Posted on August 26, 2020

Fire Set Outside Seattle Police Precinct, Capitol Hill Windows Smashed During Overnight Protest

Heidi Groover, Seattle Times, August 25, 2020

Seattle police broke up a crowd of protesters on Capitol Hill on Monday night after some in the group threw fireworks at the East Precinct and started a fire outside the building. Police arrested one person for investigation of arson {snip}

Earlier Monday evening, a group of about 250 people had gathered to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, marching past the East Precinct on Capitol Hill, then to the West Precinct downtown and back to the East Precinct. Along the way, some in the crowd smashed parking meters, graffitied, damaged an Amazon Go store and broke windows of several Starbucks locations on Capitol Hill and near the West Precinct. {snip}

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At the West Precinct — which the city surrounded with cement barricades during protests this summer — some in the crowd spray-painted the building with “burn me” and other messages, threw objects at the building and damaged surveillance cameras. {snip}

Throughout most of the protest, there was no visible police presence. When the group returned to the East Precinct, some began throwing fireworks at the building and started a fire behind a chain link fence surrounding the precinct.

Police quickly descended on foot, in SUVs and with an armored vehicle. {snip}

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