If there are to be any consequences from the Seattle Police Department for the actions of six of its officers who traveled to Washington D.C. during the January 6th protests, it will be a matter of property law, not insurrection and revolt.
Seattle’s police accountability office released its findings Thursday from the months-long investigation into the department employees who were identified as being at the Capitol as protesters stormed in and attempted to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
Two officers have been recommended for firing after the Office of Professional Accountability found they broke Washington D.C. law by trespassing during the chaos. “Not only were there signs posted in that area, but there were ongoing violent acts, the use of less-lethal tools by law enforcement officers, and multiple other signs that being in that location was inappropriate and impermissible,” the OPA’s report on the trespassing violation reads.
Complaints against the other four were not sustained.
“These officers were entitled to exercise their freedom of expression and to assemble,” OPA director Andrew Myerberg writes in his summary of the investigation’s findings. “That they did so in a manner contrary to the majority view in Seattle does not alter this view.”
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz will “issue his disciplinary decision within the next 30 days,” SPD announced following the report’s release. “While we hear a call for swifter action, the consequences – as we have seen around the country – of undercutting due process serve only to undermine accountability,” the announcement reads.
Mayor Jenny Durkan did not immediately respond to the report’s release. UPDATE: In a statement sent to CHS Thursday night, Durkan praised the “detailed and thorough investigation” and its demonstration of “the strength and importance of Seattle’s independent oversight.”
“Unequivocally, Chief Diaz and I have clearly stated that any officer who engaged in unlawful events at the U.S. Capitol should be terminated,” the mayor said. “Actions at the U.S. Capitol were an attack on democracy and ultimately led to the loss of life of an officer and injuries to many others. Participation by any police officer was a betrayal of the officers who serve honorably every day across this nation to keep communities safe and protect the rule of law, often at great risk to themselves.”
The 21-page OPA report, below, documents the investigation and its limitations. While the office had access to video, department phones, email, and documents, the investigation turned up little new information. Video review was particularly fruitless, the OPA said. “OPA conducted extensive review of a number of third-party videos,” the report reads. “However, due to the sheer volume of video, this review was inherently limited.” The OPA says access to phones and email also turned up no useful evidence in the investigation.
Instead, the recommendations for discipline for the two officers found to have trespassed came thanks to evidence from the FBI and video and stills the OPA says showed the employees in a restricted area of the Capitol on January 6th:
The FBI informed OPA that these photographs were stills from a video. The FBI said that the video showed the individual recording people on the steps of the Capitol Building and scaling the walls. The individual turned to NE#1 and NE#2 and asked: “Well fuck, doing it?” The individual then turned to again face the building and a male off camera said: “Thinking about it.”
The OPA investigation determined a third officer may have also been trespassing but was unable to produce conclusive evidence. The three other officers, it found, “left the vicinity of the Capitol prior to the insurrection commencing.”
The full OPA report is below.
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We’ll see if the interim chief agrees or decides to demote their superior instead like in the pink umbrella incident.
All the Seattle cops who attended that white supremacist death-cult rally need to be fired, whether they “engaged in unlawful events” or not. It’s safe to assume that anyone who would fly clear across the country to show up and be counted at such an event clearly has a deep contempt for the vast majority of Seattle residents. I would not trust them to protect or serve me in a time of need — and I’m white. I can’t even imagine how people of color must feel.