Protesters Arrested at Washington Port
OLYMPIA, Wash. — At least a dozen people were arrested as demonstrators rallied to protest military cargo shipments arriving from Iraq at the port in the state capital.
The arrests Saturday came a day after protesters were able to stop two trucks from removing military equipment that had been unloaded from a ship coming from Iraq. The equipment was bound for Fort Lewis, an Army base about 15 miles northeast of Olympia.
Nine protesters were arrested Saturday for investigation of violating the city’s pedestrian interference ordinance, but all were later released without being cited, said police Sgt. Ken Carlson.
Protesters on foot blocked traffic downtown at about noon Saturday by jumping in front of large trucks towing cargo containers carrying equipment. But police in riot gear moved in quickly, spraying pepper spray in protesters’ faces, pushing them with their batons and dragging them away from the road.
At least three people were arrested at that location, and at least nine more were arrested when they tried to block an entrance to Interstate 5 as scores of protesters deployed to several different locations.
The protest was part of a week of demonstrations by Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, which has protested the port’s use by the USNS Brittin, which landed Monday to unload equipment that was used in Iraq by the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
One protester, Andrew Yankey, told The Olympian newspaper that officers removed protesters’ protective goggles and sprayed them directly in the face with mace.
“My goggles were ripped off my face and stolen,” he said.
Police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said officers tried to talk to the protesters to get them to move before using pepper spray and batons.
Port spokeswoman Patti Grant said once the barricades were gone, cargo was able to move steadily until the end of the day shift at 4 p.m.
To see more photos from the day’s protest go here.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
Memories of similar almost fascistic clampdowns on WTO protestors in Washington State several years ago.
How is Seattle connected with the WTO?
How did Aryan Nations survive for years just across the Idaho border in Coeur d’Alene?
Nice work olympia!
Seattle loves you!
Don’t stop!
http://community.theolympian.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=17766
Caption
“Mototrists leave their cars to confront protesters as they try to block the intersection of 4th and Plum Saturday afternoon, November 10, 2007. The demonstration, starting at the port progressed into downtown as protesters tried to stop the military cargo from reaching I-5 and Fort Lewis. (Tony Overman/The Olympian)”
HA! That’s a lie. Check out the “motorists”! They are suspicious characters for sure. Check out the cameras they BOTH have in their hands as they get out of their car to confront the demonstrator. Who are these people? License plate 068 SKY from another photo.
The PRESS–’4th branch of the US government’
license plate 068 SKY:
http://community.theolympian.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=17752
slow loading these photos….
http://community.theolympian.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=17381
Good work!
Actually covered on Northwest Cable News!
Keep defending yourselves against the IRON HEEL and good luck.
Hoa binh
http://community.theolympian.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=17766
Caption
“Mototrists leave their cars to confront protesters as they try to block the intersection of 4th and Plum Saturday afternoon, November 10, 2007. The demonstration, starting at the port progressed into downtown as protesters tried to stop the military cargo from reaching I-5 and Fort Lewis. (Tony Overman/The Olympian)”
HA! Check out the “motorists”! They are suspicious characters for sure. Check out the cameras they BOTH have in their hands as they get out of their car to confront the demonstrator. Who are these people? License plate 068 SKY from another photo.
license plate 068 SKY:
http://community.theolympian.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=17752
License #068 SKY belongs to another chickenshit neo-nazi right wing punk. Punk means republician.
“Riot police shield a protester’s eyes…”
Yeah, sure! The only part of his face that I can see is his eyes!
Looks more like a head crush to me. Who wrote that caption?!?
So these right wingers track protesters and photograph them? For who? Who paid for those cameras? Who gets the photos?
Coverage by The Olympian is inadequate at best. For more detailed and incisive reportage, solid progressive commentary, and a great selection of photos and videos, please go to the United for Peace Pierce County webpage and Mark Jensen’s roundups:
http://www.ufppc.org/content/blogcategory/13/34/
Out of Irak! Out of Our Ports!
I see that our soldiers are busy protecting American Freedoms:
To assemble and express an opinion.
To travel within America without ‘detaination’ at checkpoints.
To visit neighboring countries without ‘official’ papers.
To telephone or e-mail in private.
To have assets free from freezing by executive whim (NSEO-51).
To have the writ of habius.
To have honest and truthful government.
There are so very many American freedoms that our military is protecting - how can we ever thank them? The end to war and suffering and the resumption of peace and prosperity is what we celebrate on Armistice Day. Isn’t it?
When I and my fellow protesters block traffic in downtown Dover, as we frequently have over Bush’s immoral policies, all of us expect to be arrested because we are breaking the law. We are agreed among ourselves to never, later, call the local police “fascists” for doing their municipal job, until a point arrives where they remove us unprofessionally with unprovoked roughness or provocative violence.
To date, our local police have arrested and removed us with respect and Dover’s local media coverage has, as a result, focused more on our protest issues than on our petty lawbreaking tactics.
Until we decide that the government in Washington requires violent removal and craft our local protests accordingly, we aim to morally win over not just the regular local people, but the Dover police too.
The violence and immorality of our central government’s policies is hardly lost on me or my fellow protesters. What is surprising to me is how many hometown law enforcement types will admit to this fact if you don’t come across as a criminal youself. Automatically calling local police “fascists,” isn’t necessarily accurate, fair, or useful in the bigger struggle.
These are the few among us who are NOT “sinners”.
To allow Bush’s kind of killing and aggression is a disease…
Cruz Ctrl: You think (5:08 p.m.) the caption is inaccurate and the officer is not shielding the protestor’s eyes but doing some sort of head squeeze or head lock. I agree. Notice that the officer’s visor is not down to shield his own eyes.
As is Obvious this is the Big Time on this Earth, etc For those of you not
aware of the astoundingly accurate predictions concerning this Now moment;
The US and our global police role and the ongoing human war machine and it’s
seemingly inevitable Cosmic climax–from the Pleiadeans via Billy Meier called
the HENOCH PROPHECIES check this out:
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/Henoch%20Prophecies.html
“So many of the Plejaren predictions given to Swiss contactee Billy Meier have come true, that we’d be wise to heed the warning that terrible things will befall humanity and our planet if we can’t learn to live together”.
Geneva Convention BANNED the use of tear gas in war battles. Evidentially, it is legal to use tear gas on civilians and rip off their googles to tear gas them. For more details Google “Tear Gas and Geneva Accord Convention”.
I’m surprised taser guns weren’t used - remember when the college kid who asked John Kerry a question was tasered with 50,000 volts of electricity at Univ of Florida about 2 months ago - or that Iranian-American UCLA college kid who was doing his homework on the computer lab and campus police tasered him because they thought he was a terrorist?
I just heard Mitt Rommeny wants to double the size of Guantanamo and not shut it down.
All peace activists can be put in that top secret naval prision in Charleston South Carolina under Military Commissions Act of 2006 - we can be sexually tortured and more and its legal.
I went to protest a Halliburton chemical munitions factory in Woodland California which is 30 minutes from where I live. The air is so toxic and acrid around that chemical plant it hurts to breathe and gave me a headache. Halliburton staff were photographing all the demonstrators on digital camers - I guess those photos are given to Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, Interpol?
Nancy Pelosi recently got the Democrats to agree to extend warrantless wiretaps on American citizens indefinitely with no end in sight. If Bush Cheney were impeached, Pelosi would be President and we would have more of the same. I saw her on Charile Rose 2 weeks ago - she spent 20 minutes quoting Bible verses. What about separation of church and state? Charlie Rose was eggging her on and actually brought up the subject of her “faith based politics”.
Harry Re8d and John Conyers decided to shut up and be quiet about impeachment and ending the war in Iraq because getting re-elected is more important to them. Col Ann Wright had a private conversation with John Conyers recently and that is what he told her!
Fuggedabout Obama and Edwards - they will keep us in a police state and the war going on indefinitely. I’m voting for Dennis Kucinich because he is the ONLY Democrat left who is pushing for impeachment. He’s polling at 2% with no chance of getting the nomination - but if he gets delegates from primaries he can influence the campaign platform.
Keep Hope Alive
I was involved with this action, and I can assure you that this is a headlock and not any kind of “shielding”. Before he was headlocked, he and the people next to him were moving their arms to try and stop the cops from being able to cut through the pipes. He stopped struggling once the cop had him in the headlock, and this picture doesn’t illustrate just how uncomfortable a position the cops had him in.
whatfools, yes, abuse of the US military superpower by this global corporatist (fascist) Empire hiding behind the facade of ‘Vichy America’ is only getting worse over time.
Many have accurately said that the Iraq war is worse than Vietnam. Not that more US troops have died, but that because of the oil it can’t be stopped.
A generation ago in the Vietnam war it was infamously said, “We needed to destroy the village in order to save it.”
In the Iraq/ME wars (faux GWOT) what is not said but should be is, “We needed to destroy the Constitution in order to save it.”
i don’t get why they didn’t just run those hippies over or shoot them.lonelylaura disrespectful to our veterans.then you have that pot head who says we are a global police.the once who love our Military GOD BLESS YOU ALL,hippies get a life,smoke more pot kill your brain,die
Removing somebody’s goggles to very deliberately spray them in the face with pepper spray? Outrageous! Those rotten pieces of crap!
They can pull any move they want; it won’t stop the protests! The protests are just going to get bigger! More incentive yet! This country is on its feet and marching!
You don’t like it? Pack and go, and with a little luck, the door will hit you in the arse on your way out!
greatbear215 that’s what all you libs say but on November 07 2007 look at how many Republican won.The more moveon.org,huffinton post,smoke to much hippies and all the other libs talk,G.O.P WILL WIN 2008.
PS NEXT TIME THEY SHOULD SPRAY BLEACH IN HIS FACE.
Great pics @the Olympian…
too bad the drivers didn’t get out of the trucks and pick up signs (planning…
and how about the storm-troopers, at some point they need to help us…
How do we get the riot gear clad cops to help to become an escort? …I think an interesting tactic would to be to bombard the police officers at work and at home with pro-peace information. Target them and their families for a positive propaganda campaign.
Like peace missionaries trying to save souls. Because if they recognized how their actions and use of force are directly related to war, injustice, etc, etc. And on the off chance they might be open to an appeal of personal accountability…they’re worth trying to save.
Imagine how powerful a statement it would be if the domestic military (read: police) picked up signs and joined the party. Not only a powerful image, but a powerful actually. So powerful that it’s worth doing, at least in preparing for planed protests.
Nice work out west - this is civil disopbedience people - take note and apply everywhere else you can get organized to do so - shut the nation down and you will get the attention of the corporate slave masters
Thank you all in Oly and everywhere else in protesting. Most I thank Delaware Ted for his most right on comment:
“When I and my fellow protesters block traffic in downtown Dover, as we frequently have over Bush’s immoral policies, all of us expect to be arrested because we are breaking the law. We are agreed among ourselves to never, later, call the local police “fascists” for doing their municipal job, until a point arrives where they remove us unprofessionally with unprovoked roughness or provocative violence.
To date, our local police have arrested and removed us with respect and Dover’s local media coverage has, as a result, focused more on our protest issues than on our petty lawbreaking tactics.
Until we decide that the government in Washington requires violent removal and craft our local protests accordingly, we aim to morally win over not just the regular local people, but the Dover police too.
The violence and immorality of our central government’s policies is hardly lost on me or my fellow protesters. What is surprising to me is how many hometown law enforcement types will admit to this fact if you don’t come across as a criminal yourself. Automatically calling local police “fascists,” isn’t necessarily accurate, fair, or useful in the bigger struggle.”
The issues of freedom and living with the principles of democracy cross all divisive political tags. Many of freedom’s greatest defenders are in the military and police forces.
“i don’t get why they didn’t just run those hippies over or shoot them.lonelylaura disrespectful to our veterans.then you have that pot head who says we are a global police.the once who love our Military GOD BLESS YOU ALL,hippies get a life,smoke more pot kill your brain,die”
Oh the irony. That this illiterate invokes the “liberal as stupid stoner” just tickles me pink. Dear rightalways—Australopithecus called and he would like his brain back. Or perhaps you should try smoking a joint—it might actually learn ye in the finer arts of punctuatin’ and capitalizationin’! Idiot!
“But police in riot gear moved in quickly, spraying pepper spray in protesters’ faces, pushing them with their batons and dragging them away from the road.
One protester, Andrew Yankey…(said) that officers removed protesters’ protective goggles and sprayed them directly in the face with mace.
Police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said officers tried to talk to the protesters to get them to move before using pepper spray and batons.”
Yeah, and we sure need police alright, they really are good at protecting the public, to serve and protect and keep us safe from injury. They are doing wonderful at protecting us, sure glad we the police, where would we be without them? Someone might go and attack another person for something stupid. (sarcasm)
It should have been obvious that they weren’t going to stop it. They should have gone and damaged the supplies to make sure it couldn’t be used, much the same as people monkeywrench to make sure that things can’t be used to destroy the earth.
anarcho_:
Actually, the equipment is still there. The blockades hold, today, and the equipment has still not moved from the Port.
http://www.theolympian.com/570/story/270279.html
This is active, empowering, and effective resistance.
Delaware Ted: I agree with your sentiments to some degree, that automatically dehumanizing the police is ineffective (even though they exist essentially to protect the interests of the ruling class), but this article does not reveal the extent of police brutality that everyone experienced earlier that day. Rather than arresting an earlier human blockade, the police opened fire with OC (pepper spray) and batons, repeatedly spraying non-violent protesters in the face and eyes, and then opened fire on the entire crowd, causing legal protesters, bystanders, and the media on scene to suffer effects from the pepper spray. At one point, after they realized that they were upwind from the main crowd, they simply sprayed indiscriminately into the air and let the wind carry it into the crowd of observers. There was no professionalism on the side of the police, and plenty of “unprovoked roughness and provocative violence”.
That said, the blockades continue! The people still hold the port! Join us, in Olympia or in your own town! If every port town across the country took this up, the war could not continue! If every military recruitment center shut down, if every shipment was blockaded, if the people refused to support the war by their passive consent, the military could not function.
I just spoke with some who are still at the port. The local police have got the military there now. Not certain what sort of action they plan…but it is certainly not good for our Constitutional Rights. I was there over the weekend and the police are out of control. Please keep this action visible. Call your local press and demand information. Other port communities must join in this action too. If that happens maybe we can stop this war…