Activists ask Seattle judge to dismiss charges over street protests

Activists who blocked downtown streets to protest environmental and immigration policies sought to have their charges dismissed today in Seattle.

The 25 protesters maintained that the city’s restrictions on street protests are unconstitutional and have increased arbitrarily over the past year. "Police can't just make it up as they go along," one of their attorneys, Neil Fox, told the court. The Seattle City Attorney's office countered that police are trying to adapt to recent protests where people lay down in the streets and blocked traffic for hours.

Judge Catherine McDowall in Seattle Municipal Court said she will rule in the next few days on the motion to dismiss. The city noted that it plans to drop one charge against one of the environmental protesters, Bob Barnes.

Lisa Morrow took part in that protest but was not arrested. She came to court to support the defendants, and said some want their charges dismissed, others don't. “I know some defendants actually want a jury trial, they’re interested in presenting, you know, the reasons why people feel these issues are important and are not getting enough attention," she said.

Their cases stem from two separate protests in downtown Seattle. One group erected tepees outside Chase Bank in May to protest the bank’s investments in tar sands oil pipelines. The other blocked traffic in June outside the Seattle headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to protest deportations.

Both groups face charges of obstruction and pedestrian interference. City Attorney spokesman Dan Nolte said three Chase protesters have already accepted plea deals allowing convictions to be stricken from their record in exchange for 24 hours of community service and no new violations for one year.

In legal filings, the protesters’ attorney Neil Fox noted that a protest by No New Youth Jail last March was allowed to run its course despite blocking traffic. He quoted Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best as saying at that time, “Nowhere in [the Constitution] does it say, ‘First Amendment right to free speech, except if it’s inconvenient.”

But filings note the city’s response to protests months later was different. “By May 2018, her department chose to break up another non-violent protest simply because of the claimed impact on traffic,” Fox said.

In August, City Attorney Pete Holmes announced he would take a harder line on protests that block city streets.

“My office can’t turn a blind eye to these actions,” Holmes wrote in the Seattle Times. “If you undertake protests that unlawfully interfere with other people’s lives and compel the redirection of life-safety resources, then you should be prepared to courageously accept the consequences of your actions.”

In September, SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb said in an interview that police will allow protesters to block streets temporarily “but at some point in time your demonstration in the street needs to get back on the sidewalk.”

Fox, the attorney for the protesters, wrote that there is "no question" that the city's actions violate the First Amendment.

“Given the complete arbitrariness of this prosecution and the lack of any standards, the Court should dismiss this case," he wrote.

If convicted of pedestrian interference, protesters face up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. For a conviction of obstructing a public officer, protesters face up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.