There is very important footage to watch that has just been posted online by the Evergreen elected student government. The footage contains key evidence about the actions by Olympia police department following the Dead Prez concert on Valentine’s Day– entering a nonviolent crowd, beating on concert attendees, and then indiscriminately pepper-spraying. There is no audible warning given to disperse, and perhaps most importantly, note the OPD vehicles shortly after leaving the scene as quickly as possible.
Watch part one here and part two here.
I do not condone the destruction of law enforcement property that took place early last Friday morning, however in my opinion Olympia police have some explaining to do.
I want to thank the anonymous source(s) for shooting this footage, and the Geoduck Union for making it public.
Here is their statement, released early this morning:
At yesterday’s Geoduck Student Union meeting, students voiced concern about the lack of information available to the public about the Valentine’s Day riot. They told the Union that it is difficult to talk about solutions when the facts are still unclear. Following yesterday’s forum, a video of the riot was shown to us, and we feel that it is our responsibility to make it available to our fellow students. The administration already has this video, the police already have this video, and the student body must have this video. This is a clip from longer video footage. Our anonymous source has given us permission to circulate it. We are circulating it because we want to promote positive dialog on campus, because we need to heal our community, and if we are going to heal our community everyone needs to know how an act of solidarity turned into an act of violence.
Thank you for posting these! There has been no mention about OPD’s presence in the Olympian. Trooper Kessler in the 2nd video also pointedly did not mention OPD’s involvement. I would have hoped that OPD would be on their best behavior considering the complaints and possible lawsuit filed on their officers due to thier brutal conduct at the recent port protests. The fact that the press and law enforcement are not being forthright about thier invovement in this incident is beyond sketchy.
[…] Last week there were reports of a riot during a Dead Prez show at Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington. Nah Right reported on it on Friday, Davey D has a good primary report up as well. The student union at Evergreen has now released video of the incident: […]