Mayor Bruce Harrell Seeks to Rescind Seattle Police Department Ban on Blast Balls
West Seattle Blog Co-Founder Patrick Sand Dies Unexpectedly at 67
Office of Planning and Community Development Holds Info Sessions on Zoning Changes
Mayor Bruce Harrell sent a letter to Seattle City Council on Oct. 16 proposing to repeal the Seattle Police Department (SPD) ban on the use of “blast balls” and other “less-lethal weapons” for crowd management. Blast balls are weapons similar to stun grenades; they emit loud noises; bright lights; chemical irritants, such as pepper gas or tear gas; and, occasionally, rubber pellets.
SPD’s use of blast balls was banned in Seattle after the 2020 and 2021 racial justice protests following the death of George Floyd. In 2020, a demonstrator named Aubreanna Inda went into cardiac arrest multiple times after being hit by a blast ball.
In June of that year, a federal judge issued a restraining order on the use of tear gas, blast balls, and similar crowd-control tools, and the Seattle City Council followed suit by passing its own ban on such weapons. In response, the Office of Inspector General, the Office of Police Accountability, and the Seattle Police Officers Guild all suggested that the bans went too far and would hinder SPD from effectively being able to manage crowds.
Harrell’s letter to Council referenced a recent hearing held by Federal Judge James Robart about the consent decree the City of Seattle entered into with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2012, “related to police use of force, biased policing, and management of the Police Department.” Judge Robart had suggested that the City could soon enter into a joint motion with the DOJ to end the consent decree. Prior to that step, the City of Seattle must submit SPD’s policies for crowd management.
“Ordinances adopted by the previous City Council in 2020 and 2021 are inconsistent with national best practices for crowd management,” Mayor Harrell wrote, citing that former Mayor Jenny Durkan had refused to sign the Council’s ordinances for similar reasons. “The 2020 and 2021 ordinances are so restrictive they do not allow SPD officers to use a less lethal tool, such as pepper spray, even in a targeted manner to isolate an offender, even when it is reasonable, necessary, and proportional to protect the safety, property rights, and First Amendment rights of protesters and bystanders.”
Mayor Harrell then suggested that the ordinances be repealed and that less-lethal crowd control tools be prohibited in crowd-management settings “unless specific facts and circumstances are occurring or about to occur that create an imminent risk of physical injury to any person or significant property damage.” He also outlined a number of other recommendations, including that the police use of force be “objectively reasonable, necessary, and proportional to the threat presented,” and that it “requires the prioritization of de-escalation, engagement, and dialogue to resolve conflicts with event organizers.”
The recommendations must still be approved by the Seattle City Council.
Patrick Sand, who founded the West Seattle Blog (WSB) with his wife, Tracy Record, in the mid-2000s, passed away on Thursday, Oct. 17, in his home. Record heard her husband calling for help at 8 a.m.; she then found him on the bathroom floor and called 911. Medics could not revive him, and the King County medical examiner has suggested that his death was likely due to cardiovascular disease.
The majority of the articles on WSB have been written by the couple, and Sand’s death was announced in a heartfelt post written by Record.
“Patrick was my husband as well as my co-publisher and business partner. We had 40 years together, starting with our first date in Grand Junction, Colorado, in fall 1984,” Record wrote. “He had grown up there and was running a radio station; I went there for my first news-producing job, working at a TV station in the same building. My TV career later brought us from San Diego to Seattle in 1991; we looked around the city for places to live and chose – mostly because of its water proximity – West Seattle, where we welcomed our son five years later.”
After arriving in Seattle, Record first started the site in late 2005 as a “blog about West Seattle.” Following a large windstorm in December 2006, when tens of thousands of West Seattleites were left without power, the publication became a regional source of information. Less than a year later, in fall 2007, the couple decided to turn the WSB into a business. Sand continued being a stay-at-home dad for their son, Torin Record-Sand, while WSB was in its early stages as a professional publication, for which he covered breaking news, took photographs, and sold advertisements.
“We believed in showing up — showing up for the community. If something is going on that needed to be reported, recorded, clarified, we showed up,” Record told The Seattle Times.
Record has stated that WSB has between 1.5 million and 2 million page views per month. She intends to continue with the site following Sand’s passing.
No memorial service is planned for Sand, and his remains will be scattered into the Pacific Ocean according to his wishes.
The Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) has released Mayor Harrell’s updated Growth Strategy for the Comprehensive Plan (”One Seattle Plan”), which includes details on zoning changes to different neighborhood residential zones.
All feedback from the public is due by Dec. 20. OPCD has in-person information sessions planned in every Council District to help the public understand and weigh in on the changes. Every meeting takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at venues all around the city, as well as one virtual session. They include:
Oct. 23
Virtual Info Session via Microsoft Teams
Citywide
Oct. 30
National Nordic Museum
2655 NW Market St.
District 6
Nov. 6
Madison Middle School (Gym)
3429 45th Ave. SW
District 1
Nov. 7
Washington Hall
153 14th Ave.
District 3
Nov. 12
North Seattle College
9600 College Way N.
District 5
Nov. 19
Magnuson Park Hangar 30
6310 NE 74th St.
District 4
Dec. 5
Jefferson Park Community Center (Gym)
3807 Beacon Ave. S.
District 2
Dec. 10
Seattle Center Armory
305 Harrison St.
District 7
OPCD invites and encourages all community members to learn about and provide feedback on the Draft Plan on the Zoning Map Engagement Hub or by emailing OneSeattlePlan.Zoning@Seattle.gov.
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