The Seattle Police Department SWAT team and detectives entered a Judkins Park apartment of Occupy Seattle members early Tuesday morning with a search warrant to seize suspected evidence of May Day-protest crimes including vandalism, according to Seattle Police Department’s online blotter.
Detectives contacted the four individuals in the apartment in the 1100 Block of 29th Avenue South before entering just before 6 a.m., the blotter post says.
However, an Occupy Seattle spokesperson said in a news release that police charged in while all four residents were sleeping and threw down a stun grenade. That kind of grenade is non-lethal but its loud bang and bright light are meant to temporarily disorient the senses.
SPD says it was successful in finding what it wanted and that the material “will be useful in the investigation.” All four residents were cooperative with investigators and were released from the scene after being interviewed, the SPD blotter said.
Occupy Seattle activists said they were outraged by what was on the search warrant and started organizing a Tuesday night march to SPD’s East Precinct to publicize the incident.
About 50 people showed up at Westlake Park Tuesday night for a protest that looped around SPD’s East Precinct and ended at Cal Anderson Park. Seattle Times photographer Bettina Hansen live-Tweeted from the gathering. Though plenty of insults were aired toward law enforcement, the event ended peacefully.
