What actually is going on, as far as I can tell both from local newscasts and reports from friends who were there, is that for most of the day 30,000 to 35,000 people peaceably assembled, marched, demonstrated, held church services, and nonviolently expressed their beliefs about the WTO. In the afternoon about 100 (some estimates are as high as 200) vandals, some wearing black clothing and hoods, came into the city and started a spree of violence, smashing windows, spraypainting, vandalizing stores, etc. In some cases the police apparently watched them and did not respond, did nothing to stop them. Few if any of those doing the actual destruction were arrested.
Later in the evening, the police apparently got orders to clear the city. At that point there were few if any people acting violently. I watched live footage from 5:00 to 7:00 and saw no footage of destruction other than a dumpster being rolled at the police lines and people grabbing tear gas grenades and throwing them back at the police (who were all in gas masks, so it had no effect.) The police went block by block, in full riot gear, backed up by Swat vehicles (no military tanks that I saw), using massive amounts of tear gas and pepper gas and rubber bullets to move out people. They moved everybody out, whether they had legitimate business there or not. In about 2 hours downtown Seattle turned from a bustling city into a ghost town. For a veteran of the civil rights movement, it was very scary to watch. All they were missing here were police dogs.
Of course, the media covered the few who were causing the damage and basically ignored the tens of thousands who marched peacefully and nonviolently.
One wonders whether the police intentionally let the vandalism go on in order to give an excuse to crack down. I have no direct reason to believe that, but I can't think of any other reason why the police would watch the vandalism and in many cases make no efforts to stop it or arrest the vandals. |
