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and faces of thousands of seated, peaceful, civil disobedience protesters in the street intersections at 10:00 in the morning. I was there, too. I was a legal observer. There were no windows being broken or other such actions until later in the day, AFTER thousands had been brutalized and hauled off into buses where they were further abused--10, 12 hours without food or toilet facilities. And even then, very few people participated in any vandalism. I walked many streets that day. It was only a few--mostly the black-masked kids. And those few were permitted to do by the police. The police were intent on punishing and controlling the peaceful protesters, not the few vandals. Most people were trying to find a safe place from the cs gas and from the phalanxes of cops, armored vehicles, and rioting POLICE. In late afternoon, the police started invading neighborhoods that had nothing to do with the protest. They gassed and beat up uninvolved people. They beat up a city councilman! I think the protesters showed amazing restraint in the face of extreme provocation. I watched these phalanxes of cops get out their big pepper spray machines and aim those hoses--basically like a fire hose of pepper spray--right at the heads and faces of completely peaceful protesters, who were seated, offering no resistance. It is one of the most horrible things I have ever personally witnessed. It was like an extermination of cockroaches. There was no reason for them to do this. NO ONE was doing ANYTHING to windows or trash cans when this occurred. No one was "rioting." No one was threatening the police or anyone else. This dreadful brutality by the police went on for hours before there was any vandalism. TEN THOUSAND people sat down in the intersections of Seattle, to peacefully shut down the WTO, in an awesome civil disobedience action, without incident--until the police showed up. Our political establishment--bent on U.S.-corporate dominated globalisation--absolutely could not tolerate such a protest, and were determined not just to smash it, but to slander it. They PROVOKED the riotous elements (or paid them!), and, even then, the vast majority of people did not participate. To call this a "frigging riot," and to give the impression that some people got ACCIDENTALLY pepper-sprayed, does not gel at all with what I observed. As I said, I was a legal observer. I was in the streets from 7 am until nighttime. I myself was caught in clouds of cs gas--also used without provocation--to punish, harm and dislodge the peaceful protesters from the intersections, NOT to control unruly vandals.
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