Remembering Seattle's WTO protests, 24 years later

This week is the 24th anniversary of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, which put the city — and its crowd control tactics — in the national spotlight.

Flashback: Demonstrators gathered in downtown Seattle on Nov. 28, 1999, in advance of a four-day World Trade Organization ministerial conference being held there.

• On the conference's first official day, Nov. 30, thousands of protesters blocked downtown streets. Many chained themselves together or joined arms, in what the Washington Post described as "one the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in recent U.S. history."
• Protesters were driven by a range of issues, including labor conditions and the effects of international trade on the environment, the Associated Press reported on the protests' 20th anniversary.
• While most protesters were peaceful, a small group of black-clad anarchists broke windows and vandalized buildings downtown, the AP and the Seattle Times reported.

The police response to the protests, which included using tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters, was heavily criticized.

• Norm Stamper, Seattle's police chief at the time, later called police actions during the WTO protests an "overreaction" and "the worst mistake" of his career.