Police Brutality Rally / Westlake Center / 02-12-2011
The activists that gathered Saturday afternoon to protest police brutality didn't add much to the on-going debate on how to reform the Seattle Police Department. The usual cast of Anarchists and Socialist groups made up the majority of the crowd of approximately 100 demonstrators, along with a small contingent from victims advocacy groups such as The October 22nd Coalition. Speakers took aim against the recent Police Accountability Forum hosted by The Stranger, calling the event a sham, and evoked the recent anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt as proof of the effectiveness of street activism.
The lack of a cohesive message at these events continues to undermine this movement. What are these groups demanding? Beyond the prosecution of Ian Birk for the shooting of John T. Williams, it's difficult to say. Many of these activists are so hostile to even the existence of a police force, it's difficult to find any logical starting point for a dialogue. And many are hostile to the idea of dialogue. When a posed this question to one activist in attendance, who was distributing literature for the Seattle Anti-imperialist Committee, his response was 'there's no dialogue with racist gun thugs."
Hey, at least this revolution has a band.
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