Puget Sound, a sound on the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington, is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins. A part of the Salish Sea, Puget Sound has one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.
Tacoma is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Bellevue, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park, and 80 miles (130 km) east of Olympic National Park. The city's population was 219,346 at the time of the 2020 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-most populous in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million.
The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state, King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, and is considered part of the greater Puget Sound region. The Seattle metropolitan area is home to several major tech industries, such as Nintendo of America, Microsoft, Amazon, and T-Mobile. The United States Census Bureau defines the metropolitan area as the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA metropolitan statistical area. With an estimated population of 4,102,400 as of 2022, it is the 15th-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States and home to over half of Washington's population.
The Seattle Fault is a zone of multiple shallow east–west thrust faults that cross the Puget Sound Lowland and through Seattle in the vicinity of Interstate Highway 90. The Seattle Fault was first recognized as a significant seismic hazard in 1992, when a set of reports showed that about 1,100 years ago it was the scene of a major earthquake of about magnitude 7 – an event that entered Native American oral traditions. Extensive research has since shown the Seattle Fault to be part of a regional system of faults.
Fort Worden Historical State Park is located in Port Townsend, Washington, on 433 acres originally known as Fort Worden, a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps base constructed to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea. Fort Worden was named after U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden, commander of USS Monitor during the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War.
Flyer was an American steamboat that served from 1891 to 1929 on Puget Sound. From 1918 until the end of her service, she was officially known as the Washington. The Flyer ran for millions of miles at high speed, more than any inland vessel in the world. This 1891 steamer Flyer should not be confused with the steamboat Flyer built on Lake Coeur d'Alene in 1905, although the Coeur d'Alene vessel was inspired both in design and name by the success of the Puget Sound ship.
Tacoma Defiance, formerly Seattle Sounders FC 2, is an American professional soccer team based in Puget Sound region of Tukwila, Washington, U.S. that competes in the MLS Next Pro, the third tier of the United States soccer league system, as the reserve team of Seattle Sounders FC. Formerly, 20 percent of the club was fan-owned through the non-profit Sounders Community Trust.
The Huey P. Newton Gun Club is a group named after Black Panther Party co-founder and Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton.
Redneck Revolt is an American far-left socialist political group that organizes predominantly among white working-class people. The group supports gun rights and members often openly carry firearms. Its political positions are anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-fascist. Founded in Kansas in 2009, members were present at several protests against Donald Trump and against the far-right in 2017.
Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, and violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods like involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Members of antifa aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Patriot Prayer is a US far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area. Since 2016, the group has organized several dozen pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies held in liberal cities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Often met with large numbers of counter-protesters, attendees have repeatedly clashed with left-wing groups in the Portland area. Far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys, have attended the rallies organized by Patriot Prayer, as well as white nationalists, sparking controversy and violence.
Patriot Front is an American white nationalist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.
The Black Women's Defense League (BWDL) is a self-defense organization based in Dallas, Texas, United States.
The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) is an American socialist firearm organization that is dedicated to "providing working class people the information they need to be effectively armed for self and community defense." The group advocates for Second Amendment gun rights from a left-wing perspective.
The Washington State Three Percenters is a right-wing militia organization in the U.S. state of Washington. The group itself rejects this label, and states that they are primarily engaged in charitable work. The group is also involved in organizing gun rights demonstrations.
On July 13, 2019, Willem van Spronsen firebombed a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Tacoma, Washington. He was shot dead by police while attempting to ignite a propane tank.
Lois de Lafayette Washburn was an American fascist and the founder of anti-Semitic groups in Chicago and Tacoma, Washington. She signed her letters "T.N.T.".
This is a list of protests over the murder of George Floyd that took place in the state of Washington in 2020.
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) or Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), originally Free Capitol Hill and occasionally the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), was an unlawful occupation protest and self-declared autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The zone, originally covering two intersections at the corners of Cal Anderson Park and the roads leading up to them, was established on June 8, 2020 by George Floyd protesters after the Seattle Police Department (SPD) left its East Precinct building. The zone was cleared of occupants by police on July 1, 2020.
Alexander Reid Ross is an American author and adjunct geography lecturer at Portland State University with fellowships at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) in the UK and at Political Research Associates. He is author of Against the Fascist Creep.
