Local demonstrations planned Friday for Black Lives Matter statewide strike and march

Meghan Walker Ballard

Tomorrow (Friday, June 12), Black Lives Matter of Seattle and King County has planned a statewide general strike and march, with a few events happening locally.

A few local businesses will also be closing in observance—here’s our list, which is being updated as we learn about more:

  • PCC
  • Kiss Cafe
  • Sloop Tavern
  • Maritime Pacific Brewing Company & the Jolly Roger taproom
  • Peddler Brewing
  • Fair Isle Brewing
  • Secret Garden Books
  • Hot Cakes
  • Bad Jimmy’s
  • Porkchop & Co
  • Cupcake Royale
  • Populuxe Brewing
  • Reuben’s Brews
  • Stoup Brewing
  • Skål Beer Hall
  • Urban Family Brewery
  • Scandinavian Specialties
  • Other Coast Cafe
  • Miro Tea
  • Annies Art & Frame
  • Delancey
  • Wild at Heart
  • Miri’s Golden Gardens

The official BLM Seattle-King County silent march will start at 1pm at Judkins Park (2150 S. Norman St) on June 12, but there are a few local events scheduled as well.

  • NW 65th St and 24th Ave NW, 5-6pm. This demonstration, organized by Sustainable Ballard, will continue to happen every Friday evening until protests resolve.
  • Loyal Heights Elementary School, 1-3pm: At 1:15pm, the demonstrators will observe 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence, “in recognition of George Floyd and countless others. Please line up, safely distanced and wearing masks, between LHE and NW 80th St and 24th Ave NW. “
  • Greenwood and NW 85th St, 5:30-8:30pm: At 5:45pm, demonstrators will be observing 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence on bended knee. “Please arrive on time or arrive and be respectful.”
  • Sign-making at Ken’s Market in Phinney (7231 Greenwood Ave N), starting at noon. They’ll have a few sign-making supplies, plus snacks and water for those who plan to march.

Here’s more, from Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County’s webpage about the strike and march:

“On Friday, June 12, we urge everyone to spend their time and energy on direct action for lasting structural change. Don’t go to work, and don’t work from home.

If you can’t march, take this time as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with your local elected officials. This includes your mayor, city council, county executive, county council, county prosecutor, and state representatives. It helps if you collaborate with friends and neighbors, and reach out to people you know who are more familiar with the local issues. It’s up to you to make sure your local officials feel the pressure to improve police accountability and dismantle the structural racism that has been built into all of our institutions.”

If you know of other Ballard businesses closing in observance of the statewide strike or other local demonstrations, email us at tips@myballard.com and we’ll add them to this post.

Photo: Sustainable Ballard

46 thoughts to “Local demonstrations planned Friday for Black Lives Matter statewide strike and march”

    1. Oh man. I really did not want to post on here. I intended no political statement whatsoever. Can’t you just delete my comment?

  2. can’t say what i want to say, deleted by My Ballard. I am saying the Black Community can’t blame everything
    another skin color. Apparently that isn’t toeing the line enough. Free speech, in your dreams people.,

    1. This is a private website and the operators are entitled to delete whatever insensitive thing you just had to put on display for the whole world to see.

      1. “Insensitive” is a wonderful word. It’s objective. You first though MUST surrender your feelings. But being it is NOT illegal. What type of country do you really want then? Costco is a private business as well, and I quit going there too. BOO

        1. Costco is a private business as well, and I quit going there too.

          Congrats for exercising your freedoms as an American, just as MyBallard chose to exercise their freedoms as well.

          1. terryj –

            I must admit. I was rolling my eyes at first about this march myself. Mainly because I know that this last wave of gentrification in Seattle pushed out the low income people, many of them non-white. We all participated in this. Our politicians encouraged the growth and let it happen. People didn’t seem to care then. I am bitter.

            But, even though we are mostly white and affluent here in Ballard, people are making an effort to do something, anything. I think your neighbors might actually tolerate some of your opinions in a different forum, but this about what these people want to say and do today.

            I am glad you are here terryj. But sometimes it might be better to think of something nice to say, or say nothing at all.

          2. Also, neither Thomas Sowell nor Wilfred Reilly are getting wet today…

    2. I know you’ve posted homophobic comments, no surprise you’re also a racist. Deplorable. And if you think you and your type are ascendant, think again.

        1. Your dismissive “Lesbians” comment to Lizzy a while ago. Like one word is supposed to summarize the sum total of gay women AND one individual within that group. It’s othering at best, homophobic at worst.

      2. If you don’t believe that black lives matter, you must then think blacks are lesser people than other races, and therefore you are racist. It’s as simple as that, even though you desperately try to explain otherwise with unrelated anecdotes.

  3. If I disagree with this movement am I then a racist? If so, it’s a worse day then the murder of Mr. Floyd. You see, I feel like crap over all this. It WAS MURDER. But, disagree with a gay and you become a homophobe? How convenient. Disagree with a woman an become a sexist? Is this the America you all seem to want? Very Orwellian of many here. But go ahead and put words and feelings into my brains.

    1. The issue isn’t that you’re disagreeing about how the Mariners rebuild is going or whether the Seahawks have done enough in free agency. If you disagree about those topics with a woman, a black person, or a gay man, no one is going to call you sexist, racist, or a homophobe.

      But if you disagree with them about whether they deserve equal rights or whether their life is equal to that of a white male, then yeah, you might rightfully get labeled as a racist, sexist or homophobic.

    3. There’s disagreeing with blacks, gays, women, etc because you don’t agree with an opinion of theirs..

      Then there’s disagreeing with blacks, gays, women, etc because you dislike them for who they are.

      Your comments tend to fall very much into the latter category which absolutely makes you a racist, homophobe, sexist, etc.

      I get it, you’re unable to escape your deep rooted bigotry and rather than try to become a better person, you try to normalize your bigotry by using false equivalences. Just because in your mind that excuses your behavior, doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t see you for what you really are.

      Keep playing the victim though, it’s adorbs!

    4. As to your central question, you asked: If I disagree with this movement am I then a racist?

      While I hesitate to speak for BLM or try to summarize the meaning of such a broad movement, my understanding is that at its core it is seeking equal rights and equal treatment. It’s not claiming that black lives matter more than any other life. Or that blue lives don’t matter. Only that black lives matter just as much as any other life.

      This is not a zero sum situation. Saying that black lives matter does not mean that some other life matters less.

      So if you disagree with that basic premise on which the movement is based, that black lives matter the same as any other life, then yes, I think that you’re probably a racist.

      Now, it’s also possible to disagree with some aspect or tactic of BLM without disagreeing with the core principles of the movement. And if that’s the case, then that’s what you should say. Details are important. What is it that you disagree with?

    5. “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

      ― George Orwell, 1984

    1. Honest article, most here won’t read it. Thanks for posting and hope i am wrong.

      “This sentiment has been echoed time and again in the dozens of police community meetings I have attended. The percentage of black respondents in a 2015 Roper poll who wanted more police in their community was twice as high as the percentage of white respondents who wanted more police. The activists who seek to disband police departments will have to explain to these terrified seniors and other law-abiding residents that they are just going to have to fend for themselves.”

    2. So I read this. There are some good points, but I don’t agree fully, so I can’t upvote or downvote. Thanks for sharing.

      The issue for me is that there seems to be no acknowledgement that there is a problem. They seem to be saying, we should just go back to the status quo. But clearly, there is a problem, and so that makes no sense to me.

      A certain desperation must exist for people to risk their lives tangling with cops. The solution can’t just be more misery or the whip. We should give people opportunities, instead of ‘get out jail cards’.

      As soon as we address the underlying economic unfairness in our system, the end of racism will not be far off.

        1. Ha! Well good. I’m glad. This place is funny. If everybody agreed all the time, we would all be wrong and life would be boring.

      2. Please KS can i call you KS?
        Should you come home from work and find 3 guys ransacking your house, please call the ACLU or better yet BLM. And that would be WHAT, english? remember

        2. “But in the meantime, Seattle Police say right now they’re only responding to priority 911 calls in the entire city. That means other emergencies like burglaries and car prowls will not get a police response.”

  5. CARMEN BEST MUST BE FIRED – SHE IS A PATHETIC JOKE – THE COPS LAUGH AT HER RIGHT TO HER FACE AND DON’T TAKE ORDERS FROM HER – THEY IGNORE HER –
    SHE IS A TOKEN NEGRO AT BEST JUST A PC FAILURE – SHE MUST BE FIRED NOW

    2. So wait – remove the minority woman so the race war can continue? Are you even real? I thought Russian troll was just a lame insult on here. Amusing. How is Beijing these days? I heard the selection in the markets is excellent? hahaha

    3. If you are white I don’t really think it’s your place to call her a “token negro.” In fact, that’s pretty audacious.

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