Seattle police staged sightings of armed Proud Boys in conversations on public police radio frequencies during protests following George...
Seattle police staged sightings of armed Proud Boys in conversations on public police radio frequencies during protests following George Floyd's death in a vain effort to deter rioters, an investigation by a police watchdog group has found.
According to Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, officers made remarks like 'It looks like a few of them might be open carrying' and 'Hearing from the Proud Boys group… They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation,' to scare off protesters.
The coordinated ruse by multiple members of the Seattle Police Department the night of June 8, 2020, came after protesters seized control of a portion of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and turned it into a police-free 'autonomous zone, a report released by the org Wednesday revealed.
According to Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, officers made remarks like 'It looks like a few of them might be open carrying' and 'Hearing from the Proud Boys group… They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation,' to scare off protesters.
The forced takeover saw hundreds of citizens outraged by African-American Floyd's murder the month prior surround the city's East Precinct and set up a six block perimeter around the building, forcing officers to evacuate.
Protesters declared the area an autonomous territory, setting up road and human barriers to deter officers, and dubbed it the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest - or CHOP - zone.
Hours after the takeover, the OPA found, officers took to their radios upon realizing protesters were monitoring SPD radio communications, and engaged in what the watchdog group referred to as a 'misinformation effort.'
In an attempt to distract and confuse the crowd, officers began broadcasting a hoax, exchanging false reports of sightings of armed members of the far-right facist group in an attempt to 'scare' protesters - many of whom were African-American.
However, instead of luring protesters away from the site, OPA Director Andrew Myerberg wrote, the false reports only 'added fuel to the fire' of the already tense protests.
The coordinated ruse by multiple members of the Seattle Police Department the night of June 8, 2020, came after rioter protesting the death of George Floyd seized control of a portion of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and turned it into a police-free 'autonomous zone
The officers' falsified reports were chronicled in painstaking detail in the OPA's report. The filinf reveals officers took to their radios upon realizing protesters were monitoring SPD radio communications, and engaged in what the group referred to as a 'misinformation effort'
'The use of the Proud Boys when it was known that the transmissions would be monitored took a volatile situation and made it even more so,' Myerberg wrote in his report, referring to the violence seen in the city following Floyd's murder.
At the time, reports of protesters throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks and shining green lasers into officers' eyes were rife, as well as other accounts of other violent clashes between rioters and SPD cops, which had spurred officers to flee and board up the precinct.
Myerberg, however, contended that the violence in the police-free zone only grew worse over time, after its inception on June 8, attributing the then spiraling situation to the officers' falsified reports, which were chronicled in painstaking detail in his report.
The first forged communication mentioning prospective Proud Boys members chronicled by Myerberg's group - who had become aware of the falsified reports after a journalist approached the org requesting confirmation of the then-rumored transmissions - came a little after 9:30 PM PT on the night in question.
'Three Echo,' an unnamed officer begins, reporting in to the dispatcher with his radio codename. 'Just for your information. Small group, possible Proud Boys... it looks like a few of them might be open carrying,' the OPA's report reveals.
About a minute late, the dispatcher responds: 'Radio copy. Advising just a small group of possibly Proud Boys.'
Approximately 10 minutes later, another officer, with the codename one Alpha, reports another Proud Boy sighting, stating that the group looked to be gearing up for potential attack.
'Was that for our group?' the officer asks. 'Do you think those are other Proud Boys coming down here? It seems like they are starting to muster up, maybe thinking about marching around.'
A moment later, a third officer, codename two Charlie, chimes in, confirming the other officer's suspicions: 'Two Charlie affirmed. They look associated with that group that you are monitoring.'
Less than ten minutes later, Alpha offered more color on the fictional band of right-wing extremists, who are often associated with white supremacist ideals.
'One Alpha to radio. Just be advised the group is very boisterous tonight so if you get some calls about some kind of menacing verbiage. That is all it is.'
Twenty minutes later, one Alpha reports in again with the last fabricated Proud Boys sighting, offering an ominous prognosis of the made-up groups intentions.
'Hearing from the Proud Boys group. They are not very happy with the response in the audience. They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation.'
The report notes that four officers - who referred to themselves as 'one Alpha,' 'one Adam,' 'three Echo,' and 'two Charlie' - were engaged in the phony correspondence, as well as the dispatcher. None are named in the report.
A defaced sign on the exterior of the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct after protesters kicked out cops and set up a six-block 'autonomous zone' as a memorial to Floyd. Cops came up with the ruse in an effort to quell the uprising, the OPA's report says
Protesters pictured in the CHOP zone on June 9, the day after the alleged incident. The OPA found that the cops' hoax only added to the violence that was then occurring in the city
The report does, however, name the mastermind behind the ruse, SPD Captain Bryan Grenon, who was interviewed by the group during their investigation.
In the interrogation, Grenon told OPA officials that he came up with the plan as 'an innocent way to just throw out some distraction' at a time when the department was short-handed and under pressure.
'[There was] no intent to put any kind of false narrative out there, as far as like Proud Boys, or anything,' Grenon said, according to the OPA's report.
'That was not the guidance that I that I gave to those. I just wanted to see if that was something that would, that could actually work.
'There was no- no intent to you know, provide any kind of false information,' asserted the then police captain, who later ascended to the rank of assistant chief before leaving the force in 2021.
Grenon went on to tell investigators the purpose of the faked conversations was to 'get [protesters] into other areas' because 'we were overrun with, you know, forces or protesters,' according to the filing.
A member of the proud boys, a far-right extremist group often associated with white supremacy, pictured in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood during protests in August. Police falsely claimed they saw armed Proud Boy members in June hoping to 'scare' protesters
He continued, 'It was never my intent to cause alarm,' adding that 'Hindsight is 20/20.'
According to the report, the journalist who tipped the watchdog group off in November of that year, Converge Media's Omari Salisbury, was with protesters the night of the fabricated communications.
Salisbury spurred the investigation when he asked OPA for body camera video from the officers who had supposedly followed the Proud Boys group. When OPA couldn’t locate any such video, the office launched an investigation.
olice push demonstrators back atop a Black Lives Matter street mural in the area formerly known as CHOP. Protesters were removed from the zone nearly a month after its inception, on June 8 - the day of the SPD's fabricated Proud Boy sightings
The report reveals: 'In his perspective, things were going fine in CHAZ/CHOP until people in the crowd heard reports that the Proud Boys were coming.
Salisbury stated that 'when this occurred, it seemed like everyone in the crowd who owned guns went to get theirs and the event went from being peaceful to something entirely different.'
The investigation was completed by September 2021.
When questioned by the watchdog org, then-SPD Chief Carmen Best asserted to investigators that she had not been informed of the tactic.
Many of the protesters in the CHOP zone during the summer of 2020 were African-American
The OPA's report discerned that Grenon violated departmental policies, as did two of the other officers involved. Like Grenon, both had already left the department by the time of the report’s release, and will face no discipline from within the police department.
In a statement Wednesday, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said that the ruse had done 'immeasurable' damage to citizens' trust in city-run orgs, and the city as a whole.
'Misinformation, especially of this inflammatory nature, is totally unacceptable from our Seattle police officers,' he said. 'This kind of tactic never should have been considered.'
None of the officers involved will face criminal charges.
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