June 3, 2003

End the Seattle Police Vendetta Against Demonstrators--
Chief Kerlikowske must resign

Seattle Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party statement
Demonstration Photos

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles and Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske put on a show of brutality yesterday for cops and spies attending the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit (LEIU) conference.  Ever since the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations, the police have been on a campaign to prove they run Seattle regardless of whose rights they violate. Any group engaged in the legal exercise of their First Amendment rights is a target, from antiwar demonstrators to African Americans protesting police abuse.

In last night's siege, police from several cities used pepper spray, concussion grenades, rubber bullets and agents provocateur to break up a peaceful demonstration.  A dozen protesters were arrested, many suffered cuts, welts, contusions and stinging eyes and four were taken to the hospital. Guerry Hoddersen, Seattle Radical Women, said, "Downtown Seattle was like the Oakland, California wharf in April where police shot at unionists and antiwarprotesters who rallied to oppose military shipments to Iraq."

Over 700 champions of civil liberties attended a rally and march organized by the No Big Brother coalition to protest the annual LEIU gathering.  The LEIU is a private, clandestine organization designed for sharing information, training, and techniques among 250 U.S. and Canadian police agencies. Founded by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and funded by tax dollars and law enforcement associations, it is a secret police force that is accountable to no one. It maintains databases on myriad activist groups, in a way forbidden to public agencies. Luma Nichol, Organizer of the Freedom Socialist Party, observed, "It's not supposed to be a crime or against the law to disagree with your government, which is what most of us do to end up in the LEIU files.

The 700 participants had a permit to go around the block housing the Red Lion Hotel where the LEIU was meeting. But half way through the route, they were stopped by the police. People milled in the street for a half hour and many left, thinking the march was over. That's when the agents provocateur started fistfights in the crowd and the police charged a handful of demonstrators throwing garbage.

Once again, Seattle police nametags were covered up and other officers put tape over their agency names. Washington State Patrol claimed that they did not have to abide by Seattle's rules on wearing nametags.  The police did not give the crowd orders to disperse before attacking people as they headed back to Westlake Center--where protesters intended to disband. Demonstrators were pepper sprayed and shot with pellets on their backs as they were fleeing the concussion grenade attack. At least one undercover officer was filmed throwing punches on Northwest Cable News TV before leaping to the safety of the police line when teargas was sprayed. And some police were seen with assault weapons.

The police had tried to disrupt plans for the LEIU protest at the last minute - despite organizers having obtained required permits - by insisting that march organizers must buy insurance because the protest was an "event," like a festival or street fair. They backed off this requirement the morning of the march under threat of a lawsuit.

Yesterday's military-type assault on protesters shows that the Seattle mayor and police chief still adhere to a "wrong and strong" policy. Rather than negotiating with protest organizers, they try to intimidate, harass, confuse and provoke demonstrators. During the invasion of Iraq, for instance, they ticketed passing drivers who honked in support of protests at the federal building, a violation of freedom of political speech. They corralled demonstrators who were walking on sidewalks and detained them for hours. They charged into lines of marchers and divided them up into little segments so that demonstrations were broken up, leaving protesters vulnerable to individual assault by the police.

City Council hearings on this situation do little to improve it. People blow off a little steam and the cops go back to acting like this is Baghdad and demonstrators are criminals and looters.

Said Nichol, "Chief Kerlikowske has to go and the mayor and city council must be held responsible for these attacks on First Amendment rights. We are not living in a police state yet, but we will be unless people stand up for their rights now and hold elected officials responsible for the acts of their police forces."

Please send protest messages to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels greg.nickels@seattle.gov and the Seattle City Council: city.action@ci.seattle.wa.us