PROTEST

The child and I visited the Tacoma Art Museum on Friday afternoon. A protest against a planned detention center in the Tacoma tideflats was in progress. The protest appeared to be peaceful, although that didn't stop the Tacoma police department from setting up their battle lines.


There were officers in patrol cars, on motorcycles, on bicycles, on foot, and in riot gear. It seemed that the number of officers may have dwarfed that of the protesters.


The protest grew in size, however, and began to move from its initial location in the park next to the Tacoma Convention Center. Soon, the protestors had partially succeeded in their goal of "shutting down" the city. They effectively blocked the Tacoma Link light rail from running, whereupon the "city" shut down its operation for the day's foreseeable future. The child and I were able to grab the last Link back to where we had parked across town before it was sent "out of service." They—and the police officers in an attempt to confine the protestors to an area under police control and surveillance—also succeeded in shutting down a number of streets, which snarled traffic in the downtown core.