Monday, December 6

Police chief Norm Stamper resigns, effective next March. He was planning to retire anyway. He says the reason is so his presence won't hinder the investigation, making it look like he's just after job security.

People stop thinking about protests and issues and start thinking about the enormity of the damage to buildings, Dumpsters, and small retail businesses (one company one day sold exactly one greeting card and nothing else).

Wednesday, December 8

The City Council holds a public hearing at 4pm in the library auditorium, to elicit feedback from the public. I'm home sick, so I can't attend. I'm guessing the venue holds 400-450.

Thursday, December 9

Yesterday's hearing makes front-page news. It was an overflowing crowd and lasted eight hours. (The auditorium apparently holds 224. Gee, I could have told you that's not big enough.) We learn the police indescretions were much worse than we thought. Elderly, disabled people and asthmatics were shoved and gassed --- people who were defenseless, obviously not troublemakers, and could easily have died. People being held without access to needed medications. Suddenly, broken buildings seem a lot less important.

"Heated exchanges" occur at the door as the security guard won't let more people into the room. The Council announces a second meeting at Seattle Center next Tuesday to defuse the tension. Today my coworker tells me more about what he witnessed.

Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela is in town this week. A few councilmembers attend a dinner in his honor, but clearly people are too preoccupied to give him the welcoming he deserves.

The article says twelve people asked for the mayor's resignation.

The Weekly runs an amusing variety of letters, including one saying, in protest of the guy who pissed on Niketown's roof, he will buy ONLY Nike shoes from now on.

Analysis of President Clinton "throwing a brick":

The word that brought catastrophe down on Clinton's head was "sanctions." ... after all, who's in favor of prison factories churning out export goods and 12-year-old Asians chained to benches making tennis shoes for 12-year-old Americans to wear ... But representatives of poorer member nations of the WTO ... found in Clinton's use of the word "sanctions" confirmation of their worst suspicions about American trade policy.... Cheap labor is their primary resource ... [possibly significant explanations deleted] ... hey took it to mean that the US proposal of a WTO body to consider worldwide core labor standards was the first step toward establishing compulsory international sanctions against "violators." Why was this so disturbing? Because under its charter the WTO is a consultative body ... So how were these "core labor standards" to be enforced? Suddenly the specter of the WTO as the "new world order" so feared by the more paranoid among the demonstrators outside the Convention Center seemed a little less fantastical, and this time it was WTO members themselves who were scared.

This article more than anything the previous week pushed me in an "anti" direction, although one notes the problem is more of US foreign policy than WTO.

One question is where all the street people went. Common sense last month said they would be put in jail so as not to give the appearance that we had poor people. And sure enough, there were no beggars to be seen last week. Now they're back. Where did they go? A pissed-off anarchist says fuck you to the Eugene coalition. Other types of anarchists are also becoming more vocal in their opposition to them.

Black fashion wear for the man who has everything [Funny how nobody mentions that black is also the goths' color, and what a high percentage of goths there are here.] Before the event, The Stranger (newspaper) was selling "I am an International Terrorist" baseball caps. Funny how they quietly seem to have disappeared; I never saw anybody wear one.

Friday, December 10

The Stranger has an extensive set of articles and analyses in their "Our Teary-Eyed Farewell to the WTO".

BYE BYE, STAMPER: Seattle's Police Chief Resigns as Pissed Officers Blame Him for Everything That Went Wrong at the WTO Conference. Saying that one of the main reasons for his resignation was his own cops felt abandoned by their leadership, who were missing in action.