Scott Sunde, ‘Chaos Closes Downtown; Police Use Rubber Pellets, Tear Gas Against Thousands; Demonstrators Delay Start of Trade Meeting for Hours; Schell Orders Curfew; National Guard Called’, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1 December 1999, p. A1.

Withstanding tear gas, rubber pellets and nightsticks, thousands of protesters faced down the World Trade Organization and police in Seattle yesterday, forcing authorities to order a curfew and call out the National Guard. After night fell, police swept through downtown, pushing protesters out of the curfew area with a blanket of tear and pepper gas. The battle continued late into the night on Capitol Hill. Still, protesters raged through the streets, while gangs used the cover of chaos to commit strong-arm robberies and loot some businesses, including a Starbucks at Sixth and Stewart. In addition to 200 or more riot-trained guardsmen who are to deploy today, Locke also ordered 300 more state troopers to Seattle. This is the first time in modern history that the National Guard has been called into Seattle, and the curfew is apparently the first since World War II, when a US Army general ordered Japanese Americans off the streets at night.