What if, when Paul Revere went riding into Lexington, Mass., to warn people the British were coming, colonists responded by smashing out windows and painting their neighbors’ horse? That logic is far from revolutionary, but it seemed to make sense for a number of protesters who gathered and marched on Capitol Hill in opposition of a neo-Nazi rally that had been rumored would occur there on Sunday, Dec. 6.
The opposition rally was a call to action by the Portland anti-fascism group Rose City Antifa, which didn’t seem too ominous as it was announced. According to a white supremacist message-board post, the Northwestern Hammerskins were supposed to have a white-power band concert in Ballard and then march on Capitol Hill to focus their hate on basically everything that makes Capitol Hill the strange and diverse neighborhood it is. Rose City Antifa wanted to rally to defend it.
But then no neo-Nazis showed, which is exactly what the Seattle Police Department (SPD) had been telling local media it expected.
Luckily, the anti-fascists got a boost at Sunday’s opposition rally from a large showing of anarchists, who stirred up the crowd most of the night with the promise of violence against skinheads. Many wore black handkerchiefs over their faces, and a number came armed with baseball bats and other blunt weapons.
Lacking any sort of a fight and bolstered by a group that reached the hundreds, protesters decided to take their message to the street, blocking traffic on main thoroughfares like Broadway and 12th Avenue. Several masked individuals tagged businesses, vehicles and parking machines and occasionally paused to smash something or throw a trash can into the street.
The whole rally appeared to be semi-organized chaos, with some collective leadership guiding people up and down streets.
Let’s regroup and be reminded that this was all supposed to be in response to concerns that white supremacists would come into Capitol Hill and threaten its people of color and LGBTQ community.
What was also difficult to understand was the way the SPD responded to the whole event. Prior to the opposition rally, the department just shrugged off the Hammerskins rumor, when it should have been focused on hammering into the anarchists and anti-fascists that organizing a protest would be superfluous because the skinheads weren’t coming.
Then police followed the opposition protest all over Capitol Hill, apparently letting them blow off steam under lax supervision. Officers were not far behind when some masked moron busted out the windows to a van, but the protest was still allowed to continue for another 30 minutes or so.
To thank the officers for what amounted to a free pass to destroy and vandalize property, protesters called them racist pigs and encouraged them to do unmentionable things.
It really isn’t too surprising, given the black mark the SPD has brought on itself through various abuses when it comes to using force in the past; no one wanted to be reminded of a May Day event, especially a police department still working to settle up a reform process with the Department of Justice.
There needs to be a balance, however, and the SPD should be able to respond when protesters block traffic, tag business windows and destroy public and private property. It appears that, until the police department figures out what that balance is, all one needs to do to get away with criminal behavior is bring enough friends.