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Seattle experienced some deja vu today when the annual May Day celebration turned rowdy for the second year in a row.

The May Day festivities started off calm, as immigration reform protestors marched peacefully, without any arrests or major altercations.

Then…shit hit the fan.

According to Seattle PI:

The march concluded in downtown Seattle around 5 p.m. as a second, much smaller group of activists began to gather at Seattle Central Community College on Capitol Hill.

That group left the college a little after 6:30 p.m. and Seattle police reported via Twitter that some in the group appeared to be lighting off “flares or smoke devices” at Howell and 11th Ave.

Police reported “Another flare (of something else smokey and flammable)” at Broadway and Pike on Capitol Hill.

And police also reported via Twitter that protestors were breaking store windows.

At about 7:25 p.m., some in the group threw metal bars at business windows. By 7:50, police reported having two people in custody at Westlake Center and one at 4th and Olive.

Protestors dragged newspaper machines in the street to block officers from the Seattle Police Department, who confronted the crowd on bikes.

 

Police said they resorted to pepper spray to disperse demonstrators who pelted them with whatever was at hand.

In all, eight officers were injured, and 18 people arrested in the May Day violence that erupted in Seattle last night.

Story developing.

SOURCE: Seattle PI | @JoshTrujillo