Protesters Shut Down Seattle Observer
reporters were everywhere in Seattle yesterday, covering marches and demonstrations from
dawn to dusk and one end of the city to another. They saw things the mainstream media have
missed or ignoredalong with scenes that fill this mornings papers and last
nights broadcasts. One troubling theme that recurred several times was the police
singling out peaceful demonstrators for gassing and beatingeven, in one instance,
shooting out one lens of a demonstrators glasses with a rubber bulletwhile
ignoring black-clad hooligans breaking windows and spraying paint.
Environmental and labor leaders were quick to condemn the outbreak of violence
(see story). Hundreds of them have worked for months to mount a powerful, thoughtful, and
widespread challenge to problems with trade as now practiced and with the World Trade
Organization itself.
The violence in the streets of Seattle threatens to wash away the headway they
have made, unless the WTO and particularly the media understand that the rogue elements
that ran amok yesterday have nothing to do with the forces that came here to work for
peaceful change. And the violence continued late into the night, long after most of the
constructive protesters had gone home.
Herewith, then a random compilation of quotes, reports, and other material
gathered by the Observer staff on Tuesday.
At 9:30 the worst possible thing happened: it stopped raining. The sun came out
and turned what is normally a surly, snarly, dank day into a summer playground.
At the same time, protesters massed at Sixth Ave. in the downtown shopping center.
Police ordered them to move back. They sat down. Police donned gas masks. The protesters
held their ground as the police doused them with pepper spray. A few ran with eyes closed
and running; others sat down and flushed their eyes with water and baking soda. Police
then teargassed the other side of the street to disperse the crowd.
At 10:30 I came across a woman who was suffering an asthmatic attack from tear gas
and going into shock," said one reporter. Police officers arrived and in ten minutes
she was taken away in an ambulance.
Laura Livoti, reporting for World Trade Watch (a syndicated radio program airing
live every day this week on more than 100 stations nationwide), was clubbed and
pepper-sprayed by a police officer in riot gear as she was conducting an interview with a
bystander. She waved her press credential to no avail. The entire incident, which Laura
caught on tape, will be heard nationwide on World Trade Watch on Wednesday.
At a Starbucks near the riot zone, a blackshirt smashed the lock on the
door, opened it, and invited onlookers inside to help themselves. Two protesters grabbed
him, pulled him away and closed the door, then linked arms to stop potential looters.
Brian Frank, a protester from Olympia, Washington, reported that at about 5:00
p.m. a group of teenagers started breaking windows at Niketown and nearby stores,
apparently intending to loot. They stole several backpacks from protesters and started to
go through the contents. They had no evident political motives. When protesters realized
what was afoot, they surrounded the youths and chanted, "No violence, no
violence." The teenagers attacked the protesters with fists, sticks, and bottles. At
this point, the police rushed in, shooting rubber bullets and tear gas indiscriminately.
Everyone ran. The whole thing was over in three minutes.
Several observers noted that the police reaction was more brutal the farther they
were from downtown and television cameras. The officers seemed to be particularly violent
near the freeway.
Juliette Beck of the Direct Action Network and the California Fair Trade Campaign
wondered what had changed. "Until today the Seattle Police have been cooperative and
respectful, allowing us to exercise our First Amendment rights, even helping us with
banner-hangs. But today it seems as if they were getting orders from higher up. It was an
enormous strategic blunder for the police to react against peaceful demonstrators in a
violent manner."
One correspondent reported: "The police began to come through on Baron toward
Pine with a number of delegates and the protesters stopped them. At first it looked as if
it was headed for a clash, especially as one young man was held at bay as he was getting
too close. The prostesters on the front line sat down very tightly and the police were not
able to get through. They carried one delegate over them and the rest backed away and
left."
A group wearing black with face masks ran through the downtown shopping district
spray-painting anarchy symbols and other grafitti on marble exteriors. Windows were
smashed with rocks and other blunt instruments at McDonalds, a Sharper Image,
Rite-Aid, and a bank.
Around noon, Rainier Square was the site of more hostile action by the police as
they formed two lines of officers on foot and a back line on horseback. They fired large
doses of tear gas into the crowd of peaceful demonstrators, who began moving down Fourth
Avenue toward Pike. Pike Street remained in the hands of protesters throughout the day. As
many began to come down from Rainier Square, several protesters knocked over large
dumpsters into the street to block vehicles. Later in the evening, someone started a fire
in one of the dumpsters.
Mennonites for Fair Trade marched alongside the Machinists Union. Longshoremen and
church groups all pressed forward to the Trade and Convention Center as the last of the
marchers left Memorial Stadium more than a mile away.
Around 2:00 pm, Rainforest Action Network activists scaled the front of Pike Tower
on Sixth Avenue and Pike, where they hung an enormous banner with the message,
"Dont Trade On Us. . . Dont Let Democracy Die in Seattle."
One enterprising merchant was selling gas masks on the street for ten dollars
apiece.
At 3:00 the police made a strategic mistake. They set up a defense perimeter
around the hotels and blocked street access, creating dead ends and cul de sacs. They left
Niketown, the GAP, and Planet Hollywood unprotected.
Several middle-aged, well-dressed Seattlites watching the mayhem respond,
"Right on" and "Its about time." Apparently the politicians have
underestimated public dislike of the WTO.
After one protester used foul language on K5TV, the reporter said, "I
apologize if you hear things you wouldnt normally hear in your home, but this is not
a normal event."
Pike Place Market stayed safely outside the fray, and enjoyed brisk business from
protesters and curious onlookers alike.
Around 3:30 the protesters at Fourth Avenue set a trash can on fire. Police
responded with loud shots of tear gas. The crowd was very large.
The Peoples March was peaceful and quiet until it reached downtown.
Pine Street was renamed "Union Way" as it filled up with labor
activists.
Near the Paramount, as mounted police approached a group of demonstraters, a band
played the national anthem.
During the march a teamster called out "Teamsters love turtles." The
turtle replied, "Turtles love teamsters."
"It was a rally and march Dr. Seuss would have been proud of," said one
reporter, "and appropriately enough it was led by the Lorax." At the front of
the march was Kira McCrae, who wore a sign that read, "I speak for the trees, for the
trees have no voice." Participants included Olympia high school students, seniors,
and workers. Carl Pope of the Sierra Club told the crowd at Memorial Stadium, There
is a bit of everyone in this movement. It is not a perfect product, it is a democratic
product."
NBC Nightly News described the protesters as "an odd collection of activists
with all sorts of causes," while showing a tape of a hippie woman performing a
"Dead Head" style dance.
As clouds of teargas wafted around corners and rubber bullets ricocheted just
blocks away, the citizens of Seattle took a relatively nonchalant view of the protests.
While protesters squared off against armored riot police, a female spectator commented,
"Its nice to see a good demonstration." A bus driver blocked by a human
chain at the intersection of Pike and Boren seemed similarly nonplussed. "They have a
point about their cause. Its affecting my job to a degree, but I can still
function."
Earth Island Institutes rubber dolphin was a casualty, lying limply in the
path of a cloud of tear gas that drifted slowly down Sixth Avenue.
Many protesters were undeterred by the tear gas. Wearing everything from gas masks
to ski goggles and wet bandanas, protesters threw gas canisters back at the advancing
police officers. Self appointed medics carried jugs containing a mixture of water, baking
soda, and soap, which they used to clean the faces of casualties.
When things got started in the morning, the mood was wet and surly, "We're
wet, we're cold, and we don't like Monsanto," was heard coming from a giant
genetically modified cow. In a surprisingly swift deployment the affinity groups were
able, very early in the morning, to block approximately 10 to 20 intersections with
lockdowns, inflated whales and circles of people.
Michael Moore, the good one, was seen near the Paramount Theater trying to make a
trade with Indonesia. He brought in some of the kids of locked-out Kaiser Steelworkers and
offered to trade them for sweatshop labor kids, who have jobs, albeit low-wage ones. He
applied barcodes to their foreheads, and then ran a supermarket barcode scanner over them.
"Okay, they're ready! They've been scanned!" He tried to weasel his way in to
speak to some delegates, but not even he was allowed beyond the police line.
A Seattle policeman at Sixth and Stewart referred to the tear gas as "Seattle
fog." He had a gas mask, but said hed never used one in the line of duty.
At 10:40, approximately 100 students from Lewis and Clark College in Portland and
others formed a human chain, locking their hands together in cylinders made of duct tape,
chicken wire, and other materials. A rainbow appeared on the horizon as students chanted,
"aint no power like the power of the people because the power of the people
dont stop."
The police released the first rounds of tear gas and pellets into a group of
non-violent protesters who were linking arms in rows. Only one warning was issued before
the gas was fired. At the same time, a band of anarchists was smashing store windows and
spraying graffiti. The anarchists were ignored by the police.
Six oclock. Typical Seattle. Even as tear gas was carried north of the Pike
Place Market, Seattlites still waited for the light to change before crossing, even when
there was no traffic.
To end this chaotic report, we can report that security Wednesday is expected to
be increased by 300 Washington State troopers and two units of the National Guard called
out by governor Gary Locke.
Tuesdays arrestees (number unknown) were being processed at the Brig at Sand
Point Naval Academy and taken to the King County jail. None had seen a lawyer by evening.
Mike Moore, head of the WTO said, "I regret that this morning the opening
ceremony could not be held as scheduled. This conference will be a success." The
Mayor of Seattle released a statement thanking the protesters who tried to stop the
violence.
Final note: Many of the protesting groups are sending teams of volunteers around
Seattle to clean up the damage done yesterday. The work begins at 7:00 am, but no one will
be turned away. Bring brooms, trash bags, rags, scrubbers, and yourselves to Victor
Steinbrueck Park at First Avenue and Virginia Street, just north of Pike Place Market.
This article was written by Tom Turner, Micah Anderson, Dan Zoll, Alison Levine,
Brian Smith, Heather Kaplan, Rich Knapp, Alison Hawkes, Judith Barish, David Ortman and
Karen Levy.
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