cj#1026,rn-> Seattle residents report…

1999-12-03

Richard Moore

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From: •••@••.•••
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 17:32:02 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: FW: Collateral Damage in Seattle

-----Forwarded Message-----

Collateral Damage in Seattle

Report from Portland student Jim Desyllas (posted 12-2-99)

Called-in from a pay phone outside Seattle. Wed., 7:30 pm
Pacific time.

I just spent 4 days in Seattle. The "information" people are
getting from the mass media is false. This was not, as Pres.
Clinton claims, a peaceful protest marred by the actions of
violent protesters. This was a massive, strong but peaceful
demonstration which was attacked repeatedly by the police
with the express purpose of provoking a violent response to
provide photo opportunities for the Western media. I know
because I watched it happening. I'll tell you how they did
it.

As Michel Chossudovsky says in his "Disarming the New World
Order" (See Note # 1 at end for link to that article) - the
government put a lot of effort into making sure the
protesters in Seattle were a "loyal opposition" who wanted
to reform the WTO, not get rid of it. But the people in
Seattle - American steel workers, Canadian postal workers,
college kids from all over, environmentalists from Australia
- you name it - were not for reforming the WTO. They were
for getting rid of it.

And this wasn't just true of the protesters. I interviewed
delegates. None of them had anything favorable to say about
the WTO. Two delegates from the Caribbean were angry about
job loss. One delegate from Peru took a bullhorn and got up
on a car and spoke to the protestors against the World Trade
Organization. He said it hurts the workers and farmers. I
interviewed a Norwegian guy from Greenpeace. Totally against
it. Even a delegate from Holland said it had hurt the
farmers there. He said though it is supposedly democratic,
that's actually a lie: the US, England and Canada and a few
others get together and decide what they want to do. Then
they ask the rest of the countries to vote and if they vote
wrong they threaten,"You won't get loans," or whatever. They
get them to do what they want by blackmailing them. The
Italians we interviewed were upset too. I couldn't find any
delegates who were in favor.

So the government instigated a "riot" to discredit the
movement against the WTO because they couldn't dilute it. I
am not guessing about this. I was there. I saw it happening.
And I will tell you I am frankly shocked to see, close up,
just how little our leaders care what happens to ordinary
people. Clinton can pose and speak a lot of flowery stuff
but the truth is - we are nothing to them. I saw this with
my own eyes.

Sunday and Monday, there was no violence. None. The people
were aggressively non-violent; they were self-policing. Up
until Tuesday at 4pm there was one window broken in the
whole city - a McDonalds window. This compares favorably to
the typical rock concert, let alone a demonstration of
people who were non-violently barring entry to the World
Trade Center!

At this point, a new group of police - tactical police -
moved in and started gassing people and shooting rubber
bullets. Is it any surprise that people got mad? Of course,
the young kids hit back by breaking some windows in
retaliation for being gassed, sprayed with very painful
pepper gas, and shot with dangerous "rubber" bullets. The
police instigated these kids, plain and simple.

Sunday and Monday they had young cops, using them to block
the streets. These were trainees. But Tuesday they had the
real cops; none of them were young. They were trained to
attack people. A small group, maybe 100 people total, struck
back. Then these cops herded that group around the city,
making sure there were plenty of photo ops of "violent
protesters."

A number of times they had these 100 or so protesters caught
between buildings and walls of police. They could easily
have arrested and detained this small number of people and
gotten it over with. Instead they would gas them and let
them go. Then trap them again, gas them again, and again let
them go. The cops made no arrests that I know of until late
Tuesday night though the skirmishing was going on from three
till 9:30. The cops would blockade three or five blocks of
an area, give the angry kids room to operate, keep gassing
them - when you gas a person, let me tell you, it gets them
fighting mad.

Tuesday night the police gassed all of downtown. This was
going on from 3 PM, till 6 PM.. Gas everywhere. The kids
broke a few windows - McD's, Starbucks - small stuff -
burned a few garbage cans. The police were using these
people as extras. It was staged. I believe also the police
had their own people in there, encouraging people to break
stuff - if people think I may be exaggerating, I saw
supposed protesters - they were screaming and so on - and
then later, when everything was over, the same people
tackled other protestors and put handcuffs on them.

At 6pm they issued a State of Emergency. At that point they
had pushed the 100 people outside the city limits, so the
police went outside the limits too, and they started gassing
that area too, gassing the neighborhoods where the regular
people live. I am not exaggerating. The police were
relentless.

This was in an area from the city limits for about 10 blocks
to the Seattle Central Community College. If you were alive,
the police gassed you. People coming back from work, kids,
women, everyone. People would go out of their houses to see
what was happening because these tear gas guns sound like a
cannon - and they would get gassed. A block away there was a
Texaco gas station - they threw tear gas at gas pumps,
believe it or not - they were like vandals. They gassed a
bus. I saw it with my own eyes. A bus. The driver, the
riders, the people just abandoned it .

I was sitting in a little coffee shop called Rauhaus, [Jim
did not spell this - the spelling may be wrong.] They were
shooting "rubber" bullets at the glass. I picked up a dozen
of the things in a few square feet. They were also shooting
this paint that you can only see with a florescent light.
They would paint anyone and everyone and then go hunting
them.

Anyway, because they were gassing everybody, the local
people got mad too and they joined the 100 who had been
herded out of the city. So soon there were 500 including the
neighborhood people and all very angry. Naturally. Because
they had been gassed and hit with pepper spray, that stuff
does a number on you. And shot with these damn bullets. Then
people set up barricades at Seattle Central Community
College. The cops organized themselves for about an hour and
then moved in and gassed that area.

Today they started mass arrests. That was because Clinton -
the Greeks call him the Planitarchis, Ruler of the World -
was coming. Weeping crocodile tears about how he just LOVES
peaceful protest, which of course you'd have to be two years
old to believe he had nothing to do with the police action.
This whole thing, this police attack, this was US foreign
policy, not some action decided by some bureaucrat in
Seattle. This was the State Department. They wanted to
discredit the people.

When things started on Sunday,  there was a protest rally of
solidarity involving people from different walks of life.
Monday it got even bigger. Tuesday there was a big sort of
carnival where people were doing different things, a band
was playing music and people were blocking the World Trade
Center. And about 3 PM the cops started throwing tear gas.

The thing that drove Clinton crazy was that on Tuesday the
protesters had succeeded in making nonviolent human chains
and had therefore stopped everyone from going into the World
Trade Center. Only maybe 27 delegates got through, mostly US
and British. There were what seemed like tens of thousands
of protesters involved. So the police did their gassing
number against these nonviolent people to break up the human
chains and make the protesters look violent.

Today (Wednesday) I followed the union protest put together
by the Longshoremen's Union. They went down to the docks and
had a rally then marched to Third Avenue. As soon as they
got there the cops started gassing them. There was an old
lady there. She had gone downtown by bus to buy something.
This lady was in her 70's and I saw her trying to run, but
she couldn't breathe. She was in shock. I carried her to a
building entryway. She was gasping, terrified. She had been
in Germany, and it was like she was having flashbacks. The
tear gas sounds like gunfire and there were helicopters
overhead, sirens, cops on horses, everything.

They had clearly made a decision to destroy this movement.

So anyway there I was with her in this building and she
wanted to go to the hospital but there was tear gas
everywhere and I was afraid if I tried to move her she'd be
gassed again. I went to this line of cops and begged - I
mean begged - these riot police to help her. They ignored
me. A girl told me later that a one year old had been
gassed. And I myself saw a girl no more than 18 - a cop had
busted her lip wide open - she was bleeding - and then they
gassed everyone including her. After that she was kneeling
on the ground crying like a baby and praying for 15 minutes,
Hail Mary, Hail Mary. Over and over. She was in a state of
shock. They just gassed these people who were sitting down
non-violently and doing nothing. Nothing.

At one point the Seattle Mayor said his boys were not using
rubber bullets. Miraculously, by then I had ten in my
pocket. I could open a little market, sell the things. They
are everywhere. I and other people started giving them to
delegates and stuff. "See what they're doing? They're
shooting "rubber" bullets and lying about it." We showed
them to the media. I guess enough people and the media got
the information because the Mayor made a new statement then
that they were using them. As if he hadn't known.

They shot rubber bullets from four feet away into the face
of a guy next to me, broke all his front teeth. When that
happened I lost it. I forgot I was supposed to be getting
the news for all of you and I started yelling at the cops,
"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick, man?" So
this cop aimed his gun right at me. That was his answer. So
I first put my hands in front of my face because I didn't
want to lose my teeth. And then I thought, to hell with it.
I was wearing my target shirt that said "Collateral Damage",
you know? With a bullseye target, like they wore during the
bombing in Yugoslavia. And I told this guy, "Go ahead,
shoot! Here! Here's the target!" He didn't shoot me.

I want to emphasize, these protesters were NOT violent
people. They were the most non-violent people I have ever
seen. Even when I was screaming at the cop, this girl came
up to me and said, "Do not scream. This is non-violent."
These people were too much to believe. They must meditate
all the time, I don't know.

Clinton said he supports nonviolent protest. That is
baloney. Today (Wed.) the protesters were causing absolutely
no "trouble". In downtown the cops had people running who
weren't even protesters - like that old lady or just people
going to work or shopping - everyone was getting gassed. The
busses weren't running because of the gas. I was lucky to
catch one with a driver who could still see. I begged him to
drive the old lady home - the driver changed his route
especially for her. If you want to find human decency, stay
away from the Planitarchis. Go to the to regular people.
They have some. The Planitarchis lost all his years ago. Now
he wouldn't know human decency if it came up and bit him.

So now I have made personal acquaintance with the people who
run this country, and they are quite simply scum. There were
people at work, people with babies, they were all getting
gassed because the government would not allow an assembly of
people speaking their minds. It is the same as what happened
in Athens. Clinton's requirements on the Greek government
created the riot and he did the same thing here. And then he
says he supports nonviolent protest? How? By shooting rubber
bullets? And today they outlawed gas masks. They want to
make sure everyone gets his money's worth.

Today, just like yesterday night, the police were in the
residential neighborhoods. People in cafés were getting
gassed and shot at, you could hear it on the windows, bang,
bang, bang. A guy trying to cross the street to go to his
house got gassed. First a drunk guy outside a bar yelled at
the cops "Get out of here!" so they gassed him. And then
this other guys was just crossing the street to go home so
the cops figured, might as well gas him too. People got
gassed for coming out of restaruants and bars and coffeee
shops. I'm amazed that nobody died who had asthma or
something.

Or maybe somebody did die and they didn't talk about it. I
mean after all, it's just collateral damage..

***

Note # 1 - For a critical look at the World Trade
Organization, click on SEATTLE AND BEYOND: DISARMING THE NEW
WORLD ORDER or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/seattle.htm

If you would like to browse articles from
Emperors-Clothes.com, click here Or go to:
http://www.emperors-clothes.com

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Delivered-To: moderator for •••@••.•••
Delivered-To: moderator for •••@••.•••
From: •••@••.•••
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 18:24:42 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: FW: Hell In Seattle


{FROM AN OLD-TIME RESIDENT OF THE GREATER SEATTLE AREA:
Thoughts On Witnessing Three Days Of Hell In Seattle}

-----Forwarded Message-----

[recipient's name deleted]

As you, no doubt, are fully aware, I am no friend of anarchy
and civil disorder -- far from it, in fact; but, in the
course of the last several days, even I have had no choice
but to conclude that our local "authorities" clearly
overstepped their bounds.

The police brutality exhibited by some of our local "boys in
black" (and I purposely say some, since not all of them were
involved ) in Seattle -- especially on Tuesday and Wednesday
-- was (shades of Lenin's "Che-Ka"!!) horrifying, to say the
least.  (One of the motive forces that seemingly drives some
such men to become "peace officers" is an inherent sense of
sadism!)

The last such occasion that springs to mind occurred on the
University of Washington campus (back in 1970, if I recall
the year correctly), when one of my girlfriends was
returning to her dormitory from the U.W.'s undergrad
("Suzallo") library and was attacked by Seattle's "riot
police," who cracked her skull for "walking on campus."
(Well, how else was she to get back to her dorm from the
library -- fly?!?)

This week, old people and babies were pepper-sprayed and
gassed indiscriminately; people totally uninvolved in the
protests against the WTO, many of whom were simply trying to
get home from work, were beaten, kicked, and shot with
so-called "rubber" bullets -- you name it...  (One man was
kicked in the groin and shot at close range.)

Many people with legitimate concerns in downtown Seattle
were gratuitously pepper-sprayed by the police, simply
because they happened to be present as the police went by.
(Policemen would turn and shoot streams of pepper-spray into
their faces -- this, after having passed by them, in the
first place!)  Even several WTO delegates were pushed around
by the police, believe it or not!

Those individuals who attempted to assist the fallen were
themselves subjected to police brutality; police "batons"
come raining down on both the people who had collapsed and
on those trying to help them get up. Meanwhile, the police
deliberately pressed their heavy boots down upon the heads
of those on the ground (who were being handcuffed with the
particularly cruel "flexi-cuffs" under the pretext that they
were "resisting"), in order to prevent them from being able
to "move on," as they were being "ordered" by the police
(who then proceeded to gas, pepper-spray and shoot them at
close range with "rubber" bullets in clear cases of
deliberate and unwarranted cruelty).  In one case, a woman
fell to the ground and the police then began to shoot
pepper-spray at her and at a person who was attempting to
help her get up!   (Media video also showed the police
harassing a just-gassed older woman who was merely trying to
unlock her car so that she could get away from these horrors
and get home!)

Clouds of tear gas were sent flying into business
establishments, and the people inside were then attacked by
the police as they tried to get out (it having become a
"crime" in Seattle to possess, buy or wear a gas-mask if one
is a civilian).  This was all witnessed by [my fiancee] and
myself, watching day-long TV coverage of the events from the
safety of our home. Had we been caught in the "crossfire" of
gas and pepper-spray, we might well have died, under those
circumstances, as you are fully aware, due to our severe
cases of asthma and chemical-sensitivity -- especially,
without gas-masks!

What is especially disconcerting is that the police were
attacking peaceful protestors, while the anarchistic and
criminal elements were allowed free rein -- almost as if by
collusion with "the powers that be"!?

So this week, [name deleted], has provided us with a
foretaste of what the "New World Order" holds in store for
us, if it is ever allowed to come fully into its own!  The
Gestapo and the "Che-Ka" were merely the "blossoms" -- will
we live to see the "berries"?  God knows!

-- Yura





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