Protesters still control six blocks of the city
The Seattle City Council voted Monday night to ban the police use of chokeholds, tear gas, and pepper spray as the city deals with continued protests, including a six-block area of the city that has been taken over by protesters demanding the abolition of the city's police department, KING-TV reported.
The legislation bans the crowd control methods as unlawful uses of force that open the city up to legal liability in the event those methods are used.
"It has been historically known through the evidence and other research that the use of CS gas, otherwise known as tear gas, can often be a less lethal way of dispersing a crowd without having to go hands on, without using our riot batons," Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said. "So it has been determined to be less dangerous to do that. That said, it has been very clear to us that people are not wanting us to use the CS."
Some residents complained during the meeting that tear gas used to disperse protests last week forced them to leave their homes, even though they were not participating in the protests.
Demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a former Minneapolis Police Department officer resulted in conflicts between police and protesters. Protesters reportedly threw objects, including "incendiary devices," at officers, and police used tear gas to break up the protests on June 8.
Now, the same neighborhood where tear gas was used has been occupied by protesters who created the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (now referred to as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest). The zone includes six blocks surrounding Seattle police's East Precinct, which the department abandoned. Protesters want the police department abolished and have demanded a series of reforms related to racial equity.
With Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan apparently content to allow the ongoing protest to continue, it's unclear how or when the city will regain control of the area and the police precinct and city property.
"Seattle is fine. Don't be so afraid of democracy," Durkan wrote on Twitter in response to criticism from President Donald Trump.
