[Newspoetry] Seattle Update
Mike Lehman
rebelmike at earthlink.net
Thu Jan 6 13:39:40 CST 2000
Most of those arrested during WTO
from here; many still angry
'I'm an activist now, and I was not (then),' one says
Thursday, January 6, 2000
By LISE OLSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Protesters at the World Trade Organization meeting
came from all over the globe, but the majority of the
500 people arrested live right here in Seattle.
And despite the
city attorney's
promise to drop
charges, many
remain angry
about their
experiences.
Just have coffee
with Paul G.
Marini, a
23-year-old barista and musician who works near Pike
Place Market. In one minute, he can summarize his
perspective as a local taxpayer and WTO protester.
"You're sitting there in the streets and all the police
that
you pay are bombing you with tear gas that you
bought," he said. "Then they take you to a jail that you
pay for and guard you with guards that you pay. Then
they take you to court and you pay for that through
taxes."
The City Attorney's Office says it will dismiss charges
against all but about 50 of those charged with
misdemeanors -- dismissals Marini called "a belated
arrival of justice."
But he, like most other defendants, continues to insist
he
should never have been arrested at all.
Natalie Sperry, 23, of Seattle, said she had never been
in a public protest before the WTO. On Dec. 1, she
joined 200 others sitting in Westlake Park, deep in the
heart of Mayor Paul Schell's no-protest zone and a
place where, under other circumstances, she might have
been doing her Christmas shopping.
The chanting crowd was surrounded by police in riot
gear, arrested, hauled in city buses to Sand Point and
eventually booked into jail. She says the experience
changed her life.
"This is my hometown and I was just ripped off the
street," she said. "I learned that if you care about
your
society and your world that you don't belong on the
streets. Only shoppers and people who support the
multinational (companies) do. That's the message that I
got."
Now Sperry, a 1998 graduate of the University of
Washington, is spending most of her time as a volunteer
with the Direct Action Network.
"I'm an activist now, and I was not (then)," she said.
"They pushed me over the line. . . . They created
activists because people are mad."
DAN, a group organized around the WTO, is
continuing to work with those arrested. Among other
things, DAN raises money for the out-of-town
defendants who, in some cases, traveled long distances
to return to Seattle for pre-trial hearings.
Of the 500 people arrested who eventually provided
their names and addresses to the courts, nearly a third
came from out of state, according to a computer
analysis by the Post-Intelligencer.
Their hometowns reflect several of the places where
DAN and other groups held pre-WTO rallies or
training in civil disobedience: the Oregon cities of
Eugene and Portland and Berkeley, Calif.
Some, like 33-year-old Nicholas Hoogendoorn of
Eugene, came to Seattle with a group of self-styled
anarchists seemingly bent on making trouble to get
attention.
Despite their stance, however, only one of the Eugene
anarchists was charged with a felony during the WTO.
Of the 11 people facing felony charges from the
protests, six are from Seattle.
Those cases involve mainly property damage, including
the looting of Starbucks downtown, vandalism by
animal rights activists at a furrier and the painting of
anarchist slogans.
Hoogendoorn, like the vast majority of the WTO
protesters, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of
failure to disperse and pedestrian interference.
He said he was arrested while filming the arrests of
others for an anarchist documentary on the WTO and
was so angry about what he saw in Seattle that he plans
to take information to the FBI.
Hoogendoorn was one of 32 people who agreed to a
deal with the city attorney's office to avoid
prosecution
because he said he could not leave his job as a chef or
his three children to attend hearings in Seattle.
The deals required those arrested to stay out of
downtown Seattle, stay out of trouble for anywhere
from three months to a year and, in some cases, pay a
small fine.
Another three people pleaded guilty to misdemeanor
charges.
Several of those who accepted the deals said they had
to work, could not afford to return or wanted to spend
the holidays with their families.
Most of the 500 people arrested in WTO were busted
in large groups as they walked, chanted or sat on city
sidewalks and streets in downtown Seattle. Mass
arrests were made both in and outside the "No Protest
Zone" and most of them happened on Dec. 1.
Paul Hankamp, a 21-year-old student at South Puget
Sound Community College, and several others said they
had tried hard to avoid arrest and to cooperate with
police during the WTO protests. But they received
conflicting orders.
Hankamp, who had attended training in civil
disobedience, has been involved in peaceful protests
before, but in national forests.
"It's a whole 'nother realm when you're dealing with
riot
police vs. forest service officers," he said.
David Solnit, 36, a carpenter from Seattle who is
involved in a street theater troupe and served as a
peacekeeper during the WTO protests, said he also
tried to cooperate with police.
He said he and a group of about 40 people at Westlake
Park were told to line up near See's Candies and were
promised that they could leave if they complied. But
they were arrested instead.
At least some of those arrested were bystanders who
were supposedly allowed to be in the no-protest zones.
Among them: a taxi driver, shoppers, journalists and
downtown workers.
Dana Schuerholz, 35, a free-lance photojournalist
working for a New York photo agency, elbowed her
way into the crowd at Westlake Park Dec. 1 to get
close-up shots of the arrests.
As she was shooting, she was rushed by a police officer
in riot gear. She waved her WTO press credentials in
his face, but she was arrested anyway.
Schuerholz, among several others interviewed for this
story, said she plans to file a complaint.
"Look, I'm press," she remembers telling jailers. "They
just said, 'You have to talk to the judge.'"
WTO arrest
snapshot
Locals
225 out of 520 people who
identified themselves in court
came from Seattle. Two-thirds
were from Washington state.
Out-of -staters
The most common out-of-state
protester addresses were:
San Francisco, Calif.
Berkeley, Calif.
Prescott, Ariz.
Eugene, Ore.
Portland, Ore.
Age
28 was the average age of
WTO protesters. More than
100 were under 21. But there
were plenty of except-ions,
including 83-year-old Ruth
Hunter, from Santa Cruz, Calif.
Insist on innocence
Only 3 people plead guilty.
Non-protesters
arrested
Bystanders caught in the fray:
A WTO delegate
A taxi driver
Shoppers
At least two members of the
press with credentials
Downtown workers
"Peacekeepers" trying to
keep the protesters from
getting out of hand.
Source: Analysis of 629 WTO
misdemeanor cases provided by
the Seattle Municipal Court
minus approximately 100 people
identified only as John or Jane
WTO. Some details come from
case files and interviews.
P-I reporter Lise Olsen can be reached at
206-448-8390 or liseolsen at seattle-pi.com
More information about the Newspoetry
mailing list