Protestors sue City of Seattle, Seattle Police Department and King County for alleged misconduct
By Alexa Peters
Interstate 5’s Pine Street overpass. Photo by Jake Gravbrot.
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On Monday, July 13, The Stritmatter Firm and James Bible Law Group in representation of 15 Seattle-based protestors, made a notice of claims against the City of Seattle, Seattle Police Department (SPD), and King County on the grounds of alleged misconduct in their responses to citywide demonstrations since May.
According to the firms, the City and SPD’s improper conduct includes the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters, which resulted in injury, negligence of duty, and the exposure of peaceful protesters to life-threatening conditions. The plaintiffs are also calling out the misconduct of King County Sheriff Officer Mike Brown, who publicly mocked the striking and killing of protestor Summer Taylor on Twitter.
In their claim, each of the 15 plaintiffs have made public their names and the ways they were affected. The plaintiffs include protestors like Dan Gregory, who says he was shot while preventing a vehicle from striking unprotected protesters in the established protest zone; Malichi Howell, whose thumb and forefinger were shattered by a flash grenade as he attempted to escape SPD’s violence; as well as the Estate of Summer Taylor, who was killed by a vehicle that was able to enter the peaceful protest zone on Interstate 5, which they claim had not been truly shut down. Dalia, Matt and Luke Taylor, and the family of Summer Taylor, have also included a tort of outrage claim against the King County Sheriff's Office for the “politicized mockery of Summer's death.”
Joey Weiser holds up the laptop as Diaz Love participates in the Official Rally for Diaz Love & Summer Taylor from their hospital bed. Photo by Jake Gravbrot.
“There were a variety of nights where pepper spray and blast balls and other sorts of rubber bullets… There was one night in particular, I believe it was June 7, where I had seen more tear gas and smoke than I've probably ever seen in my entire life flood the streets… the powder got all over my face and all over my body and it immediately started attacking my mucus membranes… I couldn't breathe,” said plaintiff Joey Weiser.
Weiser — who made a personal injury claim after being subjected to tear gas, pepper spray, blast balls and other shrapnel from SPD on multiple occasions while live streaming the protests — is a YouTube channel manager at Microsoft. He says he got involved with the protests out of a feeling of responsibility to Seattle and the community of Capitol Hill, where he was born and raised, and also because he recognized he had unique skills he could bring to the table.
“I'm well versed in video footage and video content and I work as a social media manager sort of in tandem with that, so I'm uniquely qualified to capture that footage and make sure that the world sees it,” he said. “As a resident in this community and as an activist myself, I felt like, if not me then who?”
Weiser says he was even live streaming throughout his tear gas experience recounted above.
“This is definitely visible on the internet. Something like 100,000 people saw me crying on the live stream, running over to the medic station and having them pour a gallon of water on my face,” he said. “It was a really horrific experience for me because I've never experienced anything like that before in my life.”
Weiser would often live stream protest events along with Diaz Love, the other victim struck on the freeway with Summer Taylor on July 4. Another reason he says got involved in the lawsuit is because he was given additional footage of Taylor being struck that he believed prosecutors needed to see.
Official Rally for Diaz Love & Summer Taylor. Photo by Jake Gravbrot.
“Someone sent me a video clip and to my knowledge it's only been seen by one other person. It is a clip of Summer Taylor being hit on the highway and it's from a different angle than most people have seen,” said Weiser. “I felt really uncomfortable having this footage. So then, after joining this group I got access to the prosecutor's email and I was able to send that along because I don't believe it should be in my hands.”
In the end, Weiser says he and other plaintiffs have one major goal with this suit: to underscore their constitutional rights to speak, assemble, and report on behalf of the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd movement.
“Our first amendment right to protest is paramount and incredibly important to Seattle's core values,” he said. “I hope this lawsuit can draw more attention to the fact that Black lives are still being lost every single day by police. It's an injustice and we're not going to rest until that ends.”