CoronaQuarantine, Day 88: Seattle Protests, Days 7, 8 and 9
Just when I thought the protests were actually dying down . . . shows what I know! They have continued every day over the second weekend in a row; today marks the ninth day of them in Seattle just since I've been keeping track, and I think they actually started one or two days before that. It's just that there was all that property damage downtown two Saturday nights ago that got so much attention, after which police blocked access to downtown, and so pretty much ever since then the demonstrations have mostly centered around the East Precinct Police Station here on Capitol Hill—three blocks from where I live.
Things heated up yesterday in particular, though, ironically three days after the mayor announced a 30-day ban on the use of tear gas, although there has been some speculation that was merely because the police ran out of it. So what, exactly, were they using last night? Maybe not tear gas, but a lot of flash bangs . . . which literally woke me from a calm sleep just after midnight last night. It went on for a shocking long time, so much that I had to get out of bed and see what I could see through the window. Not much, and neither could I glean much from the several live feeds people are constantly broadcasting now over social media.
But now I need to back up, because that was just the third of three notable turns of events between the protesters and cops last night. First there was a brief series of bangs just before 8 p.m., which prompted me to check the windows and notice a caravan of police vehicles moving through the church parking lot across the street and turn down Pine toward 12th Avenue where the police station is. They all appeared just to return into the station's parking garage, whose entrance is on Pine. Did they do flash-bangs just to get the protesters to move out of their way so they could drive through? It was the only explanation I could think of.
Then, roughly and hour later—and this was the big local news (shortly thereafter making national news) of the evening—some right-wing nut job drove a car into the crowd of protesters, who actually managed to stop him and no one got run over. But then the driver got out of the car brandishing a gun, a black protester tussled with him, and the driver shot him in the shoulder. He then walked straight into the crowd with the gun, only to be pretty quickly apprehended by the police. (Safely, I might add: it's always good to note how much less likely it would have been for a black man running around threateningly with a gun would have been apprehended unharmed.) It's kind of amazing nobody got killed.
So far as I can tell, the shooting incident had nothing to do with the bangs I heard around 8:00, and the incessant flash bangs just after midnight had nothing to do with the shooting incident—at least not directly; surely tensions were much higher because of it. The police department says protesters were throwing bottles, rocks and fireworks at them, as well as "shining green lasers" into their eyes. I really can't speak to the validity of that, as I wasn’t there. All I can say is the footage of what they were doing just after midnight last night is not a good look, and will do nothing to quell these daily protests.
Incidentally, the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown has changed their standard room lights outlining hearts, which they have done since the start of COVID stay-home orders, and now one side of the building shows "BLM," for Black Lives Matter. In spite of skeptical headlines that just serve to underscore how necessary these protests continuing is, and in spite of the easy cynicism in response to so-called "support" from megacorportations whose very existence is built on the back of oppression being fought against right now, it seems to be to indicate a kind of watershed moment. The fact that they are using the phrase at all indicates they know which way the winds are changing.
The rest of my weekend was pretty low key and uneventful, especially Saturday and Sunday, as both days Shobhit worked until 7:30—which he did on Friday as well.
But on Friday, Alexia joined me for another walk. Not to my office this time, but to trace the lengths of all the "Stay Healthy Streets" in the Central District. This meant a roughly five-mile trip round-trip, and involved walking down 14th Avenue to the westernmost edge of it to 12th Ave E and E Columbia St; walking east on Columbia then turning right to walk south on 25th Avenue to S Dearborn St (we walked two blocks past that point when I realized we needed to turn around); back up to E Columbia St to walk eastward a few blocks to 29th Ave; back along Columbia again to 22nd Avenue where we turned north to its northernmost end to E Olive St, and then we took Madison back home again.
When we hit 29th Avenue, we discovered a very pretty, lush, dense, half-block park called Nora's Woods that I had never even heard of before; apparently it became a city park in 1998—the year I moved to Seattle! I never spent a lot of time in the Central District, though, even though I now live right next to it on an eastern edge of Capitol Hill. Downtown is in the other direction and that's where most of my interests lie. I did mention to Alexia as we walked, though, that this walk was a lot of fun, because almost the entire way we walked streets neither of us had ever walked before, so it felt a little like exploring a new city.
Anyway, the whole "Stay Healthy Streets" thing is that they close the streets down to all but local access traffic, allowing for an encouraging walking—or biking—in the middle of the street rather than just on the sidewalk. We did have to get out of the way of cars quite a few times, but not necessarily excessively so, and it never felt dangerous to be walking in the street. Signs are up at every intersection on the route indicating the streets is closed except for local access and deliveries, so any car going in there knows not to be zipping through at any great speed.
I do have to go back to the office tonight after work to exchange receiver paperwork, and Alexia will let me know this afternoon whether she can join me. If yes, we'll walk; if no, I'll take my bike.
Which was what I did on Saturday, deliberately pushing my second trip of the week to Saturday instead of Friday both to make room for the Stay Healthy Streets walk on Friday and to give me somewhere I had to go on Saturday. Unfortunately, I could tell something was wonky with my back tire on the ride down there, and even though the ride down made it all the way just fine, when I returned to my bike, the tire was flat. I wound up walking not just all the way back home with my bike, but all the way to 20/20 Cycle to get not just a new tube, but a new tire, as the guy showed me how badly worn it was. So I was like, fuck it, let's fix it all. Tire, tube and labor came to roughly forty bucks, which was a hit I could still pretty easily take. Especially when I'm hardly spending on anything else right now besides groceries, and the occasional Black Lives Matter-related donation.
I did walk first to Velo Cycle in Belltown, which is the actual store my bike was purchased from for my birthday in 2008; several years ago they relocated downtown. But, they were very busy and I was told I would have to leave my bike there and come back for it later. If they were still on Capitol Hill, sure, but in Belltown? Not going to work. I only stopped there first because I could make it along my way anyway; I actually prefer 20/20 Cycle as a rule, as they have more reasonable pricing and great customer service. So, even though I had to walk another extra half mile and then ride the last half mile from there back home, at least I came home happy.
Otherwise, I spent most of my weekend while Shobhit was at work either watching The Leftovers or catching up on social media posts about all the protests. Season 3 was only 8 episodes as opposed to the 10 episodes of the previous two, and I watched the second half, the final four episodes, of season 3 yesterday alone. Now I'll have to find something new to watch! Probably that documentary on Netlix about the 13th Amendment. Anyway, I talked to Shobhit a little last night about The Leftovers, which I kind of wish now I had actually watched when it was airing. I very much agree with the general consensus on that show: season one was okay; season two was really good; season three was phenomenal. I now find the whole show to have been totally worth the time investment.
[posted 1:06 pm]