Seattle, 23:30 Thursday 2 Dec 1999

[John Swindler]

Also sounds like Chicago in August 1968.

Had summer job driving buses for CTA, and when demonstrations started for 
Democratic convention, was glad to see police presence.  Seems the so-called 
"peaceful" demonstrators also considered it their right to rob bus drivers.  
Remember arriving at the Lincoln Ave. terminal one night and being told that 
there had already been two hold-ups and what types of people to pass-up and 
where not to stop for passengers.

Also remember making up time on a southbound 151 Sheridan trip one evening, 
and having to come to a scre-e-e-e-ching halt as I crossed Michigan bridge 
due to demonstrations further south on Michigan.  Felt like a "sitting duck" 
for trouble makers if the demonstration moved north.

Strange that when I went back to college the following month how the 
newspapers in the rest of the country portrayed events completely different 
from the Chicago press that August!

John S.


>From: Fred Schneider <fschneider at dli.state.pa.us>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: RE: Seattle, 23:30 Thursday 2 Dec 1999
>Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 11:48:09 -0500
>
>Sounds like Berkeley CA in the 1960s!
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Donald Galt [mailto:galtfd at att.net]
>Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 3:50 AM
>To: etb-intern at sfu.ca
>Cc: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org; trolley at railspot.com
>Subject: Seattle, 23:30 Thursday 2 Dec 1999
>
>
>I managed to get downtown today for the first time this week. It was
>strange.
>
>Getting there was difficult enough. Because of yet another protest
>march,
>buses were turned around at the edge of the city. From my north end home
>
>I got to Capitol Hill, expecting to head down Madison Street on one of
>the
>several trolley lines re-routed that way. But instead, my 7 headed south
>
>toward Rainier Valley as if it were a 9, so I changed to a likewise
>re-routed 3
>which got me as far as 5th and Jackson at the south end of town. At
>least
>the tunnel was in operation, so I walked across the street to
>International
>District station and caught a duobus north to Westlake.
>
>Emerging into the sunlight (we do have that occasionally, even in
>November)
>I was greeted by modest crowds, windows still boarded up (some of them
>precautionary, not replacing broken glass) and a subdued atmosphere in
>what should have been a bustling square. And police everywhere.
>
>Seattle has been held hostage not only by the window-smashing anarchists
>
>- that was only Tuesday night - but by well-financed, tightly-trained,
>slickly-
>spoken non-violent activist groups like the Ruckus Society, adept at
>creating incidents and provoking reaction. Protest groups were given
>ample
>opportunity to make their point on Tuesday, but some of them came here
>to
>make a splash, shouting "constitutional rights" with little regard for
>my right
>to go about my city. They have certainly found willing allies among the
>locals, but the continuing unrest has not been entirely spontaneous. If
>the
>police have made mistakes, they will be held accountable. But it's a
>perversion to blame all this, as they have largely managed to do, on the
>
>cops. And blaming it on WTO (what do these flat-earthers think is going
>to
>be accomplished by destroying world trade talks?) is like blaming a
>woman
>with a certain reputation for all the rapes that are happening around
>town.
>
>Go home. Give us back our city.
>
>Don
>

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