[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only] Seattle Times Posted at 07:20 a.m. PST; Tuesday, December 7, 1999

WTO in Seattle

Horror stories from protesters, police

by Seattle Times staff

As protesters emerged from the King County Jail, they told anyone who would listen about allegations of brutality by police on Seattle's streets and by guards at the jail and at the former Sand Point naval station.

Among the accounts by the World Trade Organization (WTO) protesters: that citizens not causing trouble were shoved, pushed and hit in the face with pepper spray last week. That one woman was struck in the genitals by a jail guard. That another was stripped and hogtied for failing to change into a jail uniform.

At the same time, police were recounting their own horror stories: that officers, badly outnumbered, were pelted with rocks, sticks, golf balls and a crowbar. That demonstrators trying to take over a Capitol Hill gas station were filling bottles with stolen gasoline. That the East Precinct was under siege as demonstrators tried to tip a police cruiser.

In the aftermath of the unrest, Police Chief Norm Stamper has announced his resignation, effective at the end of March.

"These were not peaceful protesters," said Assistant Chief Ed Joiner. "These were rioters trying to take over the streets of Seattle."

King County Sheriff Dave Reichert said it was "life and death on the streets" for many of his officers and he said most people don't fully comprehend the "seriousness of the situation." People could easily have died, he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington yesterday continued to assail the way the city handled last week's WTO conference, during which some rioters and looters wreaked havoc among tens of thousands of peaceful marchers and protesters.

'They should be held accountable'

Kathleen Taylor, state ACLU executive director, said that in many cases, police displayed restraint under difficult circumstances. But she questioned using pepper spray and rubber bullets against those engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience, as well as tear gas against workers, bystanders and residents.

"Such policies need serious examination," Taylor said yesterday at a news conference. "In addition - to the extent that individual police officers used excessive force - they should be held accountable."

The rights group plans to submit its own report to the city on the way demonstrations were handled. So far, the ACLU has received 132 complaints since it set up a Web site asking for accounts of excessive force or civil-liberty violations.

Taylor also called upon the city to form an independent commission to probe the allegations.

"The reason we have to look at this - to second-guess, if you will - is because this will happen again," Taylor said. "People have a right to protest . . . and we want them to protest in the city of Seattle."

The ACLU said it will pursue its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city's no-protest zone, a roughly 20-block area downtown authorities cordoned off to all but WTO delegates and workers. The ACLU sought a temporary restraining order last week against the zone, but a federal judge denied it.

Aaron Caplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU, said it was "completely unacceptable" for police to allow shoppers or workers into an area but to bar those carrying pickets or wearing anti-WTO slogans.

"In a free society, the government can't tell the people when they've spoken too much," he said.

County Council thanks police

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan King County Council yesterday recognized police and the National Guard for providing security last week, although four of the 13 council members - Cynthia Sullivan, Brian Derdowski, Maggi Fimia and Larry Gossett - did not sign the proclamation.

The council's action came as state, local and federal police agencies begin a post-mortem on the four days of police action. The week ended with nearly 600 arrests, $2.5 million in property damage and $17 million in lost retail sales downtown.

In accepting the proclamation, Joiner, the assistant chief, said the help from other agencies "will be one of my most treasured memories" as a lawman.

"I would have hated to see what Seattle would have been like if it weren't for them," he said.

Joiner said reports of police aggression were overblown.

"There has been a lot of criticism focused on one or two incidents. These officers faced that situation for 12 or 14 hours on end, and when you have one or two of them who suddenly become human in that sort of stressful situation, then I think that is understandable," he said.

What protesters say

Among the protesters and their allegations of brutality are:

Ruth Hunter, 83, a former junior-high-school teacher from Santa Cruz, Calif., said she has protested in cities throughout the U.S. about all kinds of human-rights issues and has been arrested many times. Nothing compares with what protesters experienced in Seattle, said Hunter, who identified herself to police and jail guards as "Mother Earth." She said she saw police "drag people, push faces down on the streets so they'd be cut."

In jail, Hunter said, one woman was struck in the genitals during a patdown and, when she flinched, was dragged out of a cell by her hair.

David Reid, 43, a steelworker from Spokane, said he was pepper-sprayed and manhandled while protesting peacefully. "I was asked to disperse but we didn't have time . . . maybe only two or three seconds, then I was thrown on the ground, handcuffed. I kept trying to tell (the officer), 'I'm not resisting. I'm nonviolent.' "

Nathan Hastings, 24, of Seattle said he "was incarcerated for 65 hours and never read my rights, never told the charges, never allowed to see a lawyer, never arraigned." While in jail, he said, "half the guards were very nice, and the other half were extremely crude, extremely brutal."

Israel Bayer, 24, a journalist from a Portland alternative weekly, said he saw police drop a girl they were arresting onto a sidewalk, breaking her front teeth. At Sand Point, where the protesters were housed, conditions worsened, he said. Police used pepper spray to get protesters off a bus and, after spraying one man, wrapped a blanket over his head.

One woman said she was stripped and hogtied after refusing to change into a jail uniform because she was "not a criminal." The woman would not give her name, saying she was humiliated.

Attorney John Muenster said he and other civil-rights attorneys planned to meet this week to consider possible legal action.

"The protesters used the same techniques as Mahatma Gandhi . . . techniques that were then refined and used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the South during the civil-rights movement," Muenster said. "Now they use those techniques in Seattle and get gassed, Maced and arrested."

Jail will conduct inquiry

Jim Harms, spokesman for the King County Jail, said the jail's internal-investigations unit will review three possible incidents, interviewing witnesses, taking statements from those reporting injuries and then forwarding the cases to the jail commander.

Harms disputed reports of widespread abuse. "We have a well-trained, professional staff," he said. "We planned for this for months" and weren't caught off-guard by the numbers of those arrested, he said.

King County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Urquhart said his department hasn't received complaints in connection with WTO protests. "The focus, I think, is going to be on the Seattle Police Department as far as ACLU lawsuits and inquiries," he said.

But in general, Urquhart said, "This was not Chicago of 1968. This was not even Seattle of '69 or '70. I don't think there was any police brutality, certainly not in the sense that I call it. I think there were excesses by individual officers, and I saw at least two of them on television."

Those involved an officer apparently getting a woman to roll down her car window and then pepper-spraying her in the face, and another officer kicking a man in the groin and then shooting him in the chest at close range with a high-velocity beanbag rifle.

The latter officer was identified as a member of the Tukwila Police Department. Although Stamper said all officers assisting in WTO action were his department's responsibility, he said the case of this officer was referred back to his own commander.

Tukwila Chief Keith Haines said yesterday that Seattle police would not take part in the investigation of the officer, who has been suspended from SWAT duties but not active duty. Haines also said he wanted to find out from Seattle police what that department's orders were last week for the Tukwila officer who came to assist.

Haines would not release the officer's name, pending the investigation's results. Expected to last a week or two, the inquiry is being conducted primarily by Capt. Doug Partlow. Haines encourages anyone who saw the incident to come forward.

Video footage coming out

The groin-kicking incident continues to be widely broadcast, while a local group has begun to distribute edited video footage from the protests.

The Independent Media Service, with an office at 1415 Third St., Seattle, is taking reservations for "RIP WTO N30," which includes video of police hosing demonstrators with pepper spray, as well as protesters setting fire to trash bins and throwing bottles at police cars.

The group will release several more hours of WTO-related video on cable-access channels. Those images include police in riot gear pepper-spraying a shirtless man twirling a Hula-Hoop around his waist, police firing rubber bullets into a crowd from atop an armored vehicle and several officers striking an apparently nonviolent protester with their batons.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporters Nancy Bartley, Jeff Hodson, Mike Carter and Mark Rahner is included in this report.

Copyright ) 1999 The Seattle Times Company

-- Sheri (wncy2k@nccn.net), December 07, 1999

Answers

I don't think there was any police brutality,
certainly not in the sense that I call it. I think
there were excesses by individual officers,

There was brutality. I saw a video shot by a
friend that showed this cop on a motorcycle
running up this guy's crotch trying to make him
let go of his human chain. He eventually ran
him over. Another cop when asked why they did
that, answered "Because we can."

Also on the tape I saw peaceful people being
hit with enthusiasm by cops with riduculous
looking sneers.

"If I had a rocket launcher I would make somebody
pay" - Bruce Cockburn

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 07, 1999.

I think there should be many Seattle cops finding themselves on the other side of the bars.

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), December 07, 1999.

*Joiner, the assistant chief, said the help from other agencies "will be one of my most treasured memories" as a lawman. "I would have hated to see what Seattle would have been like if it weren't for them," he said.*

I'd say this piece offers up a good idea of how things are likely to fall out in the event of simultaneous urban riots in many cities, when the police won't be able to call in the reserves normally available.

-- silver ion (bigmesshe@ded.thisway), December 07, 1999.

If rioting and unrest occurs, ASSUME that the orders will escalate to deadly force, if the rioting doesn't get quelled VERY soon. THere will be NO outside assistance, the individual cities will be on their own and they will HAVE to deal as effectively as they can.

Announcements of this type of response will HOPEFULLY keep the law- abiding in their homes and out of harm's way.

BTW While the PTB can't tell a citizen that he/she has "Protested enough" or "spoken enough" the body of law DOES allow a city to define what is acceptable for given venues, in the interest of the public safety. This is why the KKK needs permits to put up a cross, or to have a rally in the North. Same thing as the protesters being told there is a NO DEMO ZONE.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 07, 1999.

Chuck, you make a very good point: local law enforcement will be forced to deal with civil unrest to the extent and in the manner in which the circumstances require. There may be outages in varied infrastructure which the police will be dealing with, along with the frightened populace. When I think of all of the law enforcement officers trying to keep the peace against those who are trying to break it, I fully expect the cops to use whatever means necessary. They're vastly outnumbered out there, and they're risking their lives for us.

And when we look at y2k civil unrest, we're not talking about demonstrators. Just stay home, folks.

Jeannie

-- jhollander (hollander@ij.net), December 08, 1999.

Chuck,

That's where the 'rounds of cocktails' comes in...some hothead ain't gonna take that kind of treatment from police turned pig without making roast ribs...

If there is no outside help, the police will face an uprising. Not me, I'll be on the sidelines.

Police better be REAL diplomatic next time...for their own good.

Not a threat, just an observation of how radicalized the middle class has become...let's both pray there is no next time!

-- Z (Z@Z.Z), December 08, 1999.

Martial law usualy starts with curfews.People more willingly surrender to tyrany if it's gradual and progressive.With that in mind there's still time to order "home built clamore mines"by Ragnar Benson Via paladin press.(for education and entertainment purposes only)

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), December 09, 1999.