For roughly a decade, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has operated a secret-no-more surveillance camera on Capitol Hill trained to view the intersection of 12th Ave and Pine Street in front of SPD's East Precinct. It is perched atop the 12th Ave Arts building owned by

After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Good last month, a voice on the agent's own video recording called Good a "fucking bitch." Weeks later, two Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, where video captured a

For years, a 501(c)(6) downtown business improvement area corporation in Seattle has used the Seattle Police Department (SPD) as a contractor to advance their own private economic objectives. Last month, the Washington State Supreme Court said that the public should be able to request records from that 501(

New details concerning the use of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Seattle Police Department (SPD) informants have been revealed as part of an internal accountability investigation at SPD. They show that the FBI was engaged in a “domestic terrorism” investigation within the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), also known

Across the country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) are the tip of the spear in executing President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). JTTFs integrate federal agents from a range of entities including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department

Following President Donald Trump's issuance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.” She ordered the FBI to complete this list

The Washington State Supreme Court decided last month that DBIA Services, a 501(c)(6) corporation which functions as a financial passthrough, administrative and contractual entity within a network of interlinked 501(c)(3), 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) corporations, all run by Downtown Seattle Association CEO Jon

Seattle police officer Wesley Friesen was 27 years old when he was pulled over by the Washington State Patrol (WSP) in November 2004, along the suburban stripmall-lined Highway 99 in Lynwood, Washington.  According to the Seattle Times, Friesen’s speech was slurred and he had watery eyes. A WSP

A new archival documentary film, “WTO/99,” places audiences in the line of fire, with stomach-churning images of police brutality as tens of thousands took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference. In my latest for Prism, I connect the

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has been conspicuously absent from public life since his concession speech in November. This week, Harrell made an unannounced appearance at a Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) conference in New Orleans. In a photograph published by CAM, Harrell is seen participating in a panel discussion with New

Four years after Israel captured the Golan Heights, Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip and the West Bank during the war of 1967, ethnically cleansing roughly 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman traveled to the newly expanded country on an invitation from the Israeli government. Palestinians called

The Federal Bureau of Investigation mass recruited confidential informants from a joint FBI and Seattle police unit to try and buy drugs and infiltrate Seattle’s 2020 Capitol Hill Organized Protest, also called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, according to an email obtained by Real Change. The continued revelations concerning

One day after HardPressed revealed that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) was prioritizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests for records over citizens’ requests, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell issued two new executive orders (EO) concerning actions to “safeguard Seattle communities from federal overreach” and held a press conference touting his

While many journalists and Seattleites wait years for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to fulfill languishing public records requests, the SPD is fulfilling Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) requests for information in less than four days.  After HardPressed previously received no response from Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have made national news for abducting U.S. citizens off the streets, removing women's organs through forced medical procedures and forcibly disappearing people to third countries, a crime under international law according to the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights.

On September 22 President Donald Trump issued an executive order designating “antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.” Three days later, Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-7), squarely taking aim at the political ideologies of anti-fascism, placing any so-called threads of anti-American, anti-fascist, anti-

Israeli official Yossi Dagan helped to operate a get out the vote campaign inside Israel in support of Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. However, his Israeli influence operations did not stop at the 2024 elections. At the same time, he says he was pushing the incoming Trump administration

Roger Wright was 19 years old when he stepped outside his house to make a quick run to the grocery store in October 2004. Outside the store, his life was changed forever. Wright was suddenly grabbed by Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers and, he told Real Change, choked unconscious, handcuffed

During the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign, then-Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley, along with his senior adviser, left the U.S. on a trip to Israel, hosted by the Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF). There, Whatley had a private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli

Thirteen years and at least $129 million spent on Seattle’s federal consent decree ended like a flap of air out of a Whoopee cushion on Wednesday.  After Judge James Robart ordered the termination of the consent decree, a gaggle of Seattle Police Department (SPD) brass and Mayor Bruce Harrell

My latest with Seattle Gay News (SGN) shows that an Israeli training provider for American police (including Seattle PD), the Advanced Security Training Institute (ASTI), has liked numerous anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, and conspiracy content posts on X (Twitter). Over decades, the founder of ASTI has cultivated a network of

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) ordered use of force against "Antifa" during the department’s response to anti Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests on June 11. SPD public safety radio recordings show that during the course of law enforcement operations at the June 11 protest in downtown

Five months after Seattle city council member Robert Kettle abruptly revealed during a city council meeting that he participated in a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation at Camp Cropper prison in Iraq, new details have emerged concerning Kettle’s duties with the U.S. military.  HardPressed has obtained Kettle’s

The city of Seattle and I have agreed to settle a lawsuit I filed in January that alleged violations of the Washington State Public Records Act (PRA).  As part of a settlement agreement inked on June 12, the city will pay $150,000, inclusive of penalties and legal fees, and