Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
DEMAND AMNESTY FOR WTO PROTESTORS!
Posted by Mary Pjerrou (pirohuck@mcn.org)
Tuesday, December 7, 1999
DEMAND AMNESTY FOR WTO PROTESTORS!
Contact Seattle officials today!
The Seattle City Council is holding a hearing this Wednesday, December 8, beginning an investigation into charges of police brutality and other civil rights violations that occurred last week during the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests. Please contact City Council members and other officials and demand that all charges against peaceful protestors be dropped. See contact information below.
Over 600 peaceful WTO protestors were arrested during the police riots in Seattle, and kept in jail for 3 to 4 days without arraignment and without counsel. Protests on Thursday through Sunday got these prisoners released, but the minor charges against them (ticket offenses such as blocking an intersection) have not been dropped. Many must return to Seattle for hearings. The continued harassment of these people, who have been so abused already, must be stopped.
In Seattle, many of us personally witnessed six hours of rampant police brutality against peaceful protestors starting in the morning on Tuesday, November 30, before any windows were broken or other vandalism. The mainstream media got this wrong--and reported it backwards, as if the police brutality were justified by the later vandalism.
Riot squad police, clad in black "Darth Vader" armor, hosed thousands of peaceful protestors with pepper spray, and then shot tear gas canisters and plastic bullets at peoples' heads and bodies, at several intersections starting with the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Seattle Tuesday morning. We saw them continue to pepper spray and tear gas people who were obviously disabled and extremely sick, lying on the ground. We helped an elderly Asian couple (WTO delegates) who had been tear gassed escape the scene. We got tear gassed ourselves. We witnessed the same police violence at several downtown sites throughout Tuesday morning. These police actions were horrible--it was as if they were exterminating insects. Their creation of a "no protest" zone--50 city blocks in downtown Seattle--was unconsitutional. And their arrest of peaceful protestors in these circumstances was illegal.
The police failed to arrest the kids who were breaking windows and burning trash bins in the late afternoon on Tuesday!
Due to the wrongful reporting by the mainstream media, and possibly at the direction of political leaders, the police then rampaged through the downtown area and into the Capitol Hill neighborhood, tear gassing and brutalizing everyone in their path, including several public officials, people sitting in cafes, and people merely opening the doors of their homes to see what was going on. The arrests occurred mostly on Wednesday, and were largely of people who were protesting the creation of a police state in downtown Seattle.
Washington State Governor Gary Locke and Mayor Paul Schell should declare an amnesty for all peaceful protestors who were arrested last week in Seattle. The obvious intention of the police to provoke violence and to cause a riot needs to be exposed. The 10,000 peaceful protestors who shut down the WTO meeting should be congratulated for not rioting in the face of extreme provocation by the police. The 50,000 people who came to Seattle to protest the illegal and unconstitutional powers of the World Trade Organization should receive an apology from the city of Seattle for this police effort to divert attention from the profound political issues that the protestors sought to raise. Is this Seattle's answer to political debate? The club? The tear gas canister? The plastic bullet?
Please write or call to:
Gary Locke, Governor, State of Washington
www.governor.wa.gov
P.O. Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
(360) 902-4111
Paul Schell, Mayor of Seattle
Mayors.Office@ci.seattle.wa.us
600 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
fax (206) 684-5360
tel (206) 684-4000
Seattle City Council
600 4th Ave. #1100
Seattle, WA 98104-1876
tel. (206) 684-8888
fax (206) 684-8587
Sue Donaldson, Pres.
sue.donaldson@ci.seattle.wa.us
Members:
Jim Compton
Richard Conlin
Jan Drago
Nick Lacata
Richard McIver
Margaret Pageler
Tina Podlodowski
Peter Steinbrueck
For further information:
http://www.seattle99.org
http://www.seattlewto.org
http://www.ifg.org
http://www.tradewatch.org
http://www.globalexchange.com
http://www.peopleforfairtrade.org/
http://www.wto.org
http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/gattwto/gatthome.html
http://www.adbusters.org
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Globalism/GlobalEcon.htm
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/rulemakers/topTenReasons.html
For questions and comments please e-mail us!
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