SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane’s Pride parade is coming up on Saturday, and with repeated high-profile acts of vandalism of public murals and crosswalks painted with rainbow Pride flags across town, security is once again a main focus.
Organizers of Spokane’s Pride parade say they’re working extensively with Spokane Police (SPD) because safety for everyone involved in the event is top of mind.
“With any large event you have to be intentional about safety, but especially a Pride event because there’s built in controversy,” said Spokane Pride Executive Director Matthew Danielson. “I mean, Bloomsday doesn’t get protestors–we do.”
Danielson said they’re hiring private security for the parade and will have dozens of people trained in de-escalation tactics along the route.
“We communicate to all of our volunteers, entertainers and festival-goers, ‘don’t engage with the protestors. If somebody’s trying to start something, find a board member, find a volunteer, talk to security, just don’t engage, because that’s exactly what they want.”
At Monday’s City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, Assistant Spokane Police Chief Mike McNab told Council Members their investigation into the repeated vandalism of the Downtown and Perry St. Pride crosswalks remains active, but didn’t give much more than that “in order to protect the integrity of the investigation.”
“Our officers are concerned as we are, and wishing this wasn’t happening, and we’re going to do our best to prevent it from happening in the future,” McNab said. “It’s going to be just a matter of time before we figure out who’s perpetrating these crimes, and when we do, we will figure it out and they’ll be prosecuted.”
Something also worth noting when it comes to the vandalism investigations: the new state law that makes defacing public property targeting specific groups of people a felony hate crime takes effect on Wednesday, and SPD says it’ll be another tool they use when prosecuting people responsible for the acts.
Council Member Paul Dillon asked McNab if there was anything he could share about additional security measures that will be taken for Saturday’s Pride parade: “I think there’s a heightened sense of fear and anxiety that with these events coming up that we’ll see more incidents.”
McNab said they have dedicated teams for public events like Saturday’s Pride parade to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“The staffing levels will be adequate for any sort of threats that we’re monitoring through information we’re getting from our federal partners or that we’re monitoring ourselves through multiple channels,” McNab said.
Danielson didn’t want to get into specifics about how their security approach for this year’s Pride events are different than in years’ past for safety reasons–neither did SPD, citing those same concerns–but said these acts of vandalism make Pride all the more important.
“At the end of the day, Pride to me is about loving yourself and loving others for who they are,” Danielson said. “The people that have these ideas and opinions, they just don’t understand. They need to come down to this event and see that it is the most love that they’re going to see in one place this entire year.”
For a full list of Pride events happening in Spokane this week, click here.
