HISTORICALLY, AMERICANS have always found ways to make a buck, no matter what. If anything, the Internet has heightened that drive.
Case in point: A week or so after thousands of protesters clashed with police on the streets of Seattle as delegates to the World Trade Organization met, 23 separate auctions of riot memorabilia were put up for bid on the eBay Web auction site (www.ebay.com).
A variety of souvenirs from the Seattle WTO protests were on sale, that had been used – just days before – as implements of fear, if not injury. A popular item was the so-called “tear gas fun pack” for which at least four people bid as much as $75. The fun pack featured a spent tear gas canister, two tear gas shells, some exploded concussion grenades, a handful of rubber bullets, and a broken billy club that the seller, a local college student, says, “probably broke over some poor protester’s head.”
A number of other people also found memorabilia to auction off through eBay.
Ironically, one reason why people protested the WTO meeting was that too much free trade would lead to a breakdown in government regulation worldwide.
A day after reports began to surface about these auctions, eBay began pulling them off the site, citing internal rules about not auctioning weapons and questioning the true ownership of items like gas canisters and rubber bullets, which were also on the block. At press time, a search request for “Seattle riot gear” on eBay resulted in the apology: “Sorry, no items in eBay match your search.”
Adam Cohn, the college student, is reported to have said eBay instructed him to get a certificate from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to continue with his auction.
Network
