Tacoma SDS

A police report claimed that the reason they attacked people last night and arrested others was because "[the protestors] were carrying rocks and other items that could be used to threaten public safety".

But a trained observer on the scene disputes that:

I was a Legal Observer working with the People's Law Project and the National Lawyer's Guild and as such i was right in the middle of all the action last night.

First, in regard to the reports from authorities that protesters were carrying or throwing rocks, I observed no one carrying or throwing rocks, that isn't to say that it didn't occur but as a trained observer who was every bit as well positioned as the police I saw no such activity.

Second, in the very first instance where pepper spray was used against the activists there was considerable distance between the protesters and police and the protesters were complying with the chants that were being shouted by the police to "Move Back".

After seeing the inspiring actions of the Olympia police department, and the stunning indifference of local elected officials, police and special forces in Georgia, a former republic of the Soviet Union, chose to carry out their own solidarity actions. President Mikheil Saakashvili sent riot police to shut down the main television stations in the capital city of Tbilisi on Nov. 7. On the following day, he imposed a state of emergency.