-Caveat Lector-
"Not everyone thought the violence was a bad thing."
Why Did WTO Protest Turn Ugly?
By DAVID FOSTER
.c The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) - Shattered store windows. Dumpsters burning. Protesters fleeing
tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police. What on earth is happening in
laid-back Seattle?
Violent political demonstrations have rarely been seen on U.S. soil since the
Vietnam War era, and most people here - protest organizers and city officials
alike - were surprised by the mayhem that erupted Tuesday as thousands of
demonstrators marched against the World Trade Organization.
Apologetic authorities blamed a few troublemakers ``from out of town.''
Protest leaders pointed fingers at overreacting police and a few bad apples
within their own ranks. Some demonstrators, meanwhile, saw something deeper -
the awakening of a new brand of activism among a new generation of activists.
``Young people - Generation X or whatever you call them - haven't had an
issue. Now they have an issue,'' said Christopher Krohn, 41, a city council
member from Santa Cruz, Calif., who came to Seattle to protest peacefully. He
said many youth see hard-won environmental safeguards being threatened by a
WTO focus on free trade above all other values.
``That's why a lot of people are angry,'' Krohn said.
It's not as if civil unrest is unknown in America. Race riots stemming from
the beating of Rodney King erupted in Los Angeles in 1992. But most political
demonstrations in recent years have become controlled, predictable events,
permitted and monitored by authorities. Demonstrations are a regular
occurrence in Washington, D.C., but are generally peaceful.
To find violence, one must generally go overseas, such as to Greece, where
thousands of left-wing protesters chanting anti-American slogans clashed with
police last month and set dozens of stores ablaze as President Clinton
arrived for a visit in Athens.
Clinton was addressing the WTO meeting this afternoon, his hopes for a
triumphant day as a leader of world trade jeopardized in a city left shaken
by a day of violent protest and bracing for more.
The violence clearly caught Seattle officials off guard.
To find similar unrest here, ``you have to probably go back to the '60s and
'70s, in the days of the Vietnam marches and civil-rights marches,'' Mayor
Paul Schell said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Schell said city officials had worked with protest organizers for months
before the WTO meeting, hoping to prevent the kind of violence that broke
out.
``You need to understand that this administration had people who marched in
the '60s. We've been on the other side,'' Schell said. ``The last thing I
want to do is be mayor of a city where I had to call the National Guard,
where I had to see tear gas in the street. It makes me sick.''
Protest organizers said they, too, were saddened by the violence.
``A small band of egotistical, misdirected young people'' who broke windows
and spray-painted buildings diverted attention from an otherwise peaceful
protest, said Dennis Moynihan, spokesman for the Direct Action Network, which
helped plan the demonstration.
``We take responsibility for our actions. We specifically risk arrest,''
Moynihan said. ``The people who broke windows cloak themselves in masks and
then flee as soon as the damage is done. If we knew who they were, we would
turn them in.''
Moynihan also faulted police for unleashing tear gas and rubber bullets on
protesters sitting in the streets.
``There was an element of festivity in the air,'' he said. ``There was
drumming and dancing. It was a beautiful, reclaim-the-streets party. The
police used an inordinate amount of weaponry and firepower to enforce their
version of civic order.''
Not everyone thought the violence was a bad thing.
``The corporations commit way more heinous crimes,'' said Mark Bowers, 25, a
protester from Eugene, Ore., who was roaming the streets Tuesday night after
authorities declared a curfew.
Protesters are ``alienated, beat down,'' said Bowers' friend, John, who
refused to give his last name.
``They don't have a voice,'' he said. ``You can only beat people down for so
long. To write it off as meaningless violence is totally unfair.''
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