ACLU evaluation adds perspective

The American Civil Liberties Union has picked up the ball City Council members dropped when they declined to include civil-rights violations in their review of the World Trade Organization debacle late last year.

The ACLU's report, released yesterday, lends a different and valuable perspective to the community's soul-searching over WTO.

The ACLU concludes that through both the lack of preparedness for the protests that accompanied the WTO meetings and the use of excessive force to restore order, city officials denied the civil rights of both delegates and the peaceful protesters.

That criticism is right on target. Had police, for example, provided "corridors or security perimeters" to ensure that WTO delegates got to their meetings while protesters had their say, the report says, the rights of both would have been preserved.

But allowing the protests to block delegates from meetings eventually left city officials with little choice but to order police to clear the streets. That action, in turn, heightened the intensity of the protests by involving otherwise peaceful participants in confrontations with police.

Those confrontations escalated into questionable behavior on both sides, as tear gas, pepper spray, bottles and rubber bullets flew.

The city's reaction included imposition of a "no-protest zone" (city officials insist on "limited curfew zone") that essentially barred free expression from 25 square blocks of downtown Seattle. Residents were further outraged by scenes of over-aggressive police action in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

"Civil liberties paid a dear price for poor judgment calls made by public officials and police personnel every step of the way," the ACLU report alleges.

Among the report's recommendations for guarding civil rights in the future are: better police training on protesters' civil rights, suspension of the use of tear gas and pepper spray pending further health-risk studies, use of tear gas that spares bystanders from unnecessary exposure, banning the use of pepper spray to disperse crowds, requiring clear and visible police identification and City Council ratification of emergency orders (such as the "limited curfew zone").

When establishing its WTO Accountability Committee, the City Council at first formed four panels to review various aspects of the WTO: the decision to invite the WTO (report released last week), the city's preparation for the event, dealings with protesters and whether civil rights were violated. In the end, the council opted to drop the civil-rights part of the inquiry.

Amid all the expressed concern over public safety, economic losses of downtown businesses and the city, and Seattle's global public image, it's refreshing to see concerns raised over the protection of citizens' fundamental civil rights.