If Paul Schell did, indeed, "march" in the '60s and '70s, he failed to learn an important lesson from the experience, to wit: If you put riot squads in the streets, they will riot; and if you give police an opportunity to act like fascist thugs, they will seldom disappoint.
My own memories of demonstrating in Seattle and elsewhere remain vivid with images of women, kids, the elderly, disabled persons in wheelchairs, news reporters, innocent bystanders, et al., having their heads enthusiastically bashed by indiscriminate batons.
Perhaps Schell was clubbed as well, and that accounts for his amnesia.
In fairness to the mayor, he doubtlessly was under considerable pressure from the feds (the wonderful folks who brought us Ruby Ridge and the Waco massacre), but even before the Seattle Police Department's mob violence this week, he had demonstrated an inability to control or effectively temper the excesses of local law enforcement.
In that, Schell is hardly alone. Mayors and police chiefs in virtually every large American city have proved unable or unwilling to stand up to the power of police unions.
Those "benevolent societies," naively supported by a citizenry conditioned by irresponsible TV cop shows and scared witless by media exaggerations of drug crime and terrorism, successfully use all manner of intimidation tactics to defy both the public and city hall as they promote their own frequently corrupt or authoritarian agenda.
Tom Robbins, La Conner