I’m in Seattle! Tonight I will be covering this action in Cal Anderson Park.

Special guest stars tonight will feature: The People vs. the Seattle Police Department.

Seattle people... y’all be running from the cops on these hills?

SPD art

Soup... for my family

Seattle nightly protesters’ goals

Bella Ciao lyrics are being passed around @PhrenologyPhun and I miss you @SoundBlocPDX

Follow @_WhatRiot for pictures of me taking pictures in Seattle! https://twitter.com/_whatriot/status/1312574332237873152

Everyone here is SO nice and welcoming I’m gonna cry also everyone here is bloced up REALLY good too. I’ve hardly seen anyone not in bloc

They are VERY organized and on the same page it’s incredible. Person with the megaphone is reminding everyone about the hand signals and what they mean

Next Saturday in Seattle, gentrification protesters will be gathering to protest

Speaker just told the musicians in the crowd to get ready and start writing protest CHRISTMAS JINGLES and I’m really excited for this. Hey portland, what’s good

Whose lives matter?
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Who else’s lives matter?
INDIGENOUS LIVES MATTER!

“Out of the bars! Into the streets!”

Wow they are SO organized. This march is really cool. Everyone is on the same page with the commands and hand signals it’s amazing

So they also do REALLY well at “stay together stay tight”
Everyone is marching pretty slowly. The person leading the march told the front liners and shield wall to remember that they set the pace for the whole thing. It conserves energy for when it matters too

Parking meters are Saran wrapped because parking is not something people should have to pay for

“I don’t see shit! I don’t know shit!”

The speaker addressed the crowd during the march telling everyone to make a hole for the city. They said “we need to let them know we respect them. But fuck the bus fare! When I say FCAB you say Fare Cops Are Bastards!
FCAB!
Fare cops are bastards!”

Police have moved in

We’re being kettled already

Just got shot with a pepper bullet on the back of my neck. They’re now sweeping the park

Person they arrested is crying from the pain. They’re using a lot of mace

Earlier the bike cops were pushing me. Other cops with weapons came in behind me and I didn’t see. Someone with an umbrella grabbed my backpack and shielded my face from a can full of mace. Later when escaping the cops everyone held onto someone. Someone even grabbed my bag

again and held on and said “don’t worry we stay together here”

Soup... for my family

From earlier. The bloc here is amazing

Shield wall tonight in Seattle

From what I’m hearing (and seeing) protesters who aren’t into DA do their own events and other events that are DA are... well, DA. Everyone is prepared and seem to be aligned. Organizers still respect each other and a diversity of tactics. Seems to help infighting.

They are strategic with their chanting (or lack thereof) too...

I don’t think they like cops

“We protect people! You protect property!”

Cops here chant “move! Back!” At protesters. They chant it back to the cops and it’s amazing

East precinct

An observation... I only ever hear or see “antifa” being used in a joking way in Portland. Here I’ve seen it tagged as well as heard it in chants.

Marched away and small break now... they called everyone to come in close to have a community discussion about something important before moving along. This is incredible to witness. Something happened, they addressed it to the group to work on and brainstorm together.

Ok. So, the organization and communication and respect for one another is incredible and makes a huge difference. There is no infighting or aggression towards one another, there is a purpose to every action taken and even with small numbers they’re still able to accomplish a lot

There wasn’t an issue with peace policing or swooping because the events are separate. Again, DA is DA and peace Policing style protests tend to be separate events. Everyone really looks out for one another too. They don’t let one person ‘DA’ alone and use what they have to help

Everyone and shield and protect people as best as they can.

Ugh. Even when they took a pause and held space in the streets a few times everyone stayed together and sat in the street ALL together. There was still a purpose. It was great to see

ACAB. all cats are beautiful

In Arabic “Neko” means something VERY different.

Also, that’s a wrap! They started and ended early but damn do they go hard. I’m seriously so impressed and crushing on all of Seattle bloc