The police-inspired fracas that marred the end of Harlem's Million Youth March, at least, could never happen in Seattle. Except that a few weeks ago, it almost did.

The MYM crowd got out of hand when, minutes before the scheduled end of a peaceful, lawful rally, police began to storm the stage and to move through the rally area to force the crowd to disperse. An eerily similar cop trick happened last month at the street festival the City of Seattle loves to hate, Hempfest. The police presence, while large this year, was not as hostile as last year's--until 7:45 PM, just before the event's scheduled 8 PM close.

At that point, Seattle police formed a human wall from one side of Myrtle Edwards Park (the waterfront) to the other (the fence by the railroad tracks) and literally marched, shoulder to shoulder, through the park, forcing everyone--rally attendees, vendors, and Hempfest staff--out of the park in front of them. The public park was officially "closed" at 8 PM.

As with last year's Hempfest, the harassment of the event by the Seattle Police Department was a direct attack on free speech. With (as last year) a medical marijuana ballot measure up for a November vote, Hempfest was billed as a political rally. The stultifying police presence was intended both to scare off people who might attend and intimidate those who did. The right to gather to protest what many feel is a series of unjust laws (i.e., the War on Drugs) is pretty basic--it's in the Bill of Rights. The City of Seattle, apparently, has other priorities.

In New York, this sort of needlessly provocative (and expensive) police attack on a lawful political assembly might be (and was) met by bitter resistance. Fortunately, the herb-friendly attendees of Hempfest went quietly into the night.