I think the judge's decision gives the City some protection in terms of their
Consent Decree. The Council's vote and Best's voluntary restrictions work towards that, too. The SPD still has a bit of room in case Best wants to utilize chemical agents.
I am always impressed by the number of AA Police Chiefs, how they know their city and their criminal elements and are articulate. If you want to throw gasoline on a fire, send in federal troops. You'll unite a community and see non-violent participants become part of the crowd.
As bad as the optics are and the loss of business some suffer in the Capital Hill area, the elements in Seattle and Portland have been there for a while. People protest peacefully including community leaders as well as BLM. Groups like antifa exist in the community but many come from out of town or out of state. They are highly organized, sophisticated and make use of communications as most extremist groups nowadays do. They may even bring materials for attacks from outside the city and are also predominately white. Anarchists. Then there's the occupying group which is also predominately white. Like other such groups - Occupy Wall Street, etc - wait them out - unless there is loss of life, which, when it happened, SPD moved in. Buildings and damage can be repaired.
As progressive as the city's image has become, the Northwest also has a significant racist history with alt-right group presence. Feds could provide additional assistance and would be welcomed for that.
The Central District used to be AA, but are being driven out by inflation and gentrification and costs-of-living. Poverty level has fallen while Seattle’s median income is $93,481, a gain of 7.7 percent. High income families have also spiked with a rise of 20.9 percent of households making more than $200,000. Other areas where there are more people living below the FPL are the University district and the International district. They really are not feeding into any protests. Maybe some of the young, disaffected homeless.
One can understand how someone in Indiana or Kansas or non-urban Texas may look at flames and property destruction and decide Seattle and Portland are in "chaos" and "rioting". I imagine they reacted the same after Rodney King when whole cities or entire neighborhoods were aflame. Best's voluntary restrictions serve the purpose of not further inflaming the situation, help with re-establish community policing outreach and move towards progress towards lifting the consent decree.
George Floyd's and others' murders just touched an old nerve for the peaceful protestors. I have no doubt that there are racist cops in Seattle, but that is Best's and the Council's problem and gets back to how you get rid of those. I have a sibling in Seattle and another in Bellevue but would defer to any other insight from our Seattle posters. I agree that with COVID hitting them hard, layoffs despite Amazon, etc increasing hiring, and now this mess, it can well be considered a "mess" for the City fathers. I'll bet police moral is down and the economic damage will be significant. The mayor has slammed the defunding police call.
