Police: Man stunk up the protest zone at Planned Parenthood

In this April 14 photo, an Everett police officer escorts a protester away from Everett’s planned parenting. Back then, the city banned gatherings in an alley and on the sidewalk around the clinic. (Olivia Vanni / Herald File)

The 77-year-old Everett suspect was arrested and quoted for spreading fish sauce on the sidewalk.

EVERETT – An Everett police officer was handcuffed last month and quoted a 77-year-old man for allegedly pouring fish sauce on the sidewalk near the planned parenting clinic.

Groups opposing and supporting reproductive rights have regularly demonstrated near the health facility on 32nd Street and Hoyt Avenue. Clashes and complaints earlier this year prompted the city to put time, location and legal restrictions in place, pushing protesters and counter-demonstrators across the street and off the sidewalk next to the clinic. That continued until the city lifted the rules in late May.

Officer Jay Taylor tried to keep the peace at the weekly demonstrations. In the past two months, “an offensive smell” has often been smelled near the sidewalk where the groups are demonstrating, Taylor wrote in the report.

Still images from Planned Parenthood’s security video, taken around 6:30 am on August 11, reportedly showed “an elderly Asian man” in a red Honda SUV driving to the site, handing something out of a container on the sidewalk and leaves behind in the SUV. Taylor recognized the man from previous demonstrations.

A week later, at 6 a.m., he was waiting in the alley south of the clinic. About 20 minutes later, a man in a red Honda SUV pulled up and spread a liquid on the sidewalk. Taylor “could smell the offensive smell” when he approached the man to arrest him under the same law that regulates stink bombs and explosives, a gross offense, the police report said.

The Everett man reportedly agreed to speak to Taylor and another official, and he said he had spread fish sauce on the sidewalk to deter people protesting the right to abortion. He gave them the container in which he kept the spice.

Taylor warned him that if he did it again he would be jailed before he was released from the handcuffs and talked to him about the interactions between opposing protesters.

Firefighters from the Everett Fire Department sprayed the sidewalk to remove the sauce.

Ben Watanabe: [email protected]; 425-339-3037; Twitter @benwatanabe.