SEATTLE - Hundreds of self-proclaimed anarchists marched, apparently aimlessly, through Seattle's downtown streets on May Day, with many wearing black clothing and masks and carrying black flags on flagpoles. Three arrests were made Thursday night.
"Whose streets? Our Streets!" chanted the marchers, who carried a banner that read, "Die Yuppie Scum" and another that read, "Anti-Capitalism and Anti-State."
A man in black clothing and wearing a hood was the first taken into custody at Broadway and Pike. It was not immediately clear what led police to arrest him.
Later, police officers at 6th and Battery fired pepper spray at protesters after police said bottles were thrown at them. They also arrested a second person and said a gun was recovered from one of the marchers at that time.
A third protester was arrested at 6th and Virginia; the reason wasn't immediately released.
The marchers seemed to have no clear direction, moving from Capitol Hill into downtown, and seemed uncertain which way to turn when they came to intersections. They later headed back up to the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
During the course of the long, wandering march, the window on a Metro Transit bus was broken and a man's car was dented and scratched with what he said were protesters' skateboards.
Before the demonstration started, posters, spray-painted threats and even an effigy of a police officer set ablaze had the city on edge for possible violence that has occurred on this date the past two years.
The day got off peacefully.
Hundreds of demonstrators marching for immigrant reform and workers' rights started their walk at Judkins Park at 3 p.m. The march, which was operating on a permit, culminated with a May Day rally at Westlake Park at 5 p.m.
It was the other events later in the day that had police worried.
At 6 p.m., protesters were planning to hold a "May Day Anti-Capitalist March" starting at Seattle Central Community College and going to downtown Seattle.
The other event - a May Day Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Gentrification Rally & March - was to begin at 6:30 p.m. At 12
th and Spruce outside the youth jail march.
"It's time to break them before they break us," proclaimed posters plastered across Capitol Hill Thursday morning.
At least one death threat aimed at Seattle Police officers was found spray painted on a utility box and Seattle Police tweeted a photo of a threat they said they had received which showed a effigy of an officer in flames.
Police also fund the words "Kill SPD" spray painted on a bank at 13th Avenue and E. Madison Street early Thursday. Other locations were tagged with similar spray paint Thursday.
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Amzing Moment: At least 7 arrests made during May Day 'anarchist' march in Seattle