WTO: What really went down!
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Your story on the WTO debacle [8/3] was probably the most comprehensive and unbiased of any that I have read in Seattle. Given that, the Seattle Weekly, along with every other major news outlet, missed one of the most salient if not the most salient point about the events that occurred on the morning of November 30, 1999.
I was on the streets that morning and this is what really went down. At about 8am the streets began filling with protesters bound on stopping the opening ceremonies of the WTO conclave. One of the corners filled with protesters was 6th and Union, just south of the Sheraton, myself amongst them. At approximately 10:30am, with hardly any warning, the police sprayed the protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas from the line the police had created across the east side of Union. The crowd moved off the corner.The police regained that intersection. My thought was, "How crass. These people are being peaceful." About an hour later I was at the corner of Pine and 6th and heard the sound of breaking glass. My thought then: "Don't be stupid. Don't give the cops reasons to bash heads."
So the point that I am making and that wasn't made by the media is that the cops were the INITIAL aggressors. No damage had been done until after the cops saw fit to attack the crowd at 6th and Union. The cops set the tone. And this has never been reported in the media.
Still struggling,
MIKE MCNAMARA
SEATTLE
Cover: Pigs!
I was incensed and dismayed when I picked up the August 3rd Seattle Weekly. The image of a police officer as an "evil pig" bloodying up the streets with "gentle turtles" screams prejudice. It reminds me of WWII era propaganda and editorial cartoons with highly exaggerated depictions of other ethnic groups. How is it that our "politically correct" society allows calling the police "pigs," but any other use of degrading names or pictures is immediately rebuked? Certain groups of people, including the police, are still generalized and targeted for hate.
Additionally, it seems from the cover that the SW report blames the police officers entirely for the problems that surrounded the WTO meetings. Yet the feature inside points out many other factors and people to blame. So, was it proper to connect the cover picture with the report? Not for all the police, their families, and their friends who see yet another example of hatred for them. Not for the authors of the article whose points are overshadowed with such a harsh visual statement. If you choose to print such demeaning and blatantly biased images, save them for an opinion page. Use the cover to accurately represent what's inside.
C. DAVIS
SEATTLE
Analysis: Deeper!
I looked forward to reading the Weekly's WTO report [8/3] after hearing Geov Parrish discuss it on KCMU. I had to roll my eyes, however, when the first group listed under "Who do we blame?" was the "infamous 'Eugene' anarchists." How original and thought-provoking that one paragraph was. I especially loved the unsuccessful attempt to demonstrate that property destruction is a violent act: "Stand between a window and a flying rock and tell us that don't hurt!"
The point is, people were throwing rocks at windows, not at other people. Let's look at your analogy further. Carpentry is violent: "Put a thumb between a nail and a hammer and tell me that don't hurt!" Hell, walking is violent: "Lie down between a foot and a sidewalk and tell me that don't hurt!"
I myself was a "peaceful" protester during WTO and was, at first, very angry at those who weren't. Since then I've come to feel differently. Destroying property is breaking the law, but is it always wrong? The acts of destruction during WTO were committed against stores owned by corporations who, on a daily basis, are destroying the world and its inhabitants in the name of higher profits. The response by Paul Schell and the police was to uphold the law by infringing upon civil liberties, protecting those with property from those without.
Women committed nonviolent crimes so that I could have the right to vote. I have a similar respect for those who destroyed property with the intent of bringing attention to the many issues surrounding WTO and the hope that someday economic and environmental justice will prevail.
While I would never expect the Weekly to embrace property destruction as the best method of protest, could you at least make it look like you did some deeper analysis?
JOTA BORGMANN
SEATTLE
Hip-hop: For everyone!
I recently read an interview with Dave Eggers in Harper's where he talks about selling out. He points out that those interested in the selling out of things are the same people who don't really get those things in the first place. And to me, Joe Schloss has missed the point of hip-hop entirely in his article "Hip-hop's Internet problem" [8/3] by suggesting that hip-hop is being sold out on the Internet—that having more people discover the music will lead more people into the culture, and somehow he puts a negative spin on that. I suppose he thinks these poseurs don't deserve his props. Well, Joe, don't give them any props. But don't write an article about a cultural movement that is very accepting, that gets up on a soap box and preaches acceptance, and tell people that they don't belong, that they somehow don't deserve to be a part of it. Everyone, regardless of how deep their knowledge of hip-hop is, deserves to be a part if they so choose.
