We Keep Us Safe: The Standoff

Summary

Embedded (NPR)

Episode: We Keep Us Safe: The Standoff

Release Date: June 18, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Embedded dives deeply into the events leading up to the creation of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle, sparked by the national movement after George Floyd's murder in 2020. Through personal narratives and detailed reporting, the podcast explores how a protest against police brutality ended in tragedy for Antonio Mays Jr., a Black teenager who traveled from Los Angeles to Seattle to join the movement. The episode unpacks the sequence of confrontations, decisions by officials and protesters, and the creation of the protest encampment, highlighting how specific moments transformed both the city and the movement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Antonio Mays Jr.: Motivation and Legacy

• Antonio’s Letter & Ideals: The episode opens with the backstory of Antonio Mays Jr., explored through a heartfelt note he left behind for his father. It reveals his motivations for joining the protests, underscoring his desire to "make you proud" and "stand up for our people" ([01:36-03:36]).
  • Notable Quote: “My goals are simple. Become a better person I know you could be proud of and someone my sister could look up to. I hope you can forgive me for leaving, but know that I am not running from home. I'm fighting for a cause...” – Antonio Mays Jr. (read by Sydney Brownstone, [02:10])
• Father’s Grief: Antonio Mays Sr. expresses his pain, frustration, and desire for closure, questioning the circumstances that led to his son’s death.
  • Notable Quote: “He wanted to join the protest against police brutality. This was a real-life Black movement that was going down in his lifetime.” – Antonio Mays Sr. ([00:59])

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Seattle’s Unique Protest Culture

• Background of Protests in Seattle: Hosts reflect on the city's rich history of activism, citing events like the 1999 WTO protests and annual May Day marches. This context sets the stage for the 2020 protests to develop in a particularly intense and sustained way ([08:15-09:35]).
  • Notable Quote: “Seattle is the kind of town where protests are a family activity, but we’re also known for having an edgier side.” – Sydney Brownstone ([09:20])
• Escalation After George Floyd: The George Floyd protests quickly arrive in Seattle, with significant property damage and a heavy-handed police response not seen in decades, including the use of tear gas and pepper spray against civilians and even children ([09:35-11:04]).
  • Memorable Moment: “In one instance when police pepper-sprayed a crowd, they hit a 7-year-old... This was a sign something had changed.” – Sydney Brownstone ([10:17])

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The Pink Umbrella Standoff

• The East Precinct Confrontation: Tensions explode outside Seattle’s East Precinct when police block protesters. Standoffs ensue, culminating in an altercation over a pink umbrella that becomes iconic (“Pink Umbrella Day”) ([12:09-17:10]).
  • Timeline:
    • [12:30] The clash begins as thousands converge on the precinct.
    • [14:43] Protesters use umbrellas, inspired by Hong Kong tactics, to shield themselves from pepper spray.
    • [15:00-15:20] The tug-of-war over the pink umbrella erupts, initiating chaos.
    • [15:23] “The police started randomly spraying everybody in the crowd. Their skin starts to burn.” – Antonio Mays Sr.
  • On-the-ground quote: “There’s the spray. There’s the spray...” – Omari Salisbury ([15:20])
• Escalation vs. De-escalation: Protesters accuse the police of escalating the situation and “putting out a release saying the protesters started a riot.” ([16:22], Antonio Mays Sr.)
• Oversight Findings: Later, Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability finds demonstrators were not a significant threat and that the police misuse of force violated department policy ([16:32]).

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How the Protests Shifted

• Movement Galvanized: The overreaction on Pink Umbrella Day galvanized protesters, changing the narrative from a national movement to a local confrontation with Seattle police ([17:04-17:35]).
  • Notable Quote: “We are protesting the Seattle Police.” – Will James ([17:24])
• Demands & Tactics: Protesters' demands crystallize: cut the police budget by 50%, reinvest in social services, and drop protester charges. New leaders emerge, notably David Lewis and Rashaila Levitt, who advocate for disciplined, nonviolent protest ([22:00-22:16]).

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Inside & Outside Leadership

• David Lewis & Rashaila Levitt: Ordinary citizens become organic leaders, gaining influence through charisma and conviction. They advocate for discipline and nonviolence amid a chaotic mix of interests ([19:12-21:36]).
  • Notable Quote: “If we can leverage the access and the attention and the tension that we have created, not just in Seattle, but on a nationwide scale, we can make fundamental changes.” – David Lewis ([20:27])
• Rashaila becomes a rallying voice, emblematic for her energy and passion.
  • Notable Quote: “He handed me a megaphone … All of a sudden, I was in this role that I was expecting, and it just escalated from there.” – Rashaila Levitt ([21:36])

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City Response, Bloody Sunday & The Birth of CHOP

• Bloody Sunday ([26:28-30:25]):
  • Car attack incident: ICU nurse Danielle Meehan describes a terrifying scene as a car drives into protesters; a protester shot, medics rush in, woman loses consciousness after tear gas.
    • Notable Quotes:
      • “I could hear people yelling on that corner. And I’m like, oh. And we’re watching him and like, maybe it's an accident... then he started to accelerate. And I remember just thinking, oh my God, my friends are gonna die.” – Danielle Meehan ([26:40])
      • “There was a woman who was hit in the chest with a tear gas canister. ... She lost consciousness. Her heart stopped." – Sydney Brownstone ([29:33])
  • The driver, the brother of an officer, surrenders, fueling protester suspicions of police alignment with violence against protesters ([27:48]).
• Police Perspective: Officers feel besieged, with accounts of emotional breakdowns and fear of being “overrun” ([31:02-31:19], Tammy Floyd).
• The Police Retreat: Facing pressure from city leadership and intelligence of potential threats to precincts, police leadership decides to evacuate the East Precinct entirely ([31:26-34:56]). Emotional testimony shows the gravity and trauma of this decision.
  • Notable Quote: “It was a complete collapse of your very mission, which was public safety.” – Tammy Floyd ([34:11])
  • Counterpoint: “I always bristle at the fact that we gave up a precinct... we had to make quick decisions that were going to be significantly impactful to the safety of Seattle police officers and the citizens of Seattle and the protesters.” – Tom Mahaffey ([34:56])

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Birth of CHOP

• Occupation Begins: The police withdrawal leads to a sense of victory and relief for protesters, but questions arise about what to do with the newly claimed space ([35:56-37:15]).
  • Memorable Moment: “We, this, we won. This is a victory. Like we did something.” – Rashaila Levitt ([36:29])
• National Attention: The encampment garners national media, especially right-wing focus, branding it a “takeover” ([37:33-37:49]), despite protesters’ intent not being to drive police away.
  • Satirical Tone: “They planted a flag and they stole it, just like the conquistador.” – Will James ([37:39])
• Antonio Jr.’s Journey: Inspired by the unprecedented events, Antonio Jr. decides to make his way from LA to see and join the movement himself, unbeknownst to his father ([38:23-39:01]).
• Protesters’ Doubts: Some leaders express misgivings about forming an occupation; David Lewis calls the decision to stay “instantly a mistake.” ([39:33-39:42])

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The Encampment’s Uncertainty

• Growing Threats: As the occupation solidifies, word spreads that possible armed “Proud Boys” or other outsiders may approach, ratcheting up tensions and fears—foreshadowing threats that will shape Antonio’s experience once he arrives ([40:09-40:34]).
• Transition to Next Episode: The episode ends by teeing up the climate of fear and insecurity in CHOP that will figure in the next chapter of Antonio’s story.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “He wanted to join the protest against police brutality. This was a real-life Black movement that was going down in his lifetime.”
  – Antonio Mays Sr. ([00:59])

• “There will be a revolution. There will be a change. It’s not going to be the same again, I promise you.”
  – Antonio Mays Sr. ([04:30])

• “Let’s just try to bring this down, guys.”
  – Omari Salisbury ([14:56])

• “If you were an SPD and you went to a grocery store, that grocer was messaging me to the police.”
  – David Lewis ([24:32])

• “It was that fork in the road that went one way instead of the other. ... I think we wouldn’t have had the shootings. I think some people would be alive today.”
  – Tammy Floyd ([34:25])

• “That fundamental decision to stay there and occupy was very questionable…you stay in one spot, then your opposition …can strategize against you.”
  – David Lewis ([39:42])

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Key Timestamps

• [01:14] Antonio Jr.'s last moments at home and the letter to his father
• [09:35] Arrival of George Floyd protests in Seattle
• [12:30] Pink Umbrella standoff outside the East Precinct
• [16:32] Oversight findings conclude police overreach
• [17:10] Movement galvanizes, focus shifts to local SPD
• [22:45] Protesters’ three central demands
• [26:28-30:25] Bloody Sunday: car attack, medical emergencies
• [31:02-31:19] Police emotional crisis, sense of being “overrun”
• [33:34] Decision to evacuate the East Precinct
• [36:29] Protesters’ sense of victory as police retreat
• [39:42] David Lewis’s unease about occupation strategy
• [40:09-40:34] Foreboding about armed outsiders, rising anxiety

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Conclusion & Tone

Maintaining a measured, empathetic tone, the episode intertwines first-person testimony, on-the-ground reporting, and institutional perspective to capture the desperation, hope, confusion, and consequences of the Seattle protests in 2020. The story leaves listeners reflecting on how cycles of escalation and retreat shaped the fateful journey of Antonio Mays Jr.—and how the sequence of decisions mapped the contours of a community in crisis.

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For further materials referenced in the episode (e.g., Antonio’s letter), visit npr.org/chop

Transcript

[David Lewis]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana believes selling your car should be refreshingly simple. Enter your license plate or vin, get a real offer down to the penny and schedule a pickup on your time. No surprises. Sell your car [e-mail] pickup fees may apply.

[Will James]

Heads up before we start. This episode contains explicit language. You'll also hear intense audio of confrontations between protesters and police, including the sound of flashbangs and other loud booming noises.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Previously on We Keep Us Safe. More shots fired. More shots fired. More shots fired. More shots fired. A protest becomes a crime scene.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

When you come in shooting, you get shot back.

[Will James]

We can hear what happens next. The fatal shooting of Antonio, but we can't see it.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I should have some answers. I should have some closure.

[Sydney Brownstone]

How did a protest for black lives end up killing a black teenager?

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

He wanted to join the protest against police brutality. This was a real life black movement that was going down in his lifetime.

[Will James]

The last time Antonio Mays Sr. Saw his son was in the early morning hours of June 23, 2020. Later that morning, Antonio Mays Jr. Was gone. The only trace of him was a note tucked into the handle of a fridge in the family's garage.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

It said that he was gonna make me proud. He said he was gonna go accomplish something.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Antonio Sr. Filed a missing persons report right away. We put in a records request with the Los Angeles Police Department to see if we could get a copy. And not only did we get back the report itself, but we also got back the letter that Antonio Jr. Left for his dad. On the outside of the letter, it says, please read all the way through. I love you, dad. You raised a strong young man. I'm gonna make you proud. And this is what Antonio Jr wrote in Dear Dad, I am leaving because with everything that is going on in the world, I've been feeling this need to partake and stand up for our people. My little sister is always on my mind when I think about these things. The thought of anything happening to her brings me anxiety and stress on top of the fact that you work all the time. I can't help but worry about the possible things that could happen to you on this journey that I am taking. My goals are simple. Become a better person I know you could be proud of and someone my sister could look up to. I hope you can forgive me for leaving, but know that I am not running from home. I'm fighting for a cause. One day I want my sister to live in a world where her skin won't be the cause of any pain. For her physically or emotionally. I love the both of you too, dearly and with all my heart. But I really do believe God is trying to tell me something, so I'm trying my best to follow. P.S. also, don't get angry or upset with my decision, please. I love you dearly, your son.

[Will James]

So from this note we see this idealistic kid in Southern California who left home to make a mark on the world. But there's something this letter doesn't explain. Why did Antonio travel a thousand miles to a city where his dad says he'd never been? Why did Antonio go to Seattle?

[Sydney Brownstone]

At that time, protests were happening across the country. Of course, it all started in Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020. But then it very quickly spread.

[Will James]

Say his name.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Say his name.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Soon it got to Los Angeles, where Antonio lived, then the Bay Area, Portland, San Diego.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

There will be a revolution. There will be a change. It's not going to be the same again, I promise you.

[Will James]

For a Southern California kid with plenty of places to protest nearby, Seattle doesn't seem like the go to choice. But Seattle was different.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Seattle became a destination for protesters in a way that other cities didn't. It was a place where police actually retreated and protesters claimed a space of

[Will James]

their own form, their own community.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Seattle was different because Seattle had chop.

[Will James]

But before CHOP had a name, before tents occupied eight city blocks in a police free zone, it was a protest for racial justice.

[Sydney Brownstone]

As we looked into the question of how and why Antonio was killed, we realized that the answer starts with a standoff between protesters and police that led to the creation of CHOP and set it on a trajectory that led to Antonio's death. From NPR's Embedded with KUOW and the Seattle Times, this is We Keep Us Safe. I'm Sydney Brownstone.

[Will James]

And I'm Will James. This is Episode.

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This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Strawberry Me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Are you stuck in a job you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place? Are your reasons for staying really just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from Strawberry Me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your Corner and get 50% off your first coaching session at Strawberry Me, NPR this message comes from BetterHelp. Summer can feel like a sprint, kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down. It's easy to slip into survival mode just trying to get through it. Then suddenly it's over and you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more. Therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter. With BetterHelp, you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere on your schedule. Don't just survive the summer, thrive. Visit betterhelp.com NPR this is Ira Glass

[Will James]

on this American Life. One thing we like is a good mystery sometimes about really big things. But most times the little mysteries are the best. Our lost and found is currently filled with pants.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

I don't know.

[Will James]

I've never seen this happen.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

This is true.

[David Lewis]

This is true.

[Will James]

Mysteries of every size. Each week.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

This American Life, wherever you get your

[Omari Salisbury]

podcasts this week on Up first from NPR News, President Trump is at the G7 in France and is supposed to sign a peace deal with Iran. That deal, if it happens as planned, will have big effects on the global economy and more. And we will track the changes as they unfold on a week of major geopolitical news. Listen to up first every morning on the NPR app or or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I think we have to start by saying that protest is kind of a thing in Seattle.

[Will James]

Before daybreak, squads of police carrying duffel bags full of gear began moving into position for the WTO's opening ceremonies.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Stand up, my back.

[Will James]

This is where the protests against the World Trade Organization went down in 1999.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Everywhere you looked, WTO delegates were trying to get to the convention center and it was becoming obvious the protesters were succeeding in stopping them.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And then there are the big annual workers rights protests like Mayday, where reporters are used to covering what we call smashy smashy. There's usually a mainstream march, rallies families with kids, and then at the margins, There are a few more radical protesters who are breaking windows of corporations downtown. There's even a song about it. So while Seattle is the kind of town where protests are family activity, we're also known for having an edgier side.

[Will James]

When the George Floyd protests arrived in Seattle, people in the streets smashed windows downtown as usual. And then someone set a police car on fire. You also had this wave of property damage in Chinatown among these smaller family run businesses as well. That was an early indication that, okay, maybe this one is different, beat the

[Tammy Floyd]

out of this guy.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I don't really know how it started

[Will James]

now, people are looting the store.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Then there was the police response. That first weekend they were already breaking out the tear gas and blast balls at a scale we hadn't seen here since WTO more than 20 years before. In one instance when police pepper sprayed a crowd, they hit a 7 year old. Someone videotaped the aftermath. That got a lot of people paying attention because families were used to bringing out their kids to protests here safely. This was a sign something had changed.

[Will James]

This was all happening about three weeks before Antonio would get to Seattle. These protests were unruly, they were confusing. And everyone in Seattle was trying to make sense of what was happening on our streets.

[Omari Salisbury]

Starbucks is being looted. The SPD's just being outmaneuvered to a lot of people.

[Will James]

Started to tune into this one journalist. He always seemed to be at the center of the action.

[Omari Salisbury]

The detective here is fucked up. They're putting the peaceful guys right here. It's taking all your resources.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I think it was important to be able to give what the protesters perspective was, you know what I'm saying?

[Will James]

Omari Salisbury is the founder of Converge Media. It's a local news outlet. He started to cover some Seattle's historically black central district. But once the protests kicked off, his live streams captured the most comprehensive view that we have into the events before and after Antonio arrived in Seattle.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Omari partnered with us to help piece together what made Seattle so unique. During the protests of 2020. He was on the front lines of one of the biggest confrontations in Seattle that summer. Pink Umbrella Day.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

The flashpoint is what we called it, the pink umbrella scene around the world.

[Will James]

So here's how we get to Pink Umbrella Day. Over that first weekend, the protests grew from hundreds of people to thousands. Four days after the protests started, protestors decided they were going to march past the East Precinct.

[Omari Salisbury]

The east precinct is about four blocks in front of us.

[Will James]

That's the Seattle police Precinct. That covers the historically young gay activist heavy neighborhood of Capitol Hill and also the historically black neighborhood that Omari grew up in, the Central District. The energy of the protests had been converging here. But on this day, when protesters march up Capitol Hill, they find their path blocked by a line of police officers who had set up a barricade.

[Omari Salisbury]

There's a barricade around the East Precinct. There's a barricade, lots of officers.

[Will James]

Protesters didn't know why the police wouldn't let them march down the street. But now we know that city leaders were afraid the crowd would burn down the precinct. It had happened in Minneapolis and Police all around the country were getting warnings from the federal government that protesters might attack their buildings, too.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Protesters didn't back off.

[Rashaila Levitt]

We are going to stay here until you let us continue our calm, people.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The crowd swells. Hundreds of protesters press up against the metal barricade. They're chanting for police to let them march past

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

the front line of that protest for as far as we could see. And it was a long way. I couldn't see all the way back. These are people in jeans and T shirts, man. They didn't come for war or battle.

[Sydney Brownstone]

As they press on, the barricade, it starts to bend. On the other side are dozens of police and National Guard. SWAT officers with gas masks and batons move to the front.

[Omari Salisbury]

What we could expect next is tear gas, wide tear gas, and possibly flashbangs.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

Some of the protester posture changed as well. They're like, oh, they're getting ready to mace us.

[Omari Salisbury]

Okay, the umbrellas are here. You see people put out the umbrellas to block the spray. It's rally right here.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Protesters use a tactic from Hong Kong where they would bring umbrellas to shield themselves from pepper spray.

[Omari Salisbury]

Let's just try to bring this down, guys.

[Will James]

A protester in the front is holding

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

a pink umbrella, and she opens the umbrella. The cop grabs the umbrella.

[Omari Salisbury]

So we see him grabbing the umbrella.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

And then they start going back and forth, pulling over the umbrella.

[Will James]

Multiple protesters and multiple police wrestling over the pink umbrella.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

And, man, that's where all hell started breaking loose.

[Omari Salisbury]

There's the spray. There's the spray. They're putting the.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

The police started randomly spraying everybody in the crowd. Their skin starts to burn.

[Omari Salisbury]

God damn it. They got me, you motherfuckers.

[Rashaila Levitt]

I'mma eat this.

[Omari Salisbury]

This, though.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I remember I got.

[Omari Salisbury]

I got.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I got sprayed in the eye.

[Omari Salisbury]

Get the. Out my way. I only got one eye. These are flashbangs. This is flashbangs.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

It was overwhelming force. There wasn't any attempt by the SPD to any real kind of de escalation.

[Omari Salisbury]

Police, stop. Holy. Oh.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The protesters were shocked by the level of force that they saw. Seattle police said it was justified. They released a statement saying they declared a riot because protesters threw rocks, bottles, and fireworks and also tried to break through the barricades.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

These guys escalated a situation and then put out a release saying the protesters started a riot. I'm like, well, shit, I got the receipts, buddy.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Months later, Seattle's Office of Police Accountability only found evidence of one bottle being thrown. They determined protesters didn't pose much of a threat in Fact, the report said police violated their own policy by using pepper spray and other weapons to break up the crowd. That decision police made to block off protesters at the East Precinct, it would set off a chain reaction. The aftershocks were still being felt weeks later when Antonio arrived in Seattle.

[Will James]

The violence protesters faced on Pink Umbrella Day actually galvanized the movement.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The protesters, they could just say, look at what police are doing to us. Look at what police are doing right now. By showing up, we are eliciting a reaction from police that demonstrates our entire point.

[Will James]

And it becomes less about, we are protesting police brutality nationally to we are protesting the Seattle police.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Seattle Police Department has the biggest budget of any department in the city. I don't want to see no more money returned to the Seattle Police Department.

[Will James]

After Pink Umbrella Day, protesters keep showing up for a full week. They try to march past the east precinct, but police won't let them and keep tear gassing and pepper spraying the crowd. And a kind of infrastructure, a protest infrastructure hardens around the area. There are mutual aid stations, volunteer medics, free food goggles for the tear gas and pepper spray. Local businesses open up their restrooms to

[Omari Salisbury]

protesters like, these guys are well fortified up here in terms of supplies, things like that.

[Sydney Brownstone]

All of this was happening in a leaderless, decentralized way. The same kind of organizing we've seen in a lot of left wing mass movements over the years. But some leaders did emerge organically from the crowd.

[Omari Salisbury]

The point of today was to stand

[Rashaila Levitt]

together and acknowledge that black lives matter.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Some of these leaders would end up crossing paths with Antonio and show up at key moments in his time here. But that's still weeks away at this

[Omari Salisbury]

point, that black people are not alone.

[Rashaila Levitt]

The point of today was to realize

[Omari Salisbury]

that we are stronger together.

[Will James]

David Lewis was someone who I think most protesters had never heard of before.

[David Lewis]

Before 2020, I was the project manager at Lululemon.

[Will James]

David Stahl wears glasses. A newsboy cap gives off a professorial vibe.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Like Antonio, he grew up steeped in the story of black civil rights. In fact, he is related to the victim of one of the most infamous cases of white mo In American history.

[David Lewis]

Emmett Till actually is my cousin. My grandmother and Emmett Till Sr. Would, you know, spend the summers in the watering hole in New Madrid. My Grandmother marched with Dr. King at Selma. Yeah, this has been my life.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And 2020 kind of transformed him into a protester.

[David Lewis]

I remember calling my mom and saying, mom, I think I have to go out there. She says, what are you gonna do there? You know, what are your goals? What are you wanting to do? And I said, I don't know. She said, before you go out, you need to know who you're going to be in this space.

[Will James]

And he became kind of one of these breakout stars. Like, people just started paying attention to him and deferring to him because he was charismatic and seemed like he had a well thought out worldview.

[David Lewis]

If we can leverage the access and the attention and the tension that we have created, not just in Seattle, but on a nationwide scale, we can make fundamental changes.

[Sydney Brownstone]

David Lewis kind of became the organizer to which other breakout organizers were drawn to.

[David Lewis]

And that was when I first met Rashaila.

[Rashaila Levitt]

My best friend had a flashbang thrown directly at her twice. What were we doing? This. This is all we're fucking doing.

[Will James]

Rashaila Levitt was a local bartender her and she brought this gift for connecting with people to the protests.

[Rashaila Levitt]

What else do we do when they throw shit at us? What else do we do when they shoot us?

[David Lewis]

When she got in front of a crowd, she would be able to, you know, she would leverage and utilize her voice to be able to move people.

[Rashaila Levitt]

And this is the street that we demand to walk on.

David kind of looked at me and he was like, you're loud.

[Sydney Brownstone]

I was like, yeah, she's not just loud. She's passionate. She's also recognizable at the time. She had these long locks, so you could easily spot her out of a crowd.

[Rashaila Levitt]

He handed me a megaphone, and he was like. He was like, just keep doing what you're doing. All of a sudden, I was in this role that I was expecting, and it just escalated from there.

[Will James]

One thing that made Reshaila and David stand out early on was that they had strong convictions about how to protest effectively. Like, we're not going to break windows, we're not going to vandalize. They wanted these protests to be disciplined.

[David Lewis]

We weren't here to just create chaos. We were here to protest police brutality.

[Will James]

The people flooding into the streets that summer were showing up for all kinds of reasons. Not everyone was there. For George Floyd, the pandemic was raging. Some people were just frustrated, scared, lonely, bored. And leaders like David and Reshaila were trying to harness that raw energy to achieve the movement's goals.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Protesters had three main demands. Cut the police budget by at least 50%, reinvest in social services, and drop charges against protesters who had been arrested.

[Will James]

While more and more of the movement's energy was focused on the barricade outside the East Precinct, there were still marches going on elsewhere in the city.

[Rashaila Levitt]

We Kind of got this idea in our heads of let's, like, let's just go all the way to the top. Like, it's not even about the police chief anymore. Like, now we need to speak to the mayor.

[David Lewis]

We were able to march 7,000 people exactly to where the mayor was.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Now listen, folks, listen. We have, we have news cameras. We want to make sure that this message is seen across the world, across the nation, loud and clear. And that is not diluted at this point.

[Will James]

There's real movement in the protesters direction. Multiple city council members are showing up to stand with protesters against police.

[David Lewis]

We sat down and we said, we will not leave until Mayor Durkin comes out.

[Will James]

Mayor Jenny Durkin was a former federal prosecutor and elected as a pro business moderate Democrat. Like a lot of big city mayors, she was trying to maintain order while still showing support for the protest movement.

[David Lewis]

And within about 10 minutes, the Deputy mayor comes out and says, mary Durkin is here. She will see you now.

[Rashaila Levitt]

We want you to march. We want you to raise your voices. We want you to continue on the path of justice.

[Sydney Brownstone]

These new protest leaders, who were regular people just a couple of days ago, end up sitting face to face with Seattle's mayor.

[David Lewis]

After that meeting with the mayor, the support was palpable. We had eyes and ears everywhere in every piece of the government. And if you were an SPD and you went to a grocery store store, that grocer was messaging me to the police.

[Will James]

It feels like the entire city is turning on them.

[Rashaila Levitt]

We are changing things. This is a start to a start, and it needs to stay that way. But the only way it can stay that way.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Everyone wondered, what would the police do next?

[Will James]

The moves they ended up making would lead directly to the creation of chopping and add to the climate of fear that would take over by the time Antonio arrived. That's after the break.

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[Sydney Brownstone]

A week after Pink Umbrella Day, protesters worst fears materialized. It started with an incident on a day that came to be known as Bloody Sunday.

[Danielle Meehan]

There was a car that turned onto that street, and I could hear people yelling on that corner. And I'm like, oh. And we're watching him and like, maybe it's an accident.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Danielle Meehan was an ICU nurse volunteering as a protest medicine. She was in the crowd when she saw a car driving up a side street straight toward the group protesting outside the East Precinct.

[Danielle Meehan]

And then he started to accelerate. And I remember just thinking, oh, my God, my friends are gonna die.

[Rashaila Levitt]

Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.

[Sydney Brownstone]

It looked like a car attack.

[Danielle Meehan]

And then I heard a gunshot, and I froze for a second.

[Omari Salisbury]

Oh, Jesus.

[Danielle Meehan]

And then people started screaming for medics. And so I just took off running towards them again.

[Will James]

He has a gun.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

He just got shot.

[Sydney Brownstone]

A protester tried to stop the car as it came close to plowing into the crowd. He reached into the driver's side window and the driver shot him in the arm. Danielle arrived in time to help him.

[Danielle Meehan]

Someone gave me a knife, and I had cut off his shirt and found the wound and found that there was no exit wound. I'm like, okay, he's going to be okay.

[Will James]

In the confusion, the driver got out of the car and managed to slip through the crowd to the police line to surrender himself. It turns out that this driver was the brother of a police officer who was assigned to the East Precinct. He told police he drove toward the crowd by accident and he fired in self defense. In the end, prosecutors said they only had enough evidence to charge him with reckless driving. But the way the driver was able to slip past police lines with a gun and walk into the precinct without resistance seemed to protesters to be a sign that this was a war. And it was clear which side the police were on. Listen, we want to keep this safe. There is no reason for this to get escalated as it is. Please return to the other side of whatever.

[Tammy Floyd]

They take him into custody. And that's just like, oh, my God. That's just the start of today.

[Will James]

All week, Tammy Floyd had been watching the standoff escalate. She was a Seattle police lieutenant at the time and a top aide to the commander, managing the police's response to the protests.

[Tammy Floyd]

What is going to happen?

[Will James]

Tammy says she'd warned her boss that stopping the crowd from marching past the precinct could turn explosive between protesters and police. And now it was hey, I'm gonna

[Rashaila Levitt]

go get a resupply. At Glassboro. N40.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Bloody Sunday saw the most severe protester injuries since the protests began. There was a woman who was hit in the chest with a tear gas canister.

[Will James]

They just hit her. Like they threw it right at her.

[Sydney Brownstone]

And she lost consciousness. Her heart stopped.

[Danielle Meehan]

I remember her eyes looked super bloodshot. She really wanted to go home. She's like, I just, I just want to go home. Then she stopped talking and she was still laying down. And I'm like, she's not breathing. I don't have a pulse. I started cpr and I'm like, holy shit.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Luckily, there were volunteer medics there to revive her. But she could have died.

[Danielle Meehan]

We had nothing. We were not safe. We had no resources. It is a miracle that we were able to save her.

[Will James]

Police also felt like their worst fears were coming true. Two officers went to the hospital with injuries.

[Tammy Floyd]

By nightfall, there was this overwhelming kind of impending sense of doom. I was receiving calls from commanders that were trapped.

[Will James]

The crowd had swelled and they were not backing off.

[Tammy Floyd]

There are officers crying, breaking down. There were leadership command also breaking down, convinced they were, tonight they were going to die. We were going to be overrun.

[Will James]

The morning after Bloody Sunday, Tammy's boss was called into an emergency meeting with top city officials.

[Tom Mahaffey]

A lot of the mayor's staff is there, deputy mayors.

[Will James]

Tom Mahaffey was an assistant police chief and the person responsible for overseeing the police's response to the protests.

[Tom Mahaffey]

They say we can't continue with what we're doing. Just let the protesters march by. It was just so volatile at this point, and there was so much anger and angst.

[Will James]

The mayor's staff wanted him to open up the street. They told police to plan on emptying the precinct of guns, ammo and evidence protesters could break in. But Tom couldn't shake his fear that protesters would burn down the whole precinct.

[Tom Mahaffey]

We were getting information from our intelligence unit, who were connected to various resources throughout the country, and the FBI, that there's a likelihood they will target other police facilities because of what happened in Minneapolis.

[Sydney Brownstone]

For a while, we weren't sure whether the FBI had passed along information about a specific threat to the east precinct, but former Mayor Durkin told us they did. She was briefed on this threat. She said this in an email this spring, but was unable to sit down for an in person interview with us.

[Will James]

Tom Mahaffey says he came up with a plan to deal with the threat of a fire. He was going to let the protesters march past the east precinct, but he wasn't just going to remove weapons and documents like the mayor's office wanted. He was going to remove the officers, too. If protesters just walked past, then great police could just wait them out and go back to work in the precinct. If protesters attacked, tried to set the building on fire or break in, police would swoop in from outside and make arrests. And if the building did burn down, at least there wouldn't be any officers to get trapped inside. Tammy Floyd, who worked as Tom's aide, had been worrying for days that police leaders would abandon the east precinct. And now to her, it was actually happening.

[Tammy Floyd]

I went and sat in the watch commander office and sat down in a chair and just teared up. I had no words. I had no words. And, you know, he looks at me and says, oh, my God, they're going to give it up, aren't they? And I just shook my head. Shook my head, yes, and just started crying.

[Will James]

Tammy wondered, why did police fight so hard to defend the precinct if this was the outcome?

[Tammy Floyd]

It was a complete collapse of your very mission, which was public safety.

[Will James]

For Tammy, this was the decision that set the stage for chop in everything that came after.

[Tammy Floyd]

It was that fork in the road that went one way instead of the other. And history is what it is. Because of that, you wouldn't have had three weeks or 23 days of nightly mayhem. I think we wouldn't have had the shootings. I think some people would be alive today. Yeah, I feel, and I believe it would have been very different.

[Tom Mahaffey]

I always bristle at the fact that we gave up a precinct. It's like it's way more nuanced than that. Like, I'm not trying to make excuses for it. It's like we had to make quick decisions that were going to be significantly impactful to the safety of Seattle police officers and the citizens of Seattle and the protesters. I still believe that the decision that I made, given the circumstances that we were faced, was the right one.

[Will James]

After we talked with Tom Mahaffy and Tammy Floyd, we asked Seattle police about the department's conduct during the protests. Why they set up the barricade and used crowd control weapons on protesters there, why they walked away from the precinct. The department declined to answer our questions. The day after Bloody Sunday, Reshyla Levitt, one of the new protest leaders, notices something feels off outside the east precinct.

[Rashaila Levitt]

The police have started to, like, thin out almost. People thought that they were just doing, like, a shift change, but by that

[Will James]

evening, it's clear something is happening.

[Omari Salisbury]

This is. This is the scene now at the

[Sydney Brownstone]

journalist Omari Salisbury is there recording as usual.

[Omari Salisbury]

Seattle police are going to be abandoned in the east precinct. We're right here behind the barricade. And the police are now moving out. The street is going to open up.

[Sydney Brownstone]

The police are actually packing up. They're leaving.

[Rashaila Levitt]

And it was that moment that we were like, we, this, we won. This is a victory. Like we did something.

[Will James]

At first, for protesters and even some residents of the neighborhood, this is a relief. No more tear gas every night. But now the question is, what are the protesters going to do?

[Rashaila Levitt]

And there was a couple different, like opposing moments and viewpoints and ideas. People were like, no, we should keep marching. We'll do this, that, and the third. And then other people were like, no, like, if we leave, they're going to come back. And that kind of sparked this idea of we should stay.

[Will James]

This was the beginning of a protest encampment that would come to be known as the Capitol Hill Occupied protest chop. The Capitol Hill organized protest, the Capitol Hill autonomous Zone. Surprisingly, little is known about chopping.

[Sydney Brownstone]

It became a national spectacle and right wing media started calling it a takeover of part of Seattle.

[Will James]

They planted a flag and they stole it, just like the conquistador. And the protesters moved in to occupy roughly a six block area of Seattle.

[Sydney Brownstone]

But protesters never set out to drive police away from the precinct. They didn't set out to form an occupation. With all this negative attention, many Seattleites felt like they needed to correct the record and defend the protesters.

[Omari Salisbury]

Let's bring in the mayor of Seattle now, Jenny Durkin.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Welcome back, Ms. Mayor.

[Omari Salisbury]

How long do you think Seattle in

[Tom Mahaffey]

those few blocks looks like this?

[Danielle Meehan]

I don't know.

[Tammy Floyd]

We could have a summer of love.

[Sydney Brownstone]

A thousand miles away, Antonio May Sr. And his son were talking about what was going on in Seattle.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I talked to him about that precinct that was overran in Seattle and then they barricaded the neighborhood. That was. That to me was like, that was an unprecedented thing at that time. That's never happened. I've never heard of that happening. So I'm sharing this stuff with my son because history is happening right before our eyes.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Antonio Mays Sr. Had forbidden his son from joining the protests. But about two weeks after CHOP was formed, Antonio Jr. Left home to go see it for himself.

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

I had no idea that he would travel that far.

[Will James]

When we look back now at all these decisions in that first week of protest, police deciding to block off the road and then use crowd control weapons, police leaving their precinct, and then protesters deciding to form an occupation, it's hard not to wonder what would have happened if even one of those decisions had been different.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Some protesters at the time had a bad feeling about staying. David Lewis was one of them.

[Will James]

What were your feelings about occupying those thoughts?

[David Lewis]

That it was instantly a mistake. That fundamental decision to stay there and occupy was very questionable. My suggestion was never to occupy. You stay in one spot then your opposition who at this point we knew SPD were nothing but opposition at this point can strategize against you.

[Omari Salisbury]

Three Echo yeah, just for information.

[Will James]

Small group possible proud boys.

[Sydney Brownstone]

Soon possibly protesters would face an existential threat to this brand new occupation. It looks like a few of them might be open carrying, but right now

[Omari Salisbury]

they seem pretty peaceful.

[Sydney Brownstone]

It would inject fear into the encampment and shape the kind of protest Antonio would later step into.

[Omari Salisbury]

Somebody over the age of 18 know how to use a gun, take the

[Antonio Mays Sr.]

clip out and put it back in.

[Sydney Brownstone]

That's on the next episode of We Keep a Secret Safe.

[Will James]

If you want to look at evidence from this episode, like the letter Antonio wrote for his dad, visit npr.org chop we're adding new evidence there each week.

[Sydney Brownstone]

We Keep us safe. From NPR's Embedded is a collaboration with the Seattle Times and KUOW. The series is reported and written by me, Sydney Brownstone, David Gutman and Will James.

[Will James]

This episode was edited by Luis Traeas and Laura Grenias with support from Katie Simon.

[Sydney Brownstone]

This episode was produced by Dan Girma. Additional production support from Daveed Good Hertz. Our senior producer is Adelina Lanciannis.

[Will James]

Additional reporting by Omari Salisbury who contributed his recordings to this project along with the live streamer. Joey Weiser Research and Fact checking by Danya Solomon and Miyoko Wolf Jimmy Keeley mastered the episode. Music by Audio Network AudioSocket, Mike Doughty sound Ideas, Ramtin Arablouei and Universal Music

[Sydney Brownstone]

Production and a big thanks to our NPR supporters. Embedded is where we do ambitious long form journalism at npr and NPR helps keep that work going. Supporters also get to listen to every Embedded episode early. Find out more at. If you'd like to email the show, you can reach [e-mail] I'm Sydney Brownstone.

[Will James]

I'm Will James. This is Embedded from npr. Thanks for listening.

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[Sydney Brownstone]

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