Back in the day, people were far less afraid to make their voices heard, because they had far less to lose and were pushed to more severe circumstances. The battle of Seattle was a unique riot, because most of the riots that have taken place in the U.S. prior to it were over
racial injustice, the most notable one from my generation being a result of the
police brutality of Rodney King going unanswered.
The Seattle riots in 1999 weren't racially motivated, but instead motivated by the World Trade Organization meeting scheduled to take place there, and peoples' concerns over tightening international laws in favor of capitalism. For about a day, there was a peaceful demonstration with overwhelming numbers, but that soon turned into rioting after both police exacerbated the situation with force, and anarchists showed up and started breaking everything. What resulted was 40,000 people trying to burn the city down.
