By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Last week, the nation witnessed a form of protest that should not be accepted and that went against the very thing activist and members of progressive organizations are trying to change and that is violence.
Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC destroying property and life in an effort to overturn or delay the outcome of the Presidential election. The ironic issue is the double standard the world witnessed in how law enforcement handled the crisis or failed to handle the crisis, especially when you contrast it to how law enforcement historically conducts itself in the presences of peaceful Black protesters.
Numerous investigations into the incident, described as an insurrection, discovered that a number of police officers from around the country as well as current and ex-military personnel were directly involved in the mellay and mayhem that caused six deaths on the infamous day. According to reports, the FBI found several Seattle Police officers were involved in the insurrection.
In a statement, interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said, “If any SPD officers were directly involved in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, I will immediately terminate them.”
As a result, Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County (BLMSKC) is demanding that the interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz immediately fire any SPD officers who took part in last week’s insurrection at the Capitol Building.
“BLM demands that any Seattle Police Department employee who participated in the insurrection against the United States be immediately terminated,” said BLMSKC in a statement. “Further, we demand you as the Department’s leader publicly acknowledge SPD’s racism problem and pledge to confront it aggressively. What happened at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, was yet another in a string of attacks that have happened across the country in 2020.”
In addition, in the hours and days after the insurrection right-winged propaganda designed to minimize what the public witnessed began trying to shift the blame for the incident to organizations like Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA in order to avoid responsibility for the harm caused across the nation.
Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan further perpetuated these claims by tweeting, “”Far right and far left are responsible” for the attack on the Capitol.”
In response to Solan’s tweet, The Black Law Enforcement Association of Washington (BLEAW) has called for Solan’s immediate resignation.
“It was apparent that those who had entered the capitol building were pro-Trump supporters and other supporters of QAnon and other extremists,” said BLEAW in a statement.
“After the nation had seen what had transpired, many people resorted to social media disputing who was involved in the incident, placing blame elsewhere and specifically blaming the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and ANTIFA as the cause of the damage and mayhem,” the statement continued. “What is troubling is that Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) and the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs (COMPAS), commented using Twitter, where he also made the same claims.”
“[BLEAW] demands that Mike Solan immediately resigns as president of SPOG and president of the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs. Anything short of his resignation would be considered an insult to all of the good men and women in law enforcement who work tirelessly to be the best stewards and guardians of the communities in which they serve,” the statement concluded.
As of press time, two Seattle Police officers had been placed on administrative leave following their identification in photos taken at the insurrection.
