Olympia to ramp up police presence Saturday after violence at last weekend’s protests
More protest activity is expected on the state Capitol Campus and in downtown Olympia on Saturday.
Residents should expect traffic disruptions and a heavy police presence following an armed clash between protesters on Dec. 5, the city has announced.
“OPD plans to have sufficient staff on duty to address any behaviors that pose a risk to public safety,” city officials said in a news release.
The heightened awareness comes a week after pro-Trump protesters and counter-protesters clashed violently in Olympia. Details have emerged about multiple assaults and city officials have raised concerns about the state’s response to armed conflicts that spill over into the city’s residential neighborhoods.
Neighbors are exhausted, and the city has said its resources are being stretched thin. Protests have been happening on a regular basis for weeks.
Multiple events Dec. 5, one hosted by a lawmaker
The state Department of Enterprise Services, which manages the Capitol Campus, normally issues permits for events. It hasn’t for months, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Still, unauthorized events have been happening and DES tracks them.
Several demonstrations were planned for last Saturday, including a “Re-Open WA” rally scheduled to last 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a “Stop the Steal Parade to the Washington State Capitol with Rally” planned to start at noon, according to an email from DES.
“BLM: Washington vs. Fascism,” billed as a counter-protest to “Trump/Culp events” on the campus, was also planned for noon. A Black Lives Matter vigil was scheduled at Percival Landing Park later in the day.
Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, hosted and promoted the “Re-Open WA” event, advertised as a “peaceful, respectful rally” on the steps of the Legislative Building with a section designated for people who wanted to wear masks and maintain distance.
The event aimed to provide a platform for people to share “their challenges with the ongoing shut down.”
The Olympian asked Kraft to comment on how the rally went, the violence that followed, whether she regrets hosting it, and whether she or other organizers take any responsibility for the violent clashes that occurred.
“The people who came to the podium to speak at our event, at the North Steps at the State Capitol, were small business owners, faith leaders, students, parents and Veterans,” part of her written response reads.
“We did not have any counter-protests, violence or incidents at our event. There were apparently a couple other groups out near the capitol campus later that afternoon. My understanding from State capitol campus Security Officials is that those two groups did engage each other.”
Asked to clarify if she meant she believes there was no connection between the rally she hosted and the groups that clashed, she wrote “Our rally was scheduled to end at 1 p.m. and did.”
A timeline of last Saturday’s melee
At roughly 1 p.m., protesters and counter-protesters began shouting at each other near the intersection of 11th Avenue Southeast and Capitol Way South, Olympia Police Lt. Paul Lower told The Olympian.
Reports of physical violence soon started rolling in: mace is sprayed, people are being pushed to the ground. A local pastor later reported she was shoved in The United Churches of Olympia parking lot.
Multiple physical altercations are easily visible in video posted publicly online. According to the city, much of the fighting took place before there were enough officers there to intervene safely.
“It was a decision that I made to not engage at that time because I didn’t think we could do it effectively or safely, and I felt that if we engaged at that time, we would have to use more force than was necessary in order to quell what we saw was going on,” said Lt. Sam Costello at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Costello described a scene where approximately 150 Trump supporters were gathered.
“Probably half or more of those in support of Trump were openly carrying long-guns, semi-automatic rifles, openly carrying handguns, they had Trump flags and American flags on dowels, some of them had bats, many of them had external vests on and other sort of armaments.”
Across the street, Costello said, were about 100 “black-clad” people gathered in opposition to the Trump group, many with hand combat tools and protective gear.
“Those people, not in total or in whole but largely, they had shields, impact weapons, bats, sticks or dowels, helmets, goggles.”
Costello said the police were outnumbered and thus waited to intervene until they could amass enough officers with backup from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
“This was totally unplanned, we had nobody on call, we ended up with ten deputies and a bunch of our own officers coming in from their personal time or early, and when I felt like we had enough officers to start to engage the crowd, we issued some dispersal orders to the crowd.”
In a “rough estimate,” Lt. Lower said officers dispersed the groups about 1:45 p.m.
Multiple assaults reported, one arrest
So far, one person, a man accused of firing a gun at counter-protesters, has been arrested in connection to Saturday’s events. There’s a photo posted online of someone who says they were shot, and police have been in communication with a third party they believe knows that alleged victim, Lower said.
The third party has so far relayed that the victim doesn’t want to participate in the investigation.
A handgun was found in the roadway, Lower said, and police identified its owner and referred reckless endangerment charges to the prosecutor’s office. They’re investigating other reported incidents, he said.
There was a report of someone vandalizing a vehicle about a block away during the melee, Lower said, and a couple more incidents reported after the groups had largely dispersed.
In one case, a man in his late 20s who lives out-of-state and is originally from Asia reported he was assaulted in an alleyway about a block away from the Capitol, police and dispatch records confirm.
The Olympian generally does not name victims of crimes, and in this case the victim requested his specific country of origin not be published out of concerns for his safety.
Records show that the man initially called 911 dispatch at 3:54 p.m., and police were dispatched four minutes later.
In a recording of the initial phone call, the victim reports that people chased him, yelled at him, grabbed his bag, and sprayed something in his eyes — he couldn’t open his eyes, didn’t know where he was, and wasn’t sure if the assailants were protesters.
Records note that the victim was having some trouble understanding the dispatcher’s questions and that there was a language barrier.
In the background of the initial call, a bystander asks the victim what would help, and he requests water. That bystander was Jimmy Ulvenes, who also talked to dispatchers.
Ulvenes told The Olympian in a phone interview that he was inside with his family when a neighbor called his wife and said someone was outside in distress. He grabbed a mask and went outside.
He found the man bent over, with a water bottle and a tissue in one hand and a phone in the other, with dispatch on the line. After he had given the man a spray bottle of water and tissues and he had calmed down, they were able to talk about what happened (some of the conversation can be heard in the background of the 911 call).
“I really appreciate this kind-hearted man and plan to make a visit this weekend to say thanks personally,” the victim wrote in an email to The Olympian.
Apparently believing police were at the scene, a dispatcher closed that call at 4:13 p.m. But police weren’t there yet.
After more time passed and officers hadn’t shown, Ulvenes said he told the victim he should call again. Records show his second call resulted in police being dispatched at 4:19 p.m. and that they arrived four minutes later.
Based on dispatch records and the police report, an officer had initially been dispatched by cell tower to an approximate location before Ulvenes provided the exact address. The officer first responded to a group nearby, instead of the victim in the alleyway.
Lower said that explanation aligns with an account from the lieutenant who managed the response during Saturday’s demonstrations.
The police report includes that an officer first talked to a group of Trump supporters, one of whom was “covered in fluid, had bloodshot red eyes and snot running down his face” and said a small group of “antifa” sprayed him and his friends with bear spray and ran away.
According to the police report, the victim of the assault in the alley had been walking with people wearing black who had been interested in his culture and language. In an email to The Olympian, he explained he had heard them speaking his native language, and they struck up a conversation and started walking while talking.
The victim wrote that he didn’t know anything about Trump supporters or “anti-fascists” before the attack, and that he learned of the groups through talking with Ulvenes and the police officer. He had seen pickup trucks with U.S. flags at the opening of the alley before the attack, according to the victim.
The police report includes that the victim stated a “Trump guy” sprayed him and stole his bag, but he told The Olympian he only ever used the term “Trump supporters.” His written statement to police does not identify the attacker’s affiliation.
The next day, Ulvenes found the man’s backpack in his backyard and turned it over to police. The report reads that it still held all of the man’s belongings, and that the victim then said it may have fallen off during the incident and was “extremely grateful” it was found.
The city responds
Ulvenes, the neighbor who helped the alleyway assault victim, said he fully supports protests and rallies — even when he disagrees — when they stay peaceful. But these more hostile events have been happening for a while now, and have especially escalated since the election last month.
A group of adults has harassed his 13-year-old son for wearing a mask, he said. Every Saturday, people park in front of his house and strap on guns.
“It doesn’t look like they’re headed to a peaceful rally,” he said.
It’s an exhausting experience, and it means his family stays inside on those days. At this point, he believes that’s probably the safest option for other people, as well.
That danger that is palpable and evident to Ulvenes isn’t something the police can act on to prevent, however — until violence actually breaks out. Because Washington is an open-carry state, an armed protest is viewed the same by police as a peaceful sit-in.
“Just because someone is carrying a firearm doesn’t necessarily make it a crime. If people have questions about a firearm and want to ask us questions, they’re welcome to do so,” Lower said.
“Our goal is to make sure everyone is safe when they are attempting to exercise their rights. When you deal with protest and peoples’ first amendment rights to protest, you have to be very careful. But clearly when it starts into assaultive behavior or that kind of imminent threat of assault, that’s when we start giving our dispersal orders and we start to move in and get the crowd to move along.”
At a city council meeting on Tuesday, officials condemned the violence but deflected blame onto state agencies such as State Patrol and DES.
Mayor Cheryl Selby said that part of the reason protests have spilled over into residential neighborhoods is because the Capitol Campus has been closed off to protests.
She also called on the State Patrol to take a greater role in managing protests that draw the majority of their participants from out of town, and reiterated previous requests for the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute militia activity, which she says have not been acknowledged.
A spokesperson for DES disputed Selby’s claim that the campus is “blocked off,” saying the only difference is that the agency is no longer issuing permits for gatherings.
“The Capitol Campus is open and has remained so all year, as are visitor parking lots,” DES spokesperson Linda Kent wrote in an email to The Olympian. “Numerous free speech activities including protests happen every week on the campus. Some of these start in the city and move to campus and vice versa. That has never changed.”
State Patrol spokesperson Chris Loftis said that the volume of protests has required them to “apply additional resources” as well, but didn’t directly address Selby’s call for backup.
“We appreciate and share the mayor’s concerns over escalating civil and social tensions and resolve to work together to address them,” Loftis wrote in an email to The Olympian.
Amid all the back and forth, it’s not clear if any policies for management of armed protests are changing. But OPD insists they are prepared for demonstrations this Saturday, announcing in an email Friday afternoon that officers will have a “significant and visible presence” downtown.
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