From Seattle’s East Precinct, Monday June 15, 2009

The forces of hate and anti-hate have staked out opposite corners at 19th & Madison across from Mt Zion Baptist Church. It’s part the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church’s current tour through the Seattle area. Led by Fred Phelps, they’re the extreme-right group that is known around the country for their protests against gays, Jews, and in recent years for disrupting funeral services for soldiers.

As for why supposed Christians are protesting at a Christian church? One of the Phelps members was chanting “God hates black people. Therefore God hates Mt Zion and all of its members.”

The members of the Phelps clan are badly out-numbered, with only seven of them vs about one hundred counter-protesters on the other three corners of the intersection. The counter-protesters appear to be mostly from local gay organizations and their supporters. Members of Mt. Zion are not visible, apparently choosing to ignore the situation and continue with their normal Sunday morning church services.

The next stop for the Phelps crew is at St. James Cathedral on First Hill. They’ll also be back in the Central District tomorrow morning for another bizarre protest at Garfield High School.

Here’s some more photos from the scene:

There’s a big fire fallout to the apartments on the southwest corner
of 26th & cherry. Small amounts of smoke are coming out of an open
door on the east side of the building. So far things appear to be
under control.

From the SPD blog: 

On June 12 at approximately 7:46 p.m. officers responded to a 911 call of a domestic violence disturbance at Pratt Park. Investigation indicates that the 27-year-old male suspect approached his ex-girlfriend and threatened her and stole her cell phone. The suspect also attempted to pay bystanders to beat up the victim. The suspect was last seen heading toward some apartments in the 1800 block of Yesler Way.

Officers conducted an area search and saw the suspect exiting the apartment complex. When the suspect saw officers he fled back into the complex. Officers pursued him and the suspect forced his way into a ground floor apartment and ran up the stairs to the second floor. The suspect was believed to be armed with a handgun. Officers backed out of the apartment and surrounded it. Additional on-duty patrol and SWAT officers responded to the scene. Negotiators attempted to contact the suspect to no avail.

SWAT officers made entry into the apartment and determined the suspect was not there. It appears the suspect may have jumped from the second floor window to elude the initial containment. The suspect remains at large at this time. The victim, a female in her 20’s, was not injured.

From Crosscut:

Historic Seattle, the non-profit, public development authority that saves historic buildings and gives them life with new uses, has purchased the landmark Washington Hall for $1.5 million from the Sons of Haiti masonic organization.

…….

Two sister cats lost June 10th. They were were adopted and in their new home 6/5/09 and they escaped. They are pretty friendly, tame previously semi feral sisters. They are called Annie(grey tabby) and Munchkin(black tortie who comes to Munchi. Annie has medical needs.

They were seen together at 20th and Union 6/10 in the morning.

If seen put food near by and encourage them to stay (They responds to “peeps”) and please call me, Dvorah Levy, 251-4059 or 860-4172.
Thank you!
Devorah

A door to door salesman came by our house last night. I thought it was suspicious b/c not only did he not have business cards or pamphlets, but he stopped by around 9pm. It made me feel like someone would break into the back while he was talking to me on the front porch. Nothing happened, it just seemed really weird.

He was a kind of clean cut looking white guy, glasses, maybe in his 20s. It just didn’t make sense that if he was “selling” something that he wouldn’t have any brochures or anything. Anyone else see this guy?

From a cloudy June morning in Seattle’s East Precinct:

Can anyone remember a year with such a nice string of weather in May and June? It’s been fantastic, and is supposed to continue through the weekend with only an addition of a few more clouds.

Here’s a few things from our community calendar you can get out and check out:

Friday at 6:30pm: Your chance to round up the kids and head to Medgar Evers Pool to watch the movie Bolt at their Dive In Movie Night 

Saturday at 9:00am: How about a weekly trip out to the farm for a Clean Greens Work Party?

Saturday at 7:00pm: The Washington Middle School music program is holding a fundraising concert in collaboration with the gypsy jazz band Pearl Django. I’ve heard from a reliable source that there’s some really talented kids at Washington Middle School, so this should be worth your time.

Sunday at 10:00am: The haters from Kansas will be in town to try and stir up trouble at Mt. Zion church. Folks are planning a peaceful celebration to drown them out.

Weekend Movies: The STIFF film festival continues with screenings at Central Cinema (a CDNews sponsor). Films include: 

• Friends (with benefits) – Friday at 7pm
• Short Ends – Friday at 9:30pm
• Yesterday – Saturday at 7pm
• Finale – Saturday at 9:30pm
• Keep You Day Job, Superstar – Sunday at 7pm
• Lucella Green – Sunday at 9:30pm

Want to see your event here?  It’s easy to post it for free on our community calendar

Jean Tinnea writes:

I’ll be on King 5 news tonight in an interview about The Corner: 23rd & Union, the art/history/interview project. Also interviewed Jenny Asarno, the project creator, and Saviour Knowledge plus others…..at last, a positive story on the CD.