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With planned protests off Capitol Hill, 2018 May Day in Seattle will center on March against ICE, Bloc the Juvi — UPDATE

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May Day protests around the Capitol Hill area have centered on 12th Ave’s youth jail in recent years

Will these characters show up again in 2018?

El Comite’s annual march — annually peaceful, annually colorful

It’s been a long time since May Day turned into a “riot” on Capitol Hill but given the neighborhood’s place as a gathering point for protest, SPD tactics in the past that resulted in a push of large crowds out of downtown and up the Hill, and the new focus on 12th Ave’s youth jail, the neighborhood remains on watch every time May 1st rolls around.

This year — the first May Day under former federal prosecutor Jenny Durkan’s mayoral watch, expect another day of heavy police presence and television helicopters.

The foundation to the day — and the first amendment activities most everyone can get behind — remains the annual Marcha Y Manifestacion Anual del 1o de Mayo organized by immigrant labor rights organization El Comité. In 2016, the route changed to include Capitol Hill. In 2018, the march that will again be joined by thousands has more significance than ever — calling out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Washington:

El Comité and the May 1st Action Coalition are calling on all workers and all social justice advocates to come out on Tuesday, May 1st 2018 (International Workers’ Day) for the 19th Annual May Day March for Immigrant and Workers Rights. We are using the march to publicly expose ICE activity in Washington State and to hold the Department of Licensing accountable for having facilitated ICE harassment against community members by way of sharing information about motorists. The March in Seattle on May 1st is among several coordinated events happening in communities across the State of Washington, including Yakima, and Tacoma.

The program of speakers and performers begins at Judkins Park at 2:30 PM with the march scheduled to step off at 3:30 PM destined for downtown. In 2018, the route won’t have an official path near Capitol Hill with organizers opting for a direct path from the Central District along Jackson.

Authorities are, as usual, warning of major traffic impacts from the march. “SDOT advises travelers that on Tuesday, May 1, a number of planned demonstrations and rallies are expected to significantly impact transit and traffic around the city throughout the day,” the city writes in a bulletin sent out last week. “Please plan ahead for delays due to larger than normal crowds along demonstration routes and potential traffic disruptions.” Major League Baseball also scheduled a Mariners game for Tuesday night so expect more traffic goofiness thanks to the sporting event.

“SDOT would to thank the public for its patience,” the bulletin concludes.

(Image: SDOT)

King County Metro is also warning riders that getting around downtown will be a major challenge starting Tuesday afternoon. “There are other planned and possibly ad hoc events on May Day with less specific information available,” the planners warn. “All event and reroute times are only approximate and are subject to change. Other transit service in the Seattle area may be delayed or temporarily rerouted by these events. Delayed service in one area may create delays in other areas.”

In past events where protest or police activity has started, the downtown transit tunnel has also been closed off.

SPD and City Hall are also asking (PDF) residents and business owners to report graffiti and “lock dumpsters.”

From a March protest at YSC

What will happen this year downtown in Westlake following the immigration march is more uncertain. The Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County group which has emerged as the region’s leading Black Lives Matter organization is warning that “White supremacy hate groups” are planning “to harass, intimidate, and potentially physically harm participants in the official May Day parade, and that “‘alt-right’ events planned in the Central District and downtown Seattle.”

“It’s tempting to ignore the issue,” the BLM organizers write. “It’s tempting to stay home or avoid the area. That’s not going to keep the community safe. The people keep the community safe; that means you. March in solidarity on May Day—for Black lives, for the rights of workers, for immigrant rights—and take a stand against hate.”

In past years, Seattle Central has been a gathering place for May Day night rallies and protests but the focus of energy in 2018 in the area will be the county’s Youth Service Center at 12th and Alder where activists are again planning a Bloc the Juvi “party” to protest the facility and its under-construction replacement. This year’s event is slated to include performances by Raz Simone, Bypolar, and Nikkita Oliver. In past events, the protest has taken place outside YSC but organizers have yet to officially announce this year’s location. This year’s May Day protest comes in the midst of a “People’s Moratorium” campaign that is seeking to halt construction of the facility. Earlier in April, nine people were arrested during a protest that included a group entering the construction site and threatening to lock themselves to equipment.

Last year’s Seattle May Day was largely regarded as “peaceful” after 2016’s clashes between Seattle Police and protesters in downtown, Belltown and Pioneer Square. 2015, meanwhile, was a disaster and marked the end of a sad run with 16 reported arrests and numerous injuries including three police officers sent to the hospital in clashes between protesters and SPD concentrated on the streets of Capitol Hill for the third May Day in a row.

It’s not May Day

In 2015, protests were shoved back into Capitol Hill neighborhoods as police blocked the “anti-capitalist” and “anti-police” crowds that gathered at Broadway and Pine later that night from streaming into downtown with lines of armor-plated officers who deployed pepper spray, “less lethal” projectiles, and so many flash bangs that the efforts in East Precinct had to be re-supplied. “All force used by officers during the evening will be thoroughly reviewed, as per department policies developed in partnership with the United States Department of Justice,” the department would later announce. Later that year, a department review would find that SPD had improperly deployed “blast balls” to control crowds but instead created “fear and panic.”

As SPD continues to attempt to meet requirements of its court-ordered reforms as part of a Justice Department consent decree agreement on the use of force, the department’s response to protests remains a flashpoint. In March, Mayor Durkan and interim SPD Chief Carmen Best were criticized for the department’s decision not to break up another youth jail protest that blocked 4th Ave for a few hours.

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, you might see some plywood go up on the outside of the Starbucks Roastery and more than usual activity around 12th and Pine’s East Precinct headquarters, but the neighborhood’s May Day 2018 will hopefully be more about the First Amendment and less about blast balls, Black Bloc, and TV news choppers.

UPDATE 5/1/18 8:00 AM: Here’s an announcement from Bloc the Juvi organizers on today’s planned protest. They plan to announce the location for the event, part of “wider decentralized May Day actions around the city,” Tuesday afternoon.

Seattle, WA – May 1, 2018 – Today artists, musicians, and community members are holding a family friendly block party to unite against the ongoing construction of a new juvenile detention center in Seattle. The block party includes food, art, and a live DJ with a lineup of hip hop artists and poets.

This action is part of wider decentralized May Day actions around the city. One goal of the event is to draw connections between May Day, with its roots in workers struggles, and the anti-juvi struggle, which highlights how incarcerated youth are funneled into an exploited prison labor force. It has been well documented that youth detention traumatizes children and tears them away from their families, leading youth into the adult incarceration system for further exploitation. In Seattle, 88% of youth who are imprisoned are later re-incarcerated as adults. Prisoners are used as free labor to run the very facilities in which they are caged, and work for global corporations for a fraction of the minimum wage.

The struggle against this new juvenile detention center has been going on since 2012 when the jail was put on a ballot under the guise of being a “Youth and Family Justice Center”. Bloc the Juvi, one of the organizations hosting the block party, is part of a large and growing movement of local community members who are committed to stopping the construction of the youth detention center. This includes the No New Youth Jail Coalition, Autonomous Actions Against Prisons, and the People’s Moratorium campaign, among others. Last year, another block party was held outside of the existing juvenile detention center to show support for the youth inside. Since then, there have been several actions led by multiple groups opposed to the youth jail, both to block construction at the site and to draw attention to King County Executive Dow Constantine. This event signals a further shift towards also applying public pressure to Howard S. Wright, the construction company currently building the youth jail.

In addition to creative performances by artists including Nikkita Oliver, Bypolar TC, and Rell Be Free, the event includes opportunities for community organizations to connect with passerbys. Some of the organizations bringing tables, flyers, and educational materials are the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, Artifact Collective, and The Northwest Community Bail Fund. One organizer named Jed Walsh from Autonomous Actions Against Prisons explains, “​We’re here to remind Howard S. Wright that making $233 million dollars building cages for young people is unconscionable and unacceptable. Jailing children is abusive, racist, and outdated, and our movement will not cease until the project for this horrible youth jail is abandoned”.

There are so many reasons why people in Seattle are resisting the so-called Children and Family Justice Center. As many of the performers explain through their work, incarceration disproportionately impacts black and brown youth. In King County, black youth are 8% of the
population, but they make up 42% of youth in the jail. Youth incarceration rates in King County are falling, yet the new facility plan increases the number of cells. “If fewer and fewer youth are being locked up, why expand the number of cells? Something doesn’t add up here, and it’s our responsibility to make sure it doesn’t go through”, said Mei, a community organizer with Bloc the Juvi. Not only that, but according to the Environmental Impact Report, the construction site is located on a toxic site- physically endangering the current and future incarcerated youth, as well as construction workers and local residents.

Additionally, the Washington Court of Appeals found that King County has been illegally calculating property taxes to fund the construction of the new youth jail. This means a $100 million shortfall in the jail’s construction budget. While there is a legal process in the courts concerning the budget problem, community resistance remains strong and committed to a world without youth detention. Jed Walsh adds, ​“On this historic day commemorating those who live and die for a better world, we affirm that we are creating police- and prison-free futures and building the healing and justice that we need”.

See ​blocthejuvi.com​ for more information and artist bios.

UPDATE: 3:35 PM: A smaller than expected group of marchers has stepped off from Judkins Park headed for the federal courthouse building downtown as part of the annual Seattle May Day immigration rights march. Meanwhile at Westlake, small crowds of protest groups have gathered including some representing Pacific Northwest white nationalist causes. SPD is out with all the groups in large numbers that rivals last year’s heavy presence. Meanwhile, there has been one arrest reported — SPD says a person was taken into custody after reportedly throwing a rock at the Amazon spheres. There were no reports of damage. Police have also been busy checking out reports of suspicious items around the city. Each has so far been determined to be harmless including a couple of abandoned bags in area alleys.

Meanwhile, the bloc the Juvi protest organizers have announced that today’s protest will be held “outside of the Howard S. Wright Jobsite Office”on University Way NE in the University District.

UPDATE 4:55 PM: Police say some of the white nationalist groups and others gathered at Westlake are planning to march to Capitol Hill. There is no information on the size of the crowd at this time.

UPDATE 5:30 PM: That was anti-climatic. Around 75 fascist protesters took a march through Capitol Hill before heading back toward Westlake where another small group of reported “Black Bloc” protesters were waiting. There were no reports of arrests or property damage on Capitol Hill.

 

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