Just hours after the Seattle City Council voted to overturn Mayor Jenny Durkan's veto preventing budget cuts to the city's police department, 'Antifa' activists were filmed forcing police cars into retreat.
The striking footage was shared to social media and shows activists in full body armor brazenly marching down the streets as a fleet of cop cars retreats in reverse before them.
There were minor, brief skirmishes with police, with protesters alleging that at least one stun grenade was deployed unnecessarily but there was no further violence or use of force on either side reported.
SPD threw a blast ball into a group of protesters tonight for no reason, it went off right by the head of a protester that was laying on the ground. Air was spicy even on the 4th floor. pic.twitter.com/cbBXEeFTa8
I returned to the scene because I saw part of the explosive bounce towards me when it fired. What I found was the fuze block and handle of a blast ball, exactly where I had seen it fall#seattleprotests#seattleprotestpic.twitter.com/8DjI65BMdd
There was even a brief "dance party" held outside the police precinct according to some commentators online.
The proposed budget cuts fall well short of protesters demands, however, taking roughly $3 million of the department's $400 million. Black Lives Matter protesters had called for a 50 percent cut in the department's 1,400 personnel.
The city's first Black female police chief, Carmen Best, retired earlier this month amid controversy over the police handling of the protests and the impending budget cuts.
The Department of Justice recently declared Seattle, Portland and New York City as “anarchist jurisdictions,” announcing that federal funding would be cut until order is restored.
Meanwhile, city workers have begun etching the lettering of a giant Black Lives Matter mural on Pine Street on Capitol Hill into the street to make it a permanent fixture. It was first created in June during the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP).
The work is "an acknowledgement of the cultural significance of the site in the Black Lives Matter movement,” according to a city council spokesperson.
Don Blakeney, a spokesman for the Downtown Seattle Association, claims that more than 100 businesses have left the area since March amid the threat posed by both the pandemic and the ongoing violence that has accompanied some legitimate protests in the area, as well as a long-standing increase in crime.
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