Peace group 'speak-out,' march planned

Seattle's seven days of protests yesterday settled into a largely peaceful, even subdued routine that could change today as organizers expect an unpermitted march to include disruptive acts of civil disobedience.

"We're pushing the envelope a little bit," said Margo Polley, a spokeswoman for Not In Our Name, the peace group responsible for today's events around the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building. Formal events start with a "speak-out" at 2 p.m., followed an hour or two later by a march with no predetermined route.

"The idea is to shut down traffic in the downtown corridor," Nicole Bade, a 19-year-old student at The Evergreen State College, told about two dozen young people yesterday afternoon near the federal building. She was conducting a briefing on how to sit down when police approach, how to wash pepper spray out of protesters' eyes and to call a legal-help line if arrested.

Polley promised the marchers would peaceful, but the potential for arrests could test a delicate détente that police and protesters have used to keep arrests and confrontation to a minimum.

Seattle police and King County Sheriff's deputies say their crowd-control strategies won't change as protests continue through the weekend and into next week: Be flexible, but be firm.

Seattle police commanders have been using plans that have been developed and improved gradually since the World Trade Organization riots in 1999 and the crowd-control disaster of the 2001 Mardi Gras melees that left a young man dead.

Police use a tiered system, said Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer. A front line of well-equipped officers keep the marches contained to their routes. Behind them — often out of sight but no secret to protesters — are phalanxes of reinforcements with protective gear.

Plainclothes officers monitor the crowd's mood and other officers are trained to enter the crowd and try to pluck individual scofflaws out of the pack before their misbehavior becomes contagious.

"If you stay within the law, we'll do everything we can to facilitate you," Kimerer said. "Those who wish to engage in protests outside the bounds of the law are subject to arrest."

The biggest test so far came Thursday evening as more than 50 protesters sat on Second Avenue by the Federal Building in an hour-long standoff. The day also included two marches of several thousand people. Yet the day saw no arrests or reports of injury or property damage.

Yesterday, three people were arrested. One for striking a police horse with a wooden pole, one for a concealed weapon (a knife) and another for breaking a car window.

When the crowd sat down in the middle of Second Avenue on Thursday, police said they essentially had two choices: They could immediately rush the sit-in and haul the protesters to jail, possible creating a larger clash with the crowd. Or they could do what they did — prepare to move in and make arrests, but hope the protesters would heed verbal warnings to leave the street.

"The incident commander said, 'I will allow this in a controlled way, but it's not a permanent thing,' " Kimerer said. "If these individuals failed to disperse, they were going to be arrested."

A protester who called himself "Spot," a 19-year-old from Seattle who says he is an anarchist, musician and artist, said he was among those sitting on the street. He said the protesters could feel tension building, and they could see officers pointing out specific people.

"You could tell they were going to be aggressive at us," he said. "That's why we left."

He said he didn't want the protest tarnished with an anarchy label. "We didn't want, in any way, to be part of a violent thing," he said.

Another intense moment was kept in check last night at the Federal Building, after the protesters had finished a 30-minute march from Westlake Park along Second Avenue. At Madison Street, King County Sheriff deputies steered the protesters onto the sidewalk with a line of barricades.

As the officers moved in, a young man appeared to lean over the barrier and a brief scuffle ensued with police. The officers quickly pulled back, but the crowd began chanting, their faces inches away from the officers in riot gear.

Then a sheriff's deputy ordered his officers to step back several feet. Tensions on both sides appeared to subside immediately.

"Arrests really escalate things in a bad way," said William Broberg, a Seattle defense attorney who was observing the protest Thursday. "Whoever made that decision that it's not worth it to arrest 50 people, that guy really deserves a pat on the back."

Jody Haug of Seattle, who coordinates a pool of about 150 volunteers who act as "peacekeepers" at rallies and protests, said she was glad to see clashes avoided.

"The anti-war movement seems to have accepted that you have to have safe, family-friendly, permitted events if you are going to get the enormous response that you have to have," she said.

Seattle merchant groups are stressing that protests have been peaceful and said the area remains safe for shopping.

"People come downtown to express their opinion — it's been going on for years," said Sylvia McDaniel, spokeswoman for the Downtown Seattle Association. "It's still a welcoming environment and we're still open for business."

Yesterday, rarely had more than several hundred protested at the Federal Building or in a permitted march to and from Westlake Park.

Steve Coffman stood on the sidelines brandishing a cardboard sign that read "Stop the Protests."

When protesters approached, he scolded them, "You are ineffective and wasting taxpayer dollars to support all these cops." But few protesters engaged the 6-foot-9, 300-pound man.

Eric Sorensen: 206-464-8253 or esorensen@seattletimes.com

Staff reporters Julia Sommerfeld, Kyung Song and J.J. Jensen contributed to this report.