Spokane protests: Curfew declared after multiple arrests, including former councilman Ben Stuckart
Spokane declared a state of emergency and curfew Wednesday after anti-ICE protests led to over 30 arrests, including former councilman Ben Stuckart.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown declared a state of emergency and announced a downtown curfew Wednesday night following protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that resulted in more than 30 arrests, including former city councilman Ben Stuckart.
The curfew began at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and remains in effect until 5 a.m. Thursday. It applies to the area bounded by Boone Avenue to Spokane Falls Boulevard and Howard Street to Division Street, including Riverfront Park.
“We want everybody to be safe and we thought this was the best path forward in order to achieve that,” Brown said during the press briefing. “I made the decision that the safest course of action was by Spokane Police, not ICE, to try to safely disperse the crowd.”
What happened on Wednesday?
According to KXLY, tensions escalated after a group of protesters, including Stuckart, blocked a van outside a downtown immigration office that was reportedly set to transport individuals to the ICE detention facility in Tacoma. Protesters sat in front of the vehicle to stop it from leaving.
The demonstration turned volatile when some individuals allegedly vandalized ICE vehicles, spray-painting windshields and flattening a tire. Around the same time, a separate protest began a few blocks away at Riverfront Park. That group later marched to the same ICE facility and merged with the larger crowd.
"The vast majority were peaceful.. compliant, also, with officers," Mayor Brown said. "That is what we hope for. People have that right, there are serious concerns about federal policies. We also want to keep everyone safe."
Police eventually issued a dispersal order and began making arrests. Stuckart was one of the first taken into custody. As per the jail records, he was booked on a charge of failure to disperse. By 10:00 p.m., authorities reported over 30 arrests, most for misdemeanor offenses.
