Bellingham mayor speaks with March to Defund Police protesters in downtown Bellingham
Nearly eight hours after it started Monday, June 15, the March to Defund Police ended where it began in downtown Bellingham after protesters marched, entered City Hall, barricaded the streets and held two conversations with Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood.
It’s unclear who organized the protest, but it started around noon on the corners of Holly Street and Railroad Avenue in downtown Bellingham. Protesters took to all four corners with signs that had various slogans supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and the call to defund police, such as “Invest in our community,” “Black, brown trans lives matter,” “Most cops are good, most police systems bad, rebuild them,” “Dismantle white supremacy” and “Say their names.”
Many drivers honked their horns in support. At the beginning of the protest, a group of two or three people showed up with signs that said “Blue lives matter,” “Back the blue” and one with a heart above the words “Bellingham police.” After several protesters had conversations with the people, and more protesters began showing up, the counter-protesters left.
Roughly 200 protesters began marching down Holly Street around 12:30 p.m. They marched down Holly, then Prospect Street, then turned in front of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and Whatcom County Jail and walked to City Hall on Lottie Street where they stood outside chanting for a bit.
Around 1 p.m., the protesters entered City Hall chanting “No justice, no peace, defund the police.” They spread out along the ground floor, stairs and second floor of City Hall, still chanting. After a little while, Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood came out to address the crowd, first standing on the stairs and then moving to the lower landing between the two floors.
The crowd asked Fleetwood various questions about defunding the Bellingham Police Department, police brutality and excessive force, and what commitments he was willing to make to changing Bellingham or city policies to show more support for people of color in the community. The crowd was a mix of people interrupting Fleetwood with more questions and others telling the crowd to let him speak.
After people raised questions of armed individuals in downtown Bellingham that were seen before the Peaceful Solidarity Rally held on June 6, Fleetwood said he would support efforts to change open carry laws in Washington state.
Fleetwood told the crowd inside City Hall that the first step was listening, so a community conversation or listening tour would be happening where community members could share stories and ideas, as well as talk about possible reforms for Bellingham police, such as defunding the police, creating a civilian oversight board or joining the 8 Can’t Wait campaign surrounding use of force techniques. Fleetwood said more details about where and when that conversation was taking place would be available soon after he spoke with City Council members and precautions for COVID-19 were met.
After that conversation, a handful of people stayed to continuing speaking with Fleetwood, while the majority of the protesters returned to Holly Street and Railroad Avenue around 2:30 p.m., where they overturned dumpsters and blocked off three blocks of Holly Street — from State Street down to Cornwall Avenue.
The city put out signs signaling the streets were closed and Bellingham police tweeted: “Please be aware the intersection of Railroad and Holly is currently blocked by a peaceful rally. If you need to go through downtown, please use other arterial streets, like E Chestnut and E. Magnolia. Please be patient, and kind.”
The crowd returned the dumpsters, but then used cars to create barricades blocking off Holly, as well as the alleyways leading to Holly. Protesters were present up at Holly and State streets, in the middle of the street at Holly and Railroad Avenue, and down at Holly and Cornwall Avenue. Some were intending to create an ongoing occupation occupation like CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle.
Around 6 p.m., Fleetwood rejoined the crowd downtown, which had removed the barricades and gathered on the corner of Holly and Railroad in front of Little Cheerful Cafe. Someone had set up a tent, which had a speaker and microphone underneath it.
The protesters told Fleetwood they wanted money from the police budget to be reallocated to groups like the Opportunity Council, Northwest Youth Services and others that are doing social services work, supporting the homeless or treating those with addictions or mental health issues, among other things.
Fleetwood said there are so many things the protesters want that he supports, adding that the idea of inclusion and embracing diversity is necessary. He also said he is committed to learning about the issues and reforms that protesters were bringing up.
“There’s so much that I fundamentally agree with,” Fleetwood said. “I want to make progress. I want to make meaningful progress.”
City Council member Hollie Huthman, who was also present at Friday’s protest against systemic racism, also spoke to the crowd Monday evening. She explained that there were six other council members and suggested that people email or call them. Huthman told the crowd the council is working on lots of the issues raised by the protesters and that criminal justice issues are important to her. She said it’s important to understand what defunding the police means, as many people do not.
Huthman said there are many local elected officials who fundamentally believe in addressing the sources of the problems and working on prevention, rather than putting Band-Aids on the symptoms. She said they need to be looking 30 years ahead and starting putting resources into those solutions now.
Several protesters also shared their experiences with police and thoughts on what reforms should look like.
After the speeches ended and Fleetwood and Huthman left, much of the crowd dispersed. By 8 p.m., most protesters had left.
Herald journalists Kie Relyea and Warren Sterling contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 12:23 PM.
