Bellevue City Council adopts ordinance criminalizing protests

Bellevue, WA – On Tuesday evening, May 2, the Bellevue City Council voted to adopt an ordinance making protests at U.S. Congressman Adam Smith’s house illegal. The ordinance changes the city’s definition of criminal conduct to include targeted residential protests.

The ordinance states that any gathering of people “with four or more persons” in a protest that is “targeted, directed or focused at a particular occupant of the residence” would be a gross misdemeanor. “Protest means any protest, demonstration or picketing activity including but not limited to marching, congregating, standing, posting, parading, demonstrating, picketing, with our without signs, with or without making audible or amplified noise.” A gross misdemeanor of this kind can carry a year-long jail sentence and a $5000 fine.

This ordinance comes after a sustained campaign against Adam Smith, House representative for Washington’s 9th congressional district. In protest of Smith’s failure to halt the flow of U.S. military aid to Israel or to withhold U.S. taxpayer dollars from being spent on Trump’s war on Iran, members of Seattle Against War, Troublemakers, and BDS Seattle, with support from other community members, have repeatedly shown up at Smith’s house in Bellevue to present their demands.

The protests in the rich Bellevue suburb were protected under First Amendment rights to protest, occurred during daylight hours, and abided by the noise ordinances against the use of amplified sound. Protesters held up banners that read, “Your rep funds genocide!” and signs that call out Adam Smith as a warmonger and a war profiteer.

Speaking against the ordinance at the city council meeting, Joseph Ostheller, a member of Seattle Against War, said, “We have been to his office, which he is never in. We have been to his town halls, which he censors. We have been to his speaking events, which he releases without adequate time to attend. He has systematically closed off all avenues for us to speak to him directly and to have our concerns heard. The escalation to be at his house is because he leaves us no other options.”

Zionists packed the city council meeting to support the ordinance. One speaker for the ordinance, who called himself David E., said he was a proud Zionist. The president of the HOA in Adam Smith’s neighborhood, claimed falsely that protesters “were like a mob, using blow horns at 2 a.m.” The composition of the meeting, Zionists and rich neighbors of Adam Smith, showed this ordinance was dreamt up by a small group of people in power using their connections to weaponize the legal processes. The ordinance is in direct response to the targeted protests against Adam Smith, and he has called in his Zionist friends and the city council to construct another barrier between the people in power and those impacted by their decisions.

The city attorney spoke to the council and explained to them how the ordinance was drafted and the legal rationale for its implementation. The city manager and the city attorney were asked to come up with this ordinance to criminalize free speech on behalf of “those affected.”

After the comment period, the Zionists and their allies left the meeting, not staying the extra two hours until the study session and the subsequent vote on the issue. Activists against the ordinance stayed until the very end, when the council read out the reasons why they were voting to shut down people’s democratic right to protest.

One council member, Lynne Robinson, said, without providing detail, “I have been the target of harassment and know how scary it can be.” It goes without saying that even before this ordinance passed, targeted harassment, stalking, and death threats were all already illegal. Another council member, Claire Sumadiwirya, said, “This is such a hard decision, but I have to protect my family,” even though they had not been the target of any such protests. Both voted in favor of the ordinance.

The ordinance will go into effect in one month.

Activists were not surprised by the result, as city council meetings are notoriously opaque. The real decisions are often made behind closed doors, with public comment being performative at best. Nevertheless, activists left in high spirits, because these attacks only show how weak and afraid those in power really are in the face of the power of the people.

Protests at Smith’s home will continue, bigger and louder than before, until the ordinance takes effect in June. Seattle Against War will also be exploring every avenue to challenge this new roadblock.

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