BY VINCENT AWKERMAN & DANIEL
The Olympia Police Department (OPD) continues to clear camps on city property and enforce bans on sitting or lying on sidewalks, despite a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which found anti-camping ordinances to violate the Eighth Amendment.
According to the City’s Homeless Response Coordinator, Colin DeForrest, Olympia has seen a sharp increase in visible homelessness in recent years, leading city officials to work with both community members and stakeholders to plan out “innovative and sustainable strategies” to address the epidemic.
A protest at The Artesian Commons Park (locally known as ‘The Well’) on Sep. 22 demonstrated a lack of cohesion between policy and enforcement. The park was strongly associated with the unhoused community in the area.
As previously reported by the CPJ, the City’s Parks Director, Paul Simmons, ordered the park closed on Aug 24.
In an email obtained by the CPJ, Olympia city council member Jessica Bateman expressed frustration with the Simmons’ decision to close the park without coordinating with local homelessness-focused charitable organizations. “This is extremely disappointing,” she wrote to her fellow council members. “Direction was given to communicate with service providers in advance of and regarding the direct impacts of closing the Artesian Commons and any encampment trespass enforcement.”
Emails also show the City planned to originally close the park on Wed. Aug. 22nd. Parks Stewardship Supervisor Sylvana Niehauser began preparing the City’s press release as early as August 15.
Local service providers may have appreciated a week’s notice. Local shelter non-profit Interfaith Works co-director Meg Martin wrote an email (sent across city hall) complaining about the lack of advance warning. “CYS had to scramble to provide additional services and handle the crisis that the youth were going through in that moment and the days to follow,” she wrote.
Protestors and Food Not Bombs organizers entered the park early Sep 22 to play basketball and distribute food. Hours later police arrived and cleared the park with crowd-control devices and batons. Protesters re-entered the park, and police once again cleared the commons, slowly pushing demonstrators east towards City Hall.
Internal emails obtained by the CPJ show that City employees were concerned with a “Joker threat” as early as Aug. 2. After a meeting on the 2nd, OPD Sgt Amy King asked Park Ranger Lee Wyatt to write a statement about an incident that occured on July 26.
Wyatt wrote “under the penalty of perjury” on Aug 8 that the threats were made by an Austin Bartlett. “The threats were “Don’t ask me shit ever again or I’ll fuck you up” “Fuck you city worker, you can do shit to me, I should knock you out right now,”’ alleges Wyatt in an email to King, Niehauser, and City Program Aid Charles Rambo. “After these threats, I informed Mr. Bartlett to leave the Artesian Commons. He then began to make more threats “I’m not going anywhere, try to make me leave and I’ll fuck you up.”
Just two hours later (11:14 a.m. Aug 8), Wyatt resent this statement to King with added terminology. “I felt like his threats were plausible. The way he was posturing towards me, made me feel really uncomfortable with my work environment.”
“I understand there were some threats,” said Grace Cox, who identified herself as an Olympia resident since 1972. She continued to film the police as she was interviewed. “I’m empathetic to workers who get threatened — unnecessarily or necessarily — and I think there are so many other options.”
OPD, Tumwater Police, the Thurston County Sheriff and Evergreen’s own Police Services responded to the protest. In her case report, Lieutenant Pamela Garland described the protest as a “riot,” and noted that “there was fighting, rock throwing, and unruly behavior.”
Police shot pepper-balls and flash-bang grenades at protestors. Shrapnel from a flash-bang grenade injured a CPJ reporter on-site.
Rachel Holmes, who self-identifies as homeless, claimed to have been hit in the face by a flash-bang. “It hit me in the corner of my eye. If I had not closed my eye, I would have been probably blinded,” she said. “Half of these cops should be arrested.”
Niir Dragon, who also self-identifies as homeless, expressed indignation with the City’s incoherent responses. “If we can’t have safe access place like this, and shelters that are fucking full, tell us, Olympia: where the fuck are we supposed to go?”
The CPJ has filed records requests related to the event. We are currently awaiting multiple releases.
In a City Council meeting on September 11, Councilmember Renata Rollins moved to amend ordinance 9.16.180, Pedestrian Interference, by removing section “C”. The section bans sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight, regardless of whether or not the person in question is actively obstructing pedestrian traffic. The motion failed by a five-two vote.
“If Olympia really wants to solve this problem, all they have to fucking do is give us like two or three hours a day, at least, at a job.” said Dragon. “I don’t care if it’s raking up the fucking leaves on the fucking sidewalk, picking up trash in the parking lot, whatever. Find something to make someone busy. That could help them be productive in the city while giving them a leg up.”
Rollins also brought forward a motion to designate City owned property to allow for temporary camps as part of the Street Strategy the Council is developing with partners in social services. This motion failed due to lack of a second.
“They have taken our homes, our tent homes, they have taken safe places to stay, they have taken our well where we all come together to play basketball today for the first time,” said Holmes at the protest. “I have tents sitting in the city and they want to shut us down. I have people who are young kids who have nowhere to go cause their mom kicked us out. They have run us out of them places.”
Council member Rollins is expected to bring a referral to the General Government Committee regarding the City’s sit-lie ban during a future City Council meeting.
Back in July of this year, as reported by The Olympian, the $1.4 million dollar a year price tag of the two proposed camps gave many people pause. Proposed funding sources were an increased utility tax, money from Thurston County, and the city’s own Home Fund. Still, many questioned the idea of pouring so much of Olympia’s resources into temporary encampments.
The OPD claims there has been no change in enforcement, only a change in the number of officers on patrol. The nighttime walking patrols, which were initially cut in 2016, have made a return and appear to be a significant source of the increased police presence.
OPD chief Ronnie Roberts deflected the issue to the city’s legal department. “We rely on our legal department to provide us with legal opinion which we follow.”
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