Trump asked when Seattle protesters would be prosecuted. Answer: They have been

Former President Donald Trump wants to know why people in Seattle weren't arrested and prosecuted for crimes related to the 2020 protests and the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. The answer is simple: Many people were arrested and prosecuted.

"When are the people who burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted, or Seattle?" Trump said during Tuesday night's debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. "They went into Seattle, they took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle. When are those people going to be prosecuted?"

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Trump pointed out Seattle in response to another question: If he regretted any of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his followers attacked police officers at the U. S. Capitol.

In 2020, protests against police violence erupted across the United States, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer. Large protests took over downtown Seattle, and part of Capitol Hill was turned into a protest zone known as "CHOP." During these events, Seattle police did make arrests. Local authorities also prosecuted cases that stemmed from these incidents.

KUOW has previously reported on such arrests and prosecutions. Here are just a few examples.

• Margaret Aislinn Channon, a 26-year-old Tacoma resident was sentenced to five years in prison in March 2022. She was charged with five counts of arson after setting five Seattle police cars on fire during a protest on May 30, 2020. Upon her sentencing, then U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said that the right to protest and call out injustice is one of the dearest and most important rights we enjoy in the United States: "But Ms. Channon’s conduct was itself an attack on democracy. She used the cover of lawful protests to carry out dangerous and destructive acts, risking the safety of everyone around her and undermining the important messages voiced by others.”
• Devinare Antwan Parker, 31, was sentenced to two years in prison in June 2023 for bringing a homemade firearm to a protest in Seattle on May 31, 2020. The charge was “unlawful possession of a destructive device.” Parker threatened to kill police at the time, and was arrested after he threw a can of beer at a police officer's face.
• On June 30, 2020, Mayor Jenny Durkan signed an executive order that instructed city crews and police to clear CHOP, specifically the area around Cal Anderson Park. The next day, Seattle police officers arrested at least 44 people while clearing the area, according to The Seattle Times. Later, the Seattle City Attorney's Office opted to drop non-violent cases from these arrests.
• In July 2020, the King County Prosecutor's Office filed 15 felony cases stemming from protests in Seattle and in Bellevue. Three of these cases were from CHOP. Many charges related to gun crimes, arson, or burglary.
• Also in July 2020, Seattle referred three cases related to recent protests to the Choose 180 program, which avoided criminal charges for those people if they completed the community-based program. One case involved a person who allegedly threw a traffic cone at a patrol car, and another person was accused of stealing from a business.
• A total of 18 people were arrested in Seattle when a protest was declared a riot after participants reportedly threw rocks, bottles, and fireworks at officers in August 2020.
• Justin Christopher Moore, a 35-year-old man from Renton, pleaded guilty to bringing Molotov cocktails to a protest outside the Seattle Police Officers Guild on Labor Day 2020. About 1,000 people were present. Court documents stated Moore plotted to burn the building down, but his plans were thwarted. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Sept. 13, 2023. A co-conspirator was also reportedly arrested for setting fire to a dumpster near the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct.
• Isaiah Thomas Willoughby was arrested for attempting to set fire to a wall of the East Precinct in June 2020. Willoughby reportedly piled up debris next to the police station, soaked it in gasoline, and set it on fire. People nearby put it out. Willoughby was sentenced to two years in prison.
• Marcel Long was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the June 2020 death of 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. Long fatally shot Anderson while in CHOP.

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