Re: RE: Look! It's a riot!
LR Pearson, Arts 99 (lp9616@bristol.ac.uk)
Mon, 06 Dec 1999 14:07:54 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)
Interestingly, Michael Meacher (Britain's environmental secretary)
publicly placed most of the blame for the riots on the Seattle police,
saying they were too heavy handed.
Love,
Lucy-Ruth
On Fri, 03 Dec 1999 09:54:57 -0800 "Sean Draine (Exchange)"
<seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com> wrote:
> Ya know, I figured there had to be at least one other Seattle inhabitant on
> this list. Hey there!
>
> The "skirmish" I was at was Tuesday night on Pine St in Capitol Hill (the
> protestors had just been pushed out of downtown), and my impression was that
> the police were more or less behaving themselves considering the chaos
> downtown. The next day, the local media complained the police were too soft.
> It seems the police were listening, as they spent most of Wednesday evening
> indiscriminately gassing, kicking, and firing at anyone who happened to be
> on Capitol Hill, including the local residents. Last night there was an
> impromptu march of Capitol Hill dwellers down Broadway with about 1000-2000
> people. A quarter of us continued to Downtown where we faced off with riot
> police for several hours without incident.
>
> One funny moment: A protester started yelling that the real cause of the
> march is the WTO, and someone from the crowd responded "tourist!!!!". Last
> night's march was very much about the neighborhood.
>
> "No Donuts, no justice!"
> -Sean
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nicholas R. Jarrett [mailto:njarrett@oz.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 3:45 PM
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: RE: Look! It's a riot!
>
>
> I, being a citizen of fair Seattle, was present all Tuesday on the streets,
> even when the situation was worst. As always, don't believe everything the
> news has to say to you. The protests were originally very peaceful, until
> about 20 self-proclaimed anarchists from Eugene came into downtown,
> opportunists came with them and the some of the protestors, very tired of
> being physically abused by the literal army of police on the streets, joined
> them. Very sad.
>
> But, on the bright side, for 12 hours, you had conservatives and liberals,
> radicals and fundamentalists, gays and straights, blacks and whites, muslims
> and christians, environmentalists and steel-workers all out on the street
> together, fighting for a common cause. That's pretty potent stuff, and it's
> too bad the news only shows the reactionary efforts of the police, the
> trouble point of the entire thing (the intersection at 6th and Union) and
> the efforts of a few punks. Seeing people of every variety dancing in the
> streets, united, fighting for, at least nominally, a good cause... it was
> worth getting tear gassed time and time again.
>
> Now, there is martial law on the streets of Seattle. It is a felony crime to
> own or wear a gas mask in city limits. Police has chased down and BEAT
> ordinary workers, thinking them to be protestors. It's very sad how quickly
> a 'democracy' becomes a police state when corporate and political interests
> are threatened.
>
> Peace,
>
> Nicholas Jarrett
> njarrett@oz.net <mailto:njarrett@oz.net>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> [mailto:owner-bananafish@lists.nyu.edu]On Behalf Of Sean Draine (Exchange)
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 5:57 PM
> To: 'bananafish@lists.nyu.edu'
> Subject: Look! It's a riot!
>
>
>
>
> "...and speaking of Chicago, does anybody else have an irresistible urge to
> start chanting "The whole world's watching!" whenever the TV coughs up
> images of Seattle? I feel I've failed in my responsibilities as a human
> being--let alone as a journalist--because I'm not there myself."
>
> Indeed, you should have been here. Riots are really meant to be experienced
> firsthand. Only then do you get a true sense of the players:
>
> The short drunken guy boasting to his friends about running through the
> streets while taking a piss. (I mean, it's not everyday you can get away
> with that sort of thing).
>
> The hooded teenagers who, hoping to see some real violence tonight instead
> of that televised crap, lob M80s and beer bottles over the protestors and
> into a phalanx of unresponsive riot police.
>
> The couple poised with signs in the middle of the street, glowing with
> bright Green righteousness, smiling in the face of a police tank and 50
> faceless riot police in black armour.
>
> The voice on the megaphone (kind of sounds like someone's dad) who politely
> introduces himself as Sargent Anderson of the Seattle Police Department and
> calmly asks the crowd to disperse.
>
> I like downtown Seattle, and was sad to see it trashed and looted. There was
> nothing political about that - just the greedy opportunistic mentality of a
> mob. Sadder still, the only reason "the whole world's watching" is to gawk
> at the violence and mayhem.
>
> -Sean
>
>
----------------------
LR Pearson, Arts 99
lp9616@bristol.ac.uk