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Three arrested after protests broke out in Olympia over closed park

Downtown Olympia erupted in chaos Saturday after a protest drew dozens of police officers in riot gear, trying to keep order.

Officers used flash-bangs grenades and pepper balls to disperse a crowd blocking traffic outside of Artesian Commons Park, a problematic park at 4th and Jefferson.

Three people were arrested.

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“Let them go! Let them go!” the crowd chanted.

“It was wild. It was definitely a wild time,” said Jacobi King, who works near the recently closed park.

The city shut down Artesian Commons Park – also known as “The Well” – on Aug. 24, citing problems with drugs, fights and threats, and installed a fence to keep people out.

But Saturday, about 60 people got in and occupied the park to protest the park’s closure.

“People felt impassioned enough to take it back for a day. Even a few hours. Because this is - this should be a community resource,” said Nora Knutson, one of the protesters.

A city spokesperson said after protesters refused to leave, officers went in and cleared it out.

Video from student journalist group The Cooper Point Journal shows officers shouting, “Move back!”

But then the protesters blocked traffic -- escalating the situation.

“Nobody would listen. Pepper spray, the rest – tear gas, flash bangs, whatever they needed to do. I'm really proud of our law enforcement coming out and taking care of it,” King said.

Olympia shut down Artesian Commons Park last month after ongoing trouble.

“Garbage and fights and all that. What do you expect?” said Dave Grundberg, who lives in nearby Tumwater and caught some of the incident on video.

“It's a scary place to walk by with all these people creeped out on the edge of the road, shooting up in public,” King said.

The city said specific, violent threats to park employees was the last straw.

“Our park staff was being threatened and it wasn't safe for our staff so we knew it wasn't safe for the patrons of the park. So it was a difficult decision to close the park,” said Kellie Braseth, a spokesperson for the city of Olympia.

But the protestors – some who are homeless – don’t agree with the city’s move.

“Where are people supposed to go? It's not going to change the situation by shutting the well down. It only hurts the situation,” said a protester who declined to share her name.

King said he’s also been homeless.

“I personally grew up in the streets of Seattle from ages 13 to 18. It's not easy going from couch to couch, bench to bench,” King said. “At the end of the day, as far as protesting goes, we need to do it in a more peaceful manner and this is not how you protest for homelessness,” he said.

The city said it has not decided on the future of the park, or what do with the property.