Just after my bus was pulling out of the stop, two police motorcycles zipped in front and stopped all traffic. What’s going on? My fellow riders and I were expecting celebrity dignitaries. Then the protesters came. Worse. They took a turn into 4th Ave, exactly where the bus was supposed to go. There would be no hope, I got off and walked. Who protest on Friday evening, seriously!
There were about slightly more than two dozens protesters, many wore masks, two on bicycles, led a banner. About ten police motorcycles proceeded them to clear the traffic; a dozen or so more police on bicycles followed; another 10 or so, also on bicycles, flanked from the side to buffer the protesters from the by-standers on the sidewalk. Put it simply, there were more policemen than protesters.
Seattle Police has been known for their excessive use of force. There were several high-profile incidents, numerous TV and local news coverages, and a DoJ investigation that was not flattening. Seattlites also love to protest, sometime violently. Not a week will pass without some forms of picket lines on various causes. Most by-standers leave them alone. Shouting matches are not uncommon.
As I caught up with the protesters, I learned their cause: against police brutality. The chant was “peace and not police.” The spontaneous argument, passionately shouted out, were on the “facts” that Seattle is a police state that citizens are living in terror.
Now this is just ironic. Here we have a heavily protected protest against the protectors on the oppression and terrorization by the protectors. I chatted up with one of the police on bicycle. He took a political correct stance, “We protect everybody.”
The march ended, of course, at Westlake Park. Speakers, some in masks, took megaphones in turn, talked passionately, and demanded changes. Seattlites, as usual, gave them a glancing interest and kept on walking.