Seattle cop appears to kneel on CHOP demonstrator’s neck in video while clearing out protest zone
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: On Thursday, July 2, Seattle police officers were filmed kneeling on the necks of two Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) demonstrators on two separate occasions. According to a report in the Daily Mail, around 5:30 pm on Thursday, when the protestors were squatting in the middle of the intersection of Broadway and Pine Street, a group of police officers on bicycles rode toward them and tackled them.
In a video, an officer could be seen tackling one of the demonstrators and telling him to put his hands behind his back. As the officer and one of his colleagues pinned the protester to the ground, one demonstrator could be heard yelling: “Can you please not put your knee on his neck?”
Following that, the protester being pinned could be heard telling the officer, “Can you take your f***ing knee off my neck, dude?” He was subsequently handcuffed and taken into custody.
In a separate video, reportedly from before dawn on Thursday, another police officer could be seen pressing his knee against the neck of another demonstrator near the same intersection, even as several people yelled, “Get off his neck!”
“You're hurting him,” said a protester.
During the daytime incident, another video captured the same incident from a different angle. In the video, officers reportedly warned the protesters to clear the intersection, to which a protester responded, “Do it. Come f*** some girl up who’s reading.”
This was immediately followed by the cops tackling the protestors. A protester could be heard shouting, “What the f***, man! What the f***!”
The policeman kneeling on a protestor’s neck is especially significant here, considering that protests started after the death of George Floyd on May 25. Floyd’s death was captured on camera as well as a now-fired and arrested Minneapolis policeman pinned Floyd to the ground with his knee on the African-American man’s neck. Floyd, unable to breathe, passed out and soon died.
Per the Daily Mail, the Seattle police claim to have arrested more than two dozen people early on Thursday who gathered in the area the officers had cleared hours earlier after the mayor ordered an end to the city’s ‘occupied’ protest zone. The police statement said that they used pepper spray and blast balls after people in the crowd started throwing bottles at officers.
Early Wednesday morning, cops cleared the occupied zone. More than three dozen people were arrested early Wednesday, charged with failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession. Mayor Jenny Durkan reportedly ordered the clearing after two recent fatal shootings.
Watch the video of the altercation here.