Organizers of a right-wing "March Against Sharia" have received a permit to gather on Saturday in front of Seattle City Hall. The rally was originally planned for Portland, but organizers moved it to our town.

In the wake of a double murder on a MAX train in Portland late last month, that city's mayor called on the federal government to revoke permits for two right-wing rallies. (The events were planned for a plaza managed by the U.S. General Services Administration.) The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon argued that was a violation of the First Amendment, and the feds allowed the permits anyway. Portlanders spent Sunday afternoon watching Captain America cosplayers stomp around in shin guards and help police arrest counter protesters. But, apparently triggered by the idea that they might not be welcome in Portland, the organizers planning the "March Against Sharia" portion of Sunday's event called off their plans. They said they would come to Seattle instead.

Unlike Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray did not believe permits for the event should be blocked. The permit issued today allows them to start setting up for the rally at 8 am and gather from 10 am to 2 pm.

“We think hate speech leads to violence. We saw that in Portland and we think that’s incredibly problematic," said Benton Strong, a spokesperson for Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. "At the same time, free speech is free speech. So the permit as applied for would be assessed like any other permit and should be done that way.”

In canceling its Portland plans, the group organizing the event, ACT for America, objected to being labeled as an "alt-right" group and claimed to be supporting women's rights by opposing "Sharia law. Seattle's march is scheduled in tandem with several in major cities across the country." On its website, the group calls itself "the NRA of national security." ACT for America believes the Constitution is "under attack by Islamist groups due to the rise of Islamic immigration into our country" and pledges to "stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is now "the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in America," claiming 280,000 members nationwide. Several members of Congress, including Washington's Pramila Jayapal, held a press conference in Washington D.C. today to denounce the group and its planned marches.

"It is a disgrace that in the United States of America, a mayor tasked with protecting the rights of those he represents, particularly the most vulnerable in our society, would use his political power to silence such voices through intimidation and distortion," an ACT for America organizer whined from within the safe space of his own Facebook page.

Unfortunately for ACT for America, their local organizers don't seem to be very good at planning protests. After announcing they would come to Seattle instead of Portland, the group applied for a permit to gather in Westlake Park, but there's already another event permitted there. They asked Seattle Center about having it there, but the Seattle Center campus is already hosting several other permitted events this weekend, according to spokesperson Deborah Daoust. They also tried for Victor Steinbrueck Park, but Seattle Police denied that permit "due to safety, security, and time, place, and manner concerns," according to Chris Swenson, the city's Special Events Program Manager.

Instead, the City of Seattle has issued the group a permit to gather at the plaza in front of City Hall on Fourth Avenue.

Neither the Seattle Police Department nor the mayor’s office would elaborate on the concerns about Victor Steinbrueck Park, which is right next to Pike Place Market, but it’s not hard to imagine why that would be a nightmare. SPD spokesperson Sean Whitcomb would say only, "We believe City Hall Plaza is the best venue for the event.” (Here are the rules for the space the city gave organizers.)

That's convenient because nobody will be near City Hall Plaza on a Saturday. Compared to the crowds of foot traffic at the market or Westlake, the area near City Hall is nearly dead on a weekend afternoon. That will deprive the organizers of significant visibility for their toxic bullshit.

But will it stop TV news helicopters from humming over the scene or the rest of us from live-Tweeting the idiocy? Probably not. Should it? I'm not sure.

On one hand, the point of a gathering like this is almost solely to get media attention. InfoWars is now paying people who can make it on TV with a t-shirt or sign that says "CNN is ISIS." As Sydney wrote last year, when followers of noted internet misogynist Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh were maybe planning meetings in Seattle, the attention is exactly what they want:

It's one thing to see this information, write about it, and show up to counter-protest in force. But this all works to Roosh V's advantage. While the majority of people might be turned off by Roosh V's rhetoric, all he needs is for the conflict to hit a level of media saturation so that it reaches the men out there feeling most alienated and most rejected by women and general society. These are the people Roosh V recruits for his men's rights bullshit. He preys on people who have socialization issues, or issues with women, then exploits their fears and personal tragedies for the benefit of his personal brand.

This is a fairly common tactic. Donald Trump has employed something of the same strategy.

And we've fallen for it before. When a single post on a white supremacist website about a supposed neo-Nazi rally on Capitol Hill generated a storm of media coverage, we covered it, too. We covered the counter-protest, even, after no actual neo-Nazis showed up. We also covered the "Straight Pride Parade," which turned out to be a whole bunch of nothing. How many times are we going to be gamed in the same way? And what do we gain in the process?

Then again, the self-styled militia members, alt-right trolls, racists, xenophobes, and misogynists who show up to events like this "March Against Sharia" are now nearly indistinguishable from the people who run our country. They have almost certainly been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump and they are literally killing people.

There's also the question of how Seattle Police respond, especially how that response compares to their response to protests organized by Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or other left-wing groups. That's worth documenting.