SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Seattle police confiscate protesters tripod as ‘evidence’
May 12, 2015, 4:00 PM | Updated: 4:55 pm
Annie Lukins tells KIRO Radio's Ron and Don about her experience on Harbor Island on Tuesday when her protest tripod was confiscated. (Photo courtesy of Rising Tide)
(Photo courtesy of Rising Tide)
A Shell oil protester lost her tripod to the Seattle Police Department’s evidence room on Tuesday.
Annie Lukins was on Harbor Island when the 15- to 20-foot tripod she was protesting from was taken by Seattle police, she told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show. They took it as evidence, she added.
“Evidence of what?” Ron Upshaw inquired.
If Lukins was on public property and there was no trespassing, then there was no crime committed, he said.
“If I’m sitting in a chair [on public property] and police take it, I want to know why,” Upshaw said.
So Lukins’ protest tripod was confiscated as evidence, but a KIRO Radio car that got smashed during the May Day protest wasn’t.
“Why would they take your tripod and not confiscate real evidence?” Don O’Neill asked.
The tripod used in Tuesday’s protest is a method often used in “forest defense,” Lukins explained. It takes a handful of people to setup and “effectively blocked the road,” she said. Lukins was protesting at Shell’s fuel transfer station.
Don said he wants to get the tripod back for Lukins.
“This is an outrage,” he yelled. He vowed to help get Lukins’ tripod back.
Protests over Shell are only just beginning. There are protests scheduled May 16-18 in Seattle.
