The East Precinct’s cement wall is gone but the new “temporary” security fence that replaced it doesn’t seem likely to ever come down.

Thursday night after the final cement blocks making up the large barrier wall in place around the building were removed from 12th and Pine, police say a small group of “black-clad protesters” caused “significant damage” by smashing a dumpster into the facility’s parking garage door.

A 34-year-old Renton woman was arrested.

Thursday’s incident comes after Seattle Police finally responded to months of community complaints and crews this week removed the large cement barrier wall SPD installed around the facility last August as anti-police protests continued after a summer of massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations and rallies in the city including the CHOP occupied protest camp.

Incidents like it, SPD says, are the reason the building will remain clad in a tall security fence the department has described as temporary.

Bolted to the building, the fence means, while the sidewalks and street in front of the facility are finally clear, the East Precinct itself has been made a center of protest and the building’s connection to the neighborhood has most likely permanently changed.

CHS was passed around City Hall last week in search of specifications on the fence and cost of installation. Seattle Police initially referred us to the Seattle Department of Transportation which was managing the installation. SDOT said this was a matter for Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office. Thursday, a Durkan representative sent us back to SPD. A police spokesperson Friday morning said the information would require a formal public disclosure request.

A police department spokesperson said previously that full removal of the security features would depend on “whether the building again becomes a target for arson and property damage.”

That status as a target appears to be a given as the tit for tat back and forth between the East Precinct and the small but determined groups of anti-police black bloc demonstrators continues to play out nearly every night with occasional dangerous flare-ups.

Saturday night, after a relatively quiet, pandemic-restricted May Day in Seattle, a dozen or so black bloc protesters were attempting to hold the intersection of 12th and Pine outside the East Precinct when a vehicle approached and slowed from the west on E Pine.

Video recorded by the @MarcusKulik cam above the intersection shows the chaotic scene after a protester approaches the slow moving car and ends up on the hood before the driver tries to outmaneuver protesters trying to intervene, speeding away with the person still on the vehicle.

https://twitter.com/MarcusKulik/status/1388741331460116482

“At about 2300 hours, while they blocked the intersection, a vehicle driven by an elderly male approached the group while driving E/B on Pine. The rioters blocked his path and when he tried to drive around them, one of the rioters jumped on the hood of his vehicle,” SPD’s brief on the incident reads. “The driver attempted to get away, but the rioter hung onto the hood. He eventually drove E/B on Pine. At about mid-block between 12th and 13th the rioter fell off of the hood.”

Police say the protester initially was found to have no major injuries but later complained of a hurt head and was transported by private ambulance to King County Jail. The driver, meanwhile, was not immediately cited by police.

Watching the video, it’s clear both the protester and the driver are lucky nobody was seriously injured.

Fortunately, the only victim in Thursday night’s incident was the East Precinct’s garage door. A department spokesperson said there are no immediate plans for changes to the new security fence setup after Thursday night’s damage.

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