WTO: Police Wallop Capitol Hill

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Title: Police Wallop Capitol Hill
Author: David Sadoway
Date: 01-Dec-1999
Source: Seattle Independent Media Center
Reference: http://www.indymedia.org

One reporter's account of his trip home from the Independent Media
Center, 6-11 p.m. Tuesday. 

Seattle -- As the curfew closed over Seattle last night, task forces of
riot police from city, county, and state drove the stragglers and
stranded from
the downtown vicinity. The city purportedly maintained bus service from
4th and Jackson, the shifting police lines arbitrarily determined the
exit routes for people leaving downtown. 

The police channelled many people up Pine Street and across the I-5
bridge at Boren. Apparently in response to looting on Pike Street, a
large number of police had pressed onto lower Capitol Hill to quell the
unrest. 

"The cops don't have jurisdiction past Boren," cried one Capitol Hill
resident as a police phalanx made its first surge beyond Pine and Minor,
already beyond the curfew boundary set by Mayor Paul Schell Tuesday
evening. 

Protestors and residents reported only minor property damage beyond the
curfew zone. However, the ensuing two hours after 7 pm, police in full
riot gear, armed with tear gas, rifles, and batons, made repeated
advances east on Pine into the Capitol Hill neighborhood.


A few of the anti-WTO epithets remained to be heard. Nor did any further
looting or violence occur among the protestors. Instead, the chants "we
live here, we live here" rose up from an increasingly indignant crowd
about 300. 

A sergeant from the SPD ordered the crowd to disperse. Only seconds
elapsed before the volleys of tear gas canisters and stun grenades
struck the crowd. Alternately, the crowd retreated in fear and then
returned to face off with the police, who were gradually pushing up Pine
Street. The pattern recurred throughout the hour, as the police crossed
Bellevue. 

By 8:30 p.m., several people had been gassed more severely and one was
rushed to the hospital. 

While many remained in the streets, others gathered in bars and
restaurants along Pine. 

Shortly before 9 p.m., the police made their decisive sweep. Advancing
with an armored vehicle, approximately 50 officers launched tear gas and
fired rubber bullets into the crowd, pushing them all the way to Harvard
Avenue. Bar patrons were caught inside and choked on the gas. 

The situation deteriorated as residents responded by erecting a
barricade outside the Egyptian Theater and smashing the rear window of a
police car. 

By 11 p.m., police cleared the area. They reportedly dispatched a bomb
squad to
detonate a device found in a garage off Harvard. 

"If the police had just held their line at Boren, we would have just
gone home to bed and none of this would have happened," said Riz, a
Capitol Hill resident, shaking his head as sirens continued to wail at
11 p.m.