However!

I knew there was going to be a 'but'. If Brendan Kiley didn't excuse anarchists breaking shit, I'd question if someone else was using his name for the story. I like the conspiracy theory explanation. It could work for anything! It is impossible that anarchists could be assholes who enjoy breaking shit when it is theoretically possible that a police plant did it! How do you argue against that? After all, he is a theater critic!

Just a point.

SLOG readers, being true Seattleites, should buy stuff at Bill's Off Broadway (good eats) and Sun Liquor (nice specials).

Help them out guys!

How does any of this serve anyone? Pick a fight with the cops, watch the cops behave badly. People get hurt, public resources are squandered. I see no point in it.

Wrong enemy. We need better aim.

Again, cops chased another riotous mob into the most densely populated neighborhood.

Start asking why they use this tactic each and every time.

You can't have it both ways. If you support people holding banners supporting "injury" to capitalists, you support people that break windows of buildings owned by capitalists (great or small). We can have have a discussion about whether or not that's a good thing, but that requires everyone being willing to be honest about what they're arguing for.

The SPD is a terrorist organization. Shooting explosives into public crouds? That's what terrorists do. Fuck you SPD.

#6, it would have been much better if they shot a rocket into your gut

@3 I think the whole point is to taunt the police into mishandling the situation in order to spark weeks of anti police marches. Plus, dress up day! And you get to break stuff.

I guess if they were doing something productive they wouldn't be anarchists.

@8 - you have the most ironic screen name. Everything you post is so lock step with the Bush/Cheney mindset. You should indeed wash your brain, or get a life. Hey - Rush'll be on soon. Better not miss it.

I wonder if the hedge fund managers lost or made money betting on whether it would erupt into violence or not...

Nice of you to leave out the part where they were they were throwing rocks and pipes. These assholes weren't pushing back against mysterious arrests they were looking for a fight.

You have zero credibility on this issue and no journalistic integrity.

Why don't they fire grenades into crowds of shoppers when there is a shoplifter? Oh right, that would be idiotic.

@12 - Of course he does, he's a theater critic!

@13 - What an incredibly stupid analogy.

If they had done some gardening instead of smashing and bottle throwing, that certainly would have upended my expectations. But since I don't think these idiots are actually serious about the politics of anarchy that wouldn't have advanced their goals. Instead I think they are serious about the fun of getting into a confrontation and smashin' some shit, and their behavior advanced *that* goal quite nicely. I've known Brenden had a deeply flawed brain in that skull ever since his cruel and arrogant "urban hunting" piece and his bizarre annual defense of petty vandals certainly confirms it.

yes, it would have been awesome if the anarchist demonstration had done some old-school actions of bringing positivity into the world. But that has nothing whatsoever to do with what the Seattle version of the anarchist movement is about, so there's no way it was going to happen. No point in excusing brats who get the fight they were looking for.

As a mother who helps her children to learn about the world through experiential lessons, I can't help but think that perhaps the best route for us to take when dealing with the anarchists is to give them what they want.

Surely there's an uninhabited/undeveloped island in the San Juans that "we" can give to "them", the anarchists, and let them try out their little experiment of life without government (you know: we the people who have formed this union....).

They'll either become a blissful society without rules of behavior or they'll grow up and find that there's a world outside of themselves full of other people for whom we are all responsible to protect from our own actions. It'll be a life-lesson. Perhaps they can college credit for it.

@ 17, that's way too close to civilization. I suggest some place in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Always appreciate your reasoned reporting, Brendan and congrats on your recent award - http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
It's such a breath of fresh air in contrast to the histrionics that pervade the airwaves and social media esp. when folks discuss anarchism and activism. Glad to live in a city where cynicism has not ruled the day! Where some "kids" and mothers, fathers, citizens still care enough about our collective future to make their voices heard. Kudos to everyone who make May Day an annual exercise in protest and direct action, for better or worse!

@3, Lanscot wrote, "Pick a fight with the cops, watch the cops behave badly. People get hurt, public resources are squandered. I see no point in it."

I didn't participate. I didn't speak with any of the participants about their intent.

If you have a bunch of walking powderkegs, and few of the public believe just what a danger they are, you can put on a blast suit and set them off, showing the public that those people are dangerous and avoiding having them explode on someone who is unprepared for the blast. If you think cops treat a bunch of mostly-white people badly when hundreds of cameras are on them, imagine what they do to others when there are no witnesses.

Slog spent all day yesterday downplaying the chance of any vandalism or violence. So to expect an evenhanded accounting of events -- such as mentioning all the crap that was thrown at the police -- is unrealistic. Kiley et al are nothing but apologists.

@3,@5, more along the lines of what @1 made reference to--robust "provocateur" activity with a few idiots joining in; all about discrediting peaceful and lawful protest.

The "protesters" were just vandals using this as an opportunity to destroy property in the day-light. I watched the news coverage of this "march." My favorite part is when the anyone got some pepper spray in their face and the agony they depicted. LOL. You got a little of what you deserved. The dudes yelling at and flipping off the cops were epic. You mad bro?

I'd love to have the chance to fire some non-lethal rubber bullets at these turds.

I guarantee your ideal of community services,"get doctors from the Carolyn Downs clinic to offer free healthcare in Westlake Plaza, with the image of tanks (or the SPD equivalent) behind them. Or set up a soup kitchen. Or gather in a poorer neighborhood to appropriate a vacant lot and do all the heavy-lifting work for a new community garden," radicals do everyday, all day, not just on May Day, and including on May Day. I could list all of it, but that seems a little pretentious.(I was treated by an Occupy MD, after being pepper sprayed, hit with clubs and bikes, in the face by some bullies called SPD, while dancing on the sidewalk. Oh yeah, and a six month along pregnant women got to share that lovely experience with me.)

"OH MY GOD THIS WAS A HUGE RIOT!!"
"OH MY GOD THEY DESERVED THIS!"
"OH MY GOD WORLD WAR 3"
"OH MY GOD I WANT TO SHOOT PEOPLE AND HURT THEM!"

...and then 3 days later nobody remembers any of this shit, so so much for being SO UPSET AND OFFENDEDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!

@24 They should have circled and arrested the whole lot of them. This was not a peaceful protest this was a roving gang of vandals and thugs.

Agent Provacateur? You are kidding right? I have no doubt that there were a whole bunch of people in that crowd who have no connection to any kind of movement and were there to stir shit up, but I really doubt that any of them were cops. Fratboys/meatheads/douchebags would love to get the chance to smash shit and so they'll happily try to make an "anarchist" costume and come out to play for the occasion. Once there they obviously don't fit in and they don't have any political agenda, but that doesn't mean that they're part of a state sponsored conspiracy to make the peace loving black bloc look like a bunch of destructive meanies. Get a clue!
Were there cops in the middle of those "anarchist" crowds? Maybe, probably, but not to stir up shit and break the law. They'd be there to spot for the uniform cops who is doing the serious shit and point them out for arrest. There is no need for the cops to stir things up as the idiots will do that on their own.

The use of the phrase "incendiary device" is wrong, misleading and inflammatory. A flash bang IS NOT an incendiary device, although it might start a fire. Hyperbole is OK, just be more accurate with the adjectives and nouns...

I had privately hoped that radical activists would cash in on all the municipal anxiety from last year's smashy-smashy May Day to conjure up a phalanx of riot cops and then do some Black Bloc community service—get doctors from the Carolyn Downs clinic to offer free healthcare in Westlake Plaza, with the image of tanks (or the SPD equivalent) behind them.

If you're hoping for something like this, you will be forever disappointed. These are not Emma Goldman anarchists; they are spoiled, white college students.

Fyi--
I was in the middle of the march last night, taking photos. I am not a protester. I did not see anything which prompted the first arrests. Up to that point the march had been good-humored and festive, though someone did throw a stick at an empty parked police car about 5 minutes before the first arrests--it did no visible damage, and many marchers hooted, and called out to keep marching. I also saw several black-clad marchers use their fingers to write 'love' and hearts in the dust on other parked cars.
The arrests soured the general mood, and several cops, including one in charge of the bikers, completely lost their shit; clearly that officer was scared, shouting shrilly to his command to move or hold or push back--they mostly looked embarassed for him, but there was also some scuffling. By the time they were faced off under the monorail, bike commander was still issuing contadictory orders and cops were having some trouble keeping their lines and groups connected, having moved a bit too far too fast.
At this point somebody threw a fist-size rock from down the street, landing about 5 feet from where i stood next to police lines, behind which they were carrying off several arrestees. (police had already deployed the big cans of mace, with no warning so far as i could see, which cleared the scrum nearest to the arrests.) It didnt hit anyone, but police captured the rock, and it was only 3 or 4 minutes later (i think--should check the time stamps) that police began to let loose the concussion grenades. They did this without issuing any warning; without any attempt to avoid hitting people, and in fact they appeared to be trying to hit people. They did not for instance warn people to leave the area, or warn anyone when they fired grenades or tear gas (they seem to have used at least three distinct munitions) right into concentrations of people; police appeared to want the explosions to come as a surprise, thus putting everyones eyes and ears at substantially greater risk.
The police will no doubt say they were reacting to the thrown rock, but most of the people there had no way to know that anyone had thrown it, and since the police didnt bother to say what they were doing or why, their reaction seemed arbitrary and capricious to most of the crowd, including most of the credentialed press (camera guys at least). It also caused police to lose contact with now-angry protesters who wound through the streets and caused more havoc; screechy-bike commander was yelling at his guys to advance, and to not 'let them get away'. At one point as i knelt on a sidewalk changing batteries, with no one else within 30 feet of me, police rushed up, formed a cordon in front of me, and began screaming at me to move back while physically pushing me up the street. I asked the officer where he would like me to stand; he could not answer. Less than a minute later the group moved two blocks on. Later as i walked up the sidewalk on pine street across from the paramount, several cops formed a loose line up the sidewalk and yelled at us to 'get off the sidewalk'. I said i didnt want to trespass on somebody's private property, and he seems to have been too confused to answer.
My point being that after quite a lot of official statements regarding preparedness, the police response on balance was simply shockingly inept and seemed if not deliberately provocative, then somehow serendipitously perfectly calibrated to cause a bigger problem. I saw some officers behave professionally, and i saw quite a lot of protesters behave with restraint, but there seemed to have been more bad actors on the police side than on the protesting side. Police seem to have used the march as an opportunity to arrest people they had previously identified, and did so in a confrontational and high profile way, as though the public protest itself was the precipitating factor. I watched police tackle a student of mine who was simply walking up pine east of 5; they said he had assaulted an officer. (it didn't happen there, so either it was for an earlier incident or they were making it up.)
I understand that when you join a crowd of people in a rowdy demonstration, you take on risks, but if this is the best the spd can do in spite of experience and preparation, well, wow. That is just a terrible performance.

@17,

Leftist anarchists are not libertarians. What they want is communism without a centralized government authority. This is why many anarchists supported the Soviet Union back in the day, even to the point of blackballing Emma Goldman when she spoke out against the USSR's human rights abuses. They figured communism was better than nothing and would "naturally" become anarchy eventually.

The experiment you propose would still fail of course, but not for the reasons you assume.

Most importantly, the immigration-reform people and the anarchists agree that the way we manage our borders is inhumane and foolish.

Utterly disingenuous, Brendan. One group wants borders that are humanely and sensibly managed, the other group wants to abolish borders entirely as part of a broader project of dismantling the State.

There is a vast political gulf between the two, and that chasm is far more significant than the fact that both groups, like all sane people, have managed to notice that US immigration policy is a wrenching, horrible mess.

You're not doing anything for your credibility when you single out one man with a Che banner, and deny a voice* to protest organizers who have equally vehement but far less favorable things to say about anarchists** attaching themselves to immigration reform events.

* I know you have the quotes, but you don't use them in your reporting.
** and they do call out anarchists specifically. There has always been a strain of Marxism in immigration reform efforts, and no-one seems to be objecting to that.

I understand that when you join a crowd of people in a rowdy demonstration, you take on risks, but if this is the best the spd can do in spite of experience and preparation, well, wow. That is just a terrible performance.

Actually, you don't understand about the risk part. You're lucky they didn't do what a lot of us would have liked them to do, and crush a few skulls.

Brief response to liberals: 1. Small business don't suck any less than the big ones. Actually, they tend to pay worse, offer less benefits, and get away with stealing our wages way more often. 2. Cops harass, beat, stalk, intimidate, and murder people in this city everyday. Thats why people fight them. 3. Seriously, you don't get what the "message" behind smashing a business' windows is? Seems pretty obvious to everyone else. 4. Did it ever occur to any of you that we can do a lot more with protests than simply "get a message out"? Maybe no one fighting at the anti-capitalist was there to "get their message out" - maybe they just wanted to physically confront the things they hate.

#35, if we get lucky, you ride your bicycle into a semi-truck and save someone some work

Once again, best mainstream coverage of MayDay. Thanks for being one of the few honest journalists out there, Brendan!