Seattle City Council presses police on May Day melee

The Seattle Police Department was grilled Tuesday by members of the Seattle City Council, who want to know what went wrong on May Day of last year and how police plan to prevent similar chaos this time around.

The Public Safety, Civil Rights and Technology Committee met to discuss in detail an expert review of how police responded to Seattle’s May Day 2012 protests.

The 62-page report, done by former Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michael Hillman, criticized SPD for a lack of planning that led to confusion among officers and widespread violence and vandalism. Hillman said it was “not a shining example of successful crowd management and protection of property.”

“Why does this keep happening?” Councilman Bruce Harrell asked Police Chief John Diaz Tuesday. He said the city should have learned from previous protests, such as WTO.

Diaz said the discussion had turned into a “finger-pointing exercise.”

“I take responsibly for everything that happens on this department,” he said. “But I have to say that the vast majority of the time, year in and year out, the men and women of this department have done an incredibly great job.”

Diaz said his department has implemented the vast majority of recommendations Hillman made in his report and has already begun making preparations for May Day 2013.

Captain Chris Fowler, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting, will serve as incident commander on May 1. He told the council that more than 370 officers and sergeants have been trained on current crowd control and demonstration tactics.

Meanwhile, local anarchists have urged a week of action culminating on May 1, 2013.

“In May Day 2012’s acts of destruction we found a joy so wholesome and liberating,” the post read. ” … get out there, do something, it’s easy to attack!”