Friday, April 27, 2012

Mayor McGinn Warns of Violence at Next Week's May Day Celebrations

Posted by on Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 1:27 PM

A statement just released by Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn's office says authorities believe May 1 could become a chaotic day in Seattle, based on their interpretation of local graffiti, web sites, and recent incidents:

On Tuesday, May 1, several organizations will be holding public demonstrations in Seattle. This will include an annual May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights from Judkins Park to downtown Seattle, an Occupy Seattle-sponsored General Strike, and rallies scheduled throughout the day at Westlake Park. The Seattle Department of Transportation advises that delays should be expected downtown during the Tuesday afternoon commute.

We also have evidence that other people may be coming to Seattle on Tuesday with the intention of using the public demonstrations as an opportunity to commit violence, damage property and disrupt peaceful free speech activity. There has been a significant increase in graffiti and posters alluding to violence around the May 1 events. Websites have described trainings in how to conceal weapons beneath signs and banners, and how to target police officers on horses. At a protest at the Port of Seattle in December 2011, several people used peaceful demonstrators as a shield to throw projectiles and incendiary devices at police officers.

Early Thursday morning an incendiary device was thrown at a bank in Columbia City. This was similar to an attack on a bank that took place in Portland late Wednesday night.

Seattle Police command staff and Mayor’s Office staff have been working with protest organizers, property owners, and other stakeholders to facilitate peaceful, constitutional demonstrations. Officers will respond appropriately to criminal acts and threats or harm directed against participants, non-participants, and property.

 

Comments (25) RSS

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Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 1

Right..."May Day" -- who would have thought that an event in celebration of communist revolutions would have brought such behavior. Go figure. Hey, Mr. Ginn, next time keep it limited to Valentines Day and Thanksgiving, ok.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on April 27, 2012 at 1:49 PM
Kinison 2
Its "Bring a flipcam to work" day. So document as many idiots, then post to YouTube and email the link to the SPD.
Posted by Kinison http://www.holgatehawks.com on April 27, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Rotten666 3
Meh, May Day is soooo bourgeoisie. I prefer to indulge in a little anarchy on Arbor day thank you very much.

Posted by Rotten666 on April 27, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Matt the Engineer 4
The signs are all over in the Central District. Walk up Jackson or Yesler and you'll see a dozen. I haven't noticed any call to violence though, just a call to skip work.
Posted by Matt the Engineer on April 27, 2012 at 1:56 PM
5
when was the last time Seattle had a good old fashioned riot? I think its about time
Posted by aliencoffebandit on April 27, 2012 at 2:01 PM
bleedingheartlibertarian 6
"May 1 2012 is the new WTO 1999" is one I've seen a few times. I don't know if that's a call to violence, per se, but it doesn't sound good.

I sincerely hope the mayor et al are just exercising an overabundance of caution here.
Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian on April 27, 2012 at 2:01 PM
Gurldoggie 7
Just because 10% unemployment is looking like a chronic condition, poverty is growing at an astronomical rate, and the wealthy are consuming an ever growing portion of our common resources is no reason to get ANGRY. Amirite?
Posted by Gurldoggie http://gurldogg.blogspot.com on April 27, 2012 at 2:13 PM
Gurldoggie 8
P.S. Slog commenters unite in saying no to righteous anger! Vote Romney!
Posted by Gurldoggie http://gurldogg.blogspot.com on April 27, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Betsy Ross 9
If the riot police show up, there will be a riot.
Posted by Betsy Ross on April 27, 2012 at 2:19 PM
Space Funk Guru 10
According to the police, the provocative graffiti left by undercover police around town in recent weeks may mean that May Day will be violent this year. This of course will justify any actual violence committed by police officers on May Day to prevent any alleged violence by protestors.
Posted by Space Funk Guru on April 27, 2012 at 2:26 PM
ItsAllOverNow 11
I've seen some cryptic graffiti regarding May Day in PDX the last two weeks as well.
Posted by ItsAllOverNow http://nowaybro.blogspot.com/ on April 27, 2012 at 2:33 PM
Will in Seattle 12
I'm sure the feds will look the other way while the SPD violate the 99 percent of peaceful protesters Rights.

Or not.

Be careful out there, once you go violent, it's hard to undo.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on April 27, 2012 at 2:37 PM
Will in Seattle 13
That reminds me, time to buy options in pepper spray supply firms, the SPD will probably use metric tons of that stuff as they overreact.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on April 27, 2012 at 2:38 PM
DOUG. 14
WTO was a police-incited "riot". If the cops behave themselves, so will 99% of the protestors.
Posted by DOUG. http://www.dougsvotersguide.com on April 27, 2012 at 2:48 PM
BAMMBAMM 15
I bet SPD will come dressed for a riot. This is where the violence will come from (as usual).
SPD will do there best to insight it and the protestors will get gassed, beaten and jailed.
This is NOT a new story.
Same cop shit, different protest.
Posted by BAMMBAMM on April 27, 2012 at 2:50 PM
chinaski 16
Members of the SPD have done some terrible things.
Gassing & beating you fucktards will not be one of them.
Posted by chinaski on April 27, 2012 at 3:09 PM
rob! 17
Holy fuck am I tired of seeing the word "stakeholders" in press releases.
Posted by rob! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZBdUceCL5U on April 27, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Cato the Younger Younger 18
I saw some crude graffiti downtown today promising violence on May Day. I think it's all bluff. I mean it got cold out and OW-Seattle disappeared for the winter.

Modern day protesters don't have the balls they had a couple of generations ago let alone the balls they had at the turn of the last century.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on April 27, 2012 at 3:20 PM
Kinison 19
@14 "WTO was a police-incited "riot". If the cops behave themselves, so will 99% of the protestors. "

Actually it was the national guard, but they only showed up after the police were outnumbered and overwhelmed. Police lived in the area (King County), but the national guard came from all areas of Western Washington, they didnt care about pepper spraying anything that moved.
Posted by Kinison http://www.holgatehawks.com on April 27, 2012 at 4:28 PM
DOUG. 20
@19: You obviously didn't witness the events of WTO firsthand.
Posted by DOUG. http://www.dougsvotersguide.com on April 27, 2012 at 7:04 PM
JensR 21
Ooooh are you guys starting to celebrate 1st of May again (like the rest of the western world)? Great, I mean we celebrate it on that day because of what happened in the US.

But I never got why your all so nervous around demonstrations? I mean every time I read the comments on anything about demo's here there is a large majority of people who thinks that the mayday bombs are about to happen again or something.
Posted by JensR http://ohyran.se on April 28, 2012 at 1:34 AM
22
@21

That's a pretty weird, passive-aggressively threatening way to be bigoted, JensR.
Posted by robotslave on April 28, 2012 at 4:14 AM
BAMMBAMM 23
@16 "fucktards"
So eloquently put, you fascist troglodyte.
Posted by BAMMBAMM on April 28, 2012 at 6:53 PM
24
These are McGinn's constituents. Hell, he'll probably be there with them, holding a molotov cocktail.
Posted by Mister G on April 28, 2012 at 7:59 PM
Ballard Pimp 25
Mike McGinn started to be a good mayor, killing the fucking tunnel. The Joni Balter told him that she didn't fuck liberals any more, so he turned into a fascist. The police love him.
Posted by Ballard Pimp on April 29, 2012 at 11:51 PM

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