The Seattle Police Chief told his department on Thursday that it was “not my decision” to leave the police station in an area of the city that is now being taken over by protesters – and criticized city officials for surrendering to the demonstrators.
In video address published on the department’s YouTube page, Chief Carmen Best said the city was “released into severe public pressure.”
“You fight for days to protect [the precinct]. I ask you to stand in that line. “Day after day, projectiles must be thrown, to be shouted at, threatened, and in some cases injured,” Best told troops.
“So to have a change of course almost two weeks, it looks like an insult to you and our community.”
“In the end the city has other plans for buildings and succumbs to public pressure,” he added. “I’m angry about how all this happened.”
His comments came a day after the department said it would try to reopen the Eastern Region.
The area around the police station has become a hotbed of confrontation between protesters and police over the past two weeks during demonstrations about the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man whose death involved the police has sparked a global movement against racial injustice.
Officers used tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs over the weekend to disperse the demonstrators who they said attacked them with projectiles.
The building was closed on Monday, amid increasing demand from protesters.
Since then they have occupied the perimeter of the six blocks dubbed “CHAZ” – short for “Autonomous Capitol Hill” – around the now deserted region.
This situation caught the attention of President Trump, who on Thursday demanded that the local government intervene to take the road back – or he would.
“Radical Left Governor @ JayInslee and Seattle Mayor are being ridiculed and played at a level our country has never seen. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t, I’ll do it, “the president tweeted, Thursday.
“This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stopped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!”
With Post cable
