Jury awards $700k to Seattle protesters jailed for writing anti-police slogans in chalk on barricade
Four protesters jailed for writing anti-police graffiti in chalk on a temporary barricade near a Seattle police station have been awarded nearly $700,000 after a federal court jury decided their civil rights had been violated.
The arrests of the four on Jan. 1, 2021, followed the intense Black Lives Matter protests that rocked Seattle and numerous other cities around the world last summer in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man. He was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe.
“The tensions of that summer and the feelings in the city at the time clearly play a major role in this case,” said Nathaniel Flack, one of the lawyers for the four demonstrators. “And what the evidence showed was that it was hostility toward Black Lives Matter protesters that motivated the arrests and imprisonment of the plaintiffs.”
Derek Tucson, Robin Snyder, Monsieree De Castro and Erik Moya-Delgado were each awarded $20,000 in compensatory damages and $150,000 in punitive damages when the 10-person jury returned its verdict late Friday.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court against the city of Seattle and four police officers, Ryan Kennard, Dylan Nelson, Alexander Patton and Michele Letizia. The jury found that the city and officers arrested and jailed the four in retaliation, and the officers acted with malice, reckless disregard or oppression in denying the plaintiffs their First Amendment rights.
Email messages sent Tuesday to the Seattle city attorney’s office, the Seattle Police Department and the police guild seeking comment were not immediately returned.
On New Year’s Day 2021, the four protesters had used chalk and charcoal to write messages such as “Peaceful Protest” and “Free Them All” on a temporary barricade near the police station’s East Precinct. Bodycam footage introduced during the trial showed that three police cruisers eventually arrived on the scene to arrest the four for violating the city’s anti-graffiti laws.
The four spent a night in jail but were never prosecuted.
Flack said testimony presented at trial showed that police typically do not enforce the law banning the use of sidewalk chalk. Advocates even showed video of officers writing “I (heart) POLICE” in chalk on a sidewalk at another event in Seattle.
Flack said it was also unusual for the four to be jailed because it took place during a COVID-19 outbreak and only the most serious offenders would be locked up.
“These officers did what they called the ‘protester exception,’ which meant if you’re a protester, if you put out a certain message or a certain type of speech, they’re going to book you in jail,” Flack said.
“The jury found not only that the individual officers did that, but that there was actually a broader practice that city leadership was aware of and for which it was also responsible,” he said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said this should be a warning and a lesson to police officers and other public officials across the country who violate citizens’ First Amendment rights.
“This was a content and position-based law enforcement decision that resulted in our clients being incarcerated because of what they had to say,” Flack said. “The important thing here is that the police cannot lock people up because of the content of their speech.”
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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.