Cops, Microsoft lie about Palestine encampment being “aggressive” & “threatening” before arrests

REDMOND, WA: On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Redmond PD officers violently dismantled the Palestine encampment at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters set up by current and former tech workers and community members with the No Azure for Apartheid Coalition. 20 coalition members were arrested.

Police have claimed that protestors became “aggressive” before arrests commenced, and a spokesperson for Microsoft told Fox13 that protestors “harassed” others in the plaza and said that the company would “[take] clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others." TRNN editor-in-chief Maximillian Alvarez was one of the only journalists on the ground: “I was standing and filming 10 feet away the entire time, and I saw nothing of the sort,” Alvarez says. "The protestors weren't threatening or harming anyone." This video shows Alvarez’s uninterrupted, 37-minute shot documenting the moments before, during, and after police dismantled the encampment. Officers begin dismantling the encampment and making arrests around 14:30 in the video.

BACKGROUND:

Current and former tech workers at Microsoft joined with community supporters to establish an encampment at Microsoft HQ in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft's contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. Just before 12:30PM PT on Tuesday, Aug. 19, members of the No Azure for Apartheid coalition walked out to Microsoft's East Campus Plaza to establish their "liberated zone," renaming the plaza "The Martyred Palestinian Children's Plaza."

As the No Azure for Apartheid coalition stated in a press release on Tuesday, “This action is in response to Microsoft's ongoing partnership with the Israeli military and the recent news of Microsoft technology being used to surveil, starve, and kill Palestinians... Recent reporting by the Guardian and +972 News revealed Microsoft cloud storage services are being used to surveil Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by collecting and storing recordings of millions of mobile phone calls and texts made each day by Palestinians. The investigations included testimonies of how the surveillance data is being used to directly target Palestinians in Gaza and even retroactively justify extrajudicial killings in the West Bank.”

After police and company security dispersed the encampment on Tuesday, threatening all present with arrest, current and former tech workers returned around 12:00PM PT on Wednesday, Aug. 20, to re-establish their “liberated zone.” Over the course of the next hour, things got increasingly tense, with Microsoft security and Redmond PD cops surrounding the encampment. Washington State Patrol, Bellevue Police, and Kirkland Police were also reportedly there assisting. Eventually, Redmond PD officers moved in to violently dismantle the encampment and arrest 20 members of the coalition.

“The Redmond Police Department was dispatched to the Microsoft courtyard at approximately 12:15 p.m. in response to a large gathering of protesters,” Fox13 in Seattle reports. “According to the police, officers first attempted to issue trespass orders to the protesters, but they became 'aggressive' and resisted… A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement regarding Wednesday's protest: 'Yesterday, approximately 35 protesters gathered and protested on the Microsoft campus. When local police officers informed them that this was not permitted on private property, they left. Today, the group returned and engaged in vandalism and property damage. They also disrupted, harassed, and took tables and tents from local small businesses at a lunchtime farmer’s market for employees. Local police officers made multiple arrests… Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others."

Credits:

- Filming: Maximillian Alvarez

- Post-Production: David Hebden

#Microsoft #Azure #Israel #Palestine #Gaza #police #tech

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