The Studio 2.8 Photography and Video team produced photographs and video at a political event held on Wednesday July 15, 2020 at the Seattle City Hall courtyard in downtown Seattle at the back side of Seattle City Hall along the east side of 4th Avenue between James Street and Cherry Street. Multiple galleries of Studio 2.8 photography photos from the "Back SPD" political demonstration and rally will be available here on the www.studiotwopointeight.com website soon. A few "sneak peak" example Studio 2.8 Photographs from the Back Seattle Police event, including some photographs of the rally attendees with their posters and banners, as well as photographs of the small group of counter protesters that were there, have already been made publicly available on the Studio 2.8 Photography @studio2point8 twitter feed.
To publicize their event the people who planned the July 15, 2020 Back Seattle Police political demonstration created the following promotional video, presented here in accordance with copyright "Fair Use".
Please check back soon here at the Studio 2.8 Photography and Video website for additional photographs, video, and documentary journalism about the July 15, 2020 Back The Blue / Back Seattle Police event.
Approximately two years ago various people around the American Pacific Northwest who are associated with so called “far left” political groups and networks, people who others seem to consider to be communist extremists, began spreading the absolute lie, the absurd, ridiculous, dangerous, lie, that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is an “alt-right”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, “white supremacist” and a member of various political groups such communist extremists oppose such as: the “Proud Boys”, “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, and so on. These malicious lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, spread libelously via online social media, and spread slanderously in person at political events, are not only dangerous generally, such lies have proven dangerous to the very people who have spread and who believe such malicious lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist.
The absurd, ridiculous, dangerous, lie, the defamatory libel and slander, that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is an “alt-right”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, “white supremacist”, which has been spread via social media and word of mouth for the past two years by a growing network (apparently thousands now) of people who appear associated with so called “far left” political groups, some of whom appear to participate in the criminal anarcho-communist “Black Bloc”, have led to threats of violence published via social media against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, social media threats that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist should be assaulted, battered, robbed, and even death threats against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. All of these felonious threats are based on the baseless and absurd lies, defamatory libel and slander, being spread among the Pacific Northwest’s various communist groups, social networks, and terror cells, about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist.
One of the significant current results of the malicious lies that have been spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist by the just described people is that a man named John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is now being prosecuted by Seattle’s King County Prosecuting Attorneys' office in King County Superior Court for allegedly having committed felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime. John Bennett was video recorded by Studio 2.8 as John Bennett allegedly committed felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime, as John Bennett allegedly attacked Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. Studio 2.8 photography has published a video recording of John Bennett’s (John Lindsay Bennett) alleged criminal act on the Studio 2.8 youtube channel.
John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is currently being held in Seattle’s King County Jail on $100,000.00 bail, pending a trial that might be as much as a year in the future, or his guilty plea, if he were to wisely choose to plead guilty before trial. If John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is convicted of, or pleads guilty to, felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime, he could be sentenced by a King County Superior Court judge to serve as much as ten (10) years in a Washington State prison. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett could spend ten (10) years in state prison all because John Bennett apparently believed, and acted upon, the defamatory, libelous, slanderous, lies told him about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist by people associated with Seattle’s far left political social networks, and based on those lies, which John Bennett apparently believed wholeheartedly, used that false belief as the irrational, unlawful, basis to commit felony attempted robbery and felony hate crime assault, battery, and property destruction, against a woman that John Bennett repeatedly called a “Nazi” as Bennett pummeled and tried to rob the professional camera equipment from, a woman who is a veteran of the 1960s civil rights era, who even participated in civil rights actions with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s.
While the various people who have spread their dangerous and defamatory lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist appear to have used online social media and word of mouth have apparently intended to try to intimidate and deter Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and master photojournalist, the actual result of their lengthy, hateful, defamation campaign is that someone who is part of their own social circle, John Bennett, is currently charged with multiple felony crimes, is sitting in the King County jail on $100,000.00 bail, and in all likelihood may have seriously damaged his own future, might lose his job, might lose his housing, and if convicted would spend the rest of his life publicly labeled a convicted of the felony hate crime battery of a woman while in attendance, ironically, at a political protest in opposition to racial hatred. John Bennett's criminal behavior is just one of several examples of European American Pacific Northwest residents, hijacking and besmirching the political concerns of African American people in the Pacific Northwest. Other similar criminal minded European American racial justice protest hijackers include federally convicted felons: Margaret Aislinn Channon (Margaret Channon, arrested June 11, 2020, convicted in federal court of arson upon Seattle Police patrol vehicles, and sentenced to five (5) years in federal prison); Jacob Little (Jacob D. Little, arrested for theft of a Seattle Police on AR15 rifle, convicted in federal court and sentenced to sixteen (16) months in federal prison); and others.
The social media and word of mouth hate campaign of lying defamation and threats against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist appears to have begun about two years ago. At that time, two years ago, as Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist was producing photographs at a political event, a group of people dressed in “black bloc” disguise noticed Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, determined that she “wasn’t with them”, and targeted her for attack during that political rally. The result of that disguised Black-Bloc group attack was that the Seattle Police arrested a man whose legal name is Samuel Wheeler-Martenis but who seems to use the name Sam Wheeler in daily discourse. When Samuel Wheeler-Martenis was arrested by the Seattle Police in 2018 during that political event, Sam Wheeler was carrying a concealed Glock brand handgun and various other weapons, all of which the Seattle Police confiscated. It was never made clear if Wheeler-Martenis had a WA concealed pistol license to carry the Glock handgun confiscated from him by the Seattle Police. Within days after Samuel Wheeler-Martenis was arrested by the Seattle Police, various people associated with Seattle’s far-left political social network(s) seem to have become determined to discover the identity of Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. Once those people discovered the identity of Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, their social media and word of mouth defamation campaign against her began in earnest, and apparently remains ongoing.
As people who have believed the defamatory lies being told them about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and managing photojournalist, their actions in response have been almost entirely self-destructive. The egregiously malicious type of defamation that has been spread on social media by various people associated with communist extremist politics in the Pacific Northwest against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and master photojournalist, is not at all a deterrent to the Studio 2.8 photography team. Among the most important responses that the malicious type of lying defamation that has been spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist has generated has been the assiduous, steadfast, determination, of the Studio 2.8 photography and video team, regarding the importance of the documentary photojournalism produced and published by the Studio 2.8 photography team.
One of the more irrational and ironic aspects of the libelous lies spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, is that because that photojournalist “has been seen” photographing such political groups as: “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, or the “Proud Boys”; is that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is therefore a “member” of all these various political groups. The same people who have used such absurd logic do not use the same absurd logic and/or reach the same absurd and nonsensical conclusion when the Studio 2.8 photography staff photographs political groups such as: the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club”; the “Revolutionary Communist Party”, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation”, the “Freedom Socialist Party”, or the “Socialist Alternative Party”, or other similar political groups or networks. Given that Studio 2.8 photography staff photographs and publishes photographs of the foregoing groups in action at public political events, the logic such people use to claim that Studio 2.8 photography staff are associated somehow with: “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, or the “Proud Boys”; would apply as a basis to claim (albeit equally absurdly) that Studio 2.8 photography is associated with or a member of: the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club”; the “Revolutionary Communist Party”, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation”, the “Freedom Socialist Party”, or the “Socialist Alternative Party”, or any other similar political groups or networks. The truth is that neither Studio 2.8 photography, nor any Studio 2.8 photography staff person is associated with any political groups, networks, or factions whatsoever. Among the goals of Studio 2.8 photography’s documentary photojournalism is the detached objectivity that is possible when striving to maintain objective political detachment.
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Party for Socialism and Liberation
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Revolutionary Communist Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Freedom Socialist Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Socialist Alternative Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in Community and Labor Against Fascism
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Proud Boys
No Studio 2.8 membership in Patriot Prayer
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Washington Three Percent
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Democratic Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Republican Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in the Libertarian Party
No Studio 2.8 membership in ANY political groups whatsoever
Among the end results of the various libel and slander being spread about Studio 2.8 photography for people like John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett, who is now accused of, and being prosecuted for, multiple alleged felony crimes, including felony hate crime (all captured on high definition video), is that Bennett is currently sitting in a cell inside the King County Jail, likely wondering how he might possibly raise $100,000.00 in bail money (while sitting in a jail cell), and likely wondering just how much damage he has done to himself, to his career, to his job, to his reputation, and to his long term future. The fact is that people such as John Bennett who are, and who have been, spreading their various defamatory lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist seem most likely to result in self-destructive, self-inflicted, damage to their own lives, more likely than any other possible end result. Meanwhile, the Studio 2.8 photography team will be soldiering on, tirelessly producing documentary photographs and video at Pacific Northwest political events, working with great stamina, adhering to high moral and ethical journalistic standards while publishing such photographs, and licensing such photographs to clients, for the foreseeable future.
In the Studio 2.8 video clip embedded just above, John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett aka #BasedStoneFace, was video recorded by Studio 2.8 as John Bennett, a total stranger, approached, tackled to the hard street pavement ground, battered, and attempted to rob, a Studio 2.8 photography photojournalist. As the acts in the Studio 2.8 video embedded just above concluded, officers with the Seattle Police department arrived, arrested and handcuffed John Bennett, loaded Bennett into a Seattle Police jail transport van and shipped him to the King County Jail. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett has been charged by Seattle's King County Prosecuting Attorney's office with felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and racially motivated felony Hate Crime. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is being held in Seattle's King County Jail on $100,000.00 bail, pending trial or Bennett's guilty plea.
Figure 1. State v. John Lindsay Bennett - Criminal Charge Details
This is a Studio 2.8 Photography editorial, which is a rarity on this website. However, the need for this essential editorial should hopefully be clear, especially to the various misguided people who have published defamatory false claims about Studio 2.8 Photography, and the equally misguided people who have fallen for such lies, who have believed, or worse, criminally acted upon such lies, as one John Lindsay Bennett has, which has resulted in the dire consequence for John Bennett that he currently resides in the King County Jail, held there on $100,000.00 bail, accused of multiple felony crimes.
The diligent Studio 2.8 photography photo and video production team is covering, and has been covering, the George Floyd death racial justice political demonstrations, and also the unlawful riots which have occurred adjacent to the lawful first amendment protected political demonstrations. The Studio 2.8 photography photo and video team will continue to produce photographs and video of these events as this evolving once in a century political passage continues to unfold and transpire.
Already, the Studio 2.8 photography team has produced photographs and video at the Friday May 29, 2020, Saturday May 30, 2020, Sunday May 31, 2020, and other days, of the Black Lives Matter, racial justice, protests in and around the Seattle, Washington area.
A Studio 2.8 video that presents an uncut video portion of the initial outbreak of the violent police brutality upon political demonstrators in Seattle, WA on Saturday May 30, 2020 is already available on the Studio 2.8 website as a youtube video embed. It seems apparent that it was this initial police brutality episode at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street in Seattle on the afternoon of Saturday May 30, 2020 that led to the rioting, burning, looting, burglarizing, property theft and destruction that day that has left the downtown Seattle retail core looking like a ravaged war zone.
Despite the attempts of some misguided people to thwart the constitutionally protected First Amendment freedom of the press activities in which the Studio 2.8 Photography photo and video team has been engaged for years, the team is steadfast, stoic, unwavering, continuing assiduously no matter the obstacle, to produce unique and exclusive perspectives on the political events that are evolving in and around the Seattle, Washington area every day.
Be sure to watch the Studio 2.8 George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, racial justice videos that the Studio 2.8 team has produced and published thus far, in anticipation of additional, longer form, in-depth video presentations of the events that comprise many more aspects of these remarkable and unprecedented political demonstrations.
The Studio 2.8 photography Spring 2020 tulip blooms horticultural photography season is in full bloom. The Studio 2.8 photography website photo galleries are filling with the latest Studio 2.8 exclusive photographs of the regions' gardens most colorful, most vibrant, most thriving, tulip blossoms, planted and nurtured by Pacific Northwest gardeners throughout the region.
Because media activities have been deemed essential, media endeavors are exempt from the state and national "stay at home" orders that might otherwise curtail the media photography activities. The exacting task of producing horticultural photographs is a rather "social distanced" activity in any event, which involves hours of hovering throughout beds of blooms, searching for unique perspectives through the purview of a camera viewfinder and the camera's lens.
Studio 2.8 photography will soon begin a series of content background articles, including content citation background articles, content encyclopedic citation articles, as well as opinion based editorial articles, about the sometimes controversial political event photography that comprises a portion of the Studio 2.8 photography productions that appear here at the www.studiotwopointeight.com website. This basis for this new series of articles is that all too often, many media publishers omit, or even exclude, essential information about the images and events that appear in their photographs. The goal of this upcoming series of Studio 2.8 backgrounder and primer journal articles is to provide essential editorial and factual perspective on the photographic content presented on the Studio 2.8 photography website.
Of equal importance, while Studio 2.8 endeavors to objectively present the subjects photographed by Studio 2.8 photography, especially political event content that can often be controversial, it has also become essential to present information about the official editorial positions and stances of Studio 2.8 photography itself. Every media publisher, every press entity, has biases. Any media publisher that denies its biases, is a media publisher that shouldn’t be trusted. In contrast, standing politically firm, Studio 2.8 photography, its owner, and its employees, oppose racism, oppose bigotry, oppose fascism, oppose Nazism, oppose white supremacy, oppose seditious communist extremism, supports LGBTQ rights, supports racial civil rights including the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, supports marriage equality rights including the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, and more; because, although these stances are political, they also transcend politics because they represent the foundations of human rights, human decency, and a fair and just society, in which, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are core American values.
Given the foregoing paragraphs, Studio 2.8 is a proudly ethnic minority own media service. The Studio 2.8 photography and video service is owned and operated by a senior citizen, LGBTQ, woman of color, a woman who, in her childhood marched with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. in support of, and in hope of the passage of, the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act. The owner of the Studio 2.8 photography and videography service also shares a university Alma Mater with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. and has always been proud to have studied at a university where many of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s documents, manuscripts, and so on, were, and are, available in the university's library.
As a matter of historical political acumen, the proprietor of Studio 2.8 photography also participated proudly in political demonstrations against the Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily because the Vietnam War was a war that conscripted and sent hundreds of thousands of high school and college classmates, against their will and under threat of imprisonment, to a jungle on the opposite side of planet earth, to battle against other people, for reasons that to this day are difficult for even the most respected historians in the world to fully explain. In the 1960s, brave teenagers were being sent to battle, and to possibly die, (over 55,000 Americans did die in Vietnam), wearing just a green or khaki colored denim uniform, a nearly useless helmet, and an M16 rifle, after just six weeks of truly rudimentary basic training, to literally pray every day of being able to make it home alive, “back to the world”, as the saying went back then. It was a time when peoples' closest friends were sent far away, drafted against their will, before the internet, before social media communications, only able to communicate with back home by writing a letter on paper with a pen. The owner of Studio 2.8 photography participated in massive political demonstrations against that conscripted war, political events with crowds that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, or were sometimes smaller but still extraordinarily politically important. One such smaller but politically impactful demonstration was the May 4, 1970 anti-war demonstration at Kent State University, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a place that was driving distance from Studio 2.8 photography’s owner’s high school home. During that political demonstration, Ohio National Guard troops shot and killed four (4) Kent State college students and injured nine (9) others. It is this historical backdrop, and other similar political events, such as the August 1968 Democratic National Convention where a huge political demonstration against the Vietnam War overwhelmed it, that informs the photographic eye that is the basis of the Studio 2.8 photography political photographic media craftwork.
From an early photographic tutelage, and an extended apprenticeship by experience, that began in the late 1960s with a Mamiya/Sekor2000DTL brand 35mm single lens reflex film camera, an experience which has continued over the course of decades since then, with both film cameras, and more recently of course with state of the art digital photographic equipment, Studio 2.8 photography’s political photojournalism is the product of half a century of artistic and informational experience in the United States, observing American political history through a camera’s lens. It is from this foundation of experience and political integrity that Studio 2.8 photography produces difficult to obtain political event photographs. Regardless of risk, Studio 2.8 photography works to be in the political action, within mere feet of the subjects who create political events, recording what transpires, with keen framing that informs, with angles that amplify, and with photographic perspective that is hopefully perspicacious.
On Sunday July 28, 2019, Studio 2.8 photography and videography covered a political rally, march, and counter-protest held at Seattle's Cal Anderson Park, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The group of Seattle area Republicans who organized the political rally named their Sunday July 28, 2019 event "Seattle Liberty March". Some of the event organizers and speakers live streamed video of their event via internet social media, which is what the woman in the Studio 2.8 photograph is doing, talking to her internet social media audience while showing counter-protesters in the background of her live internet presentation.
Counter protesters were also present at the "Seattle Liberty March" political rally and march. Many of the counter-protesters appeared to be part of the anarcho-communist domestic terror cell network that has become a significant presence at nearly every political event in and around Seattle, regardless of the political ideology espoused by political event organizers. The Seattle area anarcho-communist domestic terrorists have become infamous and their public visibility increased since one person among their terrror cell network, a man named Willen Van Spronsen, who was also a member of a communist militia called the "Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club", fire bombed the Tacoma, Washington federal immigration detention center on Saturday July 13, 2019 while wielding a homemade AR-15 type rifle, and was subsequently shot and killed by Tacoma, WA police.
Near the end of the speeches given by the "Seattle Liberty March" organizers on Sunday July 28, 2019, a bearded man who wore a black women's mini-dress and black women's ballet slipper style shoes, kicked down the metal barricade that Seattle Police Department officers had erected before the event began (see photographs and video), after which an altercation between police and counter-protesters began.
Once the event speakers had completed their speeches, rally attendees marched through Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Most of the march transpired along the Broadway thoroughfare in the Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. At various junctures during the march, counter protesters managed to slip past cordons of Seattle Police bicycle officers and started physical skirmishs with some of the rally attendees. The event ended back at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle, from which event attendees dispersed, accompanied by Seattle Police as they left.
Studio 2.8 photography produced in depth photographic coverage of the 2019 Triggrcon convention, held this year from July 24, 2019 through July 27, 2019 in Bellevue, Washington. The 2019 Triggrcon Exhibition was the best Triggrcon ever, and likely had the highest attendance ever of any Triggrcon event thus far. Armalite enthusiasts from all over the U.S. flocked to Bellevue, WA to see the latest and the most sophisticated technologies the Armalite industry has to offer. The Triggrcon convention for Armalite enthusiasts and the Armalite firearm industry, was a family friendly event whose attendees ranged in age from small children and mom's with their babies, all the way to senior citizen Armalite enthusiasts, looking for the newest components and innovations available to enhance and upgrade their equipment.
Studio 2.8 will be producing, and has in post production, an in-depth photographic documentary of the entire 2019 Triggrcon bonanza. The Studio 2.8 photographic documentary of Triggrcon 2019 convention will include a vast array of photographic perspectives, from detailed macro photographs of small Armalite components to context photographs that provide perspective on the convention's setting and facilities.
The Studio 2.8 outside establishing photograph above was produced on the morning of July 27, 2019 before the final day of the event began. Although the gray skies above Bellevue, WA on Saturday looked like they were threatening to bring rain to the city, the day stayed dry. In fact, after the convention ended at 6:00 PM on Saturday July 27, 2019, sunshine appeared in the Bellevue, Washington skies to end the day beautifully. Inside, the convention was utterly packed with people who clamored from booth to booth, asking questions, purchasing unregulated products at Triggrcon show special prices, and listening to detailed elaborations about the numerous products from the many event exhibitors. The Triggrcon show was an enjoyable and productive way for Armalite enthusiasts to spend a summertime Saturday.
While the extensive Studio 2.8 Triggrcon 2019 photographic documentary remains in post production, during the interim, sneak peak Studio 2.8 photographs from Triggrcon 2019 will be published here at www.studiotwopointeight.com frequently.
On Sunday July 14, 2019, two local Puget Sound region political groups held a rally in downtown Seattle with speeches, followed by a march. They called their event "Unite Against Political Violence". The first of the two political groups that organized the Sunday July 14, 2019 rally, speeches, and march, is called “Patriots of Washington”. The second of the two political groups that organized the Sunday July 14, 2019 rally, speeches, and march, is called “South Sound Patriot Alliance”. Both political groups have facebook pages but it isn’t clear whether or not these groups have independent websites. The two groups obtained a permit from the City of Seattle to use the Seattle City Hall Park for their event.
The facebook page associated with the group “Patriots of Washington” contains the description:
We are Washington Patriots that are all about Patriotic activism and standing up for this great Nation and its values.
at the facebook page’s about tab. The facebook page associated with the group “South Sound Patriot Alliance” contains the description:
We are a group of Patriots from the South Puget Sound area of Washington State. Our mission is to normalize American Patriotism through non-violent community activities.
at its about tab. In addition to these political groups a team of people who operate two political channels on the youtube video sharing website called “Operation Cold Front” and “Saleem N’ Dion” hosted the event as they produced video for their youtube channel and also broadcast the event using live internet video streaming.
In addition, a local, Puget Sound region, collection of Anarcho-Communist domestic terror cell network associates used the twitter and facebook social media networking platforms to organize a counter-protest against the rally held by the two groups described in the paragraphs above. The counter protesters, nearly all of whom are Communists, primarily associate with various Communist groups that describe their politics as “Anarcho-Communist” or Marxist-Communist, including such Communist organizations as the "Revolutionary Communist Party", the "Freedom Socialist Party", the "Party for Socialism and Liberation", and the "Socialist Alternative" Communist parties.
The most visible of the Anarcho-Communist organizers is a man named Jerry Savage. For the past year or two, Jerry Savage has created facebook event pages to organize the various factions among the domestic terrorists who counter protest political events held by Puget Sound region residents who largely describe themselves as political "conservatives". Another of the counter-protest organizers was a woman named Ariel Shultz. Ariel Shultz was once featured on the cable television network CNN where Shultz described herself and her politics as “Anarcho-Communist”. In the CNN video Ariel Shultz "proudly" displayed her collection of brass knuckles, folding knives, and other weapons, that Ariel Shultz keeeps at the ready during her participation in Anarcho-Communist terror activities at political event counter-protests. A brief "fair use" clip from the interview that Ariel Shultz gave CNN is provided below.
The, mostly Anarcho-Communist, counter-protesters did not obtain any kind of permit from the City of Seattle before staging their counter-protest at Seattle City Hall Park on Sunday July 14, 2019. Many of the other Anarcho-Communist counter-protesters who were present at the political event on Sunday July 14, 2019 appear regularly at similar political events in and around the Seattle, Washington area.
Notably, among the people who also described themselves as having “Anarcho-Communist” political ideologies, and who had previously appeared at multiple similar counter-protests in the past with the people who counter-protested this event, was a now deceased man named Willem Van Spronsen. On Saturday July 13, 2019, the day before the political event at City Hall Park in this Studio 2.8 photograph, Willem Van Spronsen travelled from his home on Vashon Island, WA to Tacoma, WA where Van Spronsen attempted to fire bomb the U.S. Federal Immigration Detention Center there. In response to Van Spronsen’s terroristic fire bombing attack, members of the Tacoma, WA police department shot and killed Willem Van Spronsen. Willem Van Spronsen’s intent appears to have been “suicide by cop”, as part of his politically motivated terroristic attack on the federal facility. The domestic terror attack perpetrated by Willem Van Spronsen on July 13, 2019 at the U.S. Federal Immigration Dentention facility in Tacoma, WA became national news. Willem Van Spronsen left behind a manifesto of sorts, a lengthy suicide letter. In his suicide letter manifesto, and elsewhere, Willem Van Spronsen specifically characterized himself as an Anarcho-Communist, and an anti-government Communist domestic terror activist.
Willem Van Spronsen was also a member of an armed communist militia group called the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club”, which in the past has been present of many of the major political rally and counter-protest events in and around Seattle, Washington and the Puget Sound region. Members of the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club” are known for attending political event counter-protests openly carrying their rifles and other firearms. It seems likely that the FBI will now react to Willen Van Spronsen's terroristic attack in Tacoma, WA by using that terrorist act as a basis for the federal government to deem all of the "John Brown Gun Club" chapters, factions, and their organizers, an officially designated domestic terror group.
The Studio 2.8 political event photography library likely contains the most extensive collection of photographs of Willem Van Spronsen anywhere. As with most Studio 2.8 photography, all of the Studio 2.8 photography photographs of Willem Van Spronsen are available to Studio 2.8 clients for licensing.
Before the event on Sunday July 14, 2019 in Seattle, the Seattle Police Department erected a metal barricade around the elevated Seattle City Hall Park pavilion, which is next to the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle. As the rally and counter-protest began to materialize, counter-protesters gathered on the grass outside the barricaded pavilion area. As the rally began, various rally attendees gave speeches using an amplified bullhorn.
Meanwhile many of the counter-protesters shouted angrily and used air horns to create loud siren noises. At one point during the rally, one of the counter-protesters threw what was reportedly a “battery” over the barricade at rally attendees. The Seattle Police arrested the man who threw the object. After the arrest, the Seattle Police formed a line of Seattle Police bicycle officers around the barricade. The Studio 2.8 photograph above, of the Seattle police officers and their cordon at the barricade is the photograph that accompanies this Studio 2.8 journal article.
After the various political speakers finished their speeches, the rally attendees marched along the sidewalks of various downtown Seattle streets to Seattle’s Westlake Park, and then back again to Seattle City Hall Park, next to the King County Courthouse, south of James Street on 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington where the political rally concluded.
The Studio 2.8 photography service has an extensive library of photographs from this Sunday July 14, 2019 political rally and counter-protest event, as well as photographs of hundreds of other Puget Sound region events, all available for licensing to clients. In the near future Studio 2.8 will also publish various topical galleries that will provide a detailed photographic documentary on what transpired at this political event.
