"We support everyone’s First Amendment right for free speech and to gather and assemble in such a way. But what we saw today was not peaceful."

"It was not a peaceful demonstration at all, and criminal acts were occurring throughout the city, and many people were at risk." Said the Seattle police chief, Carmen Best, quoted in "Fires and Pepper Spray in Seattle as Police Protests Widen Across U.S." (NYT)(the same article linked in the last post).

Carrying signs such as “Feds Go Home” and shouting chants of “No justice, no peace,” some among the crowd of about 5,000 protesters stopped at the site of a future youth detention center and lit buildings there on fire. Some smashed windows of nearby businesses, ignited a fire in a coffee shop and blew an eight-inch hole through the wall of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct building, the police said.

“At this point, we declared the event to be a riot, and several orders to disperse were given,” the Seattle police chief, Carmen Best, said at a news conference.

The police responded by firing flash grenades, showering protesters with pepper spray and abruptly rushing into crowds, knocking people to the ground. After a flash grenade left one woman with bloody injuries, police officers shoved people who had stopped to help her....

[Best] said a number of demonstrators... used violence. Some were tossing concrete blocks from a rooftop to the street below, she said. The coffee shop that was set afire had occupied apartments above it that had to be evacuated, she said....