Bellevue's New Free Speech Curtailing Law Won't Stop Anti-War Activists From Protesting At Rep. Adam Smith's House

Bellevue City Council members may think they helped out Rep. Adam Smith and his neighbors when they passed a law seemingly designed to shoo anti-war protesters from his home, but the blatant attack on free speech seems to only have emboldened activists. On Tuesday night, a dozen or so organizers from Seattle Against War (SAW) and Nidal staged a press conference at Smith’s house, vowing to keep the pressure on Smith to block spending on the U.S. war on Iran, embargo arms to Israel, and investigate the U.S. and Israel for war crimes. Until then, this sleepy suburb has not seen the last of them.

Earlier this month, the Bellevue City Council voted 6-1 to approve an ordinance barring “targeted residential protest.” According to the text of the law, someone could catch a gross misdemeanor for “marching, congregating, standing, posting, parading,

demonstrating, picketing, or patrolling of persons, with or without signs, and with

or without making audible or amplified noise” with “three (3) or

more persons” in a way that’s “targeted, directed or focused at a particular

occupant of the residence or the residence itself.”

The law appears to be in response to SAW’s roughly monthly visits to Smith’s Bellevue home, small scale protests inspired by Smith’s support of Israel and the broader U.S. war machine as the Democratic leader of the House Armed Services Committee. That theory appears proven by the fact that Smith’s neighbors testified in favor of the law at City Hall, Smith told the Seattle Times he discussed his concerns with the council, and who the fuck else is getting house visits from protesters in Bellevue?

The Burner spoke with two neighbors who watched the Tuesday night press conference, watering the same patch of grass to look busy. They described a pretty minor inconvenience — every five weeks or so a group of like 10 people chant for an hour and leave, typically before Bellevue’s noise ordinance kicks in. It pales in comparison to the disruption their neighbor aided by funding a genocide in Gaza. But in that neighborhood, anything louder than a bird chirp seems out of place. 

Aside from the noise, neighbors and Smith himself have complained about vandalism in the past. In 2023, someone scrawled“Free Gaza,” “Baby Killer” and “Cease Fire!” on his garage door. Some may be more sympathetic to that concern, however the new law limits demonstrating, not vandalism, which — would you look at that — is already illegal. 

The neighbors also told The Burner that they felt the protesters went about expressing their concerns the “wrong way.” But activists say they have exhausted all other options. At the press conference, organizers detailed their attempts to lobby Smith in other, more conventional ways including emails, townhalls, and sit-ins at his office. But the activists called Smith “evasive,” announcing public meetings at the last minute, hosting them virtually, screening questions, among other apparent dodge techniques. 

If the goal was to get them to seek other methods, SAW activists made clear that would not happen. Now they’re protesting not just Smith’s hawkishness, but the erosion of their right to free speech. This reinvigorates their usual attendees and could attract more attention and thus more participation for future actions. In any case, the group closed the event with the chant “We’ll be back.”