SEATTLE — Big, gray concrete blocks, heavy and thick, stackable like Legos, all form a surprise new concrete wall around the East Precinct.
“A giant ugh, I think that’s the best way to describe it. More like a ‘Really. OK. What’s the purpose of that?’” said Sophia, who works in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Just a few nights ago surveillance cameras caught a rioter trying to set the East Precinct on fire as police officers worked inside.
Police say others tried to seal one of the doors shut with quick-drying cement—an effort to turn the East Precinct into a death trap.
Nineteen-year-old Desmond David-Pitts has been charged with arson and faces 20 years in prison if convicted.
“It was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back and showed that the security measures that were there weren’t as effective as they could be, and enhanced security was necessary,” said Sgt. Randy Huserik, SPD spokesman.
In the spring, the East Precinct was the focus of intense battles between police and protesters. So intense, officers abandoned the precinct for weeks.
Making the precinct easier to defend possibly could tone down the confrontations.
“I think short term it’s definitively a positive thing to keep potential protesters and police, like, separated. Because back when they were toe to toe on the front lines of the protests it was just constant crisis and constant disaster,” said John Cormie, who lives in the neighborhood.
“I don’t necessarily know if it’s going to limit the confrontations or the number of them, but hopefully it will act more as a deterrent in some of the recent attempts that we’ve seen to scale the wall and get in between the security layer and the building itself,” said Huserik.
But Cormie says the wall is a temporary fix. “Building a wall is not a long-term solution. Separation between police and community is maybe not sustainable or helpful in the long term.”
SDOT currently building a concrete wall around the #Seattle Police east precinct. This comes after a man tried to set the building on fire Monday night. @KIRO7Seattle pic.twitter.com/8XGhxRWbDJ
— Tyler Unwin (@TylerUnwin) August 28, 2020
“I think what this shows you is that these people are intent on killing police officers,” said Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Guild, who called the act “clear domestic terrorism.’”
SDOT crews previously put cement barriers around the East Precinct in June during the time of the CHOP protest zone before eventually removing them.
>> Previous: Mayor Durkan made call to remove barriers around East Precinct on Capitol Hill
“We’re being held hostage by a group of 100 to 150 people that are bent on destroying this city and hurting police officers,” Solan said.
Solan said the Guild headquarters also became the target of three firebombs, not long after the riot outside the East Precinct. “Our surveillance video captured two individuals scouting our location for several hours,” Solan said.
Surveillance video from that location shows one of the firebombs bursting, igniting the building’s rear stairway in flames, before officers were able to extinguish the fire.
Solan said officers are dispirited when no- one in city leadership denounced the attacks.
“That’s why it’s incumbent upon our elected officials to put a stop to this immediately,” he said. “How can city leaders be so feckless? It can’t just be on the officers. This is an absolute overthrow attempt of some of our government institutions, and police are in the way. They or the officers will get hurt or killed so they can put forth that agenda.”
Solan said he believes the attacks on officers will escalate, but officers must focus on jobs outside of protecting themselves and their buildings from arson attacks.
“They’re not going to bully us into submission,” he said. “They’re not going to bully this community into submission.”
Cox Media Group