Police say prolific May Day graffiti was ‘clear’ warning of trouble

In the months leading up to the May Day protests (see our coverage of the March for Immigrants and Workers), there was a big increase in graffiti promoting a proposed day-long general strike. The announcements were painted all over the neighborhood — on public and private property.

In March, a 26-year-old was arrested for allegedly painting the announcement at 23rd and Jackson, and discussion of the graffiti has been a hot button issue on CDNews ever since similar announcements for Occupy Seattle’s December Port Shutdown led a CDNews reader to post a popular open letter about the issue.

Now, police say that the prolific graffiti was a “clear” warning that there was going to be trouble at some of the May Day protests. A handful of black-clad protesters smashed several windows downtown during the May 1 day of action. Later that night, someone also threw a brick through Mayor Mike McGinn’s home window.

The CD graffiti is under investigation, and detectives urge property owners to report any recent graffiti incidents.

From SPD:

In the months leading up to Tuesday’s May Day demonstrations, Seattle Police Department Graffiti Detective Chris Young saw a dramatic uptick in “anarchist graffiti” across the city.

“There’s was a lot of [anarchist taggingi] all of a sudden in March,” Det. Young says. “They were pretty indiscriminate. They would hit anything.”

Taggers spray painted circle-As and other messages—promoting May Day demonstrations—on street signs, businesses, “people’s garages, any place,” Det. Young says.  ”They made it very clear they were going to cause trouble” on May Day.

Det. Young says he is still investigating eight other pre-May Day incidents—primarily in the Central District—of anarchist tagging and graffiti. The department is now also working to identify a number of suspects who vandalized businesses and cars in downtown Seattle during this week’s May Day demonstrations.

If your business or property was recently vandalized or tagged, you can file a police report online  or by calling the department’s non-emergency reporting line at (206) 625-5011.

14 thoughts on “Police say prolific May Day graffiti was ‘clear’ warning of trouble

  1. it’s incredible that they were able to deduct something might happen may 1st due to the “may 1st” graffiti that plagued our neighborhood for the last couple months. bravo gentlemen.

  2. Most impressive was the effort by the silly superheros trying to stop the violence. What makes them silly is that the rest of us stood back and watched when we should have jumped in. Next event I will be in costume with the good guys.

  3. Does anyone know f the new anarchist Wildcat clubhouse in the old Collins Gold Exchange building near 23rd and Union is associated with the late Automania place? I would be interested in a CDN article on it. It is really tiring painting over all the anarchy and strike graffiti!

  4. I’ll be armed with a sawed off (3 inch) biodegradable spork! Used of course.

  5. @POI I have tried and they haven’t been open. Their hours aren’t conducive to those with jobs or families. Thanks for asking.

  6. The house on 23rd that police evicted squatters from is completely smeared with ‘banger tags, a rock was thrown through a window at Washington Middle School over the winter break along with graffiti, huh, I guess the task force is working three shifts a day to solve those crimes too? It seems some spray paint is more important than others, some windows merit calling in the FBI when they are broken and some just get fixed. See a pattern forming?

  7. The bigger question is why does the mayor allow this, tell the police that they cannot arrest – even when assaulted – and when they do arrest for the most blatant stuff, the charges are dropped the next day. No complaint filed, no complaint filed, no complaint filed. The NCF stamp in our local courts is worn out from it. There have been vocal anarchists in the comments section of CD news who, when confronted with their numerous arrests for property destruction and assault respond with “But I wasn’t CONVICTED on any of those!” Meaning, I was innocent. When actually what it means is that the mayor will not get behind the arrest or prosecution of our own home grown terrorists. And if you think they’re not terrorists, talk to your neighbors who have opposed their noise and had their houses paintbombed. View the video of them attacking occupy protesters who try to stop their property damage. Read their threats on their web pages. It’s disgusting that street alcoholics are prosecuted for stealing a beer, but home grown terrorists get “No complaint filed” again and again and again. And that’s IF they’re even arrested. View the Stranger video of a police officer being assaulted repeatedly then see if that anarchist posing as an occupier was prosecuted. Nope!

    The superheroes standing up and stopping the arson of the courthouse was awesome. Good for them. Goofy costumes, but good for them. Those guys have the balls to do what the mayor will not – in this case, stop an arson.

  8. They believe in anarchy, I am sure they would not mind you taking the law into your own hands.

  9. You old cranks have lost legitimacy. Give way or be run over. The revolution is growing.

  10. Pillbox: The revolution is growing? Hardly. It’s hard to grow it food stamps, random property destruction, and delousing at the jail. More power to your sad revolution when a guy dressed like the Flash can kick your ass and your best response is to paintbomb the homes of women and attack police horses. Lame.

  11. There is no “revolution.”

    However there is a few spoiled children breaking windows and spray-painting the letter “A” on other peoples stuff.

    The only revolution you have caused is a nearly 100% support for SPD.