SPOKANE, Wash. — Former Spokane City Council President and Mayoral candidate Ben Stuckart condemned the City of Spokane's response protests over the death of George Floyd last Sunday and Monday.
"You cannot watch news accounts and watch first hand videos of tear gas in your town and not wonder what is going on?" Stuckart wrote on Facebook.
Thousands gathered at the protest, which remained peaceful for hours. After the initial protest was over, police deployed tear gas and flash bang devices on a crowd that still remained downtown after the Nike store was broken into and looted.
According to a resolution submitted to the city council, some members of the public question whether the tactics were "aggressive and over-inclusive."
"We have citizens being shot with rubber bullets who were one minute actively stopping the break in at Nike. But oh no, 'there were too many of them so we couldn’t figure out who the bad ones were and had to use tear gas and rubber bullets on our own citizens.' Except of course the white nationalists with guns, they were okay and somehow never got attacked," Stuckart wrote.
At a press conference Monday, Spokane Police Chief Craig Miedl confirmed the Proud Boys were in attendance at the Spokane protest. The Proud Boys are designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Miedl also said officers identified multiple people at the protest who were open carrying, that were asked to leave.
"There are good people and bad people but that is NEVER an excuse to shoot peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets," Stuckart wrote.
"We know for a fact that cities that had no looting or rioting were ones that didn’t use riot gear but joined in the pain of their fellow community members. We almost had it. But then it was lost," he continued.
