Waylon Harthun wrote:
> Ok one last comment, I know this whole thing is blown way outta proportion
> and things are rediculous, like it is now 2:00 am and there are still
> people on the street.
> I don't mean any offense but being a native and working in the curfew zone,
> I just request one thing, PLEASE JUST GO HOME!!!!!!!!!
Well, I went home around 10 p.m., right after I was bum-rushed by goons in
Darth Vadar outfits (a.k.a. Seattle Police Department). I was out taking
pictures of the situation.
I can tell you this: The only reason people were outside is because their
neighborhood was INVADED by National Guard and police. If they would have
left, everybody else would have.
Again, I was there. There was NO violence or vandalism. The police were the
problem.
When I got home, I watched the rest of the story on TV. It concluded around 2
a.m. with a massive onslaught of CS and OC gas, rubber bullets, flash
grenades...
A few minutes after that, the news reporter interview Brian Derdowski, a King
County councilman who was present and attempting to negotiate an end to the
madness. All the group wanted was for the police to take ONE STEP BACK, as a
symbolic gesture acknowledging that this was their neighborhood. The police
refused, and chose to gas them instead.
I've got pictures of this. I know it's not Roadster related, but if I get them
on my site, I'll post the URL.
One more thing. When I was on Broadway taking pictures, I kept hearing shotgun
blasts. I notice a shell on the ground and picked it up. I brought it home
and did a quick Alta Vista search on it. I found out that this particular
projectile had caused DEATH in the past. According to a velocity and potential
penetration study published in the Journal of the International Wound
Ballistics Association, "... the ammunition must be treated as capable of
causing serious bodily injury or death to a person and should only be used when
lethal force is warranted."
Folks, I was there. There was NOTHING to warrant anything approaching lethal
force. The most defiant act I saw was a man who put one knee on the street,
two feet from the curb, holding up the peace sign. The police responded by
RUSHING this individual with gas canisters in hand, causing a panic in which at
least one person was knocked down. Why didn't they just walk up and arrest
him? Is the safety of all of those around him totally meaningless?
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