- Ansel Herz
- Here's a family that wasn't scared by the protests. "I saw the news and we still came in [to downtown to shop]," said mom Katie Short, as protesters gathered across the street at Westlake Park on December 3. "It's a good lesson in civil disobedience." She said her kids were a bit "freaked out" by all the police. "Not freaked out," piped up her 10-year-old son, Charles. "Curious!"
The Downtown Seattle Associaton's call for a crackdown on unpermitted marches against police brutality has drawn swift responses from the Public Defender Association (PDF), which calls the rhetoric "unhelpful," and the National Lawyers Guild (PDF) which says the DSA "exhibits a fundamental misunderstanding about a primary function of Seattleâs public spaces."
Requiring every protest march to go through Seattle's permitting process would be unconstitutional, the PDA writes, citing the First Amendment and the Supreme Court. "We appreciate that City officials appear to recognize this, and do not apply the street use permit process to speech activities."
"We searched yesterdayâs letter in vain for any acknowledgement that the tens of thousands who have taken to the streets of American cities in the past few weeks are responding to a very real crisis regarding racial inequality in law enforcement practices," the letter continues. "Black Lives Matter, and many now feel that that issue must intrude into 'business as usual' to ensure that a critical mass of Americans understands that change in policing practices is urgently needed."
Seattle's reputation is unlikely to take a hit, as the DSA said it has, because the unpermitted protests have interrupted the holiday season, the PDA argues. "Police accountability protests even disrupted New Yorkâs famous tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center last week, and yet New York is and will remain a tourist destination. This moment of necessary outcry will surely, perhaps regrettably, subside, and Christmas will not be cancelled."
The Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a left-wing group of lawyers, offered a more scathing response, directed at the Mayor and the City Council. "In contrast to DSAâs request to limit free speech even further in favor of corporate profits, we urge you to investigate in a public fashion the emerging pattern of police misconduct directed toward non-violent protestors," the letter-writers urge. "In a coordinated fashion, our police force has been regularly intimidating non-violent protestors, showing up to every protest with dozens of heavily armed officers who follow, box in, spy on, and harass people who criticize police violence."
