Saturday/ more rioting & vandalism

Some 45 people were arrested here in Seattle today, and several police officers were injured in scuffles with the protestors.
We could hear the helicopters hovering, sirens that were wailing at times, and loud flash-bang explosions, a dozen times or so.

A handful of people vandalized a Starbucks on 12th Ave and set fire to construction trailers at the site of the new juvenile detention center nearby. It seems to me that the vandals are doing serious damage to the Black Lives Matter message of the peaceful protestors, as well.

Major damage at the 12th Ave & Columbia Street Starbucks. Starbucks does not deserve this and I’m not sure why they were targeted. When there was an incident at ONE of the thousands of Starbuckses a year or two ago (two African-American customers asked to leave unless they buy something), the entire company shut was down for a half-day to train baristas and managers to be more aware of their biases, and to treat everyone with respect.
One of the construction trailers at the new juvenile detention center site were still smoldering as we walked by tonight. Someone there told us that the fire brigade was on the way to come and squelch it. King County Executive Dow Constantine has committed to get all incarcerated youth out of the city’s youth jails by 2025.

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