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Ferguson protests take to the streets of Capitol Hill and the Central District

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The tensions around the police shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri have inspired protests and rallies in Seattle. At 23rd and Union, a group has been rallying daily at 4:30 PM to raise their signs and voices on race issues and police violence. Demonstrations in the Central District and on Capitol Hill have been relatively small and almost wholly non-violent — though Friday night, attendees at the rally reportedly dragged a large planter into the intersection at 23rd and Union and briefly disrupted traffic. Saturday night, a small group of 20 to 30 demonstrators met at Seattle Central before braving Broadway for a brief march up and down the busy street chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Meanwhile, criticism of the Ferguson police shooting and response has been nearly universally negative. “Don’t tear gas nonviolent and not-threatening protesters. And for God’s sake, don’t bring dogs out … It’s a throwback to the ‘60s and Bull Connor. The imagery sucks. It was really painful to see the images I saw from Ferguson,” former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper told the LA Times. Stamper oversaw SPD’s response to the 1999 WTO riots.

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Dave
Dave
9 years ago

Blaming Seattle for what is happening in Ferguson is like buying Budweiser here and complaining about how bad it tastes.

ERF
ERF
9 years ago

“Hands up, don’t shoot. We’re just here to burn and loot.”

calhoun
9 years ago

It’s really unfortunate that the protests in Ferguson have been pre-empted and sullied by those criminal opportunists who just want to loot and vandalize.

ERF
ERF
9 years ago
Reply to  calhoun

Sadly, it’s not new;

“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”

– Booker T. Washington, 1911

Sam Levine
9 years ago

Here is some video from the march on Capitol Hill last night:

Sam Levine
9 years ago
Reply to  Sam Levine

Saturday, the night before last, sorry for the typo.

Robert
Robert
9 years ago
Reply to  Sam Levine

They need to add a clause to the First Amendment banning any protest chants that start with “Hey Hey Ho Ho”. But boy howdy, nothing drives your point home better than yelling in rhyming couplets.
Seriously though, thanks for posting the video.

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[…] of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has spread across the nation, around the world, and onto Capitol Hill. Thursday night, an incident that echoes with the themes of violence in the name of public safety, […]

Bob
Bob
9 years ago

Leave it to the same ol people in Seattle to come out for a good ol’ “protest du jour”. Professional protesters basically. Get a job people.

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[…] squad gear came as local Capitol Hill crime issues have come to a head again this summer and as larger issues around policing have emerged from the Ferguson […]

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[…] August, a small protest marched through the streets of Capitol Hill and onto Broadway in the wake of the killing of the […]