ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

Eat the State! asked our e-mail subscribers for eyewitness accounts of what they saw last week. Here's a few of their stories:

The Labor March

The experience of Tuesday's 70,000-plus rally and march downtown will be with me always. Such a range of memories: the beautifully vast and colorful array of people, the cogent messages of hope and need brought by citizen leaders from around the world, the dark, frozen images of marchers running blindly ahead of riot-clad police, the sound of pepper spray streaming against the poster held just inches in front of my face.

Tuesday's labor march began at Seattle's Memorial Stadium in the shadow of the Space Needle, where tens of thousands gathered to hear presentations from world leaders of labor, environmental, and community movements.

A remarkable number of people from other nations were part of the march and rally. Many spoke little English, yet came to bear witness with their presence against a system they felt was developed without their input or perspective.

Bands played and the streets were filled with marchers who progressed to the downtown core where WTO delegates were scheduled to meet. It was a festive time, with people reveling in the global display of unity. This quickly took a dark turn.

It is lamentable that any property was damaged, and even more regrettable that the authorities elected to persecute thousands of innocent, legal marchers with physical assault and injury. The aggression I witnessed on the streets of Seattle far exceeds anything I directly witnessed during the 1997 "marching season" in Northern Ireland.

I happened to arrive at the police line at 4th and Pike at 3 PM--a critical moment. Marchers were sporadically chanting to the police: "Dessert, dessert--you're human beings not war machines" and "You're people too, march with us." I think you'll agree that these were fairly benign and non-threatening chants. From my vantage point near the entrance to Tully's I could see across nearly the entire police line. I saw no one among the marchers reaching across the line or otherwise intimidating the police--who all were well protected by riot gear, including gas masks, helmets, face shields and batons. Though no one was moving, the officer next to me would occasionally step forward and shove me with the butt of his baton saying "stand back!"

Then, without provocation, this same policeman used his baton to spear the fellow next to me in the stomach, crumpling him to the ground. That caused a man 5 people down the line to start yelling angrily. He didn't touch or reach toward the police; however, they shouted at him to be silent and when he kept yelling, they pepper-sprayed him. As he recoiled back into the crowd, the police came forward, grabbed him, and dragged him through their line, where he was thrown to the ground with 3 officers on top of him. The crowd restrained itself admirably and started to chant "no violence, no violence" whereupon the police opened up with pepper spray across the entire line on 4th Avenue. This specific event was described by media as occurring because "a protester broke through the police line." Nothing of the sort happened, as I can attest from being there.

I got pretty well covered with gas, but thankfully was carrying a poster which protected me from a direct hit to the face, though my clothes were covered with the foamy white spray. The marchers began to run, but everyone must have been as blinded and choked as I was, moving mostly by feel with hands outstretched. My calls for water were heard and a Canadian man helped me flush my eyes, while a woman held my glasses. They took me further back so I wouldn't be overrun by other marchers, as shortly after I was sprayed, the police started detonating tear gas and firing heavy plastic pellets into the crowd.

Pandemonium ensued, and this police action is what prompted some of the outraged marchers to begin throwing signs and whatever else was at hand at the police line. At no point yesterday did I see media cameras or reporters any closer than a half block from the front, which would make it impossible for them to directly report what I experienced and saw.

Bruce Herbert, Seattle

A Doctor's Story

I'm a medical doctor. Everything you have seen on television on local news broadcasts, including national public radio, was a blackout. The police were using concussion grenades. They were shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters' faces. They were using so-called rubber bullets. These are actually hard plastic. Some of the damage I saw: these plastic bullets took off part of one person's jaw, smashed teeth in other people's mouths. I saw the police arrest people who had their hands up in the air screaming, "We are peacefully protesting!" The amount of looting that took place was so minimal I don't even know where they got the footage from.

The rubber bullets are made of polyester-type material. They are like a hard plastic toys. The idea is to hit your body, do damage, but not actually penetrate. But I did see penetration wounds, I did see people bleeding. I did see teeth loss, I did see broken bones. There were children present, there were families present, they were firing upon families, mothers, grandmothers. They were just firing at them. It was very obvious that there was an institutional control that had no regard for human rights whatsoever.

In addition, we have video footage of protesters being taken away as well as human rights being violated. Prisoners were taken and they were tortured. There is a case--I believe his name is Holm, Keith Holm. He was tortured because he would not give his name. They handcuffed him, laid him on the floor, they smashed his face against the concrete, they grabbed his hair, they ripped out a lock of his hair. And then they placed pencils between his fingers and pressed on them until he would give his name. He refused. They were also banging his head against metal objects. He was actually the first protester released because the Internal Affairs came in to do an investigation and they wanted him gone, because he would be able to give testimony.

We're treating people in a studio loft downtown. I just treated an ear wound. People have been treated for concussion injuries. There have been people who have been treated for plastic bullet wounds. Lots of tear gas injuries, lots of damage to corneas, lots of damage to the eyes and skin. They were using a pepper spray, a tear gas, and they were also using some sort of nerve gas. We had reports of many demonstrators winding up with seizures the next day. It causes muscles to clamp up--muscle contraction, seizures.

What you are seeing on television about looting and anarchistic protesters--that's a straight-out blackout and they are basically pushing that [line]. There is not much damage to property here. There are not many windows that have been damaged or stores that have been looted. Those are extremely rare cases.

I used to believe newspapers were telling the truth. But now I am no longer behind that. This is the beginning of a police state. You can quote me on that.

Excerpted from an APF Network interview with Dr. Richard DeAndrea, Seattle

We're Not Violent...

I attended the WTO protests on Tuesday. And I do have one experience that really sticks out in my mind.

At one point on Tuesday afternoon, we were demonstrating on the eastern side of the Paramount Theater. Michael Moore was rallying on the western side of the Paramount and keeping up the chants of the protesters. A group of us were around the other side of the Paramount. We were basically chanting "We want justice and we want it now" and "Shame on you." When the delegates came out of the building, we shouted the staple "WTO must go" chant. When the delegates appeared, apparently wanting to get into their vehicles to drive off, the demonstrators were definitely more vocal in their "Shame on you" chants and the energy of the place felt really good and unified. That is when the delegates each grabbed a gas mask from the trunks of their vehicles, police officers in full riot gear appeared, and 4 or 5 cops on horses showed up. I was really surprised by this, since there were families in the crowd--I was standing behind one child, maybe 9 or 10 years old with his mother/guardian--and a lot of the protesters were sitting down on the ground, still chanting. At that point, one of the demonstrators--one who needs a big thank you from everyone there--began the chant "We're not violent, how 'bout you?" This quickly became the chant of everyone.

As a result, the cops on the horses and the riot-geared police officers left, while the remaining police officers in normal uniform remained. What developed was a civil demonstration. We didn't feel threatened and neither did they. And I really can't stress the importance of chanting "We're not violent how 'bout you?" It removed the fear I was feeling as I watched the police prepare to tear gas us. It made me feel that, no I am not doing anything wrong by protesting, I am not breaking a law, I have a right to be here and you can't scare me away. And I think it must have made the police look at this situation and see that they were in the position to tear gas a bunch of citizens for sitting in a closed off road and parking lot, not being violent, not being threatening, just voicing their opinions.

Audrey from Duvall, WA

Stopping the Looters

On Tuesday, I worked most of the day and got downtown around 3 PM. It was an incredible scene--bunches of people on their cell phones (including me) trying to find their friends, a bit of broken glass, lots of spray paint graffiti, lots of professional activists from across the country.

In general, I was incredibly impressed by the march organizers and the majority of participants in their commitment to a non-violent protest. One of the people I was with was a peace-keeper who kept in constant radio contact with the other peace-keepers. They would try to stop people from breaking store-front windows, setting fires, and inciting panic.

Things began to get a little ugly the minute it started to turn dark. Lots more people were breaking glass and, in general, getting out of control. I actually got caught in a massive tear gassing of peaceful protesters and high-school aged looters. We were trying to leave that area because those kids looked like they were trying to incite mass panic and start looting stores. I heard one girl say to another, "I'm talking about free clothes from Nike, man! FREE CLOTHES!!" They obviously didn't care at all about the WTO, but just wanted to get free name-brand stuff. A bunch of us faced off with that group of 20-30 kids and tried to convince them to turn back. To no avail, unfortunately. Some of those kids started to hit some of the people who tried to prevent them from looting Nike Town.

Right as we turned away to leave, the cops started shooting off canisters of pepper spray. People in my group were like deer caught in headlights, listening to people yelling and running in every direction as canister after canister exploded into the crowd. I counted four canisters, but someone else in my group counted nine. I thought it was tear gas, but one of the people in my group said that we definitely got pepper-sprayed instead of tear gassed. She said that tear gas doesn't constrict your lungs like pepper spray. And we certainly weren't able to breathe for a while--it felt like a massive panic-inducing asthma attack. You can breathe in, but not out. Breathing in ensured that we inhaled more of the cloud of pepper spray. We couldn't see, either, because tears were streaming out of our eyes. In about 20 minutes, the pain around my eyes dissipated, but I wasn't able to take a deep breath for about 3 hours. We got out of there as fast as possible and went to eat dinner.

What really impressed me was the way the march peace-keepers were able to (mostly) keep a tight-lid on panic and prevent more acts of violence from happening during the day. The looting and rioting took place after dark and was done by people who wanted to take advantage of the pandemonium, not by the organized protesters.

Anonymous, Seattle

Caught in the Crossfire

I state my outrage and demand to know who is responsible for ordering the police and National Guard assault on Capitol Hill last night [Wed., Dec. 1]. I was on Broadway having coffee with my mother when the assault began. There were no protesters in the street at the time. The police systematically advanced up the lively commercial strip behind a screen of tear gas in this, one of the densest neighborhoods in the nation. Thousands of people were on the sidewalks and in the stores shopping and dining. Many were trapped between the police lines.

After the initial assault, we emerged from the safety of a shop to see and hear columns of armored police marching lockstep and banging their riot sticks in rhythm like the Gestapo. A busload of National Guardsmen arrived. I personally witnessed many instances of absolutely unnecessary police brutality. My own mother was pepper-sprayed. I saw women and children emerging from shops tear gassed. I was phoning 911 from a pay phone when a person coming out of a Safeway store with an armful of groceries was spotlighted and shot with a rubber bullet. I saw a legal observer on the ground and bleeding from the head. I took many pictures before I was finally scared off.

I demand redress.

Peter Hodges, Seattle