Small group burns American flags, sprays graffiti at Bellingham City Hall after march
A small group of people believed to be acting separately from several hundred demonstrators who marched to Bellingham City Hall Sunday, June 28, took down American flags from in front of the building, burned them, sprayed graffiti around the entrance and caused approximately $3,000 in damage.
Sunday’s demonstrators marched from Maritime Heritage Park to listen to speakers at City Hall in honor of the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to defund the Bellingham Police Department.
The damage to City Hall was done after most of the demonstrators had left, Bellingham Mayor’s Office Communications Director Janice Keller told The Bellingham Herald in an email Monday.
“We support the efforts of peaceful marchers who are standing up for vital social change,” Mayor Seth Fleetwood said in a statement. “It is disappointing that a few people would take advantage of Sunday’s march and behave this way. The hard work of translating protest to meaningful action is done with respectful collaboration not property destruction.”
After the speakers had finished and the crowd began to disburse, a group of less than 10 people, who appeared to be in their teens or early 20s, white and dressed mostly in black, were seen taking down an American flag and a City of Bellingham flag from a flag pole outside City Hall and burning them on the bricks beneath the poles.
Then others took down the American flags from the five other poles. A person who was involved with protest organizers approached the group, asked them to stop and told them this was not what the protest was about. After a short, tense conversation, the group lit the flags on fire on the steps outside the main entrance to City Hall.
Others also spray painted anti-police, anti-government and other movement graffiti on and around the main entrance to City Hall.
Bellingham police Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Herald that the incident occurred at approximately 6:25 p.m., which was 25 minutes after the protest was scheduled to conclude.
A Public Works crew was called to remove the graffiti, clean up debris and replace the flags, Keller reported, and the damage was estimated to be approximately $3,000.
Sunday’s march and protest was organized by various political, social justice and activist groups, including the Whatcom Democratic Socialists of America, Imagine No Kages, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, WWU Shred the Contract, Western Washington’s youth chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Racial Justice Coalition, Showing Up for Racial Justice group, Stand Speak Listen, Sunrise Movement Bellingham, WWU Community Aid and the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship’s Social & Environmental Justice Committee.
“As an organization, we do not endorse the destruction of property that took place at City Hall,” Stand Speak Listen founder Ebony told The Herald in a text message Monday. “Those actions do not represent the coalition as a whole. We do not wish to distance ourselves from the coalition, and we will not be policing the practices of others.”
The Whatcom Democratic Socialists of America told The Herald that it had no comment on the incident, while the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center and the Racial Justice Coalition could not be reached for comment.
