socket, and continuing stories coming out of city hall that show that efforts to reform the racism and violence of Seattle Police Department (SPD) have been a complete failure. The cop in the Wingate incident was relieved of duty and the head of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) took time out from defending racist police violence to paradoxically claim it had no place at SPD — feigning support for reforms that SPOG has viciously fought every step of the way. Local bosses’ news media even dutifully stopped reporting on marches with the MLK march receiving only the barest of attention.
Then on Feb. 10, police in Pasco, WA — a town servicing largely Latin migrant farm workers in the Yakima valley — fired 17 shots in a busy intersection during rush hour murdering Antonio Zambrano-Montes. As always police lied stating that Montes — a mentally ill 35 year old — had endangered them by throwing rocks. Video taken by passersby and released the next day clearly showed police shooting at Montes as he ran away, finally killing him when he turned around with his hands up. Despite efforts to quiet local rage at police violence, Pasco has erupted in protest. In Seattle, Montes joined the names of Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and John T. Williams as the latest victim of racist police and vigilantes.
On February 25, 500 students and workers walked out at the University of Washington against racism: budget cuts, attacks on custodial workers, and police violence. That same day, students walked out at the Bothell and Tacoma campuses, too. At Seattle University, a walkout for union rights for adjunct (part-time) professors also took on the issue of cop terror. While these marches always lean toward passing the next reform, people have been unusually open to more revolutionary possibilities. As the fight against the police in Seattle continues, we will heighten the struggle to turn calls for reform into calls for revolution. Racist violence will not end until capitalism is destroyed.