Seattle police said they arrested 23 people Saturday after left-wing protesters confronted Christian activists at a prayer rally held in a popular LGBTQ neighborhood.
Protesters waving transgender flags gathered on the outside of a “Mayday USA” Christian rally when police said multiple people in one demonstration started throwing items at the other group around 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Officers immediately moved to arrest the people responsible, and while taking the individuals into custody, were assaulted by more protesters, resulting in even more arrests,” police said in a news release.
Authorities said they took 11 people into custody on charges of assault and obstruction during the first scrum. Officers arrested another 12 people on similar charges after confrontations with police flared up throughout the event.
Police said all of those arrested were booked into jail, except for one juvenile who was handcuffed on obstruction charges and later released.
Police didn’t say which demonstrators provoked the conflict with officers by throwing items, but videos from local and independent media covering the event appear to show only protesters wearing garb associated with Antifa and other leftist groups getting into scraps and being arrested by police.
The Washington Times contacted the organizers of the Mayday USA rally to see if any of their attendees were also taken into custody.
Organizers for the Mayday USA rally told The Washington Times that none of their attendees were arrested or injured during the event.
Seattle was the latest stop for Mayday USA’s nationwide tour titled #DontMessWithOurKids. Organizers said the tour “stands for the sanctity of human life, the sacrality of biological gender, the importance of the nuclear family, and the right to freedom of speech and religion.”
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Democrat, condemned the “far-right rally” for holding their event in Cal Anderson Park to “provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.”
He said he supported peaceful protests in the name of defending “the humanity of trans people,” but appeared to blame the chaos on left-wing agitators who joined the picket against Mayday USA.
“Anarchists infiltrated the counter-protesters groups and inspired violence, prompting SPD to make arrests and ask organizers to shut down the event early, which they did,” Mr. Harrell said.
The mayor said he’s ordering authorities to investigate the permitting process for the event and how a Christian group wound up in a neighborhood with a large LGBTQ presence.
Matt Shea, a former Washington state representative and conservative firebrand who attended the event, said on X that the city denied Mayday USA’s original request to rally at Pike Place Market and moved their event to the park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Jenny Donnelly, one of the Mayday USA organizers, also refuted Mr. Harrell’s characterization of the event.
“I am shocked at the Mayor’s statement that implied that we came to ‘attack.’ Anyone who was there or who watched the video coverage can tell who was attacking and instigating violence,” Ms. Donnelly said in a statement provided to The Times.
“We stayed in our permitted area, doing exactly what we had told the Parks Department we would be doing, and did not engage any of the counter-protestors. We even set aside an area where these protesters could peacefully exercise their First Amendment right to protest,” her statement said.
The group rallied in New York City, Miami and Houston before visiting the Pacific Northwest. The month-long tour comes to an end Saturday in Los Angeles.
Ms. Donnelly said Seattle is the only city where violent counter protests have occurred.
