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for the four hours that President Clinton was in public view, just as they had pulled back
as the AFL-CIO parade approached downtown. In the words of one TV reporter, “The
streets were strangely quiet.” At 1 p.m., Washington Gov. Gary Locke gave a live
interview on local television. Locke stated that order was restored to Seattle and told
local shoppers to “come downtown”—inside the perimeter of the “no protest” zone.
Unfortunately, the governor hadn’t heard about police plans for a 4 p.m. crackdown to
drive protesters out of the downtown core, a time that coincides with the downtown
rush hour.
As Clinton’s motorcade departed, the streets were once again blanketed in tear gas and
police fired pepper spray at anyone who got in their way. At the Pike Place Market,
tear gas was severe enough that produce merchants put out signs the next day
announcing they were closed because their fruits and vegetables were contaminated by
tear gas.
As on Tuesday, the police failed to move the crowds of protesters and the main axis of
protest movement once again became Pike and Pine Streets. After two hours, police
were able to move only two blocks up Pike from the market to Second Avenue. A
protester blockade at Third and Pine stayed in place until protesters voluntarily
dispersed at 6:45 p.m.
To celebrate their “control” of the now empty streets, a column of a dozen police cars
raced through the empty downtown core with emergency lights flashing and sirens
blaring. Police officials explained to reporters that this “wild weasel” operation was a
“show of force to clear the streets.” The news videos of the stream of cars is one of the
more surreal images from the entire week. Things would get even stranger that night.
At about the same time as the “wild weasels” were racing through the streets, police
assaulted Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver. McIver said city police officers
yanked him from his car, pulled his arms behind his back and started to cuff him as he
drove to a World Trade Organization reception event at the nearby Westin Hotel.
Councilman McIver said,
I don’t want to aid the hooligans who are raising hell and I don’t want to take on specific officers…. But there are
huge flaws with the officers when it comes to people of color. I’m 58 years old. I had on a $400 suit, but last night, I
was just another nigger.
Street Battles for the Hell of It
The final incident of Wednesday night demonstrated that civilian control of law
enforcement ceased to exist for a time. The “Battle of Capitol Hill” degenerated into a
police riot, perhaps the only time during the WTO protests that police command totally
lost control of their forces on the street.