SEATTLE — Seattle City Council members are skeptical about the use of force, not only on Monday, but over the weekend as well.
"I'm not seeing advance orders to disperse," said Councilmember Lisa Herbold about the Monday incident on Capitol Hill.
"They're supposed to be an order to disperse."
Herbold said she was also downtown on Saturday for the peaceful demonstration and heard the first flash bangs.
She says she also didn't hear orders to disperse then.
Herbold also questioned the point of the curfew orders.
"That achieves what tactical objective?"
Herbold will host a council hearing on the issues on Wednesday.
Council President Lorena Gonzalez however, suggests, that the use of force has already set the city back.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best suggested as recently as last month that the city is in compliance with the federal consent decree and no longer needs federal oversight.
The department has been under federal supervision after a series of high profile cases involving police and people of color, notably the death of John T. Williams.
Now, Gonzalez says a federal judge is likely to slow down any sort of final ruling based on the events of the past weekend.
"I would not be surprised if Judge Robart at this point, decided that the city of Seattle needed to be under under more under additional supervision, as a result of what we have seen this weekend and the demonstration response by our police force, and that is an unfortunate situation for us to find ourselves in. We are, I think, at risk of compromising the years worth of work that we have done to try to rebuild trust with communities of color," Gonzalez told KING 5.
"I think there's a I think there is a risk of what we are seeing happening in the streets and how the police department is responding. There is a risk that that will factor into the judge's decision about whether or not to end court supervision in the consent decree."
