Mayor Durkan gave assurances that the President wouldn't be able to use federal troops against Seattleites. "There is no imminent threat of an invasion in Seattle."
Mayor Durkan: "We need to reimagine our response to community and what they need in times of crisis." "We will invest $100 milion in" BIPOC organizations. #DefundThePolice#FundCommunity
"The department has down incredible work to meet the needs of the community," Chief Best said, saying they've been doing de-escalation. Now blaming protesters. #seattleprotest#CHAZ
Response times have tripled, Chief Best claimed. Suggest more rapes will go unsolved, although SPD doesn't have a good track record there to begin with. #Copaganda#seattleprotest
"For the tear gas, it was my decision," Chief Best said, claiming a "life safety exemption' to 30-day ban. "It got unruly. There was a man with a gun." #copaganda#seattleprotest
The police barricades were the flashpoint, Mayor Durkan, which suggests they won't be reinstalled. Don't want to repeat that unfortunate cycle, she said. #seattleprotest#PoliceViolence
Chief Best tried to blame media for the business shakedown story her deputy leaked to them and some reported without verifying independently. #gaslighting
Chief Best attempts to walk back her claims (reiterated in her video this morning) that armed guards are posted up extorting people and forcing them to show IDs to enter the CHAZ, saying they had heard about this "anecdotally" and "through the media."
I caught Durkan’s chief of staff after. She said mayor made the order to remove barricades and create a plan in case the east precinct “went up.” But she said the mayor did not tell police to leave. Wild that apparently neither the chief nor mayor seem to know who gave that order