Most were chatting off and on through the day, although some attempted to take the Buckingham palace guard approach. The bottom line is that the 25,000 left at the tear gassing have all been shocked and radicalized, with their worst WTO gestapo fears confirmed. And there were thousands more of passersby who were affected by the residual gas, and even some WTO attendees were indirectly gassed. But despite this radicalization and disbelief at the police state and civil emergency and curfew declared, I fear the average viewer, at least if they watched KIRO at least, is told and believes that the police just needed to put an end to a violent demonstration. That is such a lie.
People get gassed and shot first, then a few go wild and trash things.
It's impossible not to get angry from concussion grenades and gas, and it takes a commitment to nonviolence to not want to strike back. The sequence of events is critical with the gas first, but the media doesn't cover the chronology. Luckily there were hundreds of video cameras and thousands of photo cameras there and someday they will get to the bottom of what really happened. And when they do, I believe they will be wondering why there were no real arrests. And part of the evidence will be the students wandering seattle looking for a place to stay they thought they would never need.