Protest leaders pointed fingers at overreacting police and a few bad apples within their own ranks. He said many youth see hard-won environmental safeguards being threatened by a WTO focus on free trade above all other values. It's not as if civil unrest is unknown in America. Race riots stemming from the beating of Rodney King erupted in Los Angeles in 1992. But most political demonstrations in recent years have become controlled, predictable events, permitted and monitored by authorities.
Demonstrations are a regular occurrence in Washington, D.C., but are generally peaceful.
Clinton was addressing the WTO meeting this afternoon, his hopes for a triumphant day as a leader of world trade jeopardized in a city left shaken by a day of violent protest and bracing for more. The violence clearly caught Seattle officials off guard. City hoped to avoid violence AP Demonstrators in clouds of tear gas. Schell said city officials had worked with protest organizers for months before the WTO meeting, hoping to prevent the kind of violence that broke out. You need to understand that this administration had people who marched in the '60s.