Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell: SPD Proud Boys protest hoax was ‘totally unacceptable’

City leaders issued criticism for the Seattle Police Department on Thursday, following the release of an investigation that found several officers had participated in a coordinated hoax designed to deceive protesters in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone.

SPD ‘added fuel to the fire’ during 2020 protests with fabricated Proud Boys threat

The ruse saw several police officers engage in radio chatter in June of 2020, describing a group of armed, agitated Proud Boys protesters moving through the city toward the CHOP. It was later found that the officers were lying about the existence of the protest in a concerted effort to mislead those in the CHOP.

The operation included a range of SPD employees, including Bryan Grenon, who at the time was serving as the captain of the East Precinct. Grenon was later promoted to assistant chief, but is no longer with the department. While then-SPD Chief Carmen Best denied knowledge of the hoax, Assistant Chief of Patrol Operations Tom Mahaffey did admit he was tacitly aware of it, albeit without direct knowledge or participation.

Ultimately, an investigation from Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability concluded that the ruse “improperly added fuel to the fire” during an already-fraught stage in the year’s protests, “and could have had dire results.” It was months after the ruse took place before that investigation even began, sparked by a request from Converge Media’s Omari Salisbury for body-worn camera footage from officers alleged to have witnessed the Proud Boys protesters.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell agreed with the OPA’s conclusions in a statement to KIRO Radio reporter Hanna Scott on Thursday, calling the incident “totally unacceptable,” while thanking Salisbury for his role in helping bring the details of the ruse to light.

“This kind of tactic never should have been considered, condoned, or carried out in the first place,” Harrell said. “The path to de-escalation is never through the threat, real or fake, of further agitation.”

“The damage done to public trust by an incident like this is immeasurable,” Harrell continued. “It is a clear breakdown in leadership. We simply cannot have a chief or command staff claim that they are unaware of such critical tactical decisions, whether in this instance or abandoning the East Precinct.”

Seattle police officer who rolled bicycle over protester’s head suspended for 7 days

Harrell concluded by stating that “this cannot happen again, period,” and that he plans to meet with interim SPD Chief Adrian Diaz and members of the department’s command staff to discuss how to “ensure that this does not happen again.” He also plans to speak with City Council Public Safety Chair Lisa Herbold for additional recommendations.

Others have called for further action, with Councilmember Tammy Morales pushing for “an investigation outside City process.” Former Mayor Mike McGinn agreed, proposing a “complete investigation” spearheaded by the state Attorney General’s office.

“The city council member is right,” McGinn tweeted on Thursday. “The misinformation came from SPD command staff. And that behavior was kept under wraps by SPD and Mayor Durkan for a year and a half. Add in deleted texts, other SPD misinformation, and defiance of court orders — where is the civilian control?”

The OPA recommended discipline for Grenon and an operations center officer, although neither are with the department anymore. It did not sustain allegations against four other officers who participated in the effort, finding that it was “predominantly attributable to the lack of supervision and guidance provided to them” by their superiors.

Follow @NickNorthwest