> -----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
>
> ============================================================================
> Delivered-To: moderator for renaissance-network@cyberjournal.org
> Delivered-To: moderator for cj@cyberjournal.org
> From: intrprtr@prodigy.net
> 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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