Alan Meekins Calls Queen Anne a “Sundown Town” after Angry White Man Allegedly Throws Speaker at His Head by Hannah Krieg Local Black activist Alan Meekins claims a Queen Anne resident threw a heavy, rolling speaker at his head during a small protest outside Council Member Bob Kettle’s house last weekend. In an interview with The Stranger, Meekins described Kettle’s neighborhood as a “Sundown Town” and his angry neighbors as a “lynch mob.” Meekins intends to press charges against the assailant.  Even as he recovered, he expressed a steadfast commitment to defending the right to protest, especially as he feels that he and other left-leaning constituents have exhausted all other options to apply pressure to a council that seems only amenable to the demands of the wealthy few.  At about 8 pm on the evening of Sept 15, Meekins joined five or six others in protesting outside of Kettle’s Queen Anne home ahead of a controversial vote to re-establish Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) and Stay Out of Area Prostitution Zones (SOAP). Meekins found the policies racist, transphobic, and classist. The protesters also wanted to apply pressure to the council to put I-137, a tax on business to pay for social housing, on the ballot without a competing measure. Despite a huge outpouring of opposition at public comment, Kettle voted in favor of the banishment zones and the competing measure to I-137, which undermines the social housing model and threatens funding for affordable housing. Both measures passed.  Protesters did not see or interact with Kettle at their protest ahead of the vote, but they spoke with people who appeared to be his neighbors. Within minutes of the protesters’ arrival, two people walking a dog approached the group, according to Meekins and two other eyewitness protesters who spoke to The Stranger on condition of anonymity.  Meekins claimed they told the apparent neighbors they meant them no harm, they were just being noisy. The protesters intended to stop before 10 pm to respect the noise code, even though they decided not to use their speaker for amplification that day.  Another three neighbors then approached to inquire about the protest, according to Meekins and two other witnesses. One man seemed more frustrated to Meekins than the people in the first group, but not threatening. The other man “got up in” another protester’s face to shout at her, according to witnesses. Protesters recalled the neighbors telling them they “had no class” and they were “going about this wrong.” They tried to explain that Kettle and his colleagues did not respond to other tactics.  But things escalated from there. After a short verbal exchange, one man grabbed the rolling speaker and hurled it into the group at “head-level,” Meekins and two eyewitnesses alleged. The speaker sailed through the air and clocked Meekins in the head, he said.  Meekins attempted to follow the alleged assailant. Meekins put him in what he called a “bear hug,” but with his head bleeding profusely, he said he couldn’t hold him for long.  The neighbors left the protesters soon after. Meekins called them “accomplices” in the assault because “instead of offering assistance—[they] proceeded to obstruct the protesters, protect the assailant's identity, and scream with the energy of an angry mob,” he wrote in a fundraiser post.  Text records show Meekins called the Seattle Police Department (SPD) at about 8:50 pm. SPD verified they got the call for an alleged assault. Seattle Fire Department records show EMTs arrived in the area at 9:03 pm and left at 9:11pm. The cops did not search the area until the next morning, according to texts from Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) customer service line. SPD did not file an incident report because Meekins had already left. Meekins said he will file a report Friday morning.  Meekins also emailed Kettle’s City email to inform him of the alleged assault and to ask for his home security footage, according to a screenshot Meekins shared with The Stranger. Yesterday he launched a fundraiser to cover his legal fees, lost wages while he recovers, and child care.  The Stranger was not able to identify the alleged assailant to reach him for comment. Kettle did not respond to our request for comment before press time. Seattle has a long history of protesting at elected officials' homes, including during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and during the protests against the youth jail in the mid 2010s. The protesters from Sept 15 say this history does not end with the attack on Meekins. Next time, they’ll just have to bring more people along, one protester said.  Ashley Nerbovig contributed reporting to this post.