Seattle Post-Intelligencer / By KERY MURAKAMI / SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Mayor Paul Schell had said he wanted both protesters and delegates to be heard at the World Trade Organization conference last fall.
And in a 71-page report to be issued today, the American Civil Liberties Union said there was a way to do that: Police should have had the foresight to keep a route clear to let delegates through protesters.
But, in a stinging assessment, the report said the city bungled the conference, and both delegates and protesters had their First Amendment rights violated.
Despite months of warnings from the Seattle Fire Department, law enforcement agencies and the protesters themselves, police found themselves overwhelmed on the conference's opening day.
Then, "realizing it had lost control of the situation, the city then overreacted," the report said. The police violated the free-speech rights of protesters by using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets in an attempt to clear the streets, the report said.
Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the ACLU of Washington, said that even though the opening ceremonies were canceled and protests continued, the WTO was able to meet. Likening the outdoor crowds to a celebration after a sporting event, Taylor said there was no need for police to clear the streets.
The report noted that police should have realized that "democracy is not always neat and orderly."
"If the police had prepared properly before the demonstrators converged on Seattle, they could have found a middle ground between heavy-handedness and naively hoping for the best," the report concluded.
According to the ACLU, the city continued to trample on the rights of protesters by creating the so-called "no-protest zone" at the end of the first day of protests.
"Civil liberties paid a dear price for poor judgment calls made by public officials and police personnel every step of the way," the report said. "The city must acknowledge what went wrong and take actions to avoid similar mistakes in the future."
The highly critical report comes amid a barrage of assessments of the city's handling of the WTO, and it is expected to revive discussion among City Council members about a series of reforms.
Last week, the first of three City Council citizen panels examining different aspects of the controversy took Schell and the council to task for not asking more questions before wooing the WTO here.
The ACLU report recommended that police in the future create "corridors or security perimeters" to allow delegates to get through the protests and hold their meetings. By not doing so during the WTO conference, "City officials did not protect conference delegates' right to assemble at the opening meeting," the report said.
Similarly, the ACLU concluded that cordoning off travel routes for delegates to get to meetings the second day of the conference would have been a better solution than creating the "no-protest zone."
Police spokeswoman Pam McCammon declined comment yesterday, saying she hadn't seen the ACLU report. Schell administration officials earlier declined comment.
But former Assistant Police Chief Ed Joiner has said he did not have enough police officers to create corridors before the protesters gathered. Joiner acknowledged that he underestimated the number of protesters who were willing to block city streets.
The ACLU agreed police should have taken action against the relatively small numbers of people who broke store windows and burned Dumpsters. But by not distinguishing between peaceful and violent protesters when using tear gas, police violated the rights of those practicing non-violence, the ACLU said.
Similarly, the ACLU said police overreacted when it pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed Capitol Hill residents in trying to quell protests.
The report also alleged that some police officers were not adequately trained and used excessive force in dealing with protesters. Officers were punished in two highly publicized cases. In one, an officer pepper-sprayed two art students through their car window; in the other, an officer was seen kicking the groin of a protester.
Taylor said there were other cases of excessive force by officers, but "the others got off," she said.
The report also recommended that the city make sure it has enough resources for future events to be able to protect civil liberties.
Among the other recommendations:
Require officers to be better trained in protecting civil liberties when dealing with large crowds. Suspend the use of tear gas and pepper spray in the state until further studies of health risks. If tear gas is to be used, require that it be used only in open areas, where it's more likely to disperse and not affect bystanders. Require that pepper spray never be used to disperse crowds but only when a person "poses an immediate threat to officers or others." Require that police identification be visible at all times. Call on King County jail officials to investigate claims by some protesters about excessive force after they were arrested. Jail officials say they have not been able to verify the claims. Require the City Council to ratify emergency orders within 48 hours. The council ultimately ratified the creation of the "no-protest" zone, but not until after the conference was over.
City Council members say they're already thinking about some of the reforms, including requiring police officers to be identified and rethinking the use of tear gas and pepper spray.
P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8029 or kerymurakami@seattle-pi.com
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