Police arrest 12 protesting outside law enforcement seminar

SEATTLE -- Police using pepper spray arrested 12 people at a march and rally by activists protesting an annual seminar of a group decried by critics as a virtual "secret police."

Arrests were made Monday night for alleged assault, property damage, obstructing and reckless burning, police officer Deanna Nollette said. Nobody required first aid, she said.

The 400 or so protesters, who had obtained a permit, held a rally and then marched to the hotel where the five-day Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit seminar began Monday. The LEIU is a coalition of about 250 local and federal law enforcement agencies.

State Patrol troopers and police in riot gear were on hand.

Trouble started when the crowd surged as police were trying to make an arrest at a barricade, Nollette said. He had climbed onto an awning outside the hotel and was trying to burn an American flag, The Seattle Times said.

Police Capt. Mike Sanford said a bottle and other debris were hurled at officers. Nollette confirmed police used pepper spray and fired a type of projectile, which she refused to describe.

Luma Nichol, 50, of Seattle, a Freedom Socialist Party organizer, called the LEIU an organization "that acts basically as a secret political police in the United States."

"Why are we here? Mostly to let them know that we know who they and we object to their existence," Nichol said.

Among the activists' concerns are the USA Patriot Act, a law that gives the government new powers to use wiretaps, electronic surveillance and other information gathering. Opponents say it violates civil liberties; supporters say it has helped fight terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Larry Erickson, president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, one of the sponsoring groups, said the unit does not conduct investigations but promotes the exchange of information among police groups.

"There is no big database in the sky that is collecting information," Erickson said.

Violent protests are nothing new in Seattle. In 1999, when it hosted the World Trade Organization, more than 90 protesters went to the hospital while an additional 500 were detained during five days of rioting. The rioting, which brought the National Guard and state troopers into downtown Seattle, cost the city an estimated $3 million.