It is happening from a relatively few individuals who are intent on destruction and remain intent on that. As a community, every one of us should denounce this type of violence and destructive behavior. What occurred in Seattle on Sunday and on Wednesday, officers hurt, small businesses damaged, fires started, that cannot continue. Peaceful demonstrations push government and elected officials to be better, but acts of violence, threats and destruction are not acceptable. The collective voices in the streets are leading to transformative change, not just in Seattle but across the state and across this country. Since the beginning of July, we have had many peaceful protests in Seattle with limited incidents and community and government are working together to transform how we do policing, how we dismantle systemic racism and other inequities, and how we have concrete systemic changes moving forward. On Sunday and Wednesday of this week, we saw relatively small groups of individuals who were bent on destruction, cause destruction, start fires and cause damage in Downtown Seattle and on Capitol Hill. I also will address today my conversation with Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and the subsequent media reports about DHS landing here today, yesterday with agents who will be on standby. We really need to do this together to keep each other safe and to make sure that our healthcare workers aren’t put back where they were in February and March.

We don’t want to go back to where we’re closing businesses so small businesses can’t be open, workers don’t have jobs. We can still drive down the number of infections but as you yesterday, the governor had to take steps to dial this back.

Make sure that if you are in public wear a mask, wash your hands regularly, and please limit your exposure to six feet from other people. If you are in a public place or a public park, don’t gather with friends, don’t have barbecues, don’t have swim parties. I want to urge everybody, even in this beautiful weather, please do not have gatherings. The number of infections in the city of Seattle and the county and the state is increasing so we are now back to where we were at the end of March and early April. Before we begin, I want to remind people that we are in the middle of a pandemic that is getting worse. Chief Best and Chief Scoggins will shortly provide an operational update on this weekend’s efforts regarding planned protests.

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