SEATTLE — A federal judge has denied a call for an emergency restraining order to stop Seattle police and park workers from clearing the hold-out remnants of a large homeless encampment at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones had taken the matter under advisement following a nearly two-hour emergency hearing Wednesday evening in which the judge referred to Seattle's miserable December weather and said it was a "horrible time" for the court to be deciding whether the clearing of the park should go forward.
Lawyers representing both the city and the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Ada Yeager, had urged Jones to rule from the bench, saying they needed guidance from the court. Jones declined, but said he would issue a written ruling as soon as he could.
The city had planned to clear the park sometime Wednesday morning but hesitated after Yeager, who has been living at Cal Anderson, filed her lawsuit. However, attorneys for Seattle have said that, if the court gave the go-ahead, clearing the park was imminent out of concern for health and public safety. They said people living in the encampment have been hostile and threatened park workers and police.
They also pointed out that, technically, the park is closed due to city COVID-19 restrictions, and that those living there were in violation of those requirements.
Yeager's attorney, Branden Pence, argued that the court needed to issue an order stopping the encampment removal, which would likely result in the "coordinated destruction and taking of personal property of unhoused citizens" without due process or consideration of civil rights.
Pence also argued that the park is a focal point for Black Lives Matter protesters who have targeted the Seattle Police Department's nearby East Precinct and, for several weeks in the summer, was the heart of CHOP — the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest — after police abandoned the facility. Yeager was a participant, Pence argued, and has lived at the park since. He argued that forcing campers out would violate their free speech protections.
Police returned after several weeks, following complaints from businesses and shootings that left two dead and several others injured.
The city denies the park has any significance as a forum for speech. Assistant City Attorney Jeremy Wood insisted the issue was a "question of trespassing, not a question of content."
Over the past several days, as news of the planned sweep spread, a number of protesters arrived at the park and began building barricades, prompting Seattle Police Officer's Guild President Mike Solan in his weekly podcast to speculate that the city could soon experience "CHOP 2.0"
