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.

Party Turns into Protest

I am from out of town but decided to come to Seattle for New Year's Eve. I was walking on Capitol Hill when I came across a crowd of New Years' revelers all dressed up and having a great time. I decided to stick with the rowdy revelers and milled around in the crowd. A man dressed like Osama bin Laden arrived, followed close behind by a George Bush look-alike and everyone was laughing and snapping photos.

Shortly thereafter the police also showed up and created a guarded area in the island from which they conducted operations. Osama was carrying a fake gun, and the police wanted to see if it was real, so instead of just walking up to him and asking him to step aside and talk to them, they swooped in and pulled him across the line of traffic and into the center aisle.

At this point I decided that my fun tolerance had reached its limit (police are not fun) and decided to walk back to the car, parked across the street. Little did I know that jaywalking is strictly enforced, for one of the police threatened to mace me! At that point I decided that these partiers were not just partying, in fact at that point it ceased to be just a party and became a statement. A statement against the policing policies of the Seattle Police Department. The ease with which that woman pulled out her canister of gas; the fear in her eye, in all of their eyes--this is how you turn a party into a protest.

The evening got worse. The Party decided to walk down the hill, presumably to go downtown, but we were met at a big intersection by riot cops in full gear, amassing in numbers, brought by busloads as into combat! Throughout the whole night the police kept their distance, never once did an officer address any of the revelers, nor did they enter the crowd to figure out what was going on, or what we wanted to do.

The Us vs. Them mentality of the police must be stopped, from their side. You in Seattle must start asking them to police in a more humane and creative way. The tactics employed on New Year's Eve by the Seattle Police Department were the proper tactics to turn a party into a tense and angry mob. When will they get some perspective? A party has no point of protest and would be peaceful and everyone would go home, but the police arrive and present a clear and present danger, a tangible enemy before whom we can all band together. Please stop the gassing, and change the tactics; the WTO meeting is over.

Thank you for your time.

Frances O'Brian, San Francisco

Homegrown Terrorists

Although I have written the President regarding this matter, I thought it would be nice for Geov P to mention and to perhaps ask the question on the air and the website: "When will U.S. citizens see dramatic action taken (like seizing assets) of groups like the KKK and others who have committed (and certainly continue to commit) acts of terrorism here in our own country for 100 years. I have little doubt that the KKK has terrorized, injured, and killed numbers of US citizens equal to or greater than the loss of Sept 11. Bushy said on air from a deli in Crawford, TX, just a few days ago that "terrorism is terrorism." He and Ashcroft should be familiar with the definition of terrorism from the from the Oxford American dictionary: "Terrorism, n., use of violence and intimidation, especially for political purposes."

If the president (illegitimate as he is) and John Ashcroft are as committed to this as their words, they will act quickly to free the American people from this homegrown brand of terrorism. It would be fitting for them to also begin immediate investigations into the Seattle Police Dept. (and other police departments around the country) regarding the incidents on Nov. 30, 2000, and especially of Nov. 30, 2001, where police clearly acted first in their use of violence and intimidation. The simple act of seeing hundreds of booted, armored, suited up, and unidentified police moving against peaceful citizens exercising what's left of their Constitutional rights, slapping their hands with batons, pushing citizens to the ground with bicycles, using pepper spray, and committing other acts of unprovoked violence, must be recognized as pure terrorism (see definition). Condoning or ignorance of the terrorists is unacceptable. And we haven't mentioned the acts of terrorism carried out each day by our own CIA and FBI.

Bruce Kelton, via e-mail

Ate So Many, I Blacked Out

Re: News Stories of 2001.

How could you have left off crispy cream?!?!

Geoff Kirk, via e-mail

Didn't Get It

I have no interest in Harry Potter and didn't "get" any of the related jokes printed in the current issue, nor do I understand how the Harry Potter craze was able to garnish so much space in ETS!. Please leave any mention of it from future issues of ETS!.

Will Anderson, via e-mail

Didn't Like the "Fucking" Part

Your top movies of 2001 was full of foul language. Though I value your publication for it's alternative view on politics that cannot be found in other publications, I have to say, enough is enough with the foul language. If you are trying to do good for society with your publication, to represent the little person's viewpoint, there is nothing that will be helped by displaying this foul language in print. It is offensive and I wish it not to be printed in what I read.

Curtis Strong, via e-mail