D1 - Wednesday, December 1st, 1999
State of Emergency was called the night before. Martial Law has been established. Police from all surrounding counties, National Guard, and State Patrol have been called in to secure the area. Clinton arrives in town. No protestors allowed in the downtown area. Curfew set until midnight December 3rd.

Within the limited curfew area, the only people allowed are delegates and personnel authorized by the WTO to participate in official WTO functions, employers and owners of businesses within the limited curfew area, and other personnel necessary to the operation of those businesses, persons who reside within the limited curfew area, representatives of the press with proper press credentials, City officials with valid identification, and emergency and public safety personnel. As signed, the declaration makes no exception for others coming into the area. Violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and six months in jail.

The boundaries of the limited curfew area are: Fourth Avenue between Lenora Street and Seneca, east on Seneca to the I-5 freeway, north along I-5 to Boren Avenue, north on Boren to Pine Street, west on Pine to Sixth Avenue, then north on Sixth to Lenora.

• 7:50pm - Wednesday Night

HAPPY MARTIAL LAW DAY!

Um, its ugly... and.. a that's about all there is to say about it. Yesterday there were 68 arrests, today 400. Correction to earlier report. The police weren't firing rubber bullets but these paint ball things that are filled with pepper spray. Absolutely no protestors are allowed in the Downtown Area. They are/were immediately arrested on site regardless of what they were or weren't doing including groups that had valid marching permits from the city. National Guard and every western Washington counties swat team and riot police are here. They are trying to instigate another curfew tonight. No restraint at all on tear gas, billy clubbing, and shooting. Totally different strategy than last night, however, there aren't that many people downtown and the ones who are there are just doing peaceful civil disobedience in refusing to leave by sitting down. Metro busses are being used as patty wagons to carry them away to jails or barricading the hotel Clinton is in.  

Clinton is very pro protestors, labor, and environmental causes at the WTO meetings right now which is pissing a lot of the global delegates off. They don't think he should be giving horrifying the protestors. Many delegates say they are very upset with Seattle and the US, and not to happy with the cities performance esp. if its trying to be a center of commerce.

Massive financial loss in Seattle. $6million spent prior to this National Guard state of emergency on police, plus all the massive vandalism of the city sky scrapers, and the worst of it is the loss of commerce. Though the WTO host group claimed the meeting would bring $$$ to Seattle, it has been a bust. Businesses that make $5,000 a day downtown brought in less than $300 yesterday and probably nothing today with the Martial Law action. There is this small plant store at Pike Street Market. Little bitty place. The lady who owns it says so far this week has actually coasted her $10,000 - that's a lot for a small company trying to pay expensive rent.

Many people have made it back into the city today (people who work there were allowed in, though the police couldn't tell who was who and often pepper sprayed commuters) and they were trying to clean up some of the damage and scrub off the paint spray.

Good week to own a window/glass making company.

Gas masks were made illegal in the city. No one can own, carry, sell, or transfer any gas masks. Amusing sound bite from a yesterday cop "do you feel you were outnumbered yesterday?"..." Um, yes, after ten hours in a gas mask any help is welcome. One cool shot yesterday was of a protestor handing a cop a bunch of flowers.

This morning, after the martial law thing started and no one was allowed in the city to protest even if they had marching permits. There was this group of protestors chanting were the cops wouldn't let them pass, some of the US patriot songs. Really amusing use actually, something like "...America... home of the free..." as the police torn down every sign and wouldn't let anyone speak, march, or walk. All WTO literature banned at the SeaTac mall.

I don't get what this "Solidarity" thing is all the protestors are ranting about... Oh, yeah I forgot to mention there was this group of topless girls in yesterdays march. BTW - these are pictures I'm pulling from sites. They aren't the ones I took. Some of them are from yesterday. The happy looking ones.

Um, yesterday, there was also a very violent protest/riot in London for the WTO. People were even pulling up concrete sidewalk blocks. A Protest in Boston, Vermont, Houston though they aren't covering it.

I hear that the last WTO round in Geneva was much worse, then Seattle is now. Its just this is the first time its been on US turf.

Sleeping last night was insufferable. The Sirens never stopped. Made it to work though.

• Wednesday D1 - Midnight

Those... FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG..... cops!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, today they instigated their curfew, and that's fine. Do what you say your going to do. Arrest anyone who is DOWNTOWN! its not like they don't' have enough troops to do it anymore. There is ABsoluTELY! no reason why they needed to chase, yes - I said chase all the protestors up into Capital Hill.

This is a quiet RESIDENTIAL! area. For the last 3 hours! The cops have been literally, beating the S-H-I-T out of EVERYONE living up here on Capital Hill. (I'm only save because I temporarily fell asleep before making it to the store to by groceries.) No discrimination at all! I have heard non-stop gunshots all night, like a block from my house. Those tear gas launchers sound like bazooka launchers. Their also firing paint balls filled with pepper spray, and billy clubbing everyone on Broadway. Doesn't matter who, residents going home, people coming out of restaurants, throwing this man to the ground - beating him - and yelling at him to get out of here! The dude was filling his car up with gas... "Where do you want me to go? My car is right there, I live right here!" and that DAMN helicopter has been circling my house for three hours and wont quit! It sounds like Beirut. This is the first time in this entire event that I'm actually really frazzled. There is gun explosions coming out of every window, this damn earthquake loud helicopter overhead, and clouds of teargas, my windows are holding up, but F**$###$@#@$KKKK!! I just want to go to sleep.

Broadway is a busy street normally, tons of people out every night going to dance clubs, eating at all night restaurants, shopping at stores open till midnight. Its like these people aren't supposed to be here. The curfew was for downtown and has only been advertised as being a downtown thing. Yes, I'm tired of listening to the protestors whine about 'police brutality' when they knew darn well that downtown was a zero-tolerance area today - no protests allowed, but Broadway is long way from downtown. These people up here were literally caught off guard, many just having come home recently from work, having no idea what was going on when the cops arrived and started attacking everyone, and let me tell you. Its all well and good to be watching what is happing on the NEWS, but when your out there on the street going about your business with no form of radio transmitters - you have no idea what is going on - and the police are Lousy communicators.

There may have been several protestors up here were chased up here, by the police - because there is no where else to go, but into the water, but from what I understand they were just blocking traffic - a hell of a lot less destructive and non-violent then all this teargas and randomly aimed brutality. I understand that the police are tired, exhausted from yesterday and frustrated that all the delegates criticized them for not being effective, but this is not a very good way of venting frustration. If you are close enough to beat someone repeatedly several times with a club - you are close enough to handcuff them with all those zip ties they are walking around with and move on to immobilizing the next person. Much more effective, less likely to get sued, and way more peaceful and less destructive than this tactic.

This is not a way of making up for shortcomings. The police, excuse me the Seattle police, did an amazing job yesterday. On the few blocks they had enough people to man, they should be commenced for their amazing restraint, and non-partisan stance. They kept the peace very well. It would have been nice if they had more people, then the vandalism would never have happened - as far as I'm concerned that was there only failing yesterday was that they just didn't have enough people to man all the streets even though the protestors gave them months of warning about their marches, and the last WTO meeting in Geneva was way worse. However, the cop force today, National Guard, Every county, etc. is just way over the top. This show of brutal force is not impressing anyone.

Man, just as you think things can't get any worse.... The things you think would never happen in your town....

steph

----Posted on IndyMedia------
More Police Violence on Capitol Hill by conform 4:51am Thu Dec 2 '99

Police invaded Capitol Hill again tonight, violently attacking people in front of their homes. I just returned from Capitol Hill, a dense residential area where, for the second night in a row, police used tear gas and rubber bullets (I got souvenirs!) in an attempt to disperse a crowd that was peaceful and frustrated. I estimate that at it's peak there were at least 3,000 protesters, mostly neighborhood residents who were angry that they were being treated like criminals.

The police hospitalized a number of protesters, tear gassed virtually everyone, and repeatedly asserted that everyone there was guilty of "unlawful assembly", because some protesters were standing in the street (most of the standoff was spent on a quiet side street, though the early beatings occurred on the main street in the neighborhood). The protesters made it very clear that all they wanted was for the police to go home so that they could go home. They chanted "you go home, we go home" and "whose streets? our streets". A King County Council Member attempted to negotiate with the cops but was told that they had no interest in any resolution other than everyone dispersing immediately.

Whatever feelings I have about curfews and no-protest zones, I think this is intolerable. The word that best describes the scene in my mind was 'invasion'. To enter a residential neighborhood where a small crowd is peacefully gathered and create a situation where hundreds of passers-by are tear-gassed and many people are prevented from going home (due to the arbitrary nature of where the police took up their position), and then to blame it on the protesters, is criminal. And the worst part is, I am afraid the media is going to ignore the story.

These are the things the police did wrong: 1. Sending riot cops 2. Initiating violence against protesters 3. Failing to realize that their withdrawal would put an immediate end to the situation. 4. Tear-gassing everything that moved

It was wonderful to see that there were many hundreds of people who came out to protest when they realized what was going on. I spoke to a number of locals who told me they didn't care about WTO protests, but they weren't going to stand for police telling them that the streets and sidewalks in front of their homes were off limits. This is two nights in a row that police have attacked peaceful protesters in this neighborhood, and I suspect that if it happens again the protesters may attempt to take direct action against the cops

---------Arrested refuse to comply with booking-----

by Ben Grad 11:48pm Wed Dec 1 '99

More than 450 arrested, and a seriously significant majority is both refusing to give their info, they won't get off the buses. Over 450 have been arrested today and bused to Sand Point Naval Station, where the video on the news showed them rocking the buses and chanting at 11:20pm. Attorneys for the protestors told news that a deal may be in progress to cite them with an infraction and release them en masse, without having to give their names and information.

Side Note: in order to get to Sand Point Naval Station, attorneys had to get a COURT ORDER forcing the police to let them see their clients. The county only has room for 250 people in the downtown jails, and the protestors know it. It is unclear how many of the direct action network has been a part of this arrest, but their message on what to do in case of arrest must have gotten through yesterday, with the many orange stickers that were passed out that stated the following:

Rank and file police told news that they had no information about a deal or any negotitiations at all. The DAN (Direct Action Network) legal observers are part of the group that was arrested this morning, ACROSS DENNY, north of the no protest zone, in Denny Park early this morning.

Ben Grad - p0key@mindspring.com
p.s. look for 120 photos from this event tomorrow evening at http://www.speakeasy.org/~p0key/riot

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Reports & Pictures in chronological order:

Tuesday, November 30th

Wednesday, December 1st

Thursday, December 2nd

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