Different cities, different police responses to George Floyd protest marches

More than a week on, marches and rallies in Tacoma over the killings of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police have stayed relatively peaceful and certainly far less contentious than those in Seattle.

Seattle protesters, unlike those in Tacoma, have been met with tear gas, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets from local police officers. Members of the National Guard have been deployed to Seattle since May 30, prior to Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcement on May 31 of a statewide activation.

Some Guard members were deployed in Tacoma over the weekend as protests continued over the death of Floyd, who died last month in Minneapolis as a police officer knelt on his neck.

The News Tribune spoke to a number of people who attended protests in both cities about their experiences.

In Seattle, ‘a little antsy’

Albert Tran, a semi-professional photographer, headed to the protests in Seattle on May 31 and June 3 to capture images of the events. A Seattle resident, Tran wanted to support the Black Lives Matter movement and take photographs to share with his friends and relatives who were unable to go.

Tran said the police and National Guard were “a little antsy” as the protesters marched and shared PPE, hand sanitizer, food and water. Tran said law enforcement sometimes blocked in protesters who did not comply with instructions, though they were eventually allowed to leave.

“When I crossed the picket line on 5th Avenue they close(d) off that pathway altogether, and once people were trying to leave they were telling the protesters to go in the direction they specified, which was around the corner,” Tran said. “No one wanted any violence. Most were more intimidated by the police officers and the riot weaponry they had.”

Tristan Eason is a Tacoma resident who attended protests in both Tacoma and Seattle.

“I was protesting alongside my black friends and white allies whom I trusted to stay peaceful and not take advantage of the issues at hand,” Eason told The News Tribune.

He saw law enforcement officers at the Seattle protests use what he characterizes as a disproportionate amount of force against peaceful protesters.

“Pepper spraying a young child who poses no threat to a grown man in riot gear, or firing tear gas into a completely peaceful crowd are entirely unnecessary and excessive use of force,” he said. “These are just a couple of many examples of our local police abusing their position and power.”

Tear gas in the streets

Seattle officials announced a ban on the use of tear gas for 30 days, but it was deployed on Capitol Hill over the weekend after police said some people used projectiles against them.

Prior to the ban, Seattle Police Department officers used tear gas on protesters. One of those was Drake Slansky of Los Angeles, who has been staying with his family in Madison Valley since early May.

On June 1, Slansky marched with the crowd toward Cal Anderson Park. People were hoping to speak with Mayor Jenny Durkan at SPD’s East Precinct, but they were stopped by a blockade. Slansky said he saw protesters try to reason with police.

“One officer hugged a protester. Another shook a protester’s hand. People took pictures. It was a whole thing,” Slansky said. “But when we still couldn’t get through and marched back to 11th and Pine, we were flash-banged and tear-gassed. There was no humanity in it.”

In Tacoma, mostly peaceful

Melissa Dunbar, a Tacoma resident whose teenage daughter attended the Seattle protest on May 30, said her daughter was jailed for two days after being arrested for breaking curfew. Though the charges against her daughter were dropped, Dunbar is disappointed with the way law enforcement officers in Seattle are handling the protests.

There are no reports of Tacoma protesters being arrested, though two men were arrested and charged with second-degree burglary after a series of break-ins on Pacific Avenue early June 2 at the end of a peaceful protest downtown.

“At least for the protest that I was at in Tacoma, the police stayed their distance and followed protocol,” Dunbar said. “They did what they needed to do so they themselves would not escalate the situation. But the police in Seattle did not. I see that as a stark contrast to what happened here in Tacoma.”

Casey McKey, an Olympia resident who attended the protest in Tacoma on May 30, echoed Dunbar’s statement.

“The police followed us on bikes and blocked off a lot of streets, including the freeway on-ramp, but did not engage at least for the 4 hours I was at the protest,” she said. “I have been to other protests since this one and I can say by far that Tacoma was the most peaceful, and the most organized/safe.”

She said that the leaders of the protest made it clear that no violence, vandalism or hate speech would be tolerated at the protest. McKey said they were told to “call each other out if we saw any.”

“The police followed us on bikes and blocked off a lot of streets, including the freeway on-ramp, but did not engage at least for the 4 hours I was at the protest,” she said. “I have been to other protests since this one and I can say by far that Tacoma was the most peaceful, and the most organized/safe.”