Downtown Olympia businesses find graffiti, but no major damage after protests

Other than graffiti, posters and stickers on windows, Olympia businesses didn’t report any major vandalism during Monday evening’s protest.

“This is a small price to pay for social justice,” said Mike Holbein, who owns Our Table in downtown Olympia.

After Sunday night’s protest, one of Our Table’s windows was broken. Holbein isn’t clear if it was from protesters or a flash bang that went off near it.

“There was another large gathering around 11 p.m. last night, but there was a whole lot less aggression on the part of anyone — it broke up pretty peacefully,” Holbein said. “I was there to make sure if things got out of hand, I could deter people.”

Holbein said he wasn’t there when the window was broken Sunday night, but came down Monday night and plans to watch over the business during any future protests.

Mark Moore, who is the Clean Team Lead for the city of Olympia, was out with his team Tuesday morning to assess the damage and clean.

“It was definitely a large amount of graffiti,” Moore said.

Moore said they also found posters and stickers on business windows and that a few garbage cans were damaged. He didn’t notice any broken windows. He said that graffiti was the heaviest on Fourth Avenue.

The Clean Team began cleaning about 7:30 a.m. and expected to be done by noon. Moore said the store fronts were the team’s priority. Moore noted other city departments were helping to clean the graffiti as well.

The Pet Works manager Raven Yamada said she has been watching over the business during protests, but doesn’t believe the protests have affected her business operations overall.

The Pet Works had graffiti in three different locations after Sunday night’s protest, and one more after Monday night’s protest. Yamada said she is grateful her business has been largely untouched.

“They could have broken windows, they could have looted the store,” Yamada said. “... If anything, this is way better than it could be. Just a couple tags — that’s nothing I’m surprised by. It happens all the time.”

By the time Yamada came to work Monday morning, the Clean Team was already taking care of the graffiti.

“If anything, it costs taxpayer money,” Yamada said. “It’s not a big deal to me.”

Graffiti artists had tagged the windows and building occupied by Starbucks at the corner of Legion Way and Capitol Way. However, it was mostly clean by late morning.

“I’ll definitely take painted windows over broken ones,” said Lacey Jenson, who has been Starbucks manager for six years. Jenson arrived at 5 a.m. and began removing the graffiti. She noted that it wasn’t difficult to remove, and she was surprised by how clean the building was.

Protesters spray painted “George Floyd” on the windows with some paint hitting the pillar outside. That paint was still there as of late morning.

Jeff Jones, who lives down the street from the Starbucks, said he witnessed people spray painting the building and three or four attempting to throw rocks at the windows.

“Somebody threw quite a large rock and surprisingly enough it bounced off the window, but when that happened we all started standing in front of the building trying to keep them from throwing (objects),” Jones said. “I’m like ‘Dude, I live here. Don’t be tearing up my neighborhood.’”

“The ones out here to protest were the ones out here protecting stuff,” Jones said. “... The actual protest people moved off without violence. They were the ones trying to disperse like cops told them to.”

Jasmyn Pereira — who led a peaceful protest near Capital Mall Monday afternoon that later merged with a protest in downtown Olympia — said she left the protest at sunset and noted the protest at night had nothing to do with her or the people who originally gathered with her.

“The anger being executed through those actions are not from the people who have a right to harbor that kind of anger,” Pereira said. “They aren’t the ones experiencing police brutality.”

She said she has not witnessed any vandalism, but noted the aggression she has seen coming from “the edgy white kids who wanted to live out their anarchist fantasies.”

“The movement, anger, tiredness has many faces,” Pereira said. “Riots are one of those faces, but it’s about how, when and who. A message can be easily watered down or ignored when the proper steps aren’t taken. It’s not their job to use this platform to just be selfish.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 6:27 PM.