Comments

1

Oh, so that's why it took me 90 min to get from Lake City Way to Roanoke.

Black Lives Matter
BLM doesn't

2

Fuck them. Arrest them all. They get to decide when and where people can drive? They don't give a shit if its a doctor heading to surgery on someone - maybe their relative. Or someone with an appointment they can't miss. Don't other people have rights too? This shit is useless and has alienated me from their "protests". Not from BLM but from the stupid asses pulling this shit.

3

Those are some really nasty and vile people you were riding with Nathalie.

4

Blocking traffic like this makes the people in stuck traffic feel helpless, angry, and frustrated at events that are beyond their control and that they feel powerless to stop. But that's an analogy lost on the simple-minded.

Good on these protestors. Keep it up. If being delayed in traffic is the worst thing you've experienced today, then practice some fucking gratitude.

5

Also, this protest had no rioting, no looting, no burning. Sounds peaceful to me. Isn't that what the yokels have been calling for?

8

"white people were inconvenienced"

Yes, all the DOCs (drivers of color) were enabled to shift into Jetson mode and fly above it all to get to their destinations.

9

@7: That's not what it says. Try again.

10

MLK’s march was secured via a court injunction supporting the right to protest. The intent of the march was not to inconvenience anyone, but to convey a message. It is not comparable to spontaneously blocking the I5 with vehicles.

12

They should have cut their tires, since the cops will do that, and superglued the drive trains.

At the rear axles.

13

A protest has to inconvenience someone or there's no point.

Address the demands of the protesters, and your drive down I5 will be inhibited only by the typical overturned trucks and road maintenance.

17

@13: The Seattle City Council is already addressing the demands of the protesters on the behalf of their constituents: the drivers on I5 unnecessary inconvenienced.

18

@13: "A protest has to inconvenience someone or there's no point."

You've got it backwards. A true mass protest, demonstrating overwhelming support, will by nature inconvenience other persons, simply due to size. By contrast, this "protest" was a handful of privileged persons arbitrarily deciding nobody but themselves got to use a public highway. Any connection to #BLM -- or anything else -- was completely unknown to the large number of inconvenienced persons.

19

Take 'em away. Let them spend the weekend in jail or longer. "Lose" the paperwork at the impound yard. They're lucky to be alive at this point.

20

Another fun thing to do is get an industrial truck chain with linker blocks and run it through all the cars with the doors closed, and run another chain thru the axles at the same time.

Cutting through the bodies of cars takes time.

You can find such chains at most logging sites.

For good measure you can then run them under the bridge structure, and use them to hang on ropes from.

This will totally shut down a highway for a long long time.

21

@18 maybe at the time. But this very write up got linked to on Breitbart. Natalie has made the big leagues.

22

"They [the Actvists putting their lives on The Line)'re lucky to be alive at this point."

with all the Far Right (home-grown!)
Terrorism, these days, they surely are.

are trumpf's Goon Squads paving
their Way to a thousand-year Reich?

24

Breitbart?

Say whatever became of that Disheveled guy who figured out how to get the trumpfster 'elected' and then bailed or was fired and played no small role in the Cambridge Analytica Scandal? Bannon? Whatever became of one of fake prez's 'all the Best people'? Did he land on his feet after that? Did he ever get a Haircut?

25

" "Lose" the paperwork at the impound yard. They're lucky to be alive at this point."

LAW AND ORDER!!!!

26

@23 I think the point is more to force people to choose a side. And judging from your tantrum, it worked.

27

@21: "But this very write up got linked to on Breitbart. Natalie has made the big leagues."

Breitbart is now "the big leagues"?!? Hahahahahahahahaha... yeah, sure, people who use I-5 in Seattle read Breitbart all of the time, whilst stuck in traffic?

Thank you very much for confirming my point. The vast majority of persons stuck in this fake traffic had no frickin' idea their getting stuck in this fake traffic had any connection with #BLM, real or imagined.

28

@25 Just a little inconvenience. You know, for the cause.

29

@26: "I think the point is more to force people to choose a side."

When they don't even know whose "side" blocked the freeway? Sure. Like persons who read Breitbart will tend to choose the liberal side? Is that how you believe humans think?

Keep on moving those goalposts, pal.

30

They should be so proud. They accomplished so much.

30

Natalie, Do you realize you and your fellow protesters are playing right into Trump's re-election efforts? I would have thought you were smarter than that.

32

@26 no the point is to disrupt people’s lives often enough that they eventually give in and acquiesce to the demands. It doesn’t matter if you choose a side or even support them as long as they get their way. Look forward to the next protest when they will be holding their breath and stomping their feet at the Fremont Bridge.

33
  1. You're an idiot.
34

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be one in comment threads, but as someone who deals with multiple agencies, both municipal, State and Federal, I5 is under jurisdiction of the Washington State Patrol. Quoting Seattle Municipal code on a State highway (as shown in the video), even in Seattle, isn't going to get you very far. If you are going to quote scripture to an officer, take the time to know which Bible you need to use.

37

is that too much to Ask, Prof?

for Black people to shut up and keep being murdered?

Lookit all the RWNJs
sacrificng their (and their Familie's) Lives
for trumpf -- if they can do it, why not the Blacks?

Other than the fact that one side's volunteering
(and the other isn't), what's the Big Deal?

38

Wow, lots of people sure are against peaceful protesting after claiming that's what should be done.

Of course their definition of peaceful means "shut up and know your place."

39

I see the Professor said it better than I could.

40

I’m curious to know how many of these young, unemployed freeway-blocking protestors actually bother to vote in local elections. Or federal primary elections. Or any election. I’m guessing less than 20%. Oh, I get their dumb way of thinking — “the candidates aren’t pure enough for me, so I won’t vote!” And yet white people over 65 get what they want — because guess what? They vote in large numbers, in every primary election, for every office. That’s how you start to get what you want.

I also assume that they don’t understand human behavior, because blocking a freeway won’t win them too many converts. But wow, it was so kind of them to “allow” an elderly man to get to his cancer treatment. Truly beneficent of them.

45

Nathalie, because you are doing ride-alongs and therefore not clearly separating yourself from the protestors, you are risking your press pass in these situations. Either you have accepted the risk, or you are getting shitty (or no) legal advice. In the latter case, the involvement of The Stranger would be unsurprising. Tim Keck is not your friend, advocate, or ally.

46

@6: Except at Selma, MLK and others were willing to get arrested, and peacefully. Not so with the Marxist BLM and antifa of today.

47

@42 the police said the drivers were distracted. If a distracted driver causes an accident, it's the distracted drivers fault. The injured should take it up with whomever wasnt paying attention to conditions on the road.

49

@36: We've had large BLM protests in West Seattle. California Avenue was blocked by protesters using it for their march. At the end of each march, we had a peaceful crowd listening politely and respectfully to Black speakers. That is how BLM will move us forward as a country and society.

By contrast, this attention-getting stunt on I-5 will accomplish nothing.

(Oh, and BTW: opposing self-indulgent, attention-craving stunts is not the same as opposing social justice. Do you teach your students explicitly on the long and dishonest history of false equivalence, or do you just give them examples like this and let them figure it out for themselves?)

50

Selfish assholes with nothing else to do. Not furthering any "cause" but their own desperate need for attention. They have been acting like neglected children their whole lives and are still at it.
Sick of the whole lot of them. This crap is going to get that orange clown re-elected, you do know that, right?

54

On her Facebook page, Ms. Neuner states: "THIS IS NOT A 'fuck the police' movement! ITS BLACK LIVES MATTER"

And yet she says "cuz fuck the police" as her defense for stopping traffic on the bridge.

Intellectually bankrupt. At least have the courage of your coinvictions, you deeply unpleasant person.

56

All of those vehicles should be seized using forfeiture laws. In addition to criminal prosecution, the thugs should have their drivers licenses revoked and the state should sue in civil court for the cost of clearing the highway. The people injured in the collision should also sue them. People like this used to be called highway bandits or "highwaymen" and were dealt with harshly. By laying siege to highways for their own purposes, they attack not only individual motorists, but society itself. There needs to be a mandatory minimum prison sentence for anyone blocking a highway.

60

Ending police brutality is a multifaceted objective that motorists can't speed up by being blocked repeatedly on the freeway. Most of them are already supportive. Protesting to the choir does nothing for advancing the movement.

The Washington State Patrol is to commended for the professionalism they've shown for handling these throngs invading the freeway over these past several months. They have to act fast to save the lives of the motorists and these halfwits.

62

On the bright side, Natalie has provided the WSP fantastic incontrovertible video evidence of the reason for arrest and subsequent resisting arrest. The vehicle occupants seem to think that being in one's car is a "Get Out of Arrest" card, which is seemingly confirmed in the second to last line in the article. It is not.

I thought the Troopers used commendable restraint not arresting the two other women for Interfering/Hindering or just unauthorized walking on the freeway proper.

As to the value, it struck me as more of a stunt also. Months in, people who are inclined to side with BLM already do, so what's left are opponents, who will not change their minds, and those indifferent. At this point, stunts like this merely push the indifferent into the opponent camp.

71

@67: Only the worse of the worst racists use that term. Katie Neuner is a racist.

72

Ms. Graham is a member of the press? Who would've thought. Based on the quality of her writing I thought she was an intern or at least still in school. If it doesn't matter then, can I get a press pass too?

73

Yeah, go protest somewhere nobody will see or hear you! Disrupt nothing if you want nothing to change!

74

And would you look at these whiny little bitches unhinged because of a delay in traffic. What a bunch of fucking losers.

75

@74: Yeah, nothing like being delayed on the freeway for an hour and a half to make you even more supportive of whatever cause you already support.

76

@75. Then buy a helicopter, loser.

77

@76: Couldn't come up with an intelligent response I see.

77

https://youtu.be/20iio0wLpPA

78

@77. My grandfather told me the story of a war between the animals in Maya when I was a boy; the birds and the land animals fought. There was this bat that would fight with the land animals when they were winning and the flying animals when they were winning. But one day, both sides saw what he really was, and he was crushed betwen both sides in the next charge.

80

a Troglodyte
calling the rational
troglodytes is gonna
win how many Votes for the
Worst "President" Of All Time?

downfall on a fence
with fellow humpty dumpftys
and all the King's horses and all

81

I don't know how I feel about the protest itself, but seems like they could at least accept the consequences, eg. getting arrested without resisting. Also the woman calling the black cop a house n**r is super racist. It paints the protesters in a bad light imo

82

Changing hearts and minds? Not likely. I am a long-time leftist, and I consider this behavior childish and selfish. There are better ways of trying to change the world.

83

Also, you should probably make sure you know your rights if you are trying to assert them

85

I have experienced fucked up commutes due to protests since the WTO. I already budget 2 hours each way for my commute - it is already LONG. ANY extra time I have to spend waiting for a bus is not spent 'pondering the issues' but pondering "maybe it is time to revive my job hunt for something closer to home?"

If this shit is still going on when we can go back to the office, the only significant affect any protest, and subsequent delay, will cause is the same: "maybe it is time to revive my job hunt for something closer to home." So if protestors are looking to cause a vacancy in the law firm I work for - bravo, mission may be accomplished. But beyond that....I'll stick to my own volunteer work/causes I already have. And if you are thinking "great, a job I can apply for" - think again. You need at least 15+ years of experience in my practice area to even get an interview...good luck!

86

Thank goodness for Waze. Just take the exit before the traffic jam and whip through the side streets.

Sorry about all those children of color that had to dive out of the way of traffic in their neighborhoods.

87

@74: "And would you look at these whiny little bitches unhinged because of a delay in traffic. What a bunch of fucking losers."

I had to drive that day, because my spouse's doctor had written an urgent prescription and the medication was available only from the hospital's pharmacy. Luckily for my family, I didn't have to drive anywhere near the Ship Canal.

In conclusion, don't complain about the traffic en route to the place where you can go fuck yourself.

88

"BTW, notice how most of the BLM discussions these days have moved from police shootings to whether the laws should be applied to obnoxious entitled white people?"

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/07/28/44172786/ballard-tenants-vaguely-threatened-with-eviction-for-posting-black-lives-matter-signs-in-windows/comments/26

89

@87. So you had an urgent need to be met and the powers that be could have potentially inconvenienced you. These must be trying times for you, be brave!

90

The number of Sloggers in this thread who think this protesters far outnumber who think this was a BAD IDEA outnumber those who think it was a GOOD IDEA about 3 to 1!

GOOD: 8 - BAD: 35 - UNDETERMINED: 3

GOOD IDEA: Brent Gumbo, Professor_Hiztory, GermanSausage, Will in Seattle, Alden, Kristofarian, Garb Garblar

BAD IDEA: raindrop, Get friggin real, hrmmm, Cpfd, tensor, Swiftress, forestwater, tempur_tempur, Brandi Robertson, herrbrahms, District13refugee, You Big Dummy, Nothing Impotant, Park Place, Escapee from S. Idaho, FriedFrendly, Downfall, hayduke, randommonkey, youwatm8, guesty, MrB, Jubilation T. Cornball, Mellow, Denny29, mistral, Morty, Biker McBike Face, facts2supportURpoint, David in Shoreline, Heelsea, r31416, Jeebus999, Holmes

UNDETERMINED: Nothing Important, Yo, molton

92

@90. The question is, how effective are the morning marches? Did the marchers meet their goals? If I kick a hornet's nest because I see dire concern trolling at the highest level from a majority of people personally unaffected by this but enfadado here out of principal, does it reflect their goals being met or not?

You can definitely disagree with their methods and question their efficacy, but they primarily galvanized the anti BLM vultures who smell blood when a nonviolent protestor gets arrested and they can all dig in for the carrion.

But those who were otherwise inconvenienced and possibly seriously disrupted by the marches would have to be pretty shallow in principal to abandon their own tenets because it was important enough to some Americans to risk their own lives and safety and freedom to force the issue. Perhaps kneeling during the national anthem would be less controversial and intrusive?

93

@89: "...the powers that be could have potentially inconvenienced you."

A group of spoiled, over-aged children are not "the powers that be," and urgently-prescribed medication is not taken at "convenience."

"The question is, how effective are the morning marches?"

This one was of so little consequence, most of us here learned of it from this post.

@92: As your comment implies, no one will alter any beliefs over stunts like this. These children can claim to be throwing their attention-getting tantrums in support of #BLM, but I don't have to give credence to such a claim. Stopping extra-judicial executions and police brutality is too important to get derailed by such stunts.

94

@92: "..risk their own lives and safety and freedom to force the issue."

Really? We've been forcing the issue for several months now. Everyone is ultra aware of it. The Seattle City Council is acting on it. At some point it becomes gratuitous and devoid of authentic passion and meaning whatsoever. We've long passed that point.

How can you Garb, associate yourself with Katie Neuner calling a Black WSP officer a 'house nigger'. That's the only takeaway from the whole protest. Clearly, "Black Lives Matter" has no meaning to these people when they just stand by and allow one of their own to abuse a Black man.

But as to the finer granularities of your question "Did the marchers meet their goals?" it will be hard to get the data to quench your bias because you will always be balancing the volume of disruption with the volume of the feedback.

Nevertheless we now stand at 36 bad idea, 8 good idea for this protest. Thanks JC.

95

@94. Wat.

96

@94. How can you associate with folks who support a president who calls our vets losers? How can you watch and entertain Tucker Carlson's openly racist and destructive calls for violence to enable a fascist state? How can you support a cause if every individual who says something wrong is given the fundamental attribution error for everyone everywhere? And were the protests effective?

97

Ladies and gentlemen, @96 exhibits a Jackson Pollock response.

98

@97. I answered your question by holding you accountable for your associations (your fallacy employed); if you won't answer then your arguments are for semantics and not substance. Which is almost always the case with you concern trolls.

99

@98: Yes, I understand your concern that the protest wasn't as well received as expected.

100

@99. No, I dont care about that. The question was, was it effective?

101

No, it wasn't.

102

@101. Why not?

103

@102: The only way I can answer that to your satisfaction is to say that it is just my opinion which happens to be in the majority about this particular protest.

Opposite sides are for the most part unpersuadable.

104

@103. I am interested in knowing what the protestors could do differently for you to be persuaded by their activism. Part of the ethos of BLM is to resist being told how and under what circumstances people of color are allowed to protest, as shaped by a criminal justice system largely influenced by Trump and Barr' s belief that justice is applied equally across the spectrum. I measure efficacy by how well the protest raised awareness of the cause and expressed the sentiment of being held against your will while trying to go about your business, sometimes at the cost of your life. If it did not accomplish this and instead alienated potential sympathizers, what advice would you give them on how to convince people like you to see things their way?

105

@104: Just follow the golden rule. Be respectful. A protest along closed city streets that has permit and large gatherings in the public square are protests that show grass roots support and garner far more good will than causing peril on the freeway.

Ask yourself if you were blocked on the freeway with Right-to-Lifers protesting abortion your sentiments would be 180 different on the efficacy of such a protest.

106

@105. Ah yes. Perhaps you refer to events like 'Operation Gridlock' when in April in Michigan when armed Yosemite Sam Con Trump supporters shut down traffic for their right to spread coronavirus and terrorize capitol staff and legislators. These fucks and their terrorism directly separated me from my love.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/trump-supporters-protest-coronavirus-orders/amp

I would rather ask myself why the Lakota Sioux should not be allowed to block the freeways when Trump trespasses on their sacred ancestral lands without being subject to arrest according to our colonial and enslavement established whitewashed human trafficking business.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/trump-supporters-protest-coronavirus-orders/amp

Who writes your laws? Which lobbyists own your favorite talking head? Do you really think for yourself and have a say? Is this the system you want? Not I.

107

@104: "I am interested in knowing what the protestors could do differently for you to be persuaded by their activism."

Why do you assume activism of this type (raising awareness) is even needed? As raindrop noted @94, #BLM has been a hot topic in Seattle for months now, and Seattle's reliably-liberal electorate has produced many mass-protest events of the type he mentioned to answer @105. What we need now is widespread, democratic dialog on how to move forward, not spoiled children shouting racial insults at public-safety officers.


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