From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [L-I] Seattle: Police intimidation marks WTO demo Seattle Post-Intelligencer (with additional material by Seattle Times). 1 December 2001. WTO protesters are greeted by a police show of force . SEATTLE -- In no mood for yet another Battle in Seattle, police came out in force yesterday, hemming in a small crowd protesting the World Trade Organization and the advance of global capitalism. Officers quickly arrested anyone who stepped out of line -- or off the sidewalk -- during the midday event. Police took 13 people into custody, all on misdemeanor offenses ranging from trespassing to pedestrian interference. But by 6 p.m. the demonstrations had all but dissolved. Local organizers said they planned a peaceful reminder about what they consider the abuses of global capitalism. But police also had their plans, which included new tactics for preventing the kind of violence that marred the 1999 WTO protests and last year's N30 commemoration. So even before the first protester began marching from Capitol Hill to Westlake Park yesterday, a large contingent of police in riot gear had gathered near Seattle Central Community College. "We're going to have a show of force. We've said all along that we want this to be peaceful, but we're preparing for the worst," said Clem Benton, a Seattle police spokesman. Many protesters believed police were trying to egg them on to a confrontation. "I find this whole thing a provocation of violence," said a 27-year-old man who would gave his name only as Noam. "We're trying to be peaceful, they're trying to be violent." The protests were dubbed "N30" to mark Nov. 30, 1999, which was to be the day that the World Trade Organization was to open its meetings in Seattle. Instead, the day became known as a watershed in the protests against global capitalism. The protesters managed to shut down the WTO for a time, drawing the attention of the world to Seattle and to a seeming new coalition of labor and environmental activists. The protests returned last year. Police again resorted to tear gas after night fell. Vandals split off from a group of several hundred protesters and battled with police. Police Capt. Ron Mochizuki suffered a serious eye injury after being hit by an object thrown from the crowd. He later returned to work and now runs the gang unit. Yesterday went far more smoothly, with minimal arrests, police spokesman Duane Fish said. Yesterday's protests came after a short court battle. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman decided that the protests could take place at Westlake Park over the objections of the city, but she said the crowd must be peaceful and comply with police commands. Even as the first protesters began gathering yesterday in a brick plaza at Seattle Central Community College, police milled about and a helicopter from the King County Sheriff's Office hovered overhead. "We need to keep this a peaceful protest or else we let them win," Jelani Jackson, a student activist, announced to the crowd, which had grown to 200. Activist Vanessa Lee, one of five plaintiffs whose lawsuit allowed protesters to use Westlake Park, told the crowd that police had just informed her that anyone who would march in the street would be arrested. Organizers then explained options to the crowd of whether to march in the street or on the sidewalk, and a line of more than 50 officers in riot gear and on bicycles deployed on Broadway. Police had long told protest organizers that officers would escort them, but that anyone who walked in the street would be arrested, Sanford said. Police made arrests, including one young man who tried to spray-paint the window of a jewelry store downtown. Police took a second man into custody for carrying a concealed weapon: a can of pepper spray. The march began at 2:10 p.m. on Pine Street. One officer shoved a masked woman off a bicycle in the street. She fell along a curb and in front of a parked Metro bus. "Right away this cop grabbed me and pushed me over into the bus," said Jamie St. Ledger. Moments later police grabbed three protesters who had stepped off the curb at Pine and Harvard and arrested them. A protester, who did not give her name, described the police tactics as irrational. "They aren't going to let us march in the street but then they block it?" she asked. "The police don't treat us like people." One of the protesters included an event organizer in an orange safety vest. The man, known as Red Bear, appeared to be trying to keep marchers on the sidewalk. Police arrested another man a half-block later as he stepped from the curb. By that time, a line of officers and police cruisers had taken over Pine Street. Over a loudspeaker, an officer warned, "Stay out of the street or you will be subject to arrest." Officers wearing helmets with face shields lined the edge of the sidewalk. Their nightsticks were out. Most of the police carried gas masks and wore several plastic wrist restraints. "The cops are just trying to scare us," said Loan, a woman with her 3-year-old daughter. She would not give her last name. Jeremy Simer of the Community Alliance for Global Justice said he and other marchers intended to be peaceful. "This, to me, is an unacceptable show of force," Simer said. Near Westlake Park, police had a confrontation with some protesters who were not moving away from the Old Navy store. Officers almost doused them with pepper spray but held back, said Norman Dwor, a Salvation Army bell ringer who was working nearby. He called the protesters hypocrites. "They're all screaming about sweatshops, but half of them are wearing backpacks that were made in sweatshops." Robert Andrade was running a Kettle Korn stand near Old Navy and praised police for their actions. "They were very protective of me," he said. The crowd reached Westlake just before 3 p.m., chanting, "Stop sweatshops." >From a sound stage on the south end of the park, speakers decried racism and corporate globalism. And they celebrated their victory two years ago. The event was largely peaceful. Lee, one of the organizers, said the city had agreed to extend the permit for the park from 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., then would allow them to march in the street to an event at Town Hall at Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street. But just before that second march began, officers arrested three men in the crowd for what Fish termed "reckless burning," apparently for starting a fire with an American flag. Led by two motorcycle officers, the crowd moved east up Pike Street at 4 p.m. toward Town Hall and a series of events scheduled there. They chanted and danced as they marched, accompanied by a mock military band dubbed the Infernal Noise Brigade. The only confrontation happened outside Nike Town, where the group stopped and began to rally in front of the stores. Bicycle officers in riot gear curtailed the performance, lifting their bicycles and using them to shove the marchers off the sidewalk. As the larger group neared Westlake, some protesters stopped by the entrance to the Old Navy clothing store at Sixth and Pine and chanted, "Block that shop!" Old Navy is owned by The Gap, a frequent protester target. Officers on bicycles pushed the protesters along after less than two minutes. One protester riding a Cannondale road bike yelled at downtown shoppers: "Wake up! Stop shopping and stand up for your rights!" After the marchers arrived at Westlake, observer Chris Flanagan said she thought the heavy police presence was overkill. "I do not see this as giving us our right to assemble," said Flanagan, an acupuncturist. "When people who want to demonstrate see 100 or so cops with clubs and gas masks, that's called intimidation." At the same time, a woman walked out of See's Candies with a box of chocolates and offered them to officers. When the group arrived at Town Hall, officers accompanied them, but the police presence waned as most of the protesters entered the building for speeches and music. Police remained in the Westlake Park area into the evening, hours after the last protesters had moved on. Clem Benton, police spokesman, estimated that police outnumbered protesters. Several vansas helicopters hovered above. Sylvia McDaniel, director of marketing for the Downtown Seattle Association, said police did a fine job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews With 4 photo attachments from the Seattle demo _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
