Pro-LGBTQ Protesters Stuck Outside Barricades As Far-Right "Rattle In Seattle" Took Over City Hall

By Erica C. Barnett

You might think that after granting a permit for a day-long anti-LGBTQ rally in a park named after the first gay state representative in the city's most LGBTQ+-friendly neighborhood, the city might have put some guardrails around a second rally by the same group at City Hall, dubbed the "Rattle In Seattle." A less intimidating police presence, perhaps? Denying the group a permit to have amplified sound (or, you know, pulling the plug on their speaker stacks)? Asking them nicely to leave once they'd overstayed their official end time by more than an hour?

Nah—I mean, have you MET Seattle city government?

Instead, the city shut down Fourth Avenue and other streets around City Hall starting at around 1:30 pm, setting up barricades to keep counterprotesters out on the street. (To get past police and enter the plaza, people simply had to say they were affiliated with the Christian rally.) Phalanxes of bike officers assembled at the entry points to the event, occasionally leaping on their bikes and mobilizing when it seemed like there might be a conflict—typically a verbal altercation between one or two people on each side—and retreating to their posts when the yelling was over.

Overall, SPD officers arrested eight people, one at a time, over the course of about seven hours. I saw four of the arrests as they were happening or immediately after, and I didn't witness anything that looked like a serious assault. Jonathan Choe, the far-right broadcaster ("I'm going live for Newsmax and I have to deal with this shit too?" I heard him complain), posted a video of himself clubbing a protester who touched him. The protester was arrested; Choe was not.

The purported purpose of the "Rattle In Seattle" event was to demand Mayor Bruce Harrell's resignation for "silencing" and "intimidating" them (he issued an anodyne statement saying the city supports LGBTQ rights and, for good measure, accusing "anarchists" of "infiltrating" the counterprotest and causing chaos). It was essentially a replay of last Saturday's event in Cal Anderson Park: Anti-LGBTQ sermons railing against, as one speaker put it, people who engage in "perverse sexual acts," interspersed with endless praise songs sung off-key and off-beat. Brandi Kruse, another right-wing broadcaster who, like Choe, used to work for a conventional TV station, addressed the crowd, praising their bravery and thanking police officers for doing such a good job protecting them.

Rallies outside City Hall do not require permits, but amplification—like the massive speaker system the rally group brought in, along with a giant diesel generator, to project their sermons and songs so loudly they could be heard blocks away—does. Several internal sources said the group did not ask for or receive a permit for their speaker system; they simply set it up, and the city let them, providing police protection as they loaded in and out.

Asked directly whether the group had permit for all their equipment and their speaker system, a spokesperson for the city's department of Finance and Administrative services said only that the city sent the group a copy of the city's rules, which state that any amplification or use of equipment requires a special permit from the city.

Police were generally more restrained during Tuesday's rally than during Saturday's event on Capitol Hill Although some officers were wielding pepper spray (and many carried the long wooden batons that are used for holding police lines and pushing crowds), they didn't deploy chemical weapons, likely because of the widespread backlash to their violent actions last weekend. They did use their bikes to shove crowds backward down the street, but quickly pulled back to a barricaded area overlooking the rally.

The question of what to do when far-right groups come to Seattle seeking (and getting) negative attention from the people who live here is not going away: The Mayday group has reportedly received another permit at Cal Anderson Park for a "Revive in 25" event on August 30, and the likely result if it goes forward is another high-profile standoff between out-of-town activists and members and allies of the LGBTQ community in Seattle.

Although all kinds of speech are protected under the First Amendment, the city is not required to issue a permit for the location of an organization's choice. (As a counterfactual, consider if the city would grant an anti-Asian hate group a permit for a rally at Hing Hay Park in the Chinatown-International District).

In fact, an ordinance passed in 2001 establishes that while "the City has no interest in basing special event permitting decisions, including decisions regarding reasonable permit conditions, on the viewpoint or message of the proposed event, [it] does have the responsibility to develop reasonable and effective permit conditions" based on conditions that include "the history of problems associated with the event or similar events and the event's or event organizer's compliance with previous permit conditions designed to deal with those issues and problems."

A spokesperson for the mayor's office said that prior to Saturday's event, the Mayday group sought a permit for "a street location between 1st and 2nd Avenue on Pike Street, which was not a fit given size and logistical needs. To be clear: the group did not apply for a permit at Victor Steinbrueck Park," as some outlets have reported. The group then asked for a permit at Cal Anderson, and the Parks Department granted it "as the park was available and met the size and logistical needs for the event requested."

That same ordinance says that the city's Special Events Committee—a group that includes the mayor, police chief, and the directors of several other departments—can set time, place, and manner conditions on events, such as where the event takes place, based on the "size, scope, complexity, and history of the event, as long as the restrictions are content-neutral.

The Parks Department did not respond to multiple inquiries about why it granted the permit. The special events committee is generally involved in permitting all major public events, including those in city parks.

Harrell has not explicitly said that granting a permit to an anti-LGBTQ group in the heart of Capitol Hill was a mistake; instead, he has issued several statements condemning the group's beliefs. “Mayor Harrell will continue to lead our city's fight against bigotry and unfairness and stand for Seattle's values of inclusion, welcoming, and justice," the most recent such statement says. "We will not be intimidated by the kind of fear mongering or divisiveness inspired by the rally and extreme rhetoric endorsed by Matt Shea"—the former Washington state representative who was accused of domestic terrorism for his extremist activities—"and others that takes aim at our residents and at Seattle's second Black and first biracial mayor.”

Harrell also released statements from several local Christian and Jewish leaders condemning the event.

SPD says it will do an "after-action" report on the events on Saturday, when police pepper-sprayed counterprotesters and arrested 23 people. Most of the arrests involved "obstructing a public officer," although in several cases police accused people of "pushing" them, spitting, or hitting or punching them. In one case, the police said a counterprotester hit another person with a baton, smashed their phone, then "threw a rock with an explosive" at a cop, an allegation that brings to mind the "incendiary device" police accused a protester of throwing at them in 2020, which turned out to be a candle.

Police Chief Shon Barnes, whom Harrell recently praised for a "record-breaking" first 100 days, was out of town during the weekend's events, according to city sources. Through an SPD spokesperson, Barnes told PubliCola it's "unrealistic to expect that any individual in the police department can be available around the clock for unexpected emergencies."

Being the Chief of Police in a bustling city like Seattle is truly a 24/7 responsibility. This role necessitates a team-oriented approach, and we are fully committed to that mission. It's unrealistic to expect that any individual in the police department can be available around the clock for unexpected emergencies. That's why I've focused on building a leadership team grounded in constant communication during crises, which was clearly demonstrated this past weekend. My strategy ensures that I am actively involved in all emergencies, regardless of whether I am in Seattle or on personal leave.

Neither the King County Prosecutor's Office or the City Attorney's Office has announced any charges yet. The City Attorney deals with misdemeanors and the county prosecutor deals with felonies.