Cop kneels on protester’s neck as officers crush the Seattle CHOP zone – The Sun
A COP kneeled on a protester’s neck in Seattle on Thursday as police officers worked to dismantle the city’s CHOP zone.
Video posted to Twitter shows officers on bikes riding toward demonstrators, who appeared to be standing at the intersection of Broadway and Pine Street around 5.30pm.
Within seconds, a commotion ensues and an officer is seen quickly grabbing a man and pulling him to the ground.
The officer is heard telling the protester on the ground to put his hands behind his back and soon pushes his knee into the back of the man’s neck as another cop comes to assist with the arrest.
Demonstrators watching the scene unfold are heard telling the officer to remove his knee from the man’s neck.
“Can you take your f**king knee off my neck, dude?” the protester who’s being restrained shouts as several cops surround the man.
The person who filmed the video and tweeted it out said: “Cops attack peaceful protestors at Broadway and Pine. 5:30pm July 2nd.”
“Dive tackled the kid next to me, put a knee on his neck. Can’t stress enough he did nothing.”
After the protester was walked off in handcuffs, a fellow demonstrator can be heard shouting: “Pigs! We’re gonna get him out! He will be right back, you dirty pigs!”
Protesters have broken out across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25.
Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died after a white cop kneeled on the back of this neck for nine minutes.
In the weeks since, demonstrators across the country have been protesting police brutality and systemic racism.
In Seattle, protesters formed the “lawless” CHOP — Capitol Hill Occupied Protest — just east of downtown.
The area had been occupied for roughly two weeks after cops abandoned a precinct station there following clashes with protesters.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered the area cleared after seeing 525 percent surge in crime, two fatal shootings, and robberies.
On Wednesday, at least 31 people were arrested, charged with failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession.
The streets were bulldozed in order to clear out the area.
“Our job is to support peaceful demonstration but what has happened on these streets over the last two weeks is lawless and it’s brutal and bottom line it is simply unacceptable,” Police Chief Carmen Best said.
One protest organizer, Derrek Allen Jones II, said some demonstrators attempted to stay but were surprised by the early intervention by officers who were “trampling everything I seen in sight, flipping tables.”
“People were trying to hold their ground but you could see the cops literally storm through people’s beds while they were sleeping,” he said.
“And literally say, ‘If you don’t get out, we will force you out or arrest you,'" he said.
Durkan said at a news conference on Wednesday: “The recent public safety threats have been well documented.”
“These acts of gun violence resulted in the tragic deaths of two teenagers, with multiple others seriously wounded.”
She continued: “Despite continued efforts to deescalate and bring community together, this violence demanded action."
Durkan also said while she supported the police in making arrests, she doesn't think many of those arrested for misdemeanors should be prosecuted.
She also said she was committed to work that would dismantle systemic racism and build true community safety.
“Events in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone this morning, while necessary, should not diminish the cause of racial justice,” Governor Jay Inslee said in a statement.
Attorney General William Barr praised Best for what he called “her courage and leadership in restoring the rule of law in Seattle.”
“Chief Best has rightly committed to continue the substantive discussion while ending the violence, which threatens innocent people and undermines the very rule-of-law principles that the protesters profess to defend," he said in a statement.
Source: Read Full Article