THUGFREE ZONE
By Geov Parrish

First the disclaimer: I don't like pot. I've never tried it. I've
never even had an alcoholic beverage (which is sorta like saying I was once
abducted by aliens, but I swear it's true). I'm not exactly the target for
Hempfest '97, held a couple of weeks ago at Myrtle Edwards Park.
But I think its organizers should sue the asses off the City of Seattle.
Hempfest, for those who've never seen it, is a street fair for
hippies, a smallerscale Fremont Fair or Gay Pride scene, with booths
selling hemp stuff, a few community groups, bands, and people lying around
on blankets. Since these are hippies, there's a fair amount of drumming and
a mellow (if not catatonic) vibe.
The city tried to destroy Hempfest '97. Not because of the size of
the type of event (street fairs are a staple of Seattle's summer weekends),
but because of the political content: the demand to legalize hemp production
and marijuana use.
Advocating the repeal of a law, in case our chuckleheaded public
servants have forgotten, is called "freedom of speech". And it's legal. It's
not a threat to society. But trying to quash free speech through
heavyhanded intimidation is.
How bad was it? The next day's PI article (August 25) called the
police presence "overwhelming". To get in through Myrtle Edwards' one open
entrance, attendees walked a quarter mile gauntlet with enough visible cops
and cop toys to overthrow a midsized African nation. Once past the
citymandated security, checking all backpacks and bags (for a free public
event!), armed cops in packs roved the groundsnot as a friendly street
fair beat, but as an occupying army.
Behind the scenes, after months of permit hassles, organizers claim
that the previous nightwhen the stage, generators, and booths were already
upthe park sprinklers "accidently" went off, causing thousand of dollars
in damage. The next morning, park access was closed during setup, when the
fire department sprang a training exercise at Pier 70, blocking the park's
entrance with heavy fire hoses. The department allegedly "didn't know" about
an event that drew some 60,000 people when it was last held in 1995. (The
city set off sprinklers that year too.)

Turnout this time was far lower; weather was a factor, but the
prison exercise yard ambiance was a greater factor: Thousands came, looked
around, and left. With a referendum on the ballot in 10 weeks, the city
deployed hundreds of cops, at the cost of tes of thousands of our tax
dollars, for specifically political purposes. If there's any justice, the
civil damagesfor attacking citizen's free speech rights and doing all it
could to ruin an event it couldn't stop legallywill cost the city even more.

THERE ARE TWO USEFUL LESSONS HERE.

First, the War on Drugs is fundamentally idiotic. Most drugrelated
crimes are a function of either the drug economy or a user's impaired mental
judgement (or both). Afterthefact Siberian exile prison terms don't work.
As we've seen. Public health programs, and getting organized crime (and the
CIA) out of the industry, would work better for the harder drugs. (As a side
benefit, we might even get the Fourth Amendment back.)
As for pot, most 10yearolds know what the SPD apparently doesn't:
the stuff ravages your lungs, and longterm use can leave users with the
residual brain function of a doorknob. But they're PEACEFUL
doorknobsunlike your average psychotic crankster, anorexic junkie, or
tankedout Budweiserhead. It's hard to imagine anything less useful than
the SPD's hamfisted Hempfest combat games. The second lesson of Hempfest
'97 was for the attendees: The SPD's display of contempt for lawabiding
citizens is something the largely white, middleclass attendees of Hempfest
rarely see. Other, less privileged Seattle residents see it every day.
The same city that tried to kill Hempfest also, with sickening
regularity, harrasses the homeless people and street youth; shuts down
hiphop clubs (most recently, Mo' Funk); dumps malicious, ridiculous charges
on the classes of people least able to defend themselves in court; collects
intelligence on legal political groups it dislikes; and is notorious for
SDPC traffic stops (Suspicion that Driver is a Person of Color).

The same afternoon as hempfest, a man leaving a Mariners game was
stabbed to death in an act of random violence. It was a tragic senseless
death. Yet no city officials called for the abolition of Mariners gamesa
call that would almost certainly have come if a similar incident had occured
at or near Hempfest; a call that routinely follows violent incidents at
hiphop clubs.
I don't like pot; I have no personal stake in whether it's legal, or
whether anyone else grows, wears, smokes or medicates with hemp. But I do
carelotswhen the city goes out of its way to harass people solely
becasue they have different lifestyles or views. How to make sure the city
gets the message: Hempfest should sue. Let's also make sure November's
medical marijuana initiative (I685) passes. And, let's make Hempfest '98
three times as big.