[Newspoetry] Seattle report from the protests from e-poets list

[Scott Rettberg]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Real Story from Seattle - 12/1/99
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 17:26:57 -0600
From: Joanna Marie Halinski <fbg at enteract.com>

I got on a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh at 3:00am, the morning after
Thanksgiving, and traveled 2 and a half days to Seattle to join the
protests against the World Trade Organization.  I arrived to see tens of
thousands of activists from the widest range of causes I've ever  seen
in
one place, united around a common concern -- their desire to have a say
in
the decisions that affect their lives, otherwise known as democracy. I
won't go into the WTO in great  detail.  The information is out there.
You
can find for yourself that in the last 4 years the WTO has been in
existence it has ruled against every evironmental and human health and
saftey regulation that has come before it and, through economic
leverage,
has compelled countries to repeal these "barriers to free trade."  Such
barriers in this country have been the sections of the Clean Air Act and
the Endagered Species Act. But I won't go into that further, instead I
want to share with you what happened here, to me and thousands of
others, yesterday.

My friends and I woke up late Tuesday morning.  One of the largest
portests of the century, and we sleep in.  We joined the protests at
about 9:00am, and joined a human chain of people blocking one entrance
to the convention
center where the first day of the WTO summit was to take place.  This
was
the scene at every street that led to the convention center.  The plan
was
to not let delegates enter and to shut down the meeting.  This may sound
drastic, but the purpose was to send a message that many have phrased as
"No globalization without representation."  The WTO meetings are closed
to
the public and the WTO is not subordinant to any national government or,
more
importantly, and democratic body.  Yet it has shown itself to have more
of
a say in things as basic as the quality of the air we breath than we
ourselves do.  To me and nearly 50,000 others, this warranted the
serious
direct action. However, as serious as these demonstrations were, they
were
to be ALL non-violent.

After being part of our own barrier to free trade and turning back WTO
delegates forabout an hour, we heard that protesters needed help at
another
intersection a few blocks away. Since there were more than enough people
to
keep up the barrier where we were, we left the blockade and headed for
the
corner of 8th and Seneca.  When we arrived, we saw lots of demonstrators
but no major media cameras.  There was a smaller group of  people
sitting
down on the street (which had already been closed) with police in riot
gear
standing behind them. Instead of the ordinary billy clubs, all of
Seattle's
police were holding 3 foot oak clubs that look more like basball bats
than
batons. When they began putting on their gas masks it became evident
that
they were
planning to use pepper spray on the people sitting down.  The rest of
the
crowd was pleading with the police not to use this cruel tactic.  It was
possible that if more people sat down, the police wouldn't spray them,
so I
joined that group.  When it became apparent that they were going to use
the
spray anyway, we all locked legs and arms together and I pulled a
bandana
my freind had given me over my face, covering my mouth and eyes.
Onlookers
began yelling, "Get ready!  They are going to do it!  Get ready!"  I
heard
the spray and people began screaming in pain.  I was just expecting
spray,
so I was pretty surprised when I felt one of those big clubs land on the
top of my head.  The guy behind me took most of the force from the blow,
so
I wasn't hurt badly.  I covered my head with my arm and covered my eyes
with my hand, as the screams continued and it became obvious -even
though I
couldn't see anything from underneath my bandana- that the cops were not
only spraying but beating the people as well.  A police officer then
grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my face and spayed me in the
eyes
with a cannister of pepper spray.  I held my eyes closed tight and my
bandana absorbed the spray, protecting my eyes and face.  I breathed a
little bit of it in and began coughing.  The crowd started to break up
as
the police continued beating people.  I pulled away and stood up,
pulling
the bandana away from my eyes to see the police beating the few people
that
remained sitting.

One woman was trying to get up and they kept jabbing her in the side
with
their clubs.  The rest of the crowd pulled those people to safety and
began
washing their eyes with a solution of baking soda and water to counter
the
effects of the blinding pepper spray.  This was my first experience with
the spray.  I got a tiny bit of the spray on my forehead and it burnt
very
badly and was painful.  I can't even begin to imagine the pain the
people
felt who got it sprayed directly into their eyes.  I think I was luckier
than anyone else I was sitting with, having escaped the spary and only
having been clubbed once. I screamed at the cops for a while, called
them
facist pigs between plenty of other expletives.  But when things calmed
down a bit, myself and others began speaking to the police. It suddenly
became evident that some of them were visibly disturbed by what they had
just done. One female officer's hands were shaking as she held her club
up
to her chest like the rest did in the line they had formed.  She kept
blinking her eyes to avoid crying.  We talked to other officers who
wouldn't look us in the eyes, but their faces showed no signs of
pleasure.
After I calmed down a bit and got my emotions under contol enough to
speak,
I said to them, "You probably think we're just fanatics with nothing
better
to do, or maybe vagrants who are too lazy to be working right now, or
maybe
spoiled college kids who don't have to work.  You can think that we're
idiots who came across a few statistics on environmental degredation or
sweatshops, that we're out here today to be self-righteous and think
that
we're better than everybody else, but we're people just like you.  And
everybody standing here with me knows exactly why they're here today.
We're trying to make the world better.  And I don't think a single one
of
you even knows why you're here.  How many of you support the WTO?  How
many
of you even know what it does?  We know why we're here.  Why the hell
are
you here?  I don't think any of you became police officers to beat
people
who aren't a threat to anyone's safety.  Just who do you think you're
protecting?  We're unarmed. None of us have tried to attack you or
anyone
else today.  You attacked us. You aren't protecting yourselves; there's
no
one behind you that you're protecting -- Who do you think you're
protecting!?  If you have a good reason for beating us today, if you
felt
it was right, that's one thing. But if you didn't have any reason and
you
still beat these people anyway, I want you to ask yourself why you did
it.
Why you were willing to inflict violence on other people for no reason
other than you were told to."   I asked them to go home and think about
that; what they did to make things better today by beating non-violent
protesters; if that's what they became cops to do.

They were all silent, turning there heads constantly to avoid eye
contact
with any of the protesters speaking.  Th commanding officer walked down
a
line in between the police and us, pushing protesters back.  He ordered
the
crowd to disperse, saying that if we didn't leave they would remove us
by
force.  We didn't leave.  We just kept talking to the police more.  I
asked
the commanding officer to explain to us why we ought to leave.  He
didn't
acknowledge the question.  I asked them all if that's what those clubs
meant, that they didn't have to explain their actions to anyone, even
themselves.  Other protesters reminded them that even though they were
trained to be robots, they were still people who were responsible for
their
own actions -- orders or no orders.  I told them my name, where I was
from,
that I go to college, that I have family and friends.  I asked them
their
names.  None answered.

We stayed there and the police didn't charge.  Not because I think we
convinced them not to, but because there were too many of us.  Soon a
group
of people with their arms chained together inside tubes wrapped in duct
tape.  4 of these people were from Athens; 3 OU students and friends of
mine.  The police were still threatening to charge the crowd.

I quickly realized that these people had no way to protect their heads
from
the police clubs.  Being obviously violent had already proven to be no
defense against police violence.  Another OU student and I walked up to
the
police line to ask them about this.  The line was now made up of
different
police officers.  We approached one and asked him about this.  He looked
at
us and said, "Well, if they're worried about getting hurt, they should
have
thought about that before they came out today."  I asked him to show me
his
badge number.  He refused.  "Aren't you required to show your
identification to the public?"  He didn't answer.  The officer to his
left
sneered at me and said, "Well you have all the answers, why don't you
tell
me?"  Before I could, he raised his club and yelled at me to back up.  I
did and continued talking to him, but he looked away and ignored me.
The
first officer had no identifying number anywhere on him.  No visible
badge,
no number on his helmet.  I took his picture and got others to.  Telling
everybody that we needed to watch him.

When I first spoke to police after they had beaten us, I was very
encouraged that some had actually shown some signs of human compassion,
but
my hopefullness dissappeared after I talked to the latter group of
officers
and realized that many of them were quite happy to inflict harm on
people.
Reinforcements came and as protesters cleared the way for them, one cop
pushed a protester, and said "Get the fuck out of my way," with a smile
on
his face.

>>From time to time ambulances would come through and the crowd would clear a
path immediately.  Some protesters said, "What if WTO delegates are
sneeking in on the ambulances?"  But people came to an immediate
concensus
that, although that was a possiblity, it wasn't worth risking people's
safety. Suddenly, a WTO delegate made it unnoticed through our lines.
But
when he made it to police they refused to let him enter.  They turned
back
another delegate later.  As it turned out, we were guarding an exit not
an
entrance; that they police's orders were to not let anyone in -- whoever
they were.
Also, since police had shut down the street and no protesters had
attempted
to cross police lines, none of us were even doing anything illegal. --
which is probably why none of the people in the sit-down group were
arrested. Though none of us were arrested, all of us were beaten and
sprayed.

Word soon made it to us that the situation was worse elsewhere.  We made
our way to the heart of downtown and found the streets full of teargas.
There was a large group of people sitting down in front of police in
full
riot gear with their gas masks on.  Behind them was an armored tank.
The
police attacked protesters again.  Against non-violent protesters, they
used pepper spray, clubs, tear gas, and later fired rubber bullets and
marbles at the people.  In every single instance I witnessed first hand,
police violently attacked non-violent protesters with no provocation
whatsoever.  That was the case when I was beaten and sprayed, that was
the
case when downtown was flooded with gas, with helicopters flying
overhead
shining spotlights down into the crowd.  Thousands of police forced
protesters out of the dowtown area firing cannister after cannister of
tear
gas into the crowd.  My friends and I were split up in the crowd of
people
fleeing from the gas.
Eventually, I made it back to the house to join them.

The whole way to their house, I was hoping that this story would get
out.
Hoping that the level of violence inflicted on non-violent protesters,
peacefully assembled, would wake a lot of people up and show them the
level
of democracy in this country.  Hoping that people would see what the
level
of force aimed at people who peacefully oppose the interests that are
dominant in this country and the world.  I returned home to have this
hope
crushed.  The local news stations were reporting on the broken windows
of
businesses and not the broken bones of protesters. They reported on
things
like "police fatigue."  Which I assume is when your arms get tired after
you beat people for hours.  They talked -and continue to talk about- the
extremely "restraint, openmindedness, and gentleness" displayed by
police.

A state of civil emergency was declared and a curfew was set for 7pm.
If
anyone was downtown after that, they would be arrested.  Police cleared
the
curfew zone of people, but we watched them on TV continued to pursue
them
up Capitol Hill -- blocks past the curfew zone. The police chased them
into
a business area and fired tear gas into crowds that were now made up of
shoppers and people getting dinner as well as protesters.  Finally,
after
12 hours of people being beaten and gased, a small riot broke out.  A
Starbucks coffee store was damaged and looted.  I'm amazed it took this
long to happen, and I say this in all honesty from being here first
hand,
that, by repeatedly attacking and torturing non-violent protesters, the
Seattle police sought to incite a riot and finally succeeded to a small
degree.  The news kept running the scene of Starbucks being looted
again,
and again, and
again.  At least a dozen times in under an hour. There were also quick
clips of police beating demostrators shown once and not again.

A newscaster on KOMO, channel 4, said, "Look, earlier today we saw
protesters carrying signs with clear messages against the WTO, but what
you
have going on now is an unruly mob just trying to cause problems.  In
the
pictures we're seeing now, I don't see any signs at all. These people
don't
have any message."  What the newscaster failed to notice was that
people,
myself included, dropped their signs when they were fleeing for their
lives. They were dropped because you need two hands to guard your eyes
from
tears gas. Talk of the "police being too lenient" has continued into
todays
news reports.  And the lack of signs continues to be portrayed as a lack
of
any constuctive purpose among the protesters. One newscaster said, "Come
on, get a life.  We live in a prosperous country." In all honesty, the
news
is scaring me more than the riot police, because what it has done is
justify further violence against the protesters.  They have said that
"police have been too lenient."  The police have used teargas, pepper
spary, clubs, rubber bullets, and marbles against peaceful civilians in
downtown Seattle.  The only thing they haven't done is used live
amunition.
And in the event that greater violence occurs against protesters, the
media
will have justified it.

Besides insulting protesters the local media has focused on the
disruption
to traffic and holiday shopping.  The National Guard is now occupying
the
city, a 50 block "no protest" zone has been established, about 120
people
have been arrested, and many have been hospitalized -- though that has
recieved no coverage as far as I've seen.

In other news, we succeeded in shutting down the first day of WTO
meetings.
The situation is still developing, so I encourage everyone to watch the
news coverage and contrast it to what I've written here.  AND PLEASE, do
your own research on the WTO.

-Damon Krane
Joanna Halinski

-----

Ted Grudowski was out yesterday photographing the WTO protests. These
are
excellent photographs that I believe will give you an idea of how the
day
was in Seattle.  Here is his sight which they are posted on.

http://newmediaphoto.com/WTO.html

Joanna Halinski


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