WTO Days 5&6: "Free the Seattle 600!"

[published/posted Dec 5, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

SATURDAY & SUNDAY (Dec 4 & 5):

The King County Jailhouse protest lasted all weekend. I'm not sure when the Hilton lockdown from Friday night ended, but I didn't hear anything more about it again this weekend.

The most notable thing to happen Saturday was the clearing out of squatters at the 9th and Virginia "protest" that had been going on since Monday. Squatters, many newly arrived in town for the protests, had taken over a vacant building and turned their efforts into a protest/commentary on the absurdity of having homeless people and vacant buildings in the same city. As far as I know, this protest/occupation ended peacefully with no arrests.

I didn't visit the King County Jailhouse on Saturday, but did go back down there on Sunday with a camcorder to collect some interviews from released prisoners. I managed to take testimony from four members of the "Seattle 600".

During the mass arrests of Tuesday and Wednesday, police were forced to utilize Metro buses to haul the protestors away. Protestors were taken to the former Sand Point Navy Base on Lake Washington for processing. Once there, a combination of slow, disorganized processing and prisoners' refusal to cooperate kept some of those arrested on the buses for 12-14 hours. I was able to verify that some prisoners HAD indeed been pepper sprayed point blank in the face and dragged off the buses once police had grown tired of the protest.

I heard another account of a protestor whose wrist restraints were strapped on so tight his hands turned blue; his arms above the restraints turned pasty white.. After several attempts, officers gave up trying to get the straps off... they couldn't get a blade or scissors between the strap and his skin! Unfortunately I didn't hear how this problem was resolved. (If anyone can tell me, please send me some e-mail to let me know if this person is okay..)

Remember, only a dozen or so of the 500/600 were arrested for violent activity. Everyone else was there for "failure to disperse". Later, erroneous charges were added such as "blocking pedestrian traffic" and "resisting arrest". I talked to people who had as many as five charges leveled against them for a single act of protest!

According to additional testimony I received, police employed several "fuck-with-your-head" tactics on the prisoners such as: seperating them into smaller and smaller groups to keep them from socializing; placing prisoners into cells with actual convicts who had been in jail for months; placing prisoners into solitairy confinement; and constantly waking prisoners up to question them (or make them change cells) depriving them of sleep.

Prisoners weren't fed for the first 14 hours of their incarceration. Vegetarianism wasn't respected. Religious observances in regards to food were ignored. Prisoners' eyeglasses were removed and returned only upon release (54+ hours later).

And... (this is great!) Over the weekend many arrested protestors were released because the police had no record of why these individuals were arrested in the first place! No paperwork or arresting officer could be connected to them. These were protestors who had been in custody four or five days already (since Tuesday or Wednesday), and had their repeated requests to see a lawyer denied. What an embarassment for the police department. What a lawsuit for those people illegally detained! Make good use of your windfall...

All weekend long Seattle's favorite Sith Lord, City Attorney Mark Sidran, refused to negotiate with the protestors gathered in front of the jailhouse.

From Seattle,
Mattro