[Seattle-editorial] POLICE VIOLENCE AT WTO RIOTS COST SEATTLE TAXPAYERS $250,000

[sheelanagig at juno.com]

POLICE VIOLENCE AT WTO RIOTS COST SEATTLE TAXPAYERS $250,000
by Kirsten Anderberg  Copyright 2004

In a time when Seattle is in deep need of money for its schools, its
health care systems, for affordable housing, for public transportation,
etc., we are paying $250,000, and rightly so, to protesters who were
grotesquely violated at the WTO protests in 1999. And Seattle did not
learn from that riot, as it produced two more unnecessary police riots in
2003, which still need to be addressed properly by officials, and perhaps
the courts. Perhaps using this WTO case as precedence. 

According to the Seattle Times, the City of Seattle just settled a
lawsuit with protesters for $250,000, over the WTO police riots in 1999.
In December 2003, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said the police
lacked probable cause to arrest the protesters outside a “no protest
zone.” Pechman said the police had done an “atrocious” job at record
keeping, as well as citing the use of improper warrant and arrest
procedures to round up protesters. Fearing civil lawsuits that were sure
to follow that legal determination, the City ran to beat the lawsuit,
with a settlement offer they certainly fought earlier. Since ex-Seattle
Police Chief Stamper was in charge during the WTO riots, and he resigned
right after the WTO riots in disgrace, that would also make it a bit
harder for the City to win over a jury in courts, for several reasons.
The City agrees that it would be the Mayor and the Police Chief that are
ultimately responsible for the WTO riots in 1999 if it went to court. And
since they would be liable parties, and they are City representatives,
that is why the City of Seattle, itself, is footing the bill for this
disgrace, rather than the individual officers, for example, who should
have all been tried for violent criminal behavior on top of this, in my
opinion. It is sickening that protesters who did nothing wrong were
criminally bullied, processed and charged, while the violent police never
were charged for violent crimes they DID commit.

Now, this WTO settlement is some great precedence, since the Seattle
Police rioted upon peaceful anti-war protesters in Seattle on March 22,
2003, on First Avenue, between Spring and Marion streets, and again on
5th Avenue and Union on June 2, 2003, at the LEIU protests. I witnessed
both events firsthand. Many of the issues in these WTO trials will affect
the outcomes of these antiwar and LEIU riot situations from 2003. In
weeks after the violence by Seattle police at the anti-war protests in
March 2003, the Seattle City Council was flooded with complaints from
citizens about the violence on that day, and the ACLU and local
organizations reprimanded the Mayor and City government, publicly, for
the police brutality we all witnessed. Many of us, myself included, have
put in claims against the city for the police and mayoral behaviors at
the 2003 protests in Seattle. My contention is that if Seattle police had
no right to arrest those protesters at the 1999 WTO protests, for simply
protesting, they also had no right to beat, assault, and falsely
imprison, from what I saw, (and arrest in some cases), any of the
approximately 500 people on March 22, 2003 that police abused in Seattle.
The Seattle Police also had no right to riot, from what I saw with my own
eyes, using unnecessary force without discretion, as they did at the LEIU
protests in Seattle. Attorneys for the WTO protesters argued it was
unconstitutional to herd bystanders together and arrest them, without
giving them a chance to disperse. Yet that is EXACTLY what Seattle police
did on March 22 and June 2, 2003.

The WTO riot abuses took 3 years to go to courts and finally have the
city settle. The antiwar and LEIU police riots in 2003 may take a few
years to litigate also. But, I hope the system will likewise find the
City to be vulnerable in civil proceedings regarding the 2003 police
riots also. And the City will continue to pay out in damages and
settlements, in my estimation, until it REINS IN THE SEATTLE POLICE AND
ITS UNSAFE, VIOLENT BEHAVIORS, WITH SERIOUS CITIZEN ACCOUNTABILITY
REVIEWS. The current Seattle Office of Police Accountability is
laughable.

This concept of acceptable police violence, and “no protest zones,” has
been pushed as far as possible by Bush. I even saw a mainstream TV news
story on how no president in American history has needed to be protected
from protesters by “no protest zones” like Bush has established each and
every place he visits! Another legacy of the WTO riots is a challenge to
this “no protest zone” and its Constitutionality. How do you have free
speech WITH “no protest zones” that hide the protesters away from
sight?!! That is what Seattle, and American Homeland Security, are trying
to argue for. “No protest zones” undermine the Constitutionally-protected
freedoms of speech and assembly so fundamentally that it is amazing this
is even up for argument. We will see how it all plays out in the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals shortly. As that part of the WTO protest case is
still to be heard, in an appeal to a 2001 ruling by U.S. District Judge
Barbara Rothstein. 

Rothstein upheld the no-protest zone, saying, according to the Times
article, "Free speech must sometimes bend to public safety." But that
would mean they had better PROVE there was a public safety issue, and
THAT is the crux of it all. Free speech is being “bent” PREEMPTIVELY with
an EXCUSE of public safety, by the Bush administration and police in
Seattle. Just as the Bush administration lies about weapons of mass
destruction, it also lies about public safety issues when it comes to
political protests. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,
and there were no “anarchist threats to safety” in Seattle on March 22,
or June 2, 2003. When Seattle Police were beating, assaulting, and
containing us against our will on March 22, THEY were the ONLY public
safety issue present. Police were the only ones using violence. I SAW the
protesters, they were crossing with the lights! They were using sidewalks
and crosswalks until the police stopped us, contained us like animals and
had a field day. That had NOTHING to do with public safety. It had to do
with REPRESSION OF POLITICAL FREE SPEECH AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. I,
personally, was there to PROTEST THE WAR. I was not violent, I was
breaking no laws. Yet I was assaulted by both Seattle and Federal riot
police. Where was the threat to public safety? IN THE MESSAGE? Because
there was no PHYSICAL threat to anything or anyone when police attacked
us on March 22, 2003 in Seattle. 

If this concept of extreme police violence upon hundreds of unarmed
protesters in Seattle at the WTO 1999 protests, is found to be
unconstitutional in the 9th Circuit courts, the City of Seattle will be
liable for even more in damages to WTO protesters, still to come. And to
LEIU and anti-war protesters after that. The City did not admit any
liability in this quarter million dollar settlement, but I think the
amount rewarded in this case speaks for itself. May this begin a new
precedent for freedom of assembly and freedom of speech without risk of
physical attack by violent unaccountable police in Seattle, and America. 

“All we say to America is be true to what you say on paper.
Because somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly,
Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech,
Somewhere I read of the freedom of press,
Somewhere I read that the greatness of America 
IS THE RIGHT TO PROTEST FOR RIGHT.” – Dr. Rev. MLKing. Jr.
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For near-daily political ramblings from Kirsten, visit her blog at
www.kanderberg.blogspot.com 
or go to her writing website at www.kirstenanderberg.com. For email
alerts when articles by Kirsten 
are published, go to google.com and sign up for their news alerts in her
name.


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