The so-called "queer anarchists" who rampaged through the streets after Seattle Pride have issued a statement.
Last night, some queer hooligans had the audacity to take the streets for the third year in a row. It was a smashing time! Queers Fucking Queers, a free, all-ages street party, erupted on the corner of 12th and Madison at midnight last night. The party quickly breached the confines of what’s tame and legal during Pride weekend when somebody smashed the window of a Ferrari dealership near the meeting point. Then the homo hoards charged down Pike, the windows of two cop cars left shattered in their wake. Rainbow flags became weapons as the queers raged on down Broadway, the cops sniffing along after like rabid dogs on the prowl. But these fascist prudes were too slow to protect a Bank of America ATM and American Apparel from this hot mob of style vandals. The hood of a cop car briefly transformed into a dance floor, and queers fought the cops in the streets. One person was hauled off to jail for "pedestrian interference", but others fought off the pigs and escaped their nightsticks with the help of friends.
According to KOMO television, several hundred so-called "anarchists" rampaged through the streets of Seattle last night in an action that some said was in protest of the commercialization of gay Pride. Police cars and storefronts were destroyed by rock-throwers.
Several hundred people swarmed through the Capitol Hill area overnight, noisily vandalizing stores and smashing windows before dispersing into the darkness. Police say the drama began shortly after midnight Sunday when a flash mob gathered, passing out flyers, during a dance party. But the mob soon went out of control, creating havoc, said Renee Witt of the Seattle Police Department. The mob marched down 12th Avenue and Broadway, yelling and chanting. Some carried rainbow flags, while others carried red-and-black flags and wore masks.
Eventually some people started smashing store windows, damaging property, spray-painting slogans and bashing in the windshield of a patrol car. "It was just a walk down the street - it was a dance party down the street - and some idiot started throwing things," said one young woman who was there. Some people in the group, described as anarchists, apparently chose to use Gay Pride Weekend to send to message of protest - upset at how much gay pride is now part of the commercial mainstream. "There are some anarchists, gay activists, that don't want to be assimilated into capitalists' culture, and they feel like they're being exploited by companies like American Apparel," said Endresen Evans, who lives on Capitol Hill. That's why it appears protesters specifically targeted the store. A rock was thrown through the window and then vandalized with black spray paint.
Other say the melee had nothing to do with gay Pride at all and that only a handful of those on the street were with the group of "anarchists."
Last year Seattle's iconic Space Needle flew the rainbow flag in recognition of gay Pride. But officials at the landmark said earlier this month that they would not be repeating the honor this year. That may change.
In response to a ground swell of support requesting the Rainbow Flag being raised again on Seattle Pride Weekend, the Space Needle has issued an exciting new fundraising challenge. If the community can raise $50,000 for 4 local charities, the Space Needle will raise the Rainbow Flag on Sunday of Seattle Pride weekend in Seattle. The Space Needle will also kick off the challenge with an inaugural donation of $5000.00.
The four beneficiaries of the campaign: Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) Scholarship Program, Lambda Legal, It Gets Better for the Trevor Project and Mary's Place. Contribute here.
Some of Seattle's bears gathered last night to show support for GLAAD's Spirit Day. I see at least a few JMG readers there! More photos at Andy Hahn's Facebook page.
Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist who playfully called for an "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day" has been placed on an execution hitlist by an American Muslim cleric.
Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki - the radical who has also been cited as inspiring the Fort Hood, Tex., massacre and the plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers - singled out artist Molly Norris as a "prime target," saying her "proper abode is hellfire." FBI officials have notified Norris and warned her they consider it a "very serious threat." In an English-language Al Qaeda magazine that calls itself "Inspire," Awlaki damns Norris and eight others for "blasphemous caricatures" of the Prophet Muhammed. The other cartoonists, authors and journalists in Awlaki's cross hairs are Swedish, Dutch and British citizens. The 67-page terror rag is seen by terrorism experts as a bald new attempt to reach and recruit Muslim youth in the West. "The medicine prescribed by the Messenger of Allah is the execution of those involved," writes Awlaki, 39, a Las Cruces, N.M.-born American citizen.
Norris retracted her call for "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day" within days of it becoming internationally known. In the response to a Facebook support group for Norris, Pakistan blocked the site.
Seattle police are investigating the actions of an officer caught on video as he punched a 17 year-old girl in the face after she attempted to interfere with the arrest of another female minor. The incident has brought claims of police brutality by civil rights activists. The officer was assigned to control jaywalking at a busy intersection across from a school. When he asked a group of girls to use the designated footbridge, one of them reportedly ignored him with a "dismissive hand gesture" and continued across the street. What followed is in the video below. While arresting somebody for jaywalking certainly seems excessive, what you do not ever do, in my opinion, is attempt to resist arrest. Never, ever, ever put your hands on a cop. Take that bad arrest to civil court and get your satisfaction there.
Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris says she has nothing to do with "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" and wishes people would leave her alone. Slight problem: Norris kickstarted the phenomenon when she emailed her original cartoon to media figures like Dan Savage, who then published it.
On Friday, Norris told a radio talk show host in Seattle that she came up with the idea because "as a cartoonist, I just felt so much passion about what had happened..." noting that "it's a cartoonist's job to be non-PC." That passion, it appears, has lessened. And fast. Her stark website today reads: ""I am NOT involved in "Everybody Draw Mohammd [sic] Day! I made a cartoon that went viral and I am not going with it. Many other folks have used my cartoon to start sites, etc. Please go to them as I am a private person who draws stuff," she writes.
It went viral, however, because she was the one who passed it around. Sending it to people like Dan Savage, a popular Seattle-based blogger and nationally syndicated sex advice columnist. Once it became a national story she reeled back, asking Savage -- in an email he provided to The Ticket -- if he would "be kind enough to switch out my poster" with another one -- a much tamer version which has no images attributed to Muhammad. "I am sort of freaked out about my name/image being all over the place," her e-mail reads. He didn't change it, nor did he post the tamer version. Besides, after Savage posted it, many other sites picked it up including The Atlantic and Reason.
Others that jumped on "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" have also bailed. Facebook pages, gone. Cartoonist sites, gone. Molly Norris doesn't mention getting any personal threats, FWIW.
Yeah, yeah, I recently ragged on flash mobs as so ovah, but this one was created by a gay PR firm in Seattle to promote Glee, so I guess it gets a pass. One Degree Events also promotes Seattle's Pride Fest.
The so-called "queer anarchists" who rampaged through the streets after Seattle Pride have issued a statement. 
