Given the high-profile drama of the protesters' recent marches, tension was thick on Monday as demonstrators assembled in Westlake at 4:00 p.m. Television helicopters hovered overhead, ready to tape any ensuing disruptions. Police were out in force; at several points, cops outnumbered protesters. With a nationally televised Seahawks game kicking off a mile south, and several freeway entrances just blocks away, onlookers speculated that the marchers would take one of those routes.
But the demonstrators had their own plan. The NAACP Seattle chapter vice-president, Carl Mack, directed protesters (who did not have a city permit) to march down Fourth Avenue to the federal courthouse several blocks south. "If that means getting arrested, then start with me and start right now!" Mack told the group before they headed out. He was only able to take a few steps into the street before police swooped in and arrested him for pedestrian interference. One lawyer with the group called the arrest illegal, citing Mack's free-speech rights.
Several members of the group briefly scuffled with police over Mack's arrest before the crowd continued toward the courthouse. There, attorney Alfoster Garrett revved up the protesters with a harsh diatribe against Maleng.
"[Maleng] slapped us in the face!" Garrett screamed. "We appeal to him in emotion. He's prosecuted people for far less." With that, Garrett asked the crowd to march with him to the West Precinct to demand Mack's release.
At Eighth Avenue and Virginia Street, a dozen officers guarded the precinct's entrance. The crowd, thinned slightly during the quick march from the courthouse, crushed together outside the station. Garrett, now the de facto protest leader, asked police about Mack's status. "Someone I love was just arrested, and I don't know what's going on right now," Garrett told the crowd at 5:00 p.m. "He's not booked yet."
For the next few hours, protesters first waited at the West Precinct, then headed to the King County Jail, where Mack was being held (another man was also arrested during the walk to the jail). Mack walked out of jail at 7:30 p.m. to triumphant shouts, and the crowd waited until the second arrestee was released around 8:00 p.m.
