Re: RAT P.S.

[Francis DellaVecchia <francis@eyelumination.com>]

Yeah, this is old now, but after wading through 156 messages, I had to 
chime in with something.  

First, more admiration from me for the man who also said "Theatre is a 
Weapon"

>"The headlong stream is termed violent
>But the river bed hemming it in is
>Termed violent by no one."			Bertolt Brecht

Now, I pass along a totally unsubstantiated report.  It's certainly 
extremely skewed and sometimes clumsily written, but since papers like 
the LA Times are often extremely skewed and clumsily written, I thought 
I'd pass it along. 

Francis DellaVecchia
Open Fist Theatre Co.
L.A.


__________________



COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN SEATTLE
 by Portland student/reporter Jim Desyllas Called-in from a pay phone 
outside
Seattle. 

Wed., 7:30 pm Pacific time. (Posted at http://www.emperors-clothes.com 
12-2-99.  Feel free to distribute in full including this note.) 

I just spent 4 days in Seattle. The "information" people are getting from 
the
mass media is false. This was not, as Pres. Clinton claims, a peaceful 
protest
marred by the actions of violent protesters. This was a massive, strong 
but
peaceful demonstration which was attacked repeatedly by the police with 
the
express purpose of provoking a violent response to provide photo 
opportunities
for the Western media. I know because I watched it happening. I'll tell 
you
how they did it. As Michel Chossudovsky says in his "Disarming the New 
World
Order" (See Note # 1 at end for link to that article) - the government 
put a
lot of effort into making sure the protesters in Seattle were a "loyal
opposition" who wanted to reform the WTO, not get rid of it. But the 
people in
Seattle - American steel workers, Canadian postal workers, college kids 
from
all over, environmentalists from Australia - you name it - were not for
reforming the WTO. They were for getting rid of it. And this wasn't just 
true
of the protesters. I interviewed delegates. None of them had anything
favorable to say about the WTO. Two delegates from the Caribbean were 
angry
about job loss. One delegate from Peru took a bullhorn and got up on a 
car and
spoke to the protestors against the World Trade Organization. He said it 
hurts
the workers and farmers. I interviewed a Norwegian guy from Greenpeace.
Totally against it. Even a delegate from Holland said it had hurt the 
farmers
there. He said though it is supposedly democratic, that's actually a lie: 
the
US, England and Canada and a few others get together and decide what they 
want
to do. Then they ask the rest of the countries to vote and if they vote 
wrong
they threaten, "You won't get loans," or whatever. They get them to do 
what
they want by blackmailing them. The Italians we interviewed were upset 
too. I
couldn't find any delegates who were in favor. So the government 
instigated a
"riot" to discredit the movement against the WTO because they couldn't 
dilute
it. I am not guessing about this. I was there. I saw it happening. And I 
will
tell you I am frankly shocked to see, close up, just how little our 
leaders
care what happens to ordinary people. Clinton can pose and speak a lot of
flowery stuff but the truth is - we are nothing to them. I saw this with 
my
own eyes. 

Sunday and Monday, there was no violence. None. The people were 
aggressively
non-violent; they were self-policing. Up until Tuesday at 4pm there was 
one
window broken in the whole city - a McDonalds window. This compares 
favorably
to the typical rock concert, let alone a demonstration of people who were
non-violently barring entry to the World Trade Center! At this point, a 
new
group of police - tactical police - moved in and started gassing people 
and
shooting rubber bullets. Is it any surprise that people got mad? Of 
course,
the young kids hit back by breaking some windows in retaliation for being
gassed, sprayed with very painful pepper gas, and shot with dangerous 
"rubber"
bullets. 

The police instigated these kids, plain and simple. Sunday and Monday 
they had
young cops, using them to block the streets. These were trainees. But 
Tuesday
they had the real cops; none of them were young. They were trained to 
attack
people. A small group, maybe 100 people total, struck back. Then these 
cops
herded that group around the city, making sure there were plenty of photo 
ops
of "violent protesters." A number of times they had these 100 or so 
protesters
caught between buildings and walls of police. They could easily have 
arrested
and detained this small number of people and gotten it over with. Instead 
they
would gas them and let them go. Then trap them again, gas them again, and
again let them go. 

The cops made no arrests that I know of until late Tuesday night though 
the
skirmishing was going on from three till 9:30. The cops would blockade 
three
or five blocks of an area, give the angry kids room to operate, keep 
gassing
them - when you gas a person, let me tell you, it gets them fighting mad.
Tuesday night the police gassed all of downtown. This was going on from 3 
PM,
till 6 PM.. Gas everywhere. The kids broke a few windows - McD's, 
Starbucks -
small stuff - burned a few garbage cans. The police were using these 
people as
extras. It was staged. I believe also the police had their own people in
there, encouraging people to break stuff - if people think I may be
exaggerating, I saw supposed protesters - they were screaming and so on - 
and
then later, when everything was over, the same people tackled other 
protestors
and put handcuffs on them. 

At 6pm they issued a State of Emergency. At that point they had pushed 
the 100
people outside the city limits, so the police went outside the limits 
too, and
they started gassing that area too, gassing the neighborhoods where the
regular people live. I am not exaggerating. The police were relentless. 
This
was in an area from the city limits for about 10 blocks to the Seattle 
Central
Community College. If you were alive, the police gassed you. People coming
back from work, kids, women, everyone. People would go out of their 
houses to
see what was happening because these tear gas guns sound like a cannon - 
and
they would get gassed. A block away there was a Texaco gas station - they
threw tear gas at gas pumps, believe it or not - they were like vandals. 
They
gassed a bus. I saw it with my own eyes. A bus. The driver, the riders, 
the
people just abandoned it . I was sitting in a little coffee shop called
Rauhaus, [Jim did not spell this - the spelling may be wrong.] They were
shooting "rubber" bullets at the glass. I picked up a dozen of the things 
in a
few square feet. They were also shooting this paint that you can only see 
with
a florescent light. They would paint anyone and everyone and then go 
hunting
them. Anyway, because they were gassing everybody, the local people got 
mad
too and they joined the 100 who had been herded out of the city. So soon 
there
were 500 including the neighborhood people and all very angry. Naturally.
Because they had been gassed and hit with pepper spray, that stuff does a
number on you. And shot with these damn bullets. Then people set up 
barricades
at Seattle Central Community College. The cops organized themselves for 
about
an hour and then moved in and gassed that area. Today they started mass
arrests. That was because Clinton - the Greeks call him the Planitarchis,
Ruler of the World - was coming. Weeping crocodile tears about how he just
LOVES peaceful protest, which of course you'd have to be two years old to
believe he had nothing to do with the police action. This whole thing, 
this
police attack, this was US foreign policy, not some action decided by some
bureaucrat in Seattle. This was the State Department. They wanted to 
discredit
the people. 

When things started on Sunday,  there was a protest rally of solidarity
involving people from different walks of life. Monday it got even bigger.
Tuesday there was a big sort of carnival where people were doing different
things, a band was playing music and people were blocking the World Trade
Center. And about 3 PM the cops started throwing tear gas. The thing that
drove Clinton crazy was that on Tuesday the protesters had succeeded in 
making
nonviolent human chains and had therefore stopped everyone from going 
into the
World Trade Center. Only maybe 27 delegates got through, mostly US and
British. There were what seemed like tens of thousands of protesters 
involved.
So the police did their gassing number against these nonviolent people to
break up the human chains and make the protesters look violent. 

Today (Wednesday) I followed the union protest put together by the
Longshoremen's Union. They went down to the docks and had a rally then 
marched
to Third Avenue. As soon as they got there the cops started gassing them.
There was an old lady there. She had gone downtown by bus to buy 
something.
This lady was in her 70's and I saw her trying to run, but she couldn't
breathe. She was in shock. I carried her to a building entryway. She was
gasping, terrified. She had been in Germany, and it was like she was 
having
flashbacks. The tear gas sounds like gunfire and there were helicopters
overhead, sirens, cops on horses, everything. They had clearly made a 
decision
to destroy this movement. So anyway there I was with her in this building 
and
she wanted to go to the hospital but there was tear gas everywhere and I 
was
afraid if I tried to move her she'd be gassed again. I went to this line 
of
cops and begged - I mean begged - these riot police to help her. They 
ignored
me. A girl told me later that a one year old had been gassed. And I 
myself saw
a girl no more than 18 - a cop had busted her lip wide open - she was 
bleeding
- and then they gassed everyone including her. After that she was 
kneeling on
the ground crying like a baby and praying for 15 minutes, Hail Mary, Hail
Mary. Over and over. She was in a state of shock. They just gassed these
people who were sitting down non-violently and doing nothing. Nothing. At 
one
point the Seattle Mayor said his boys were not using rubber bullets.
Miraculously, by then I had ten in my pocket. I could open a little 
market,
sell the things. They are everywhere. I and other people started giving 
them
to delegates and stuff. "See what they're doing? They're shooting "rubber"
bullets and lying about it." We showed them to the media. I guess enough
people and the media got the information because the Mayor made a new
statement then that they were using them. As if he hadn't known. They shot
rubber bullets from four feet away into the face of a guy next to me, 
broke
all his front teeth. When that happened I lost it. I forgot I was 
supposed to
be getting the news for all of you and I started yelling at the cops, 
"What
the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick, man?" So this cop aimed his gun
right at me. That was his answer. So I first put my hands in front of my 
face
because I didn't want to lose my teeth. And then I thought, to hell with 
it. I
was wearing my target shirt that said "Collateral Damage", you know? With 
a
bullseye target, like they wore during the bombing in Yugoslavia. And I 
told
this guy, "Go ahead, shoot! Here! Here's the target!" He didn't shoot me. 
I
want to emphasize, these protesters were NOT violent people. They were the
most non-violent people I have ever seen. Even when I was screaming at the
cop, this girl came up to me and said, "Do not scream. This is 
non-violent."
These people were too much to believe. They must meditate all the time, I
don't know. Clinton said he supports nonviolent protest. That is baloney. 

Today (Wed.) the protesters were causing absolutely no "trouble". In 
downtown
the cops had people running who weren't even protesters - like that old 
lady
or just people going to work or shopping - everyone was getting gassed. 
The
busses weren't running because of the gas. I was lucky to catch one with a
driver who could still see. I begged him to drive the old lady home - the
driver changed his route especially for her. If you want to find human
decency, stay away from the Planitarchis. Go to the to regular people. 
They
have some. The Planitarchis lost all his years ago. Now he wouldn't know 
human
decency if it came up and bit him. So now I have made personal 
acquaintance
with the people who run this country, and they are quite simply scum. 
There
were people at work, people with babies, they were all getting gassed 
because
the government would not allow an assembly of people speaking their 
minds. It
is the same as what happened in Athens. Clinton's requirements on the 
Greek
government created the riot and he did the same thing here. And then he 
says
he supports nonviolent protest? How? By shooting rubber bullets? And today
they outlawed gas masks. They want to make sure everyone gets his money's
worth. Today, just like yesterday night, the police were in the 
residential
neighborhoods. People in cafes were getting gassed and shot at, you could 
hear
it on the windows, bang, bang, bang. A guy trying to cross the street to 
go to
his house got gassed. First a drunk guy outside a bar yelled at the cops 
"Get
out of here!" so they gassed him. And then this other guys was just 
crossing
the street to go home so the cops figured, might as well gas him too. 
People
got gassed for coming out of restaurants and bars and coffee shops. I'm 
amazed
that nobody died who had asthma or something. Or maybe somebody did die 
and
they didn't talk about it. I mean after all, it's just collateral damage.

 *** Note # 1 - For a critical look at the World Trade Organization, 
click on
SEATTLE AND BEYOND: DISARMING THE NEW WORLD ORDER or go to: 

http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/seattle.htm

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