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Big Brother comes to Seattle. This rally is gonna be huge.

10:21 / 15.05.03

Quite excited, I am.

Golf tournament, anyone?

09:30 / 22.05.03

Heck yeah this is exciting. Why, there hasn't been a riot in Seattle for MONTHS!

In other words, see you there.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:14 / 22.05.03

Hm. Interesting the the link to the Anti-Defamation League is on the second site.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:14 / 22.05.03

Pah. Only geography (damn geography... I hated it at school, and the enmity between us has never died) prevents me from being there. Have fun & good luck, though, kids...

Nick- that is interesting. I'm not sure what it means, though...

12:20 / 22.05.03

mmm, have fun and take care.

16:31 / 22.05.03

Its not something thats ever really bothered me. And in relation to ID cards being an invasion of civil liberties because the police could get your details: maybe its just me but i dont see that as a huge problem. I've always felt like theres a camera on me anyway. Anyways, have fun xx

04:25 / 02.06.03

Well, the LEIU site is gone...

Rage, are you comming all the way back here just for this? I wonder what the local : outsider ratio is going to be as it seems like most of the people on the BigBrother protest circuit are following the Dead or something. Anyway, I'm gonna be busy whoring for that almighty dollar so I'm not gonna make it. And I tend to avoid potential police beatings in my old age.

From the NoBigBrother site:
...did you know that Seattle Police must wear 24 pt. nametags, on the upper torso, on their *outermost layer* of clothing, at all times while on duty? And that they must give their name and agency when asked, and may not interpret that as undermining their authority?

Did you know that a patch of black electrical tape, a can of pepper spray and a wacking stick will end your little question and answer session real fucking quick?

09:16 / 04.06.03

Oh yes, bio K9, the SPD is quite fond of that little trick.

It's no surprise that the Seattle cops pulled out the rubber bullets and pepper spray for the June 2nd rally. The police reported that some protesters got unruly, of course. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there after all, so I don't know if that was true.

Those of you who were there, inform us!

Chances are a few people did get rowdy, I'd bet. However, as usual, the SPD took this as an invitation to hose the entire crowd with pepper spray and rubber bullets. They managed to hit an AP photographer with the spray, and a Seattle Post-Intelligencer photogragher got the rubber bullet treatment as well as the pepper spray.

Thank goodness the police are protecting us from such scofflaws!

BTW, when I say the SPD hosed people with pepper spray, I'm not kidding. Tellingly, the front page of yesterday's PI had a striking picture of a line of cops spraying this crap all over the crowd, including one spray coming directly toward the camera lens!

This and other pictures can be found at seattlepi.com. There were some good pics in the paper, I'm pleasently surprised.

Anyway, I'm still planning to get to the Red Lion before the conference ends, but my work schedule is not making it easy. I, too, am a whore to the dollar, unfortunately.

22:05 / 04.06.03

Yeah, Seattle cops are world famous after that photo that looked like a remake of the Odessa Steps scene from Battleship Potemkin, only with more smoke.

21:16 / 06.06.03

Ok, so I thought it was going to be a bit more. Guess it wasn't cool enough to be WTO, or something about the "being jaded" deal. Less than 700 of us. The whole thing amused me, actually. Most of the other black bloc's were under 18. Quite adorable. This kid climbed on top of the Red Lion hotel and started burning the good old flag. I threw him up a teddy bear that played "God bless the USAAAAAA," which he seemed to enjoy. Wish it could have been loud enough to play on the megaphone. Perfect twisted irony after flag burning.

So the pigs were all after this kid, of course, and we all got together to help him escape. It was at this point that the officers got rowdy. We had to run back to the car because my friend forgot his gas mask, which was kind of shitty, because I already had mine on and was good and ready.

But the thing is that nothing actually happened. It's always the same shit, and the kids will tell stories for months and months about the wild riot rubber bullets tear gas pepper spray and all. We need more than this constant rehashing. Hope the WTO in a few weeks will be more moving.

The following day could have been on the Disney channel. The cute little flower children with black bandanas: I helped get them in front of the Red Lion hotel doing this adorable little robot march. Street theater for the LEIU. The cops didn't see it as a threat. In fact, I agreed with them on how amusing it was. Still, it was a beautiful moment.

My friend brought a whistle that moved the cop horses all out of sync. There were also these amazing girls dressed up as security officials, putting on this wonderful performance that was accurate enough to send any citizen into severe paranoia.

Most of Seattle stayed home.

13:48 / 07.06.03

Thanks for the report. Wish I could have been there... so I suppose it'd be hypocritical to whine about the low turnout, but cripes. Only 700. Still, if the goal was to bring LEIU into the public eye, that mission was at least accomplished locally.

You know, the attendance in Seattle for the big anti-war rally was lower than expected too... only four years after the WTO protest the city has stopped caring... assuming it ever did. What do you think Ragel?

And what's this about WTO in a few weeks? They'd be crazy to hold another meeting here after last time. If they are coming, however, I'd be happy to help greet them... and probably a few other lithers as well.