Photo by Kaia D’Albora
On Saturday, more than one hundred frustrated Seattleites with wedges and drivers in hand braved the weather and gathered at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill for the Walking While Black protest.
The catalyst for the event was the treatment by a Seattle police officer of 70-year-old military veteran William Wingate. Last month, video of a July 9, 2014 arrest, during which Wingate was detained by officer Cynthia Whitlatch, was posted at
The Stranger
and other news sites, and quickly became the latest flashpoint in the troubled relationship between the Seattle Police Department and the city’s black community and supporters. Whitlach reported that Wingate swung the golf club at her and resisted arrest, but the video shows no such offense from the 70-year-old former Metro bus driver, who later explained that he uses the golf club as a cane while going for regular strolls around the neighborhood.
To show that they stand with Wingate, protesters led by organizer Chad Goller-Sojourner carried golf clubs of their own to the Saturday gathering. At 2 in the afternoon the even began with many speakers including Dr. Dawn Mason, former Washington State Representative for the 37th District, and Wingate himself. Wingate expressed his bewilderment with the matter. “All I can say is I didn’t do nothin’ and I’m still confused.”
Along with Mason and Wingate, Garfield High School teacher Jesse Hagopian talked about his experience of “walking in Seattle while black.” Hagopian said he was pepper sprayed by a Seattle police officer while leaving a Martin Luther King Day rally in January, on the phone with his mother discussing his son’s birthday party (another disturbing incident that was captured on video).
After the speakers, Wingate led hundreds of protesters through the streets of Capitol Hill. The protesters stopped traffic and slowed public transportation as they marched through the rain-slicked streets, chanting, “Black lives matter!” and “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
After about an hour, Goller-Sojourner stopped the march in front of the Seattle Police Department East Precinct on 12th Avenue. He spoke to the crowd and to the police officers guarding the office, hoping for justice and equality to come sooner rather than later. Around 3:30, the protest ended back at Cal Anderson Park, with it’s drenched yet still loud protesters shouting, “Black lives matter!”
View the full slideshow of Saturday’s protest here.
Photo by Kaia D’Albora
Photo by Kaia D’Albora