Demonstrators Have Their Say On May Day

KUOW reporter Amy Radil began her day at Westlake Park.

• A small gathering there this morning dispersed after demonstrators chastised police about a video that became public last week of interim police chief Jim Pugel lampooning homeless people with a music parody.
• A man who gave his name only as Eric said he had been disgusted by property damage downtown on May Day 2012. So he said instead of staying home, he wanted to come to Westlake Park and hold a homemade sign that read “Anarchists Get Out.” A reporter asked Eric if his one-man protest of anarchists was brave. “I’m a coward,” he said, noting the police presence around him.
• A woman who self-identified as an anarchist by the name of Haphazard said she came from the Olympia area to show solidarity with immigrants and low-wage workers like herself.
• As police briefed reporters in the noon hour a woman stood behind Seattle Police Capt. Chris Fowler to shout obscenities. People snapped photos and laughed as the briefing was rendered unfit for broadcast under FCC guidelines.