Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

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 in 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