Seattle Police declare they’re ready for May Day trouble

After two consecutive years of May Day rioting, Seattle Police declare they are ready for any trouble in 2014.

Police commanders and city leaders say planning for controlling this year’s demonstrations has been underway for months. Incident commander, Captain Chris Fowler told city councilmembers that after-action reports and other formal reviews from 2012 and 2013 have helped police prepare their response.

“We were able to respond to the riot (in 2013) in a planned and organized fashion” and plan a similar response, if necessary, this year, said Fowler.

“We do realize people have a right to protest and march – we encourage that and support that,” said city council public safety committee chair Bruce Harrell. “But anarchists that are trying to harm people and property – we have to be aggressive there.”

Police cracked down on violent demonstrators last year, using pepper spray and explosive noisemakers to control and disperse the crowd, making more than one dozen arrests.

Harrell said the city has learned from lessons of past May Day demonstrations.

“We’ve looked at the reports, we’ve looked at all the compilation of documents off-line, I get the impression that we are ready as a city.”