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Police admit reputation is now 'tarnished'

Wednesday, December 1, 1999

By MICHAEL PAULSON, HEATH FOSTER and MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

Despite months of warnings that thousands of people planned to descend on Seattle to disrupt the World Trade Organization, Seattle police were unable to prevent protesters from disrupting the first formal day of talks.

"Share with me some of the embarrassment," Seattle Mayor Paul Schell said at a news conference late last night. "We have not had property damage like this in Seattle in 20 years. This is not the way a civil society conducts its debates."

Ed Joiner, assistant chief of operations for the police department, acknowledged that the department's "reputation has been tarnished a little bit today."

He said a police "threat analysis" had failed to predict violence, even though the last WTO meeting, in Geneva, was greeted by rioting that included protesters overturning cars and setting them on fire.

"Based on the threat analysis, quite frankly we didn't have any reason to believe they would engage in this behavior," Joiner said.

The police failed to guarantee delegates access to the Paramount Theater, where the opening ceremonies had been scheduled, or to the convention center, where the main negotiations were to take place. The Paramount event was canceled; the convention center, which had been evacuated on Monday because of a suspected security breach, was locked down for hours yesterday.

Joiner said the police strategy was to use pepper spray and tear gas to move people away from hotels and businesses -- but those were tactics police were willing to use only if provoked. But some witnesses disputed that, claiming that police fired tear gas at nonviolent protesters in several instances.

"If there's anything we can be criticized for, it would be for standing back for too long," Joiner said.

He said police will be more aggressive today, and Police Chief Norm Stamper promised an unspecified increase in the number of officers on the streets.

Delegates, some officials and even some protesters openly questioned how city officials lost control of the streets. By the end of the day, Gov. Gary Locke had called in the National Guard to help re-establish control, and television stations were displaying coverage with logos such as "Seattle Under Siege."

"In Finland and Europe, they would have closed neighborhoods down and not let anyone in the area," said Finnish delegate Entero Tuominen, who was trapped in the Seattle Sheraton yesterday morning. "It's kind of embarrassing. Maybe the police were not well prepared."

Schell defended the department and the decision to wait until last night to call for help. He said that calling out the National Guard before the protests began "would have inflamed and made circumstances worse." And he also defended the police decision not to make mass arrests, saying that mass arrests would have diverted too many officers from downtown.

Stamper, whose stewardship of the police department has been questioned repeatedly this year, blamed the chaos of the day on "a cowardly but very effective strategy" in which peaceful protesters were at the front of protest lines, in effect providing a buffer between police and the violent protesters.

But many of those who spent yesterday on the streets of Seattle have tough questions for Seattle's leadership.

"Normally you would be arrested and taken off the streets before people would be shot with tear gas," said Medea Benjamin, a protester with Global Exchange of San Francisco.

Despite widespread publicity about demonstrations that included visits by reporters to a civil disobedience training camp, the police seemed to be caught by surprise by the number of marchers who arrived in the city and by the percentage of marchers willing to engage in violence.

Seattle officials had hoped to accomplish two goals this week: Allow critics of the WTO to exercise their right to protest, and allow delegates of the WTO to conduct their meetings.

They have thus far failed to achieve their second goal.

Elected officials sought solace from the fact that no one was killed, property damage and personal injuries were minimal and the meeting eventually got under way.

P-I Reporters Michael Paulson, Phuong Le and Kimberly Wilson contributed to this report.

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