Seattle to shut down protest zone

The Seattle mayor on Monday encouraged the protesters camping around Cal Anderson Park to pack up. Demonstrators declared an occupied protest zone covering several city blocks after the police boarded up the East Precinct in Capitol Hill two weeks ago. Mayor Jenny Durkan said the city was working to return the blocks to normal, and the police will soon move back into the precinct. She pledged to consider demands that the city invest in African American communities and enact accountability measures and police union reform.

Why is the city moving now? The protesters initially had the support of Seattle leadership. But two shootings over the weekend left one dead and two wounded, and a third on Tuesday sent one person to the hospital. The protests hampered first responders, and Durkan said she worried for residents’ safety.

Dig deeper: Read Sophia Lee’s report on the mixed agendas surfacing in Los Angeles protests.