Anti-Israel Protesters Who Took Over Building at U. Washington Face Charges
“Asked why the suspects do not face felony charges, officials said there was not enough evidence.”
These people allegedly caused upwards of a million dollars in damage. Are they going to have to pay that back?
The College Fix reports:
Anti-Israel protesters who seized U. Washington building, caused $1M in damage, face charges
Thirty-three protesters who took over a University of Washington engineering building in May 2025, causing roughly $1 million in damage, are finally facing trespassing charges.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday charged them with misdemeanor criminal trespass, “but stopped short of accusing anyone of vandalism and the destruction inside,” KOMO News reported, adding 23 of them are UW students who also served suspensions for their actions.
During the May protest, masked individuals had obstructed two streets near the building, blocked its entrances and exits, and set fires in two dumpsters, according to a university official at the time. They also chanted “death to the police,” video showed.
Pro-Palestinian activists had seized the building to demand the school cut ties with Boeing, which does business with Israel.
“UW officials estimated more than $1 million in damages to a single room downstairs that houses brand-new machinery,” the Daily student newspaper reported.
“According to probable cause documents, which are similar for each person charged, a group of protesters wearing [black] entered the building around 5 p.m. May 5, 2025, then barricaded the doors with furniture. University police, Seattle police and state troopers responded and tried to negotiate with the protesters but were turned down,” the Spokesman-Review reported.
“After a final dispersal order around 11 p.m., officers wearing riot gear went into the building and placed protesters in hand restraints. They were arrested for investigation of trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, as well as conspiracy to commit all three crimes, and taken to King County Jail,” it reported.
Asked why the suspects do not face felony charges, officials said there was not enough evidence.
“We simply did not have the evidence to prove as to each individual defendant that they either entered or remained unlawfully with that intent to commit a crime against a person or property therein, or that they caused the physical damage themselves,” Susan Harrison, who chairs the Economic Crimes Unit, told KOMO News this week.
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Comments
Unfortunately that makes sense. The only crime that one can be sure every single one of them committed is trespassing. For the other charges, how could you prove beyond reasonable doubt that each individual participated in those crimes, or even conspired to commit them? Each can claim that all he did was trespass, and never agreed to any plan to cause damage; how do you prove them wrong?
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