Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death

[George K]

$500K to settle lawsuit over man’s death in CHOP shoot

The city of Seattle has paid $500,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the father of a 19-year-old man shot and killed after Seattle police abandoned their East Precinct on Capitol Hill during racial justice protests in June 2020.

Horace Anderson and the estate of his dead son, Horace Lorenzo Anderson, filed the complaint in King County Superior Court in November 2021, naming as defendants former Mayor Jenny Durkan, Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the city of Seattle. The lawsuit alleged the city and those leaders encouraged participants in the so-called CHOP — Capitol Hill Occupied Protest — to break the law and “undermine the safety of others” for political theater.

Durkan, the lawsuit claimed, downplayed the illegal behavior and “celebrated the existence, message and methods of CHOP and CHOP participants” even as police officials, including then-Chief Carmen Best, warned of increasing mayhem and violence around Cal Anderson Park.

The younger Anderson, who went by his middle name, Lorenzo, had graduated from an alternative youth-education program on June 19, 2020, and visited the CHOP zone the next day, where he ran into 18-year-old Marcel Long, according to police. The pair had a history of animosity and, according to police and witnesses, they exchanged words.

Police said video surveillance showed Anderson was walking away when Long, who had been restrained momentarily by others, pulled a handgun and shot him several times.

The lawsuit alleged police were unable or unwilling to enter the CHOP zone to search for a suspect or conduct an investigation for hours after the shooting. Long was charged with first-degree murder in the weeks after the shooting, but was not arrested for nearly a year.

[jon-nyc]

Good. They need some accountability for abandoning part of the city.

[Horace]

@jon-nyc said in Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death:

Good. They need some accountability for abandoning part of the city.

Do you happen to recall whether, at the time, you thought it was unreasonable for the cops to abandon their station in the middle of the CHOP neighborhood?

I seem to recall a consensus that they sort of had to, because they weren't able to employ force to regulate the behavior of the mob.

[jon-nyc]

My recollection, for what it’s worth, was that the mayor was giving them space so as not to antagonize them. This was against the will of the SPD.

Again, IIRC.

[Horace]

@jon-nyc said in Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death:

My recollection, for what it’s worth, was that the mayor was giving them space so as not to antagonize them. This was against the will of the SPD.

Again, IIRC.

I'm just trying to correlate your judgment that they need to pay for their errors, with an idea of what should have been done at the time. Should the cops have done their job, and used force to control that mob?

[Jolly]

1. $500,000 ain't enough.
2. The cops should be able to do their jobs.

[jon-nyc]

@Horace said in Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death:

@jon-nyc said in Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death:

My recollection, for what it’s worth, was that the mayor was giving them space so as not to antagonize them. This was against the will of the SPD.

Again, IIRC.

I'm just trying to correlate your judgment that they need to pay for their errors, with an idea of what should have been done at the time. Should the cops have done their job, and used force to control that mob?

Yes

[Horace]

@Jolly said in Seattle to pay $500K for CHOP death:

1. $500,000 ain't enough.
2. The cops should be able to do their jobs.

The mainstream did not have the cops' backs at the time. There may be a trickle of cooler heads now looking back and lamenting what happened, but only "tribal righties" at the time were coming out and saying that something should be done about that mob. The fact that the cops retreated, was all but taken as a triumph by the mainstream.

Now all the tax payers are expected to pay for those mistakes. That's nice.