Mardi Gras melee: 'There will be no more,' mayor vows
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After the rioting, arrests, injuries and one death, Mayor Paul Schell wants to cancel future Mardi Gras celebrations in Pioneer Square.
"There will be no more Fat Tuesday. This event as it's now set up has to end," Schell said in a written statement he had planned to deliver at a news conference that was abruptly canceled because of yesterday's earthquake. "I am deeply saddened by this violence. ... Here, sadly, we have our own young people, fueled by alcohol, turning against each other, hurting and even killing each other."
The rolling street party left one young man dead; 71 injured, one of them near death; and 21 in jail. A 20-year-old Kent man beaten during the melee suffered brain injuries. He died about 7:20 p.m. yesterday at Harborview Medical Center.
Police and community leaders shared Schell's outrage at the chaos that erupted.
"I was sickened by what I saw several hours ago in Pioneer Square," Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said yesterday morning.
And so were some of Seattle's rank-and-file officers. The head of the police guild questioned the way police leaders handled the riot. "The problem here is that for several hours, the police officers were held on the outside edges," said Guild President Mike Edwards. "No police officer just likes to stand there. Our folks feel they were held back."
Event sponsors said they were disappointed at Schell's decision.
"It's a reactionary response instead of a thought-out response," said event co-organizer Tina Bueche, owner of Dutch Ned's restaurant in Pioneer Square.
It was after midnight that the block of Yesler Way between First and Second avenues became a lawless zone, with frequent, savage beatings erupting every few moments while the 350 police officers on the scene hung back and observed, attempting neither to stop the brawls nor help the victims.
People threw bottles, smashed out windows, overturned cars, tried to set fires and pummeled each other.
One of the injured was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center yesterday. The 24-year-old man from Kirkland suffered head and other injuries when he jumped over a railing, believing he was going to join friends below. However, it was a 30-foot drop.
Before the earthquake socked Pioneer Square, preliminary damage yesterday was estimated at more than $80,000 from Mardi Gras violence. Event organizers said the event was insured, and they urged people to report their damages.
Yesterday, Kerlikowske took responsibility for the police response. He said police moved in only after the violence erupted.
Despite an attempt by police to keep the crowd from getting out of hand, the mood of those in the streets turned "incredibly assaultive," Kerlikowske said. "It's hard to believe it could turn so ugly and violent." Schell said he was proud of his police department. Instead, the mayor pinned the blame on the violent toughs who started fights, beat people for no reason and turned the street party into a scene of terror for many.
Schell demanded a thorough investigation to catch violent partygoers. He asked the community to turn over any homemade video of attacks or other crimes at the event.
The mayor took some grief on a morning radio show yesterday when it was learned that he had gone home to bed while the rioting raged in Pioneer Square. Problems unfolded later than expected, said Dick Lilly, the mayor's spokesman. Lilly said he and Deputy Mayor Maud Daudon were getting reports from Kerlikowske until 2:30 a.m. They decided not to wake the mayor, but to give him a full review of the events at a 6 a.m. briefing.
With Schell running for re-election and the memories of his handling of WTO still fresh, Lilly acknowledged that the decision to let the mayor sleep probably was ill-advised. "He was mad at me for not waking him."
Residents and business owners in Pioneer Square agreed that most of the violence came from small groups of young people bent on trouble. But some were also critical of Schell and Kerlikowske. And many were split on whether the event should be canceled.
Gary Irvin, 26, lives in a condominium overlooking Pioneer Square. "It was just the kids who were looking for trouble; that's what it appeared like," he said. He specifically noted a group of young men in quilted jackets who raged through the crowd, beating up partygoers for no apparent reason. "It was kind of sad to see it."
Irvin wouldn't fault the law-abiding people for coming to Pioneer Square even though they knew there was likely to be violence.
"It was Mardi Gras and people wanted to have fun," he said. "But Pioneer Square is the place for adults to come and have fun. What they should have had is something for the younger people up by the Space Needle or something. They don't need to be down here."
Business owners were similarly angered as they swept up broken glass and boarded-up doors.
"It's pathetic," said John Swenson of Robins Jewelers on First Avenue.
"We've had so many years of Mardi Gras being good. But now Seattle's become a third-class city and they're not doing anything about it."
A few doors down, Mark Wessel, owner of Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers, used a hammer and a screwdriver to try to open the front door to his shop. He came to work yesterday morning to discover that rowdies had kicked the door, breaking the lock and the window pane. But he blamed Schell for inviting trouble in Pioneer Square by threatening to cancel the celebration.
"I think the mayor asked for it," Wessel said. "People came down here to defy police, and when (police) realized that, it was too late."
Still, he said, the mayor and police chief were in a tough spot. "No one wants to be in their shoes. If they crack down hard, the civil-liberties union gets all over them. If they don't, the business owners get all over them."
It was a we-told-you-so moment for the Pioneer Square Public Safety Committee, a group of residents. The group has long urged the city and Fat Tuesday organizers to scale back their plans.
"And we were basically dismissed," said President David Brunner. "The anger for me is mollified with my disbelief."
But Bueche, the co-organizer of Fat Tuesday, said she doubts Schell can take away the celebration.
Instead, Bueche said, the city should spread Mardi Gras to all neighborhoods, to spread out the crowds. And leaders should hire a consultant from New Orleans to teach them how to do it right.
"I was hoping we wouldn't do the typical Seattle knee-jerk reaction," said Bueche, whose restaurant was also damaged slightly in the riot. "Canceling the event makes us less of a city. It occurs to me that we have to figure out how to have a party in Seattle without having a riot."
Seattle Times staff reporter Beth Kaiman contributed to this report.
Ian Ith can be reached 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.