Battle in Seattle. RealVideo (download RealPlayer)

Clashes and Curfews
On Wednesday, some 500 people were arrested. Anti-trade activists said they were unhappy with the way police have been treating those who are in jail.
     Today, protest groups held a news conference to say more marches were planned and to decry what some called an infringement on their right to assemble. “I’ve witnessed things in the last four days that I didn’t believe could happen in America,” said John Goodman of the United Steelworkers of America. Schell has imposed a “limited curfew” through midnight Friday in the area immediately around WTO meeting venues — the Washington State Convention and Trade Center and the Westin Hotel, where President Clinton stayed during his visit, and the Westlake Center plaza, where protesters have gathered.
     “I’m very distressed to see videos of our beautiful city with tear gas and police dressed in riot gear,” Schell said.
     People in the downtown area are being asked for identification and ordered to leave if authorities determine they don’t have a valid reason for being there. Shoppers and restaurant patrons will be allowed in.
     A spokeswoman for the Downtown Seattle Association said damages to some 2,500 city merchants and property owners from this week’s disturbances will “be in the millions range.” And association Marketing Director Lucinda Payne added: “That’s just the physical damage — the broken display windows, spot looting, and the horrific graffiti.”
     Payne said later that lost sales were estimated at $7 million and that property damage has been estimated at $1 million. “It’s incredibly disappointing,” she said. “This is not Seattle. And the folks doing this stuff were not Seattle, by and large. It was just random and senseless.”

On Tuesday, protesters effectively shut down downtown Seattle, as the swarming masses filled nearly every street and forced most businesses to close for the day. (ABCNEWS.com/ Magellan Geographix)

     The numbers confronting police dwindled rapidly from a peak of nearly 1,000 after rain began falling about 1 a.m. today, and the last 250 scattered under a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets about 45 minutes later, said Laura Paskin, a civilian city spokeswoman. Two arrests were reported.
     ABCNEWS correspondent Deborah Wang reports that mainstream protesters have taken great pains to distance themselves from the ones creating violence. They’ve described them as an organized anarchist group.

Seattle’s Downtown Is Quiet
On Wednesday, Seattle’s streets were nearly deserted of shoppers and whole blocks were boarded up in the city’s most upscale shopping area downtown. Christmas music was occasionally punctuated by the loud pops of tear-gas canisters.
     The largest gathering of the day — about 500 protesters at late afternoon — fell back when confronted by police in riot gear who lobbed tear gas.
     Schell’s civil-emergency declaration banned sale, possession and carrying of gas masks by anyone but police.
     Some shoppers and downtown office workers fled chemical irritants during the Wednesday evening rush hour. The Westin Hotel was placed on lockdown briefly due to tear-gas clouds.
     Those arrested were handcuffed, photographed and hauled away in buses to the old Navy brig at the former Sand Point Naval Station northeast of downtown. Once there, several hundred demonstrators continued their protest Wednesday night by refusing for hours to leave the buses.
     Police began carrying the last 100 passive resisters off the buses to the booking counter early today, Paskin said.
     Bail ranging from $2,000 to $50,000 was set for 14 people facing felony charges in Tuesday’s mayhem.
     “I don’t have any problems with protest, freedom of expression. I have problems with destruction of property,” King County District Judge Mark Chow said.