Unlike previous years, officers quickly herded several hundred black-clad protesters out of Seattle’s business district, using a choreographed rolling blockade of bicycle officers and vans to shuttle cops in riot gear ahead of the crowd to cut off escape routes.
Before the night was over, the protesters had been marched out of downtown and into the city’s Sodo industrial area, where fewer targets for destruction were available. Officers at times doused demonstrators with pepper-spray and fired “blast-balls” to control and disperse the crowd.
One protester complained publicly Monday.
“I’m pissed off at SPD,” said Mohawk Kuzma. “They blatantly violated our First Amendment rights. We hadn’t done anything yet and they set up a line of riot officers at Fifth (Avenue) and Pine (Street) blocking us from downtown. They wouldn’t let us go where we wanted even in a peaceful manner, and they corralled us four miles out from Westlake, basically treating us like cattle.”
lol @ being named Mohawk
And lol @ "we hadn't done anything yet"
Before the night was over, the protesters had been marched out of downtown and into the city’s Sodo industrial area, where fewer targets for destruction were available. Officers at times doused demonstrators with pepper-spray and fired “blast-balls” to control and disperse the crowd.
One protester complained publicly Monday.
“I’m pissed off at SPD,” said Mohawk Kuzma. “They blatantly violated our First Amendment rights. We hadn’t done anything yet and they set up a line of riot officers at Fifth (Avenue) and Pine (Street) blocking us from downtown. They wouldn’t let us go where we wanted even in a peaceful manner, and they corralled us four miles out from Westlake, basically treating us like cattle.”
lol @ being named Mohawk
And lol @ "we hadn't done anything yet"