Olympia police arrested 29 people on suspicion of “riotous behavior” during a march protesting alleged police brutality in the downtown area Thursday night.
Officers had been monitoring a group of about 35 people who were dressed in black clothing and covering their faces, Olympia police reported early today. The crowd first gathered in the parking lot of 2100 Harrison Avenue, then about 7:30 p.m. marched east on Harrison Avenue to the downtown area.
(According to the Olympian, the purpose of the march was to protest alleged police brutality, including recent police shootings in Portland and the 2008 shooting of Jose Ramirez-Jimenez by Olympia police officers. That shooting had been ruled justifiable.)
As the group marched, they blocked one lane of traffic. An Olympian photographer reported that members of the group were assaultive toward him and intentionally damaged his camera, police reported.
Businesses also reported vandalism by the group as they walked through downtown to Fourth Avenue, blocking the roadway. Officers saw members of the group the breaking windows of a business in the area of Jefferson Street and Fourth Avenue.
Officers detained all members of the group in the area of State Avenue and Adams Street about 9 p.m. They were arrested and taken to the Olympia City jail.
The investigation was ongoing.
UPDATE: Here’s the Olympian’s version of the story from last night.
It was not a riot. Thanks for being a mouthpiece of the Police.
× Flag comment
Doesn’t sound like it was a very organized “riot”, must have been Evergreen State Collage students.
× Flag comment
An organized PROTEST???
After dark, no visable signs, by people wearing dark clothing and having their faces covered, marching enmass in street locations not associated with government agencies?
Me thinks thou doth protest too much….miscreant.
× Flag comment
Only 29 people for a Tea Party? Not good…
× Flag comment
Merriam Webster defines a riot (in this context) as: “a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent”.
× Flag comment
Any word on what they were gathering/rioting for??
× Flag comment
What a poorly written article… What happened to what? where? and why?
I see some of the loons are jumping on the tea party wagon already
× Flag comment
Evergreen
× Flag comment
Not a riot?!?! Really?!?!?! No permits. Damaging private property. Disobeying laws. Reads like one to me. Doesn’t matter what for, as they did not prepare for it legally, it doesn’t matter.
× Flag comment
I thought Tea Party demonstrators were the ones that were violent?
× Flag comment
Bunch of stupid, ignorant hippies with nothing better to do. Just jumped on the bandwagon because it was against an authority (because “the man” makes it illegal for them to do their hippie drugs).
Hey, how about this, GET A JOB, YOU BUMS. Or at least start thinking for yourself. Bums. Pathetic. Should have drove straight over all of them with a hummer.
× Flag comment
It was a bunch of Evergreen College students trying to throw away their only bar of soap.
× Flag comment
And just a couple weekends ago, nearly 3,000 Tea Partiers gathered on the Capital steps to support AG Rob McKenna and protest governor Christine Gregoire and Obamacare without so much as a charge of littering.
And, we Tea Partiers are labeled as out of control and violent leaning?
I have to wonder though, why a protest in Olympia over a Portland, Oregon incident?
If our unemployment wasn’t so high, maybe these anarchists would have jobs to go to instead of reaching for something to protest about?
Nahhhh.
× Flag comment
Isn’t it ironic that greeners think they are saving the world by destroing property, they hate large institutions but in the end they hurt individuals or small business’s who also dislike large institutions.
× Flag comment
So they protest alleged violence by being violent and vandalizing other people’s property???
And they expect my sympathy? Come again, children. Grow up.
× Flag comment
I guess these are the folks that couldn’t afford to go to Cancun on spring break.
× Flag comment
I live in Olympia & went to Evergreen, & I would never consider taking part in such a thing. There is a group of self-proclaimed anarchists in our community who periodically act out like this. They push the limits then loudly claim police brutality. In this case it seems they damaged property belonging to TNT’s sister newspaper (or at least to its photographer) but in the past have damaged property downtown. I have no problem with OPD’s actions toward them; in fact, I’d like to slap ‘em upside the head myself.
× Flag comment
There will always be those statist drones injecting their hate and intolerance into public discussion. It’s the Alinsky way to bring up subjects ( in this case the Tea Party which is nothing more than your friends, family and neighbors getting off their hiney to finally manage “their” government) and use verbiage to disrupt, and disorient, etc. Trying to reason with, or take one’s precious time to speak with a statist drone, illustrates the very definition of insanity quite well.
I’m well aware of Alinsky tactics, and the feigned interest and sincerity of dialogue used to set the stage for their deployment….. so to the statist drones I say, go talk to the wall, perhaps in a room acoustically favorable to an audible feedback that pleasingly strokes your ego with the sounds of your useless absurdity.
Or….as in this story, you and other drones, who have no moral courage worthy of admiration by reasonable people, run around downtown Olympia further ensuring illustrating oh so clearly what it means to be a mindless statist unproductive drone.
× Flag comment
Thank-You Olympia police & hopefully prosecutors will prevail !!??
****ENOUGH IS ENOUGH of unruly social behavior !
Evergreen College I believe is the nucleus for creating such unruliness for many years~!
× Flag comment