Riots in Seattle injure police officers of colour—target Seattle city council members homes

Twelve Seattle police officers were injured in rioting on Sunday that also targeted city council members and their homes. Among them were Elyssa Khalifé, a female Muslim Seattle police officer was severely injured this weekend in what the media still calls a "peaceful protest."

According to Khalifé, the rioters "threw paint, rocks, metal, frozen water bottles, glass, and improvised explosives" at officers, "threw a mortar that left an 8 inch hole in the wall" then poured "gasoline around the building" while officers were inside.

With their lives at risk, Khalifé and her colleagues acted to disperse the crowd. In the fighting, Khalifé suffered a torn medial meniscus and "will require surgery to be able to live an active lifestyle again."

According to Khalife the rioters were chanting "I don’t see no riot here, take off your riot gear." She was injured even though she 'was wearing shin guards, and other protective gear."

Before the weekend, a federal judge ruled that he will allow a recent ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council that bars police from using tear gas, pepper spray and other crowd control devices to go into effect. That ban was scheduled to take effect on Sunday, but the US Department of Justice obtained a temporary restraining order. Further back and forth resulted in a judge giving police Chief Carmen Best some latitude to use less-lethal ordinance methods if she determined it was vital to avoiding loss of life. With the ban on less-lethal weapons, Seattle Police officers are left with guns and batons for use in self-defense.

Meanwhile rioters, made up of mostly white activists, continue to target minorities and public officials even though they are championing their cause. Seattle Council Member Deborah Juarez, the first Native American person elected to the Council, had rioters target her home. Juarez says she began receiving "really vile" messages July 10, after protesters shared her home address and contact information online, effectively doxxing her. Juarez has stated that she supports cuts to the Seattle Police Department budget but has not, unlike seven of her council colleagues, committed to a goal of cutting the SPD budget by 50 percent.

"They put my personal cellphone number, my address and started putting pictures of my home and address on Twitter and Facebook, and then I started getting vicious calls," Juarez said.

At Juarez’s home, rioters have used a bullhorn, shined car headlights into her windows late at night and spray painted the street with messages such as "corporate bootlicker." Juarez claims she stayed at a motel one night and warned family members to keep away.

According to Indian Country Today Juarez said "This is my life. This is home. This is not Coachella. This is not City Hall. I’m not the toxic dumping ground where you need to come talk about your white privilege and how you need to talk about Black lives, because you sure as f*** don’t care about my life."

Actions of the demonstrators against Juarez have been widely condemned by Native American advocacy groups.

Rioters have also vandalized the homes of Council Member Alex Pederson and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Messages written on Pedersen’s windows have included, "Don’t be racist trash" and "F*** you." According to the Mayor’s office messages written on the street at Durkan’s home have included "Guillotine Jenny" and "Resign Bitch." Durkan’s address is protected under a state confidentiality program due to threats related to her time as a US attorney and yet Marxist Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant still organized and led a crowd to the location.

Over the weekend, protesters also showed up at the homes of Council Members Lisa Herbold and Tammy Morales both of whom support the 50 percent reduction of the SPD budget. Herbold has even called for firing white police officers to avoid firing officers of colour.

It is not currently known if any of the officials who are seeking to defund SPD, called the police for protection from the rioters.