In the summer of 2020, protests against police brutality and systemic anti-Black racism broke out across the United States in response to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by police officers in Minneapolis in May 2020. The protests were associated with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. In Seattle, protesters formed the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP; also called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ), which occupied several blocks near Cal Anderson Park and forced the Seattle Police Department to temporarily evacuate its East Precinct building.

This sign was held during the March of Silence protest on June 12, 2020. A white worker in the tech sector, who had not previously participated in protests against racism, carried the sign as one of 60,000 protesters marching about two miles in silence from Judkins Park in the Central Area to Jefferson Park in Beacon Hill. The march was silent as a sign of respect for the Black people whose lives were damaged or destroyed by racism, and to minimize risks of spreading COVID-19 by shouting or singing. The donor created this cardboard sign from part of a Halloween costume which featured a painted goose character from the Untitled Goose Game video game. One side features the goose, with a police hat drawn on, inside a “no” symbol. The donor wrote “Defund Police” above the goose and “Listen Learn Support BLM” on the other side.

Caption information source: “An estimated 60,000 participate in a March of Silence in Seattle to protest police brutality and institutional racism on June 12, 2020.” By Rita Cipalla, HistoryLink, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/21088.