On Jan. 30, a federal district court jury ruled the city's mass arrest of peaceful protesters in Westlake Park was unconstitutional. The lead protester in the class action suit was Kenneth Hankin, a worker at Boeing Aircraft. City attorneys vowed to appeal. The suit did not cover the few protesters who destroyed property and smashed windows.
The peaceful protesters in the park, like the 50,000 others who descended on Seattle in late 1999, were protesting the policies of the World Trade Organization, whose leaders, including Democratic President Bill Clinton, were meeting there.
The jurors decided the city violated the U.S. Constitution because it specifically arrested the demonstrators because of what they believed. The peaceful demonstrators in Seattle, led by many U.S. union leaders, contended the WTO's trade policies harm workers, the environment, communities, unions and native peoples worldwide.
The protests were also notable as a key instance where unions and environmental groups joined together in a common cause. The jurors decided the police made the arrests without probable cause and ruled that officers did not warn protesters to clear the park, first.
Lawyers for the protesters convinced jurors that Seattle had a policy of targeting the protesters for their views, and that the arrests due to such targeting violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment's protection of people against improper search and seizure.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
|
