5/30/2020 – 6:00 pm
Seattle doesn’t need a curfew, pepper spray, and tear gas. We need an end to racist police violence. We need economic and housing security, including immediate COVID relief, housing, and jobs through the Amazon Tax. We need an end to the inhumane homeless sweeps. We need the cancelation of rents, mortgages, and utility payments for those who have lost income. We need an elected community oversight board with full powers over the police, including hiring and firing.
The outrage on the streets today represents the deep community anger about police violence layered on top of profound and longstanding suffering because the political establishment has failed to meet the basic needs of working people before and during this crisis. I was proud to be there and speak to the thousands at the protest action in Seattle downtown.
Shame on Mayor Durkan for using the cover of the COVID crisis to crack down on protesters. Durkan and other establishment politicians, who claim to be saddened by the murder of George Floyd, have enabled the systematic racism and violence from the Seattle Police Department. They are also preparing to carry out brutal austerity and cuts to social programs, which will disproportionately affect communities of color, unless our movements fight back.