The sixth day of Black Lives Matter protests felt like a turning point and perhaps even a moment of catharsis–while activists acknowledged the work ahead to convert energy into policy.
The crescendo came when Nikkita Oliver emerged from City Hall to address the throngs of supporters from the 4th Avenue steps after meeting with the Mayor inside to deliver their demands. (You can watch that meeting because Oliver demanded they livestream proceedings as a condition of participating.)
“You had to’ve seen how the MC/crowd on ‘Showtime at the Apollo’ treated flunkies on amateur night to fully appreciate what Nikkita did to Mayor Durkan today,” Shaun Scott tweeted.
Oliver brought out Mayor Jenny Durkan to address the crowd and the interaction was much different than the previous day when two self-appointed protest leaders of murky credentials sought to quiet the crowd and appease the Mayor like chaperones on a field trip. Sharpened by years in the struggle, Oliver took a different approach: she held the Mayor’s feet to the fire.
The Mayor attempted to deflect focus from Seattle Police Department (SPD) and minimize misconduct, but Oliver kept redirecting her to the community demands around which the march had been organized.
One, defund SPD. Two, fund community-based health and safety. Three, don’t prosecute protesters and release them from jail.
The Mayor did offer some more favorable rhetoric, and later in the day she lifted curfew and pretended that she never wanted to lift the consent decree despite declaring SPD “transformed” earlier this year.
However, Mayor Durkan stopped short of promising action, saying “we can’t change things overnight” even when referring to the practice of police officers wearing mourning badges that obscure officer identification. This is something that absolutely can change overnight if the Mayor orders and enforces it. Instead, many officers took to covering both their badge numbers and name tags, making matters worse. Charles Mudede said it best: “What utter rubbish… Enough of this creepy deification of police work. Make it as banal as possible. And stop killing black people.”
