Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] :
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 23:59:47 -0800
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: arthur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Police State In Seattle, second report
The police let the last group of protesters withdraw up to the Capital
Hill community, but followed them with far more cops and National
Guard troops than there were protesters. After experiencing a great
amount of gasing last night many people from the community came out
to ask why the police was there in such great numbers. The answer
they were given was beatings, more gas and being shot with rubber
bullets. One guy while walking on the sidewalk asked the police why?
He was kicked in the nuts and that shot at almost pointblank range with
rubber bullets.
Not only is there a curfew, "No Protest Zone", but also a large part of
downtown Seattle has been closed off until the WTO is over to the
public.
Maybe my thinking is influence by two days of being gased, but it
seems to me that the real message out of Seattle is that resistence to
the WTO and global corporate fascism will be met with the relentless
iron heal of a police state. If people protest in Seattle over human rights
issues and are met with such repression, just think what people in such
places that have no illusion of freedom must face. All people, labor,
human rights activists, Indigenous people and so may have to realize
that we are facing a dire struggle against those that have no respect for
human dignity. If this can happen in Seattle, it can happen anywhere.
Tomorrow we will march again!
Arthur J. Miller
