Seattle’s MLK Day 2021 celebrations Monday were a reflection of the times with marchers stepping off from the Central District socially spaced and masked and a protest effort that branched off and brought traffic to a stop on I-5 generating headlines across the country.
“BLM protesters arrested, cited with blocking Seattle freeway on MLK Day,” Fox News reported, wringing its hands with concern over “the acronym for Black Lives Matter” being painted across the traffic-snarled freeway.
There were 12 people arrested and at least two cars impounded, the Washington State Patrol reported. UPDATE: None of the dozen were booked into jail, the WSP tells CHS. The King County Jail refused the bookings, according to a state trooper spokesperson. We have not yet confirmed why they were not accepted. UPDATE x2: The refusals fall under current restrictions to reduce the number of people being held at the King County Jail during the ongoing pandemic.
Thousands more marched from 23rd Ave’s Garfield High to downtown in the city’s annual showing in respect to the slain civil rights leader.
#Seattle marches for MLK Day 2021 pic.twitter.com/dDnmLdaaZi
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) January 18, 2021
BLM group blocking I5 Northbound during MLK march pic.twitter.com/cS0ZBoslga
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) January 18, 2021
The I-5 protest came after months of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the city that have been part of a wave of unrest across the country over police killings and violence targeting Black people and illustrated some of the techniques honed over the summer with the development of car brigades to provide safety to marchers and demonstrators.
It was also on theme with the “Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble” truth Seattle MLK Day organizers chose to celebrate in 2021.
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America,” Congressman John Lewis said in Alabama on March 1, 2020 commemorating Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 that state troopers and sheriff’s deputies in Selma moved on a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, sparking protests across the country.
More demonstrations are planned in Seattle this week including an Inauguration Day protest planned to start in Occidental Park in Pioneer Square to march against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
https://twitter.com/WANaziWatch/status/1350161642932195328
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“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today” – Malcolm X
Once again, the far-left criminals spoil and disrespect a peaceful BLM march with their juvenile tantrums. MLK would not approve of their tactics.
What happens to those 12 who were arrested but not booked because of “no vacancy” at the jail? Are they just let loose and not held accountable for their actions, to repeat them on another day?
Yes.
MLK was a socialist. Let’s stop pretending he wasn’t. And that’s a good thing!
I don’t believe MLK ever said he was a socialist. At any rate, he believed in nonviolence, which is certainly not the case for some of the “socialists” we have today, at least the far-left anarchist types.