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Police Declare Riot at Seattle Protests, Make Arrests

Associated Press

   SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - Seattle police declared a riot Saturday following
   large demonstrations in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood and
   deployed flash bangs and pepper spray to try to clear an area near
   where weeks earlier people had set up an "occupied protest zone" that
   stretched for several blocks.

   Via Twitter, police said they had made multiple arrests and were
   "investigating a possible explosive damage" to the walls of the city's
   East Precinct police station. Authorities said rocks, bottles and
   mortars were thrown at officers as they attempted to clear the area.

   Earlier, protesters in Seattle broke through a fence where a youth
   detention facility was being built, with some people setting a fire and
   damaging a portable trailer, authorities said.

   Thousands of protesters had initially gathered peacefully near downtown
   Seattle on Saturday in a show of solidarity with fellow demonstrators
   in Portland, Oregon, where tensions with federal law enforcement have
   boiled over during protests stemming from the death of George Floyd
   while in the custody of Minneapolis police.

   Initially there was no sign of law enforcement near the Seattle march.
   Later, Seattle Police said via Twitter that about a dozen people
   breached the construction site for the King County youth detention
   facility. Also, police said protesters broke out windows at a King
   County court facility.

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