Above photo: Washington State Patrol Instructed Officers To Assault Protesters. Image via Screen Grab.
Police Brutality: A Washington State Patrol command officer is caught on video instructing fellow police officers to assault protesters, but not to “kill them.”
In an alarming report the Washington State Patrol (WSP) has issued an apology after a command officer was caught on video telling fellow officers to assault protesters. The officer said:
Don’t kill them, but hit them hard.
Seattle Times reports:
The Washington State Patrol has apologized after video surfaced of an officer telling his team, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard,” while preparing to clear protesters from the streets in Seattle’s Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
Newsweek reports:
A Washington State Patrol officer was recorded telling his officers to hit protestors hard ahead of a night on patrol in the Seattle area Tuesday.
The officer, who has not been identified, was filmed speaking to others in the patrol group, telling them, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard.” The video was later shared to social media.
The video, taken shortly before 7:45 p.m. Tuesday by Krystal Marx, executive director of Seattle Pride, and a Burien City Council member and deputy mayor, is alarming. Marx shared the video on Twitter:
State Trooper:
“DON’T KILL THEM, BUT HIT THEM HARD.”I am shaking. #seattleprotests #BlackLivesMattter pic.twitter.com/hL1B0xvnQJ
— 🏳️🌈☂️Krystal Marx☂️ 🏳️🌈 (@Bishop_Krystal) June 3, 2020
In a statement released Wednesday morning, WSP spokesman Chris Loftis said he was “aware of the video and apologizes for the poor choice of words by one of our team leaders preparing his troopers for a possibly confrontational situation.” Loftis said:
WSP is aware of the video and apologizes for the poor choice of words by one our team leaders preparing his troopers for a possibly confrontational situation. We hope the public will accept that apology and we ask for grace and understanding as our troopers are serving in tense situations of danger and difficulty.
They are doing so with courage, commitment and compassion, but not always with perfection. As disappointed as we are that a word choice might obscure that work, we are proud of how our agency and others have worked to protect the rights of free speech and peaceful demonstration throughout this unprecedented period of statewide demonstrations.
A poor choice of words? The officer was instructing his subordinates to “hit them hard” but not hard enough to “kill them.” That’s more than a “poor choice of words” that’s an order to assault peaceful protesters.
Bottom line: A Washington State Patrol command officer is caught on video instructing fellow police officers to assault protesters, but not to “kill them.”