Destiny 2 developer Bungie‘s CEO was gassed at the Seattle protests in honor of George Floyd this weekend, with him encouraging business leaders to “physically stand up to injustice.”
Pete Parsons, who manages the studio behind the Destiny and Halo franchises, shared a video of him attending the George Floyd protests, showing the “violent response” of police officers to those “peacefully exercising their first amendment rights.”
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Parsons shared an image of a band of protesters holding up signs, followed by a video showing the police response. This included gassing the assembled crowds, with panicked protesters then shown dispersing the area.
The video shared by Parsons can be viewed below:
Here is the violent response. pic.twitter.com/VvXGalYytm
— pete parsons (@pparsons) June 7, 2020
Mayor Jenny Dunkan and Police Chief Carmen Best announced on Friday that there would be a temporary ban on tear gas, which had previously been deployed by officers against protestors. However, the Seattle Police Department confirmed after Saturday’s protests that its officers had used blast balls and pepper spray.
A separate video taken during the Seattle protests seems to suggest that the gas shown in Parsons’ video may have been the blast balls, which also release a chemical irritant:
Yesterday the Seattle Mayor and Police Chief agreed to a 30 day ban on the use of tear gas.
This is Seattle right now.
— Read No Shortcuts (@JoshuaPHilll) June 7, 2020
In further tweets, Parsons said that he was “no pie in the sky idealist” and that he was disturbed by the actions of the Seattle police.
“What I saw last evening in Seattle was deeply wrong and profoundly disturbing,” he said. “If strong moral leaders like [Head of Xbox Phil Spencer], and [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella] were on the frontline too they would think twice about pulling the trigger. As business leaders we need to physically stand up to injustice. As corporate taxpayers our voice needs to be the hand of an angry god.”
According to a press release (via the Seattle Times), the Seattle Police Department said that protesters had “began throwing bottles, rocks, and incendiary devices” at police officers. The department did not say whether any protesters or bystanders were injured.
