File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_1999/anarchy-list.9912, message 56


Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 10:44:13 -0500
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: New York Times: Anarchists were more organized than the cops


Clenched Fists in Seattle Lead to Pointed Fingers
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/120299wto-protest.html

By TIMOTHY EGAN

SEATTLE  --  It took only a 
few minutes for the people in the 
monarch butterfly costumes and 
union jackets to realize that what 
was planned as the biggest American demonstration yet against global 
trade here  had turned into a burst of 
window-breaking and looting late 
Tuesday afternoon.

A surge of violence that ended in a 
civil emergency began when a knot 
of people dressed in black broke 
away from the main demonstration 
and started overturning trash containers, stoking fires and smashing 
windows of stores and restaurants. It 
died out with the image of a grinning 
young man in a Gap sweatshirt trying to cart off a satellite dish from a 
Radio Shack store.

How the thin line was crossed from 
nonviolent protest to urban disorder 
was being dissected here Wednesday as 
the World Trade Organization got 
down to business.  The conclusion: 
the anarchists were organized. 

One person in black, who refused 
to identify himself, said   anarchists 
had planned all along to incite the 
crowd. 

Some  blamed the police for mounting a  show of force with rubber
pellets and tear gas against largely 
nonviolent protesters, and then backing off to leave a lawless zone
within 
the city's most gilded retail corridors. At first, the protesters tried
to 
police themselves -- something they 
said they were incapable of doing 
once the more militant elements took 
hold. 

Veteran demonstrators, who have 
logged years of protest against corporate retail chains like Nike and 
Starbucks, suddenly found themselves trying to defend them.

"We turned at one point to protect 
Niketown, of all places, from these 
people who were trying to smash the 
storefront glass with metal newspaper boxes," said Ken Butigan, a
professor of theology from  Berkeley, 
Calif. "They turned on us and called 
us counterrevolutionaries."

Butigan teaches protest tactics at Berkeley, he said. He and 
other demonstrators had expected -- 
and prepared for -- the police to 
make about 1,000 arrests. But they 
made only a handful of arrests, relying on the stinging vapor of tear
gas 
to disperse people who refused to 
allow delegates into the trade 
group's opening session.

Young people in black masks, 
some of them speaking by two-way 
radios, used the police reaction as a 
cue to go on a rampage. They 
sprayed a symbol for anarchy -- a 
circled A -- on store walls, then 
quickly expanded to window breaking and some looting. Some  identified 
themselves as members of Black 
Clad Messengers, a self-proclaimed 
anarchist group.

For merchants in a downtown 
known as one of the nation's most 
prosperous and vibrant -- as the 
eyes of the world were looking this 
way and holiday shoppers were expected to  crowd the aisles --  it was a 
pure terror.

"We called 911 from inside our 
store, asking for help, telling them 
that people were rampaging in the 
streets, but they said they were too 
busy," said Maryann Swissa, who 
runs a jewelry store  with her husband, Monty. "We ended up getting 
an ex-National Football League player to stand guard at the door."

At the peak of the disorder, even 
 protesters who had planned to be 
arrested were calling for help.

"Here we are  protecting Nike, McDonald's, the Gap and all the while 
I'm thinking, 'Where are the police? 
These anarchists should have been 
arrested,' " said Medea Benjamin, a 
leader with Global Exchange, a San 
Francisco-based protest group. Ms. 
Benjamin was arrested later inside 
the  trade meeting on trespassing 
charges.

The Seattle police said Wednesday that 
their primary goal was to protect 
 trade delegates and allow them to 
enter the meeting. When  violence 
began, they did not have enough 
force to go into the unruly crowds, 
 Police Chief Norm Stamper said. Wednesday, the police made about 400
arrests of mostly  nonviolent protesters.

"What we did today was utterly 
impossible yesterday,"  Stamper 
said. "We would have had to have 
double and triple the number of officers on hand. And the mayor did not 
want to send a message that Seattle 
is a police state."

The major demonstrations -- one 
organized by labor unions, the other 
by environmentalists --  attracted up 
to 30,000 people, Mayor Paul Schell 
said. They passed through the city in 
a festive mood, their banners referring to efforts by Europeans to
protect cheese and Americans to protect 
jobs. One banner read: 'Hormone 
beef -- no. Roquefort Cheese -- yes."

But  minutes after  the union and 
environmental groups  passed 
through downtown, the mood 
changed.  Shouts of "Anarchy!" 
"Property is theft!" and "Close it 
down!" went up, as up to 50 people 
unveiled hammers, spray paint and 
large firecrackers known as M-80's 
from  backpacks. They smashed windows of branches of virtually every 
major retail chain, including F. A. O. 
Schwarz, Old Navy, Planet Hollywood and McDonald's.

A  security officer who tried to defend a city bus was attacked. The 
authorities later said that several 
bus drivers were assaulted and that 
two police officers suffered minor 
injuries. They said there were no 
major injuries to demonstrators, although hundreds of people complained
about stinging tear gas. 

The violence's peak lasted about 
an hour, in late afternoon, with virtually no police response. Some
demonstrators shouted at the vandals to 
stop the violence. At Niketown, three 
men climbed atop of the store's outside entrance and began twisting 
away the metal letters spelling out 
the store name. As this went on, 
others shouted "Shame, shame, 
shame" at the vandals.

Prompted by desperate complaints from merchants and television images of
a near riot, the Seattle police changed tactics early in the 
evening, after Mayor  Schell asked 
for the National Guard troops and 
declared a 7 p.m. curfew and civil 
emergency. From then until about 10 
p.m., the police gradually moved the 
thinning crowds out of downtown. 

The police  said Wednesday that they had 
arrested several people who they 
said were part of the Tuesday violence, though they offered few details 
on where they were from or the 
extent of their plan.  Stamper 
defended the police tactics, though 
he was criticized for refusing an earlier offer of National Guard help. 
Wednesday, about 300 National Guard 
troops helped to patrol the city. 

By Wednesday morning, the groups that 
had planned to be arrested all along 
sent out a call for a "massive cleanup" of the damage done by people 
they labeled as vandals. Dozens of 
the protesters took brooms to the 
fresh scars of the city's retail core. 

-- 
Chuck0

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop
http://www.infoshop.org/

Leonard Peltier Freedom Month 
Executive Clemency For Peltier!
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that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 
        - Jens Bjørneboe

   

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