Pride is literally the yearly commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, where the LGBTQ+ community started fighting for their rights, by throwing bricks and Molotov Cocktails. at the police. So there has always been a bit of friction. The fact that many police are members of right wing domestic terrorist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, hate groups that target the LGBTQ+ community, doesn't help either. The City of Seattle needs to purge it's police force of every single officer who has ever associated with such groups, and stop caring about the police union's fragile feelings.

‘The fest’s permit specified “no exclusive use” of the park, and all parks are open to the public.’

Once the organizers of Capitol Hill Pride understand they have absolutely no authority to ban ANYONE from city parks and streets during Pride, this ‘issue’ will go away by itself.

“…the City’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found flaws in OPA’s investigation of the first case.”

The flaws originated in the decision to investigate the complaint. The complaint should not have been investigated, but rather rejected immediately, and optionally with a note saying Pride cannot ban anyone from city parks or streets. Again, once the organizers of Capitol Hill Pride understand they have absolutely no authority to ban ANYONE from city parks and streets during Pride, this ‘issue’ will go away by itself.

@2 "many police are members of right wing domestic terrorist groups"

that is patently false and repeating statements like that is either a sign of ignorance or gaslighting. Let's take one example that received a lot of attention, the SPD officers who were part of Jan 6th. Six officers attended that event out of 954 deployable officers at the time which is less than 1% of the force. Hardly "many". Every profession has bad actors that need to be removed but we should avoid denigrating the entire profession over those bad apples. Btw the officers who were found to have participated were later fired.

As for LeFevre and the organizers of Pride, the irony seems to be lost on them of a marginalized group using the celebration of winning their hard fought rights to marginalize another group based on loose associations and unfounded fears. I hope they reconsider and do better.

SPD should have separate Pride uniforms.

Banning people from a public park?
Sounds downright fascist.

The cop uniforms (their gang colors) are not welcome. They can't be prevented from attending, and individual queer and queer ally officers are more than welcome but that's not what's going on here. This is thugs with guns trying to provoke a community.

That's not what policing is supposed to be about. But the SPD don't care.

So, if Capitol Hill Pride succeeds in banning SPD, then what happens when actual anti-LGBTQ bigots show up to cause trouble? An LGBTQ version of the CHAZ/CHOP, this time hoping nobody dies?

Decades ago, I was involved in Pride planning for a few years. That was back when it was still technically a "march" and sponsored by the FSP. I thought they had dumb dramas and policies back then, but I can see not much has changed.

I'm not a big defender of cops, but they had every right to be there. As for "shopping on the taxpayer's dime", how does that nitwit from pride know that they weren't on break or at lunch? In any event, why would she make a stink about someone buying stuff from a vendor who paid to be part of the festival? I'm sorry her fee-fee's were hurt by the cop's demeanor, and that she didn't like them wanting to debate her on the issue of the cop ban, but that's how things work in the city.

@7 so stop fucking doing it to homeless people then. There’s not a single cop who isn’t complicit in that by the way.

@12: Camping in public parks is illegal. Walking through them is not.

Also, what did you have against Lisa Vach?

If someone can explain to me how banning a group from the parade (if they are not there to do harm) improves the overall relationship with that group- I’m all ears!

The headline of this post -- that cops "trolled" Pride -- is not in any way supported by text of the article. Unless the claim is that by purchasing stuff at Pride the cops were trolling, which is a very stupid and dishonest claim. Why publish articles that lie to the readers? The Fox Newsification of The Stranger rolls on.

Catalina, the GOAT of Slog.

@12
Not remotely the same thing.
Homeless encampments create sanitation nightmares and require a lot of people, time and money to clean up.
Maybe that’s on par with a police officer buying a little shirt for their dog, but I don’t think so.

"The fact that many police are members of right wing domestic terrorist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, hate groups that target the LGBTQ+ community, doesn't help either."

oh the Po-po'd
NEVER inna Million
YEARS harbor any such
Anti-American Hate Groups!

that Anyone'd Suggest Otherwise's
soon to be Investigated by our
Ministry of Truth & either
held for Questioning or
a good Beatdown

There IS NO Fascists
in our Po-Po nor
Military! them
Fascist's got
absolutely
NO Toe-
hold a-
tall.

my oh My such
figments of an
Over-Active
Imagination

say that
Reminds me:
Whateverthefuck
Happened to 'Tucks' Calrson?

did the Libs finally
Cancel that Fascist?

@19: And yet, for all of your sneering at critics, you utterly failed to provide even a single example, let alone “many,” to validate your leading quote.

sneeringly
your vile
project-
ions A-
Muse
me

but Still
there's Good News!

Ignorance
can be Cured:

Dismantling
White Supremacist Infiltration
of the Military and Law Enforcement

The coordinated attacks on the U.S. Capitol as well as state houses and capitol buildings on January 6 came as a shock to many Americans, as did the widespread presence of members of hate groups among the rioters.

But perhaps no aspect proved more troubling to the public than news that active-duty military and members of law enforcement participated in the attempted coup.

To those who have long tracked white supremacist groups in the United States, however, this news came as no surprise.

Many far-right hate groups have, for decades, included infiltration of branches of the military and law enforcement agencies as part of their organizing strategy.

And you don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of their success: in the short period of examination between the coup attempt and President Biden’s inauguration, investigators discovered extremist ties among at least twelve National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., and further evidence of infiltration continues to emerge.

Unfortunately, so far, the federal departments and agencies responsible for identifying and rooting out these hate groups—the Department of Defense, the FBI, and Congress—have not risen to the challenge and worked in a sustained, coordinated way to confront this national security threat.
-- by Amanda Rogers 1/21

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/dismantling-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-the-military-and-law-enforcement/

also:

Hidden in Plain Sight:
Racism, White Supremacy, and
Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement

The government’s response to known
connections of law enforcement officers to violent
racist and militant groups has been strikingly insufficient.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law

"The government’s response to known connections of law enforcement officers to violent racist and militant groups has been strikingly insufficient."

Gosh: "strikingly insufficient."
there's no fucking WAY
they'd EVER Infiltrate
OUR Government

those Fascists've
Got Integrity. Right?

gotta LOVE
your "Scare Quotes"
around "many" tensty!
well done! here's the Last

of now-Many:

White Nationalist Hate
Is Infiltrating Our Police

If Biden cares about what he calls the white supremacist “poison…running through our body politic,” his administration had better get busy purging the strain that courses through the ranks of law enforcement.
--by Kali Holloway 11/22

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/law-enforcement-white-nationalism/

@21-23: Here’s what you promised @19:

“…many police are members of right wing domestic terrorist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys,”

Here’s what you actually delivered:

“…extremist ties among at least twelve National Guard members…”

“Extremist ties” could mean nothing more than having a crazy-ass conspiracy-spewing, FOX-News-watching father-in-law. (Also, the National Guard are not the police.)

“…known connections of law enforcement officers to violent racist and militant groups…”

If you have ever once gone to a civilian firing range in these here United States, then you have likely “known connections” to some gun-fondling whackadoodles in the adjacent stalls.

“…the strain that courses through the ranks of law enforcement.”

Again, a “strain,” whatever that means in this context (and sounds somewhat like racist hate-speech itself, BTW), it’s not membership in the named groups in your quote. (Because, you know, the article would’ve explicitly said that.)

‘gotta LOVE
your "Scare Quotes"
around "many" tensty!’

I do too. Thank you for validating them.

For context, those bomb threats, circulated to media outlets in Vermont, NH, and New York stated that they were being made because Target "betrayed the LGBTQ+ community" and that the decision to not carry the tuck-friendly swimsuits was made by "pathetic cowards who bowed to the wishes of far right extremists who want to exterminate us."

Even worthy causes can motivate extremists and loonies. Ted Kaczynski was an environmentalist, after all.

@24: The last time Pride was even remotely radical was around thirty years ago, when bigots were openly threatening discriminatory laws against LGBTQ persons. Since then, Pride has been community festivals where flacks hawk their sponsoring corporations’ merchandise — now with rainbows added!

This whole business of filing complaints because the police are DOIING THEIR JOBS (or shopping on break time!) is a feeble attempt to rekindle Pride’s original radicalism, with a “defund” flavor. It fails on both counts.

24 yep.

Banning police from participating is a sign of the "fragile feelings" Greenwood Bob #1 flags in his post. We've really gotten this fragile and weak?

Your triggers are your responsibility. It is not the world's job to tiptoe around you.

@5, come back when your homies stop beating up our friends, electing white supremacists to lead your union, and stop giving money to people who think queer people are sub-human. Your PR problem isn’t a queer folk problem, it’s a cop credibility problem. Stop blaming the messenger.