November 26, 2014
Event focuses on militarized policing and protests
“Militarized Policing and Public Protest: From the WTO Protests to Ferguson” is the topic of a documentary video screening and panel discussion at the University of Washington on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
The event, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, starts with a screening of “This Is What Democracy Looks Like.” The 72-minute documentary was made from footage shot by more than 100 “media activists” during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. It is narrated by actress Susan Sarandon and Michael Franti, leader of the band Spearhead.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion starting at 4:45 p.m. The panelists are:
• Robby Stern, an attorney and former lobbyist for the Washington State Labor Council who was a labor march strategy leader for the WTO protests
• Tyler Weaver, an attorney who represented several people arrested during the WTO protests, resulting in the city of Seattle paying settlements of more than $1 million
• Norm Stamper, a former Seattle police chief turned police reformer and the author of “Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing”
A lecture by Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University and author of several books on militarized policing, is scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m. after the discussion.
