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WTO protesters accuse city of excessive force
Saturday, February 3, 2001
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
World Trade Organization protesters who were pelted with rubber bullets in 1999 are accusing the city of Seattle of excessive force.
The eight plaintiffs claim their constitutional rights were violated because they were shot at, pepper-sprayed and roughed up by riot police while protesting peacefully.
Mary Elizabeth Williams, a Colville postal worker, was among those filing an amended complaint yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle against the city, Mayor Paul Schell and former Police Chief Norm Stamper.
Williams, who has changed her name to Life Has Meaning, says she was involved in two of the more dramatic incidents.
On Nov. 30, 1999, the first day of the WTO protests, Williams, 53, said she was lying on the ground in non-violent protest when an officer smashed her leg with a baton -- cutting and bruising it. During demonstrations the following day, she claims an officer shot her in the eye with a rubber bullet.
The bullet caused permanent partial blindness in her left eye, said Williams, a self-described student of Mahatma Gandhi.
Dick Lilly, the mayor's spokesman, declined to comment on the suit.
The suit was initially filed last November on behalf of four protesters.
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