Seattle mayor back at work after attack
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, July 8, 2001
By Elizabeth Murtaugh
Associated Press
SEATTLE — A smiling Mayor Paul Schell walked out of the hospital Sunday morning, wearing sunglasses over his black eye and holding his wife’s hand, one day after a man bashed him in the face at a community celebration.
Schell said he’ll go to work this morning. He called Saturday’s assault an isolated incident and said it hasn’t dampened his spirits or his resolve to take a visible role in community improvements throughout the city.
A man protesting police brutality — particularly the recent police killing of a black man — hit Schell with a megaphone during a community celebration in the city’s Central District, police say.
The assault broke bones above and below Schell’s right eye. Doctors were waiting Sunday for the swelling to dissipate before deciding if surgery would be needed.
Police arrested and jailed James C. Garrett, 55, a black activist who also uses the name Omari Tahir-Garrett. He was being held in King County Jail on Sunday for investigation of felony assault.
Garrett is well known in the black community as a longtime activist who is passionate about his fight against racism. He also is a fringe mayoral candidate running against Schell in this fall’s election campaign.
Black leaders have denounced the attack on Schell, saying it defies the spirit of respect and cooperation they’re trying to cultivate with the city.
But Garrett’s supporters say his anger represents a growing sense of frustration that has left many blacks with the feeling that violence is their only option.
"If you keep messing with this community, the community is going to take up arms and react in a violent manner," said Victor Phillips, a longtime friend of Garrett’s. "I think he did them a favor by sending a message that a boiling point is coming."
In jailhouse interviews with Seattle television stations, Garrett said someone else hit the mayor and that he was arrested only because he is black. He said he had given the megaphone to another person shortly before speaking with Schell.
In 1988, Garrett was sentenced to 90 days in jail for assault and reckless endangerment after grabbing a gun from a University of Washington police sergeant and pointing it at the officer’s head.
The incident happened during a demonstration against the University’s failure to rehire a popular black lecturer.
Garrett has adamantly pressed the city to turn an abandoned school in the Central District into an African-American heritage museum. The school was occupied intermittently by activists for eight years.
In a 1999 interview with KING-TV News, he said, "We are going to defend our culture and our interests by any means necessary." He added that he would consider any resistance to his efforts "an act of war."
He interrupted a Schell news conference in March to try to draw attention to his cause.
On Saturday, he focused his criticism on the shooting death of Aaron Roberts.
Witnesses said Garrett had been yelling about police brutality through his megaphone as the mayor delivered a speech commending Central District leaders for their efforts to revitalize the community. The "Unity on Union" celebration had been planned for months.
The mayor hit the ground near candle wax drippings and a chalk body outline left by protesters in memory of Roberts, a black man who was shot to death May 31 by a white police officer.
According to police accounts, Roberts, a convicted felon being sought on an arrest warrant, was stopped for erratic driving the night of May 31 in the predominantly black Central District. Police say he grabbed the arm of a police officer and tried to drive with the officer hanging from the car door.
Officer Craig Price, who is white, climbed inside the passenger door, struggled with Roberts, then fired the single shot that killed Roberts.
The FBI is investigating, and an inquest jury will be seated this month to decide whether the two officers involved acted appropriately.
Protesters have said the shooting was racially motivated.
"This is a direct result of not just that killing, but the accumulated frustration over the years of police brutality," Central District resident and Seattle Human Rights Commission member Don Alexander told a Seattle newspaper on Saturday.
Other black leaders called the attack on the mayor counterproductive and said it reflects poorly on their community.
"This is something the African-American community can be ashamed of," said Oscar Eason, president of Seattle’s branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Schell insisted the attack will not deter him from going out into the community and working to improve the city’s transportation system, affordable housing and public safety.
"I’m determined in my effort to do everything I can as mayor of this great city to see that we address our problems in a forthright way," he said.
There are no concrete plans to beef up security for Schell’s public appearances, but he said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske is reviewing the matter.
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