WTO protesters are greeted by a police show of force

In no mood for yet another Battle in Seattle, police came out in force yesterday, hemming in a small crowd protesting the World Trade Organization and the advance of global capitalism.

Officers quickly arrested anyone who stepped out of line -- or off the sidewalk -- during the midday event. Police took 13 people into custody, all on misdemeanor offenses ranging from trespassing to pedestrian interference. But by 6 p.m. the demonstrations had all but dissolved.


	Police arrest a man on Pine Street during the march. About 200 protesters marched from Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park. Gilbert W. Arias / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Local organizers said they planned a peaceful reminder about what they consider the abuses of global capitalism. But police also had their plans, which included new tactics for preventing the kind of violence that marred the 1999 WTO protests and last year's N30 commemoration.

So even before the first protester began marching from Capitol Hill to Westlake Park yesterday, a large contingent of police in riot gear had gathered near Seattle Central Community College.

"We're going to have a show of force. We've said all along that we want this to be peaceful, but we're preparing for the worst," said Clem Benton, a Seattle police spokesman.

Many protesters believed police were trying to egg them on to a confrontation.

"I find this whole thing a provocation of violence," said a 27-year-old man who would gave his name only as Noam. "We're trying to be peaceful, they're trying to be violent."


Wrapped in the words of the First Amendment, a protester listens to speeches at Westlake Park. Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Mike Edwards, president of the Seattle Police Guild, said he thought the tougher police stance was in part a reaction to criticism of his union and other groups that officers have been ordered to make arrests and control violence after things got out of hand in previous WTO protests.

"Then, too, there's a history here of this event not going well," Edwards said.

Top police officials said yesterday that police commanders in the field were allowed to react to events without waiting for approval from superiors. Several officers also worked undercover in the crowd.

The protests were dubbed "N30" to mark Nov. 30, 1999, which was to be the day that the World Trade Organization was to open its meetings in Seattle. Instead, the day became known as a watershed in the protests against global capitalism. The protesters managed to shut down the WTO for a time, drawing the attention of the world to Seattle and to a seeming new coalition of labor and environmental activists.

As many as 50,000 people were involved in mass demonstrations that police tried to break up with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Police arrested more than 500 people. Seattle had a curfew for the first time since World War II, and for the first time in memory National Guard troops patrolled the streets.

The protests gave Seattle a black eye and started a series of troubles for Mayor Paul Schell. Police Chief Norm Stamper resigned shortly after the WTO riots. A major earthquake, a deadly riot in Pioneer Square and Boeing's decision to move its headquarters to Chicago followed.

Schell lost his bid for re-election this fall. A spokesman for his office said he would leave supervision of N30 to police. Mayor-elect Greg Nickels, meanwhile, was at a transportation conference in San Francisco yesterday.

The protests returned last year. Police again resorted to tear gas after night fell. Vandals split off from a group of several hundred protesters and battled with police. Police Capt. Ron Mochizuki suffered a serious eye injury after being hit by an object thrown from the crowd. He later returned to work and now runs the gang unit.

Officers arrested 142 people last year, including top officials with King County labor organizations. Most were charged with not dispersing after police ordered them to. Most of the charges were dropped, although the city's new police chief, Gil Kerlikowske, was widely praised for a more proactive response -- only to be harshly criticized when a Mardi Gras rampage in Pioneer Square ended in death and serious injury. Nickels, who has been critical of Kerlikowske, plans to announce next week if he will keep the chief.

Yesterday went far more smoothly, with minimal arrests, police spokesman Duane Fish said, in part because of lessons the department has learned from previous experiences with large crowds.

"We're able to learn from succeeding experience," he said. "Things are getting better."

Yesterday's protests came after a short court battle.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman decided that the protests could take place at Westlake Park over the objections of the city, but she said the crowd must be peaceful and comply with police commands.

And officers were ready for them.


	After demonstrating at Westlake Park, WTO protesters march up Pike Street to an event at Town Hall at Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street. / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Even as the first protesters began gathering yesterday in a brick plaza at Seattle Central Community College, police milled about and a helicopter from the King County Sheriff's Office hovered overhead.

"We need to keep this a peaceful protest or else we let them win," Jelani Jackson, a student activist, announced to the crowd, which had grown to 200.

Activist Vanessa Lee, one of five plaintiffs whose lawsuit allowed protesters to use Westlake Park, told the crowd that police had just informed her that anyone who would march in the street would be arrested.

Organizers then explained options to the crowd of whether to march in the street or on the sidewalk, and a line of more than 50 officers in riot gear and on bicycles deployed on Broadway.

But Capt. Mike Sanford, the incident commander, explained that the riot gear was for the protection of his officers, noting the injury last year to Mochizuki.

"People should recognize that this is not confrontational, this is for officer safety," he said.

Police had long told protest organizers that officers would escort them, but that anyone who walked in the street would be arrested, Sanford said.

By then, police were already making arrests, including one young man who tried to spray-paint the window of a jewelry store downtown. Police took a second man into custody for carrying a concealed weapon: a can of pepper spray.

The march began at 2:10 p.m. on Pine Street. One officer shoved a masked woman off a bicycle in the street. She fell along a curb and in front of a parked Metro bus.

"Right away this cop grabbed me and pushed me over into the bus," said Jamie St. Ledger. She said she was not hurt.

Moments later police grabbed three protesters who had stepped off the curb at Pine and Harvard and arrested them.

One of the protesters included an event organizer in an orange safety vest. The man, known as Red Bear, appeared to be trying to keep marchers on the sidewalk.

Police videotaped the arrests, apparently for evidence later in court.

Police arrested another man a half-block later as he stepped from the curb. By that time, a line of officers and police cruisers had taken over Pine Street.

Over a loudspeaker, an officer warned, "Stay out of the street or you will be subject to arrest."

"From day one we told these people we would be happy to assist them if they walked on the sidewalk," said Benton, the police spokesman. "They don't have a permit, and we don't want a traffic lockdown."

In fact, police themselves closed Pine Street.

Officers wearing helmets with face shields lined the edge of the sidewalk. Their nightsticks were out. Most of the police carried gas masks and wore several plastic wrist restraints.

"The cops are just trying to scare us," said Loan, a woman with her 3-year-old daughter. She would not give her last name.

Jeremy Simer of the Community Alliance for Global Justice said he and other marchers intended to be peaceful. "This, to me, is an unacceptable show of force," Simer said.


A shopper watches a protester make a mask adjustment in front of the Gap store on Pine Street. Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Near Westlake Park, police had a confrontation with some protesters who were not moving away from the Old Navy store. Officers almost doused them with pepper spray but held back, said Norman Dwor, a Salvation Army bell ringer who was working nearby.

He called the protesters hypocrites. "They're all screaming about sweatshops, but half of them are wearing backpacks that were made in sweatshops."

Robert Andrade was running a Kettle Korn stand near Old Navy and praised police for their actions. "They were very protective of me," he said.

"They stayed on the sidelines, trying to keep it safe for us and for the protesters, too," said Valerie Mudra of Seattle who was shopping downtown.

The crowd reached Westlake just before 3 p.m., chanting, "Stop sweatshops." They walked past the holiday carousel, which police had protected with metal barricades. Officers in riot gear stood at the ready to allow children in for rides. There were no reports of damage downtown.

From a sound stage on the south end of the park, speakers decried racism and corporate globalism. And they celebrated their victory two years ago.

The event was largely peaceful. Lee, one of the organizers, said the city had agreed to extend the permit for the park from 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., then would allow them to march in the street to an event at Town Hall at Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street.

But just before that second march began, officers arrested three men in the crowd for what Fish termed "reckless burning," apparently for starting a fire with an American flag.

Led by two motorcycle officers, the crowd moved east up Pike Street at 4 p.m. toward Town Hall and a series of events scheduled there. They chanted and danced as they marched, accompanied by a mock military band dubbed the Infernal Noise Brigade.

The only confrontation happened outside Nike Town, where the group stopped and began to rally in front of the stores. Bicycle officers in riot gear curtailed the performance, lifting their bicycles and using them to shove the marchers off the sidewalk.

When the group arrived at Town Hall, officers accompanied them, but the police presence waned as most of the protesters entered the building for speeches and music.

Police remained in the Westlake Park area into the evening, hours after the last protesters had moved on.

"How can we be displeased with the low number of arrests?" Fish said at an evening press conference. "For the most part, the demonstrators did exactly what they said they were going to do."

P-I reporter Larry Lange contributed to this report. P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattlepi.com

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