18 Arrested in Seattle Protests

Things started peacefully during May Day protests in Seattle yesterday—but they didn't stay that way. Police arrested 18 people after rocks and pipes were hurled and "smoke devices" lit, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Eight officers and at least one passerby were injured in the fray, according to reports. The day began with a largely peaceful march for immigration reform; that event saw a minor conflict with figures in costume—Phoenix Jones types, the P-I suggests. It was later that the real trouble began.

An anti-capitalist march was planned to begin in the early evening; shortly after, police cited "flares or smoke devices" being used. Groups threw metal bars at store windows, cops said, and eventually police used pepper spray to "clear the streets." Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, two protest groups feuded, with some throwing flag poles and bags of urine, CNN reports. One group called itself the White Student Union; the other, the May Day Workers. May 1 is International Workers' Day, prompting worldwide demonstrations. (More Seattle stories.)