Seattle Police Guild: Anarchists are stealing the peaceful protesters’ message

There’s been a great deal of inflamed rhetoric over the past few days from elected officials, much of it aimed at Seattle police officers and their actions. Is some of this rhetoric making the situation worse? Dori spoke with Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan, who stands behind his officers’ actions during the protests.

“I am so proud of the Seattle Police Officer Guild members that are in full support of the rightful assembly of peaceful protesters. We put out a statement in support of how tragic the death of George Floyd in Minnesota is, I don’t know of a cop out there that would think that that action was OK,” he said.

“But we will not support violence against our community, in particular the officers on the front lines. Because what’s happening there is a faction of anarchists who are tragically stealing the peaceful protesters’ message,” Solan said. “We will not stand for anarchy. And we will not support any violence against our city or any property destruction.”

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As Dori noted, a cop was murdered in Oakland, Calif., and an officer was shot in Las Vegas a few nights ago, with several other incidents against police officers being reported nationwide. Solan agreed with Dori that much of the rhetoric from the Seattle City Council is further inflaming an already divided situation.

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“It’s unfortunate that elected officials use that type of rhetoric to divide us, divide our community against the police, when the police are the community. We defend and protect them. We have to defend the supporters of council member Morales who are against the police. We also have to protect the people that support the police,” Solan said.

“What’s astonishing to me is that in November, we had 76% of the Seattle populace not participate in the election,” he added. “I firmly believe that there is this majority of citizens in Seattle that are law abiding and they support the police. I believe what occurred with activists that are anti-police is that they have stolen the public safety narrative.”

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