- Police State in Seattle
-
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 00:12:42 -0800
The following report is based upon news
accounts, people I talked to
and things I witnessed.
Though people may or may not agree with
trashing corporate stores
and this was only done by a very small group
of people, still what the
media is not telling people is that this
happened after the police fired
rubber bullets at close range at non-violent
protesters who had sat down
n the street as an act of CD. I wanted to
state that first.
I marched in the big labor march of over
35,000 people. When we got
close to the WTO meeting part of the march
turn back to where it
started from and another part headed closer to
the convention center.
It was hard to tell which way to go. The group
I was with got cut off from
the larger organization we were with. We ended
up marching behind
longshoremen from Bellingham and Tacoma and
they went the way to
the convention center. Once there we were
faced with police lines in
three directions. In the area I was I saw no
trashed stores. After a bit
the police north of us started firing tear
gas, very loud concussion
bombs and pepper spary. I was not far away and
I heard no warning.
This crowd was not violent young people, but
rather people of all ages
even young kids. My son, daughter and myself
were tear gased.
We moved back away from the gas. A little ways
a way was a
Teamsters truck (which was a part of the labor
march) and all the smoke
and gas was passing over it and they started
to play Jimi Hendrix's "Star
Spangle Banner". After a little bit the
police starting moving from every
direction, firing tear gas and concussion
bombs. We made it down to
Pike Place Market where the gas was still very
strong.
Another group of protesters to moved east up
the hill into a community
where the tear gas brought people from their
homes, restaurants or just
walking down the street wanting to know why the
police were gasing
their community. This led to some
confrontations between the
community and the police. There were 68 people
arrested on Nov. 30th.
And a curfew was placed on downtown from dark
to dawn.
The next day 300 state toopers and a unknown
number of National
Guard troops were brought in. They start off
the morning stopping cars
and taking all signs, banners and radio
equipment. They also set up
what they called a "No Protest Zone"
in a large area of downtown.
Around 7:30 am a group of around 100 protesters
left a park and were
stopped by a police line. This small march was
stopped far outside the
"No Protest Zone". The police
arrested around 60 of these people. After
these arrests the "No Protest Zone"
was made larger to include where
these people were.
Other protesters gathered at a plaza (not in
the street) and around 250
of them were arrested. Any where in downtown
Seattle that it looked like
there maybe protesters the police came. I say
this because many of the
people tear gased today were just people
walking the streets. I saw one
woman come out of a store and saw the police
and tried to move out of
the way and she feel down and a cop came up to
her and sprayed
pepper gas a few inches from her face. The
police attacked people
standing waiting for the bus. Many people got
caught up with the
protesters because the police pushed everyone
together. Most of the
gasing and arrests happened outside of the
"No Protest Zone". The
news stated that over 450 people have been
arrested so far today.
Anyone that ain't a WTO delegate or police that
are in downtown seem
to be subject to these police actions. As I
write this they are attacking
unionists in north downtown, a small Mumia
march, other protesters at
Pike Place Market and other places. The police
state in Seattle is trying
to suppress anyone that dares to protest. I
will be out again, I will report
back later.
Arthur J.
Miller
Tacoma IWW member