Police SWAT Team Raids Occupy Seattle Media Blackout

Mark Taylor Canfield

Fighting An Eviction

On Dec 2nd participants of Occupy Seattle gathered for a march at their camp of 100 tents on Capitol Hill. The camp is currently under threat of an eviction from Seattle Central Community College, where they have been occupying since they were forced out of Westlake Park by police and park rangers last month.

There is an ongoing battle between the Occupy Seattle legal group and the college over the camp and it’s now being fought in the courts. SCCC president Paul Kilpatrick addressed the OS general assembly last week, but his claim that he is willing to work with the group met with a great deal of skepticism among some of the campers and their supporters in the community.

It was clear to most experienced political observers that Kilpatrick had already made up his mind- he wanted to force the group off the campus. It was the college president who had called an emergency meeting of the board of regents and launched legal proceedings designed to remove the protesters from campus property. It was Kilpatrick who made accusations against the Occupy Seattle camp to the news media. OS claims in a press release that many of his allegations are false.

During the general assembly the college president repeated several times that he wished to avoid violence when referring to the imminent eviction. This left one of the GA participants commenting, “He’s the only person here talking about violence. Is he delivering to us an implied threat?” The threat being, of course, the use of the police to forcibly remove the encampment, and maybe a little more pepper spray and jail sentences.

Meanwhile, members of the American Federation of Teachers spoke up for the occupiers at the same general assembly. Two of the teachers from the college read public statements thanking Occupy Seattle for their commitment to direct democracy and citizen engagement in the community. Some of the college faculty had even volunteered to conduct all night teach-ins for the demonstrators. They did not agree with the college president when he declared that Occupy Seattle is not welcome on the campus.

Police Raid

Just before 3 AM police began banging on the warehouse door demanding entry.
The door remained closed. The Seattle Police Department blocked Pine Street and sealed off sidewalks with crime tape. Media and bystanders were pushed by Seattle police to a location one block away from the scene. Because of this, no one was able to observe the details of the police activity or the arrests. This restriction made video documentation nearly impossible.

Potential witnesses were kept so far from the building that they were unable to clearly see anything that was going on at the warehouse. The crowd who had gathered at 10th and Pine lost cell phone contact with the people inside the building. No one knew what was happening and they were very nervous about the fate of their friends, especially when they saw the police carrying rifles.

As a journalist, I was outraged that I was being blocked by police from reporting on the event because I couldn’t get anywhere near the building. I was arrested on Nov. 28th at the state capitol protests while wearing my press pass and the Washington State Patrol has since banned me from reporting from the state capitol. I am fighting that prohibition on the grounds that I was never charged with any crime and I was never brought before a judge or jury.

In the case of the SWAT raid in Seattle, I was once again being kept from doing my job as a journalist by an overzealous police department. The SPD treated the occupation of the warehouse as if it were some kind of violent terrorist attack. Since the Occupy Seattle folks have been committed to non-violence since the beginning of their protests, it is impossible to justify such a heavy handed and heavily armed response by law enforcement.

This wasn’t a drug raid or a mission to rescue hostages or an attempt to stop a violent gunman. It was in fact a raid on a group of pacifist activists who want to believe in democracy and community. They want a better future for everyone where violence in abolished and poverty is eliminated. That doesn’t sound very dangerous to most people. It actually sounds like a great idea. Perhaps the Seattle police disagree…

Some SWAT team members were carrying what looked like assault rifles. Apparently they had commandeered a Seattle Fire Department ladder truck because they extended the ladder to allow police access to the roof of the building. I suppose a helicopter would have been too noisy and would have tipped off the occupiers to their raid. The SWAT team obviously wanted to go in secretly and surprise the Occupy Seattle protesters.

The police used highly organized tactical military style maneuvers to evict a group of unarmed political organizers. As opposed to being dangerous, I suggest that many of the occupiers may actually have been a bit naive and inexperienced, but nonetheless they were treated as if they were a major danger to society.

At the time of this publication, there is no information available to me concerning what actually happened inside the building, because most of the people who were inside are still being held in jail for criminal trespass and other charges. Most of them can’t afford to post their bail.

I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be a young activist locking arms with your compatriots and watching as SWAT team members came storming in carrying assault weapons and screaming orders at you. It must have been extremely frightening.
I am wondering if they were actually arrested  at gunpoint. That would be a truly traumatic experience for anyone.

Media Black Out

I was shocked to see that only one news media cameraman bothered to even show up during the hour long raid. To my knowledge, no one has any video of the SWAT team members climbing up the police truck ladder. It would have been compelling footage for sure, and very unique, but there was no one there to document it. We missed a great opportunity to capture a very compelling image.

I called all of the local news media to give them the tip on the raid but they all seemed uninformed and disinterested. The Seattle Times and the local Fox news station simply failed to answer our calls. After repeatedly trying to contact them,
I finally gave up. I’ve never seen that happen before.

Where were the reporters? Where were the cameras?

For over twelve hours after the SWAT team raid on Occupy Seattle, there was a virtual media black out on the story. All day long the only reports that appeared were from a blogger who lived in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and a couple photos of the building from photo journalist Joshua Trujillo. I kept looking for coverage of the raid but I couldn’t find anything.

The only published photo of the fire truck was taken by the blog writer. Corporate news media completely failed to cover this raid. Normally they are eager to broadcast dramatic footage of police and flashing lights, protests, people being arrested, etc., but for some unknown reason, no one was available.

After many long hours of making phone calls and sending emails and voicing complaints about the lack of coverage, the local press finally began to report the news. Unfortunately, some of the coverage didn’t even mention that a SWAT team was involved. At this point there has been no in-depth coverage of the police raid.